Does your team have the Excel skills required to do the basics? Excel is a an important tool for most analysts, sales people, category managers, and business people in general. And everyone knows Excel, right?  Or do they?  Without basic Excel skills, sales people and category managers can't effectively analyze their business (never mind draw insights from it), administrators can't create great worksheets, and analysts may struggle with fundamental concepts. Never mind the risk of making errors and drawing incorrect conclusions from poorly built formulas and PivotTables.  So why is Excel training a requirement for organizations when there are automated reports that should give everyone everything they need for their business? Because they don't (and can't!) meet all needs. The reality is, most meaningful analysis requires data manipulation, cutting, formatting and customizing - and that requires some strong foundational Excel skills.  A few months ago, a client of mine contacted me about the need for some training in Excel skills for one of their sales teams. A sales manager had raised a concern that her team was not able to perform certain Excel essentials like formula writing, building PivotTables and creating charts.  It was surprising to hear that proficiency in these skills was lacking on her team because, after all, everyone knows Excel, right? After a collaborative meeting with her, I developed a virtual training session that included some Excel basics like moving around in a spreadsheet and sorting data, writing formulas and conditional formulas (SUM, COUNT, RANK, UNIQUE), and creating charts and PivotTables. The session was "opt in", meaning that folks who already had proficiency in these areas didn't need to attend.  THE RESULTS? I ran two 3-hour sessions for the client because of the high interest (and remember, this was "opt in", meaning they had the choice of whether or not to attend).  The hands-on exercises and examples were particularly relevant for her sales team, using data and item rank reports - not just creating formulas, but also helping to think about interpretation of the different KPI's, as well as getting participants to think about what the formulas are actually calculating. We used one of their massive automated reports to build a PivotTable - moving them from learning to application - using examples from their own business. The training became, not just conceptual, but practical!  Here's some of the (unedited) feedback from these sessions: Best 3-hour lecture/class I’ve attended. Time went by way too quickly! I learned many new things, i.e., formula building, shortcuts, and importance of being clear on what I’m trying to say. Handouts were helpful, and I will go back to reference them. Ask your team if they need Excel basics training!  You might be surprised by their response.   Learn more about Excel Virtual Team Training

Integrating strategy into your analytics is one of the main areas most struggle with when doing their analytics — knowing what's relevant and what's not, what's a true insight and what's not. But if you know the secret sauce to bringing strategy into your analytics you’ll be able to turn your data and analysis into effective action to grow your business. And so I want to talk about pizza. Yes, you read that right — pizza.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Category Management Association’s annual conference in Las Vegas, where category management and shopper insights professionals gathered to learn, share and network. It was particularly exciting for us at CMKG, because the CMA announced our new partnership at the conference. This venture will allow us to get our training into even more brilliant minds around the world. I facilitated 9 live training sessions over the course of the 3-day conference, spanning topics like: Identifying Growth Opportunities in Your Business, Fact-Based Presentations and Storyboarding, Shopper Insights (co-developed and facilitated with Leslie Warsaw from SIMA), Category Management in On-Premise (2-part session), and many more!

Common (Mis)Interpretations: Category Development Index in Category Analysis There is significant emphasis on deriving effective and strategic insights in category management. With all of the incredible data sources available to both Retailers and Suppliers / Manufacturers, there are certain measures that are consistently used to derive these insights. For some of the commonly used measures, there’s also a tendency to generalize the interpretation of the numbers, or not scratch below the surface and think about what the numbers really mean. Examples? Category Development Index (CDI) and Fair Share Index (FSI) …

When using data and analysis, the numbers on their own don’t tell the whole story. By applying thought and strategy to the interpretation of the data, you will come up with better category solutions. One of my favorite examples of this is the use of the “Retailer Market Share” number in category management. If you’ve ever heard, “You are underdeveloped in a brand, subcategory or category, and you need to fix this!”, then read on …

What are some opportunities for you to move to a more strategic approach in your seasonal categories? Seasonal merchandising represents a huge incremental sales and profit opportunity for Retailers and Manufacturers. What are seasonal categories? “Seasonal events” have evolved and expanded with changes in the Shopper, weather patterns, and new events to include everything from annual holidays, to multicultural holidays, to celebration and annual events, to special community events, and even weather-related events. Some major seasonal events are starting much earlier than in the past. Retailers who want to stand out in the marketplace now run “hot” priced features well in advance of the seasonal event to establish their stores as the best destination for the season. There is also a stronger concentration of sales during the few days before seasonal events.  To realize and maximize the full potential of seasonal sales, you should apply the principles of category management to your seasonal categories. I've put together 4 best practices for managing seasonal categories that incorporate category management strategies, including a rigorous analysis post season to continuously improve your seasonal category plans.

Most retail and vendor organizations I have spoken to or interacted with in the past 6 months list at least one of the following objectives in their Corporate Strategic Plans: Collaboration. There is a big opportunity for Retailer and Vendor Collaboration, but organizations are not making any or enough progress. Shopper-Centricity. To win with Shoppers, Retailers and Vendors need to collaborate to be truly Shopper-centric. Limited collaboration is leading to misalignment of messages — meaning shoppers’ needs and wants are not being met. Big Data. Leveraging Big Data (by Retailers or Vendors) requires more precision and sophistication in its use and is similarly aided by strategic collaboration between Retailers and Vendors.

Progressive Grocer recently ran an article on “How Ineffective Promotions Are Dragging Down Top Consumer Packaged Goods Brands”. 

Pricing is one of the tactics of the Marketing Mix. It is an important marketing tool in retailing, and has become much more analytically- and strategically-focused than in the past.  Prices vary based on different promotions, and on differing Retailer strategies. A difference of 5 or 10% in price can influence sales and profit significantly. Pricing decisions directly affect category sales, inventory positions and category profitability.

I was recently working with a large client on strategic efficient assortment and asked them what tools they used to complete their assortment analysis. Their answer? 1) “homemade” tools; and 2) item rank reports (yes, ranked in descending order and cutting off the lowest selling items). Honestly, I was shocked—how has such an important tactic (the most important one!) become so unstrategic? This approach gives little or no thought to Retailer strategy or the Retailer’s Shopper and their needs (it’s what I was doing for assortment analysis almost 25 years ago!). I think for some, assortment (and shelving, for that matter) have become too automated, too tactical and too low level. There’s so much time spent on the tactical work associated with maintaining homemade tools, managing item-level databases and pulling the right data that there’s no time left to incorporate very much strategy, Shopper or thought for trends into the recommendations. The opportunity? 1) Reduce the tactical work across your organization through proper tools and processes; and 2) Ramp up your efficient assortment analysis with a strategic Shopper focus and get a new level of insights and recommendations!