Top KPIs to monitor distribution performance

Thanks to the new sales force automation enabling to collect granular data, consumer goods distribution is becoming more and more data-driven. As such, it can be managed more scientifically, thanks to the use of the right KPIs. Defining the right KPIs to measure and ensure you are measuring them well and consistently represents a key success factor in a successful commercial activity. Below is a list of KPIs that can be useful to track the performance, as a reference. Pick the ones that make sense based on your sector/activity.

Field Force Visit:

• Daily visits (calls) per sales representative = total number of visits / total working days

• Client coverage (%) = Nbr. of client visited / total number of clients in portfolio

• Number of unique clients visited

• Visit frequency = average number of visits by client or client type

• Numerical distribution (%) = Nbr of shops with brand — category — product presence / total number of shops

• Work duration = Duration between Check-in at first Call and Check-out at last Call

• Instore work duration = Duration between Check-in and Check-out in the store

• Total Instore duration = Sum of all the Instore Work Duration (in general for a specific day and a specific rep)

• Transport duration = Difference between last Check-out and new Check-in

• Total Transport duration = Sum of all the Transport Duration (in general for a specific day and a specific rep)

• Route compliance (%) = Nbr. of clients visited on the route / number of clients on the route

• Average working start / end time

• Average time spent per store

• Distance moved

Field Sales:

• Strike rate. % of visit with sales

• Sales value per day per sales representative

• Lines per productive calls. Number of products sold per visit

• Number of active sales representatives

• Number of calls (= visits with a sales)

• Drop size = sales value / number of sales

• Total quantity sold (drill down by product category / item)

• Total value sold (drill down by product category / item)

• Frequency of purchase

Vendor sales:

• Sales value per day per vendor

• Asset utilization

• Working days

• Attendance / Churn

Stock / Warehouse:

• Number of crates / boxes

• % of stock by expiry date (in case of perishable stock)

• Stock level per distributor / warehouse

• % of stock in damaged state (returned)

• Each of these analytics can be drilled down per product category, brand, etc

Financial statement:

• % of sales per payment type

• Bad debt level

Merchandising

• Number of facings

• Share of shelves = number of facings / linear length

• Each of these analytics can be drilled down per product category, brand, etc

Branding:

• Number of Point of Purchase Material present

• % of shops with a presence of POPM out of total number of shops

• Quality of the POPM seen (new, fair, poor)

Sales Assets (such as fridges, kiosks, etc)

• Number of assets seen in the trade

• % of shops with a presence of assets out of the total number of shops

• Utilization rate (sales per asset)

• Quality of the assets seen (new, fair, poor)

A few considerations:

• Ideally, all these KPIs should be measured against targets.

• Each of this KPI can be measured at different levels: National; regional and lower hierarchical levels; team; per type of trade channel, such as supermarkets, Horeca, etc.

• Focus only on a few KPIs to track

• Ensure everyone is aligned on the KPI definition

• Share the KPI regularly to all the stakeholders through the relevant communication channel, email, mobile and web app

If you are interested in a solution to help you collect and track those KPIs, get in touch with us. Visit our new website fieldproapp.com or write to [email protected]

Do you want to discover more? Read our article about How to measure Field Force Productivity as a Pro