Reading an Annual Report - Part 3

Well this is turning in to quite a tome. This is the third installment of how to read an annual report from the lens of a sales professional. I've received some amazing feedback from people. Thank you. Here are links for Part 1 & Part 2.

For todays installment of the review of the Coca Cola annual report, we will be reviewing the sections on Competition, Raw Materials, Patents, Government Regulation, & Employees. Yesterday's post was pretty long. The next post, on Risk Factors is going to be pretty big. I'm going to try to keep this fairly high level.

One of the benefits of Coca Cola's business is that people need to drink liquids in order to survive. Because people like to survive, Coca Cola has a ton of competition. If it is liquid, non-alcoholic (or medicine), and goes in your mouth, it either comes from Coca Cola or competes with Coca Cola.

Pepsi is their biggest competitor and the first one that they call out. Are they a customer of yours? Are they a customer of your competitors? You should incorporate that in to your playbook. Also, in the very next sentence, they list 7 or 8 of the largest beverage companies in the world. If you believe that your solution works for Coca Cola, it probably works for Nestle, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, etc. Call them.

This section also lists factors that can impact their competitive position. As you talk to your customer, make sure that you can incorporate these things in your story. Can you help with better pricing methodologies? Create a new sales promotion program? Give them more space on a shelf? All of these things will be impactful for your conversation.

Competitive factors impacting our business include, but are not limited to, pricing, advertising, sales promotion programs, instore displays and point-of-sale marketing, product and ingredient innovation, increased efficiency in production techniques, the introduction of new packaging, new vending and dispensing equipment, contracting with marketing assets (theaters, sports arenas, universities, etc.) and brand and trademark development and protection.

Raw Materials. Water & sugar. How can you help there? If you have a story to help them get cleaner, cheaper water or sweeter sugar, I'm sure that someone at Coke wants to talk to you.

Governmental Regulations. This stuff is important. This is the kind of stuff that, if neglected or not managed right, can result in massive fines, bad PR, people losing their jobs, etc. If this stuff goes sideways, it is brutal. Being out of compliance on any of these deals is brutal.

If I'm selling something to Coke that can have an impact on any of these things, I'm certainly going to figure out how to bring it in to my discussions. Really look at your go to market to explore the options here. This stuff is important and valuable.

Employees. Coca Cola has a lot of employees. If one of your discovery questions is 'how many employees do you have?' you need to do a better job of figuring things out. Interestingly, at least at Coca Cola, less than 10% of their employees in the US are unionized. Is that good for you or not? Something to think about.

In the next installment of this series, which will likely come out on Tuesday 9/3, I'm going to dive in to the Risk Factor section. This is the single most important section of the document if you are doing anything customer facing.

Until then, I'd love to hear how some of these tactics are working for you.