#Back2Basics∷ Be cognizant of Distilled Sales…
Kamal Lambaa
Customer Marketing | Revenue Generation | Commercials Management | Sales Management
“All that glitters, is not gold”, we all have heard this proverb. Sales is often reported as a cumulative number, in an organizations pre-set format. However, one key understanding which shall give us a better grip of how the brand, product or SKU is performing in the market is the sight of the “Distilled Sales” numbers.
A simple break down of the sales numbers can help us understand how the brand is evolving. A simple measure is to break down the sales into Promotional Sales & Non-promotional Sales. The general understanding or promotional sales is any kind of co-packing or offer granted to get the desired volume sales through the various channels that you operate in.
“Distilled Sales” is the pure non-promotional sales or regular sales of a brand, product or SKU, that has sold as a single regular pack - solo or in its true packing at a fair market price without any promotional support. This fair price includes the fair margin that is part of the pricing structure.
This sales may still consist a component of discounting or wholesale which could mask the sales numbers. Distilled sales gives you an assessment of what is the brand pull. While on one hand, volume is an important parameter to measure growth, on the other it would be prudent for a BIU (Business Intelligence Unit) to see the Distilled sales which would give a true picture of the margins being generated, by the pure sales of an SKU
One quick way of understanding the distilled sales is the multiplier of volume & Fair Price (Price to Trade – without any discounting or QPS). One could also get the Distilled sales for only promotions, bundled offers or any other format used to give incentive to consumer or trade.
Distilled sales can be one of the checks for any Brand Health Check indicator. Distilled sales, can further be broken down into fragments of; Channel, Location, Outlet or by Sales Rep. This shall give you a clear areas of action and can be discussed with teams for internalization and appropriate action.
Distilled Sales may have a correlation to many other market factors which one would have to look into before coming to a conclusion. There would always be market specific conditions or attributes that may complement the sales hence “Distilled Sales” can be attributed as one of the qualifying criteria for a Brand Health.
It will help position the brand rightly to ensure that the brand does not get into a position of forced or continuous promotions all the time, to get the basic sales. Ona can also keep a check on how the brand is performing against the Distilled Sales of the category or industry the brand is operating in.
Area Sales Manager at Godfrey Phillips India Ltd
1yIntriguing view points Sir! A great yardstick to measure the Brand health of any NPLs- New product Launch . We sales people are often consumed most of the time to reiterate doing the same SOPs . Distilled Sales should be a measurement criteria while considering the further inputs for any NPLs Brands.
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2yNice article and a valid concept. We need to also explore the means to find out the distilled sales for investment outlets(Traditional trade) where a paid visibility amount is associated on overall sales.How do we calculate the same for MT business where the accounts have Terms of Trade related to payouts.
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2yGreat insights, Kamal. I believe the reliance on old measuring yardsticks from a time when data analytics was hard, is a habit that many decision makers find hard to give up. Given the relative ease and speed with which sales data can be gathered, analysed and used to inform decisions, it would be remiss of any senior decision maker to ignore nuances such as Distilled sales. Always a joy reading your insights, my friend. You should write more....