In 1995, Royal Crown Bottling, Evansville, Ind., decided it needed to better equip a sales staff faced with more product complexity and tougher competition in a changing direct-store-delivery environment. The variety of packages, products and options available to its accounts required a higher level of analysis and review to make important sales decisions. To help it overcome these challenges, the bottler enlisted the help of Salient Corp., Horseheads, N.Y., to help it improve profitability, capture market share in an expanding wholesale retail channel and increase visibility of its sales decisions.

Rather than relying on instinct as the sales force had previously done for tasks such as setting price points, and tracking and proving sales returns for new products, the group was empowered by the implementation of Margin Minder for its sales and marketing teams. The business intelligence solution was robust, yet simple enough for the company to integrate across its sales and marketing force without losing valuable time and market share. Additionally, it allowed the team to apply data visibility, speed and granularity to enhance every selling situation and compete more effectively in daily business activities.

With the system in place, pricing and volume ranges as well as holes in customer product mixes can be checked for increased sales efficiency. Margin Minder also enhances customer relationships by offering data that helps accounts adjust product mix and pricing to achieve maximum profitability.

“Using Margin Minder has helped our operation in many ways, most of all in additional profitability,” says Nancy Hodge, president of RC-Evansville. “We believe that Margin Minder contributes approximately 10 to 15 cents of profitability per case sold.”

As a result of implementing Margin Minder, RC-Evansville also has increased sales volume and improved its rapid response capability from two weeks to next day. Furthermore, it attributes its success with large customers such as Wal-Mart, which requires data, predictability and consistent profitability, to the new system that helps it build stronger partnerships. For example, the bottler used data analysis from Margin Minder to demonstrate the impact of Diet Rite on Wal-Mart cash registers in the Midwest. Based on the analysis, RC-Evansville was able to show that during the first seven months of 2004, Diet Rite increased volume by 66 percent and increased margins for both companies by 40 percent.

In another case with its Kroger account, the team identified 80 percent of sales volume that was attributable to advertised promotions in grocery stores in its Illinois territory, which helped the company launch a “low price everyday” pricing strategy.