How do I track sales by account?
The short answer: Give every account one ID and keep its full history: what it bought, which SKUs, and when. Then watch three things: how much, how often, and how many of your products it carries. Add your reps' visit notes to the same record so the numbers and the story sit together.
One record per location
Use a stable account ID, the distributor, the address and the channel if you have it. Two locations of the same chain are two accounts unless they really buy through one central office.
Watch three things
- How much: cases in the period, compared with the same period before
- How often: how many weeks or months between orders
- How wide: how many of your SKUs the account carries
An account can grow by ordering more, ordering more often, or adding products. Those are different wins and worth knowing apart.
An example
A bar buys six cases in April and six in May. Flat, right? But May included a second SKU for the first time. That's a placement worth supporting, even though the total didn't move.
Put the field notes next to the numbers
Visit notes, tasting dates and what the buyer said belong on the same account record as the sales history. When the next rep walks in, they know what happened last time. That's what the DepletionIQ Field Rep CRM is for.
Know the limits
What an account buys from your distributor doesn't tell you what's on its shelf or what consumers bought. When the numbers raise a question, ask the account.