The Battle Ground

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The Nigerian economy is seriously struggling and the naira has been struggling to find it footing as well

This has made many companies begin to innovate new strategies across the different components that make up the company. This innovation is done from procurement, production, supply chain as well as the GTM Model, all these changes are basically to maintain the status of a Category King in the sector they play.

In all of this, the end goal is to generate revenue by dominating the Market. Even if consumption has reduced, what is your Market Share?

The Sales manager at this point is task with the responsibility of selling and dominating his/her market even if the economy is degenerating. The question is, how do you win even if the odd is not in your favor?

Again, I ask, do you know your battle ground? In sales, it is called channel of distribution, I prefer to simply call it the battle ground. Every product has a channel of distribution and these channels are classified according to their buying potentials or class. For flawless execution, it is important that every sales man understand the channel contribution to their business.

In the spirit and wine industries, “The Bar” is a major channel of distribution to get a product to the consumer. It is a fears’ battle ground.

The bar is also classified in to big, medium and small base on their volume of purchase, night life and class of people that visit it.

How do you win on the battle ground called the “Bar”

I see a lot of alcoholic companies struggling to win in the bar and I wonder if they have a sales manger or not. How many customers would the bar man recommend your product to if you are not there, in essence, I am saying get the bar man on your side, if he is on your side, you have 40% chances of getting the outlet on your side. By the bar man, I mean even the waiter’s, they interface with the consumers on daily basis. This technique will surely improve your chiller off take.

Always ensure your wine, spirit or beer is always serve cold, consumers have reputation for visiting bar’s where they are sure of being serve cold. If they are no chillers, ensure there is Ice to help cool it

If you are running an in-Bar promotion, please make it loud, 70% of the customers that drinks in that bar should be pre informed before the start date, how do you inform them?

·?????? Get outlet staff such as bar man and waiters involved in the communication, as they are serving, they can just communicate to the customer, Oche breweries will start running buy 2, get one free from 10th march 2024, it will last for two months. Oche breweries is sampling their Vodka here tomorrow, you are invited to test one of the finest brewed Vodka in our bar. This create anticipation for the brand and encourages many people to a feel of the products.

·?Ensure posters and fliers are placed in visible and eye-catching part of the bar.

Always seek to hire the right persons for the job irrespective of where they come from, the people you hire should depicts your brand, again I ask, do your people really understand your brand positioning? my advice is

Hire promoters or canvasser’s that can withstand rejection, have the courage to engage all customer irrespective of their class or status.

Train and coach canvassers to understand the mechanics of the promotion.

Some people advocate specific gender, height, color, just to mention a few, please in all this, For me, smart people surpasses physical looks and gender.

The right partner is integral to success, always ensure you have the right partners from Distributor to outlet. Select outlet that will support your brands and value your partnership when running a promotion.

My next battle ground will be Night clubs and Hotels and their impact to sales of alcoholic beverages

How do you win in Night clubs and Hotels? I will tell you in my next article, keep tuned to the Battle ground.

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