Develop a sales force nationwide in 4 months

Dave Vanhoutte, National Sales Director France, shares his experience with the deployment of a sales force in France. Logistics success with rich and numerous lessons.

Perfetti Van Melle is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and distributors of confectionery and chewing gum. In France it is known for its emblematic brands such as Mentos, Chupa Chups, Hollywood, Frisk, Fruittella or La Vosgienne.

Background to the structural change in France

“It’s not every day that a startup is made into a multinational in a country like France!”

The acquisition of well-known brands in France (Hollywood or La Vosgienne) motivated the development of a new French subsidiary.
This work was done thanks to the cross-working of different external providers in good intelligence, an essential agreement for the success of the project!

Organize a network in a short time

“Competitors did not expect to get up and running so quickly!”

The project to open a subsidiary was initiated on a very tight schedule. In this context, the use of existing tools within the parent structures has allowed more than appreciable time savings!

To be inspired by the tools and processes that work is essential to accomplish ambitious projects in a short time. Surround yourself with the right people and learn inspiring practices to make your projects happen, such as setting up a nationwide sales network!

Establish and manage a national sales and maintenance management force

Deploying and effectively managing a national sales network is a challenge. Managing a sales force deployed throughout the national territory requires rigorous organization, involved teams and the adoption of effective tools. This step can be crucial for many companies. To help you succeed in your deployment, Dave Vanhoutte shares his experience and some tips to help you on this mission.

Build a team, trust and delegate

“When you put the right people together, you can do amazing work!”

A major project such as the creation of the French subsidiary of Perfetti Van Melle requires qualified teams and intelligent sharing of production to achieve success. The first step is to build your teams and rely on the skills of your employees!

Identify the needs of the company

To build teams properly, it is necessary to identify the tasks to be performed and future needs. The breakdown of teams and their organization result from these needs. You can also do the opposite with a specific sectorization. Your own configuration corresponds to its lot of needs. Identifying and anticipating the resources needed allows you to optimize the creation and structure of your teams and projects!

In a buyback, additional barriers can be planning friction points. In this case, a tool such as those proposed by Nomadia allows us to have an estimate necessary and appreciable to organize the next steps, including recruitment.

Building functional teams

Organizing and segmenting a team can be a daunting challenge in a project like this. Identifying needs and establishing clear and transparent communication allows for efficiency gains throughout the process.

The in-depth training on certain key positions is a point not to be overlooked. This is particularly the case when adopting a new tool or on an external service provider’s platform. The training of an internal employee and the monitoring of the service provider must ensure a good grip on the tool and gains all the more noticeable as the tool is central. Good tools, well mastered, will be the best symbol of quality partners.

Rely on quality tools and partners

Perfetti Van Melle France is also and above all a substantial sales force to organize. To support all your employees, a sales CRM is essential. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) such as Retail-optimized CRM Nomadia allows time and efficiency gains at each stage of the sales force lifecycle.

An adapted CRM not only improves the performance and comfort of your teams but also measures the monitoring of objectives and centralizes information. Keep your goals in mind: Optimize the entire sales process on the one hand; Organize, plan and perpetuate your sales force on the other!

Trust employees

Building a relationship of trust with the teams allows to optimize the work environment for each. It is an undeniable asset when the stakes are high, as was the case for the implementation of Perfetti projects in France. By giving your teams the confidence they deserve, you can maximize efficiency while reducing unnecessary friction and exchanges. The various gains are made possible by trust on the one hand, which is accompanied by a good division of tasks.

Communicating and interacting well with teams is still the best way to ensure effective collaboration. Thus, the adoption of certain tools required a phase of exchange and a certain pedagogy of management teams.

Segment and delegate tasks intelligently

Good management also means delegating ! To build a strong and efficient sales network, learn to rely on the skills of each of your employees. The trust you give your employees is the basis for a long-term and healthy relationship. The resulting empowerment provides everyone with a profitable satisfaction and fulfillment.

This working environment allows us to consider the next steps calmly. This allows the various actions to be implemented and organized with maximum efficiency.

Plan, prioritize and communicate

Careful planning is required to establish a national sales and distribution network. Planning is about planning, organizing, prioritizing tasks and uniting the efforts of your employees over time. The main challenge in planning is to anticipate future steps and allow them to be completed without friction.

The adoption of a CRM for retail sales has made it possible to organize the sales forces and structure the sales coverage on a national scale. An adapted CRM is essential for the effectiveness of teams on the ground but it is also the key to a successful monitoring! Centralizing information and automating its aggregation allows field teams to focus on their core business and facilitates planning.

Communication is a key factor in success and contributes to the success of this planning at every moment. Ensure a regular dialogue with your employees, inform them of market developments and new products, and support them in their skills development.

Set concrete and measurable goals

For your sales network to be successful, it is important to set concrete and achievable goals for your sellers. These objectives must be linked to the company’s overall strategy and adapted to the reality on the ground.

Do not hesitate to involve your sellers in the definition of their objectives. This will allow them to take ownership and feel invested in their success. Also, ensure that you support them in achieving their goals by providing the necessary tools and resources.

Measure: choose the right KPIs and save returns

To effectively manage your sales network and adjust your strategy based on results, it is essential to implement a powerful and relevant measurement system.

This follow-up is essential for your sales force.

Using a suitable CRM tool allows you to centralize useful information. By capturing the performance of your sales force in real time, and the rest of your teams, you identify the levers of optimization and friction points for maximum adaptation.

The CRM is thus the necessary tool to establish precise strategies based on quantified and appropriately segmented data.

The objective of these metrics is to optimize your strategies. Choose relevant and realistic KPIs. The objectives set must also be clear and measurable. Report the success and efforts of your employees to motivate them and retain them.

Reception and adaptation

The development of a national sales network is a complex and evolving project. It is essential to plan for the acceptance and adaptation phases to adjust your strategy according to the results and market developments.

Organize feedback

Listen to your sellers and customers. Feedback from teams and customers is a source of process improvement. Flexibility and agility are key assets to successfully deploy and manage a high-performance and sustainable sales network. Do not rush the developments and know how to consider the needs.

What’s next? Next steps and future needs anticipated

As we wrote above: anticipating allows actions to be carried out more effectively. Dave Vanhoutte shares his reading of the functions that he thinks can be used to optimize the actions of current teams, including sales and maintenance management.

Voice support for mobile sales forces.

The evolution of tools allows mobile teams to be accompanied by voice tools. These “automatic readings” are increasingly accessible with the advances of AI-assisted voice generation. This feature saves your teams time on the transitions between interventions and travel.

Database Centralization and Linking

The data collected, concerning the activity, must be centralized to be used in an optimal way. Currently, the connections between the different data retrieval tools are insufficient or incomplete. These gaps prevent the optimal use of business-specific data.

One of the aspects to be developed is centralization of data. This improvement axis allows a better control of the data, and the resulting predictions. Think also of the connection points between your different databases.

Successful implementation and positive outlook

The installation of the French subsidiary of Perfetti Van Melle was a success, especially in such a short time. This experience is based on the success of this project. The subsidiary continues its development and recruitment!

Dave Vanhoutte, National Sales Manager Perfetti Van Melle France