RJR_CASE_ForTipIn.qrk:CAs_TradePromo_English.

qrk 10/20/08 9:39 AM Page 1

Selling to a Global Economy Demands Flexibility

Not A Single Solution

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

SALES FORCE AUTOMATION:

CAS Best Practices
Increasing Retail Efficiency and Effectiveness
Success requires a new way of thinking about managing trade spend, focused on profit, consumption, with RJ Reynolds
customer needs and mutually beneficial outcomes. Historical volume and shipment mindset does not align
with profitable outcomes.
Executive Summary
Begin with the end in mind. Decisions regarding process design, systems and metrics should be made with an
understanding of what will be needed to support the long-term vision. Better to expand process and capability
R.J. Reynolds’s 2004 acquisition of the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. increased its competitiveness
into a robust solution than to need additional functionality later. As a caveat: only turn on what is required.
in the United States, where it was already the second-largest tobacco company. It also prompted the
Need to reward process compliance and forecast accuracy (both timing and volume) in addition to profit, company a subsidiary of $9 billion Reynolds American Inc., to look for ways of improving the
if the capabilities are to be used. performance of its combined sales force, which totaled 1,700 people.

Take a programmatic view. Realizing the benefits of a trade promotion program is an enterprise-wide, What is needed was an effective SFA solution that would enable the best sales teams to produce
long-term endeavor…but the potential rewards are large. superior results.

Keep it as simple as possible. It is easy to succumb to the ‘while we are at it’ syndrome. Rather, design for That is where CAS applied its Value Calculator, to develop a rough estimate of RJR’s benefits based
the end-state, but implement only as much is required to accomplish the objective. It will make training easier, on their current capabilities.
updates faster and deliver results sooner, thus funding the next round of implementation. RJR wanted three major outcomes of its efforts:

• Higher levels of internal process efficiency

• Increased retailer compliance
• Localization

By working with CAS, the company was able to make more daily sales calls with retailer at a
sharply lower cost, thus widening margins, optimizing sales force performance, and helping a
major company achieve its KPIs.

Europe. Middle East. Africa. Americas. Asia. Australia

RJR_CASE_ForTipIn.qrk:CAs_TradePromo_English.qrk 10/20/08 9:39 AM
R.J. Reynolds says CAS's biggest potential is in driving top-line growth.
Some of the top-line growth, to be sure, will come from localization—
the steady, methodical store-by-store improvement.
Challenges
Opportunities for improvement at RJR were numerous, and
started with the streamlining of internal processes.
R.J. Reynolds' sales staff was spending a huge amount of time
on administration, both to prepare for the next day’s sales calls
and to document the current day's calls. This reduced the time
salespeople could spend with retailers and forced individual
sales representatives to develop their own data-gathering and
reporting techniques. Likewise, a manual process was used to
determine which calls sales representatives they would make
the following day, by plotting their routes on physical maps.
In addition to its administrative-heavy internal processes, R.J.
Reynolds identified another form of inefficiency that its sales
reps were struggling with— observing, documenting, and
correcting retail-store practices. Cigarette manufacturers, like
many businesses that sell fast-moving items through distrib-
utors, create incentive programs to reward retailers who
remain 100% in stock. R.J. Reynolds had such an incentive
program in place.
R.J. Reynolds believed technology could help with some of these
problems. The question was which technology to use and how to
get the most out of it. The company had a home-grown SFA
system for more than 15 years, but the system lacked flexibility
and was expensive to maintain. R.J. Reynolds set out to find a
new system that, from Day 1, would have the functionality the
sales staff needed, and that would be backed by a firm with
experience in the area of retail execution. They also wanted a
system its programmers could configure, instead of having to
customize. This system needed to allow for focus on strategic
solutions that would enable the company to reach its goals.
The company found what it was looking for in CAS, a software
firm with extensive experience in sales-support systems.
Convinced that CAS had the functionality to address the inter-
nal challenges of its sales operation and the scale to support
the changes it might make in the future, R.J. Reynolds
embarked on an extensive implementation program. The pro-
gram included process redesign, software licenses, the integra-
tion of CAS into R.J. Reynolds’ existing technology, and training
for R.J. Reynolds' sales and IT staffs.
More Efficient Store Routes · Reduced Programming and Maintenace Cost · Improved Call Time · Increased Calls Per Day
Page 3
many of the post-call report items are populated during the
call, reducing manual reporting and errors.
The change is having a positive effect to improve productivity.
Solutions • Prior to CAS, the average R.J. Reynolds sales represen-
tative was making slightly more than seven sales calls
a day. R.J. Reynolds expects to improve call time by
Shortly into the implementation, R.J. Reynolds has started to
6.5 percent. This will allow the redeployment of this
see benefits from the new system (Exhibit 1). The first benefit
time to other value-added business building activities
involves higher levels of internal process efficienc
at retail.
Increased Granularity of Data • The system has also automated the selection of driving
Better Organization of Data routes for each salesperson. The new system is expect-
ed to enable a 7% increase in calls per day due to
more efficient routing.
Benefits
of: • The CAS solution first suggests calls for the week
based on coverage parameters and call history. Then it
Internal Regular Localization:
Process Compliance From State to buckets the calls by day in order to create the most
Efficiency Store efficient routes. Finally it maps the most efficient
Customization routes to cover the stores. And in an era of skyrocket-
ing gas prices, reducing the number of miles driven
means a significant reduction in annual costs.
Results:
• Finally, the new CRM system requires far less mainte-
Labor Savings Contract Targeted nance than the older home-grown one, leading to a 7.7
in Call Time Compliance Spending For percent annual reduction in programming and main-
and Route and Reduced Increased tenance costs.
Management OOS ROI
Retailer compliance is the second major area of benefit.
Exhibit 1: Benefits from Retail Execution Tool Reducing the amount of “out of stock” products is an opportu-
nity for R.J. Reynolds which manufactures and sells six of the
In the old way of working, preparing for sales calls would take
top 10 brands in the U.S. If an adult tobacco customer buys a
several minutes to compile historical data, sometimes review-
competitor’s brand when his favorite R.J. Reynolds cigarettes
ing old call reports and organizing them together for a quick
are out of stock, R.J. Reynolds loses the revenue. The CAS sys-
review in the parking lot before going in to see a retailer.
tem helps to automate the process of checking and correcting
There was little consistency to how the reps conducted their out-of-stock situations. R.J. Reynolds hopes to reduce the inci-
sales calls, to the questions they asked or the checklists they dence of out-of-stocks by 25% percent.
went through. After a call was completed, an equally idiosyn-
Localization, the ability to capture and use information to drive
cratic set of reporting styles would kick in: some reps would
sales at individual stores, is the third benefit that R.J. Reynolds
document their findings while sitting in their cars or before
hopes to realize from CAS. Before CAS, R.J. Reynolds could not
driving to the next call; others, pressed for time, would finish
easily get a comprehensive view of store information. This hin-
their report later in the day or the next morning. All of it was
dered R.J. Reynolds' ability to identify and suggest, to individ-
extraordinarily time consuming.
ual stores, opportunities to improve sales. It is anticipated
With CAS, key pre- and post-call activities have been automat- that the CAS system will allow salespeople to use individual
ed and streamlined. Pre-call planning is streamlined as sales store attributes to recommend opportunities to individual
numbers, prior issues, and key item stock-outs are noted for stores which in turn, it is hoped, will lead to top-line growth for
follow-up. During the call, there is a directed flow of tasks, R.J. Reynolds.
ensuring that the entire sales staff asks value-added questions
of stores and gets the important issues addressed. Post-call,
Results
CAS Builds and Empowers A Brand
1. Higher levels of internal process efficiency
• R.J. Reynolds expects to improve call time by
6.5 percent
• Automated the selection of driving routes for
each salesperson
• A 7% increase in calls per day due to more
efficient routing
• A 7.7% annual reduction in programming and
maintenance costs
• Unexpected energy savings
2. Increased retailer compliance
• CAS system helps to automate the process of
checking and correcting out-of-stock situations
• R.J. Reynolds hopes to reduce the incidence of
out-of-stocks by 25%
3. Localization
• The CAS system will allow salespeople to use individual
store attributes to recommend opportunities, which in
turn, it is hoped, will lead to top-line growth for
R.J. Reynolds
New CRM systems usually require both process and system
changes to show results. R.J. Reynolds evaluated each of its
processes to see how they could be improved. As the company
made process changes, it integrated them in via the CRM sys-
tem. The process changes include new ways the salespeople
are working with retail outlets, fine-tuning the data the sales-
people look for, and finding ways to improve the performance
in the retail stores.
On the systems side, the company is in the process of adapting
its systems to integrate them with the CAS software. It is also
training employees, both in IT and in sales, on how to utilize
CAS and new processes.
Despite the cost savings to date, R.J. Reynolds says CAS's
biggest potential is in driving top-line growth. Some of the top-
line growth, to be sure, will come from localization—the
steady, methodical store-by-store improvement mentioned
above. In the long run, however, a powerful enterprise CRM
system will help R.J. Reynolds spot trends in customer prefer-
ences and may give it ideas for new products and innovative
packaging solutions. With a sales force that has more time
and better tools at its disposal, that sort of market intelligence
is becoming much easier to get.
RJR_CASE_ForTipIn.qrk:CAs_TradePromo_English.qrk 10/20/08 9:39 AM
R.J. Reynolds says CAS's biggest potential is in driving top-line growth.
Some of the top-line growth, to be sure, will come from localization—
the steady, methodical store-by-store improvement.
Challenges
Opportunities for improvement at RJR were numerous, and
started with the streamlining of internal processes.
R.J. Reynolds' sales staff was spending a huge amount of time
on administration, both to prepare for the next day’s sales calls
and to document the current day's calls. This reduced the time
salespeople could spend with retailers and forced individual
sales representatives to develop their own data-gathering and
reporting techniques. Likewise, a manual process was used to
determine which calls sales representatives they would make
the following day, by plotting their routes on physical maps.
In addition to its administrative-heavy internal processes, R.J.
Reynolds identified another form of inefficiency that its sales
reps were struggling with— observing, documenting, and
correcting retail-store practices. Cigarette manufacturers, like
many businesses that sell fast-moving items through distrib-
utors, create incentive programs to reward retailers who
remain 100% in stock. R.J. Reynolds had such an incentive
program in place.
R.J. Reynolds believed technology could help with some of these
problems. The question was which technology to use and how to
get the most out of it. The company had a home-grown SFA
system for more than 15 years, but the system lacked flexibility
and was expensive to maintain. R.J. Reynolds set out to find a
new system that, from Day 1, would have the functionality the
sales staff needed, and that would be backed by a firm with
experience in the area of retail execution. They also wanted a
system its programmers could configure, instead of having to
customize. This system needed to allow for focus on strategic
solutions that would enable the company to reach its goals.
The company found what it was looking for in CAS, a software
firm with extensive experience in sales-support systems.
Convinced that CAS had the functionality to address the inter-
nal challenges of its sales operation and the scale to support
the changes it might make in the future, R.J. Reynolds
embarked on an extensive implementation program. The pro-
gram included process redesign, software licenses, the integra-
tion of CAS into R.J. Reynolds’ existing technology, and training
for R.J. Reynolds' sales and IT staffs.
More Efficient Store Routes · Reduced Programming and Maintenace Cost · Improved Call Time · Increased Calls Per Day
Page 3
many of the post-call report items are populated during the
call, reducing manual reporting and errors.
The change is having a positive effect to improve productivity.
Solutions • Prior to CAS, the average R.J. Reynolds sales represen-
tative was making slightly more than seven sales calls
a day. R.J. Reynolds expects to improve call time by
Shortly into the implementation, R.J. Reynolds has started to
6.5 percent. This will allow the redeployment of this
see benefits from the new system (Exhibit 1). The first benefit
time to other value-added business building activities
involves higher levels of internal process efficienc
at retail.
Increased Granularity of Data • The system has also automated the selection of driving
Better Organization of Data routes for each salesperson. The new system is expect-
ed to enable a 7% increase in calls per day due to
more efficient routing.
Benefits
of: • The CAS solution first suggests calls for the week
based on coverage parameters and call history. Then it
Internal Regular Localization:
Process Compliance From State to buckets the calls by day in order to create the most
Efficiency Store efficient routes. Finally it maps the most efficient
Customization routes to cover the stores. And in an era of skyrocket-
ing gas prices, reducing the number of miles driven
means a significant reduction in annual costs.
Results:
• Finally, the new CRM system requires far less mainte-
Labor Savings Contract Targeted nance than the older home-grown one, leading to a 7.7
in Call Time Compliance Spending For percent annual reduction in programming and main-
and Route and Reduced Increased tenance costs.
Management OOS ROI
Retailer compliance is the second major area of benefit.
Exhibit 1: Benefits from Retail Execution Tool Reducing the amount of “out of stock” products is an opportu-
nity for R.J. Reynolds which manufactures and sells six of the
In the old way of working, preparing for sales calls would take
top 10 brands in the U.S. If an adult tobacco customer buys a
several minutes to compile historical data, sometimes review-
competitor’s brand when his favorite R.J. Reynolds cigarettes
ing old call reports and organizing them together for a quick
are out of stock, R.J. Reynolds loses the revenue. The CAS sys-
review in the parking lot before going in to see a retailer.
tem helps to automate the process of checking and correcting
There was little consistency to how the reps conducted their out-of-stock situations. R.J. Reynolds hopes to reduce the inci-
sales calls, to the questions they asked or the checklists they dence of out-of-stocks by 25% percent.
went through. After a call was completed, an equally idiosyn-
Localization, the ability to capture and use information to drive
cratic set of reporting styles would kick in: some reps would
sales at individual stores, is the third benefit that R.J. Reynolds
document their findings while sitting in their cars or before
hopes to realize from CAS. Before CAS, R.J. Reynolds could not
driving to the next call; others, pressed for time, would finish
easily get a comprehensive view of store information. This hin-
their report later in the day or the next morning. All of it was
dered R.J. Reynolds' ability to identify and suggest, to individ-
extraordinarily time consuming.
ual stores, opportunities to improve sales. It is anticipated
With CAS, key pre- and post-call activities have been automat- that the CAS system will allow salespeople to use individual
ed and streamlined. Pre-call planning is streamlined as sales store attributes to recommend opportunities to individual
numbers, prior issues, and key item stock-outs are noted for stores which in turn, it is hoped, will lead to top-line growth for
follow-up. During the call, there is a directed flow of tasks, R.J. Reynolds.
ensuring that the entire sales staff asks value-added questions
of stores and gets the important issues addressed. Post-call,
Results
CAS Builds and Empowers A Brand
1. Higher levels of internal process efficiency
• R.J. Reynolds expects to improve call time by
6.5 percent
• Automated the selection of driving routes for
each salesperson
• A 7% increase in calls per day due to more
efficient routing
• A 7.7% annual reduction in programming and
maintenance costs
• Unexpected energy savings
2. Increased retailer compliance
• CAS system helps to automate the process of
checking and correcting out-of-stock situations
• R.J. Reynolds hopes to reduce the incidence of
out-of-stocks by 25%
3. Localization
• The CAS system will allow salespeople to use individual
store attributes to recommend opportunities, which in
turn, it is hoped, will lead to top-line growth for
R.J. Reynolds
New CRM systems usually require both process and system
changes to show results. R.J. Reynolds evaluated each of its
processes to see how they could be improved. As the company
made process changes, it integrated them in via the CRM sys-
tem. The process changes include new ways the salespeople
are working with retail outlets, fine-tuning the data the sales-
people look for, and finding ways to improve the performance
in the retail stores.
On the systems side, the company is in the process of adapting
its systems to integrate them with the CAS software. It is also
training employees, both in IT and in sales, on how to utilize
CAS and new processes.
Despite the cost savings to date, R.J. Reynolds says CAS's
biggest potential is in driving top-line growth. Some of the top-
line growth, to be sure, will come from localization—the
steady, methodical store-by-store improvement mentioned
above. In the long run, however, a powerful enterprise CRM
system will help R.J. Reynolds spot trends in customer prefer-
ences and may give it ideas for new products and innovative
packaging solutions. With a sales force that has more time
and better tools at its disposal, that sort of market intelligence
is becoming much easier to get.
RJR_CASE_ForTipIn.qrk:CAs_TradePromo_English.qrk 10/20/08 9:39 AM Page 1

Selling to a Global Economy Demands Flexibility

Not A Single Solution

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

SALES FORCE AUTOMATION:

CAS Best Practices
Increasing Retail Efficiency and Effectiveness
Success requires a new way of thinking about managing trade spend, focused on profit, consumption, with RJ Reynolds
customer needs and mutually beneficial outcomes. Historical volume and shipment mindset does not align
with profitable outcomes.
Executive Summary
Begin with the end in mind. Decisions regarding process design, systems and metrics should be made with an
understanding of what will be needed to support the long-term vision. Better to expand process and capability
R.J. Reynolds’s 2004 acquisition of the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. increased its competitiveness
into a robust solution than to need additional functionality later. As a caveat: only turn on what is required.
in the United States, where it was already the second-largest tobacco company. It also prompted the
Need to reward process compliance and forecast accuracy (both timing and volume) in addition to profit, company a subsidiary of $9 billion Reynolds American Inc., to look for ways of improving the
if the capabilities are to be used. performance of its combined sales force, which totaled 1,700 people.

Take a programmatic view. Realizing the benefits of a trade promotion program is an enterprise-wide, What is needed was an effective SFA solution that would enable the best sales teams to produce
long-term endeavor…but the potential rewards are large. superior results.

Keep it as simple as possible. It is easy to succumb to the ‘while we are at it’ syndrome. Rather, design for That is where CAS applied its Value Calculator, to develop a rough estimate of RJR’s benefits based
the end-state, but implement only as much is required to accomplish the objective. It will make training easier, on their current capabilities.
updates faster and deliver results sooner, thus funding the next round of implementation. RJR wanted three major outcomes of its efforts:

• Higher levels of internal process efficiency

• Increased retailer compliance
• Localization

By working with CAS, the company was able to make more daily sales calls with retailer at a
sharply lower cost, thus widening margins, optimizing sales force performance, and helping a
major company achieve its KPIs.

Europe. Middle East. Africa. Americas. Asia. Australia