Sell-Through Solutions was established in 2003 by Charles Thompson, with the goal of boosting professionalism in retail sell-through. At retail, sell-through is what happens after the product is delivered to the store. Is management driving selling initiatives from the top down? Do sales professionals possess the proper motivation, selling skills, and product knowledge? How is sell-through success quantified? Who is accountable for each stage of the program’s success?
At Sell-Through Solutions, we believe that for successful sell-through, great products are only the beginning. In today’s digital age, it’s actually difficult to find a bad product. Therefore, true differentiation must come via extraordinary service, consummate professionalism, and systematic selling. And, while content creation is a Sell-Through Solutions hallmark, we also believe that instruction is merely one of several components of a successful sell-through program.
That’s why Sell-Through Solutions developed the STAR Sell-Through System™:
The STAR Sell-Through System goes well beyond product and sales knowledge, to ensure maximum return on the continuing development of sales professionals…
STRATEGY: A sell-through program will not work without a roadmap to the desired outcome. Proper strategy outlines the constraints to success, and formulates the steps to overcome those constraints. While most manufacturers and distributors are sell-in driven, a sell-in strategy differs from that of sell-through. A sell-in program targets dealer principals, buyers, and distributors. A sell-through program targets the interaction between sales professionals and consumers, recognizing that the product, while key, must share focus with the marketing, the merchandising, seller education, and vendor support. In addition, the sell-through program should create a formula for management commitment to sell-through success, along with action items and follow-up to perpetuate that success.
TEACHING: Sell-Through Solutions training programs target the person with the most influence over product sales: the sales professional. Our training program features a three-pronged approach:
1. Priming the Pump (motivation to sell; products and programs crucial to success)
2. Product Technology (differences between product lines; advantages over competition)
3. What To Say and Do (customer-focused selling skills; goals and action items)
ACCOUNTABILITY: With any attempt to enact a sell-through paradigm shift in a corporation, accountability is often where the breakdown occurs. Accountability begins with action items:
1. What is to be done
2. Who will do it
3. When it will be completed
Accountability is where a company’s selling system moves from a sales-centric endeavor, to one that is management-focused. Sell-Through Solutions works closely with management to ensure that each action item is assigned, with a system for reporting and follow-up.
RESULTS MANAGEMENT: Sell-Through Solutions always recommends that its clients report and quantify their sell-through efforts and results. But what do we do with the data?
Managing the results of new sales, training, and incentive programs is a potential landmine that could sap the effectiveness of the programs. We’ve all worked for a corporation that was great at gathering data, and poor at doing anything substantive with it.
One example of new data that we could obtain is detailed monthly field reports. Imagine if you received reports identifying a flaw in one of your store displays or, worse, one of your products. Now imagine that all these reports are somewhere in the home office, yet no one is accountable to read them, pull out the action items, and assign them to appropriate personnel. Finally, imagine how much money this is going to cost you.
Additionally, with your team of sales pros, overcoming the weaknesses of the 80/20 Rule is just one of the many benefits of quantifying the results of sell-through programs. But first, you need to know who are the “80” and who are the “20.” Careful study of gathered sell-through data is an effective aid in customizing future employee development programs and sell-in solutions.