Beam Suntory
Discover the secrets to excelling in the Salesforce ecosystem. This comprehensive guide, penned by a seasoned Salesforce expert.
The Overview
Suntory, a global leader in the beverage industry, sought to enhance its consumer operations in Korea and Taiwan through the implementation of Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud. The project aimed to improve the effectiveness of sales representatives during their daily visits to bars, restaurants, and grocery stores. These visits focused on selling alcohol, upselling branded equipment, monitoring competitor activity, and ensuring compliance with Beam Suntory’s branded equipment policies. As the Salesforce Project Manager, I led a team of consultants to tailor the solution to the unique needs of the local market, ensuring that it supported both sales operations and policy compliance.
The Challenge
The key challenge was implementing a global Salesforce solution while adapting it to the specific tasks of the local sales teams in Korea and Taiwan. Sales reps needed a tool to streamline their daily activities, which included:
Visiting bars and restaurants to sell alcohol and upsell branded equipment.
Ensuring compliance with Beam Suntory's policies for branded equipment.
Visiting grocery stores to ensure stock levels were adequate and negotiating better shelf space to increase visibility over competitors.
Tracking competitor activity during these visits to inform future sales strategies.
The system also had to integrate with local IT infrastructures, meet regulatory requirements, and overcome language barriers between global and local teams.
The Approach
To tackle these challenges, we employed a multi-pronged approach:
Understanding Sales Reps' Needs: We engaged with local sales teams to understand their day-to-day responsibilities and how Salesforce could be optimized to support their tasks, such as logging sales visits, tracking equipment usage, and gathering competitive intelligence.
Customization of Salesforce Functionality: Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud was customized with workflows tailored to sales reps' daily tasks. We developed custom Lightning Web Components (LWC) for logging activities, managing stock levels, and reporting on competitor behavior during visits to bars, restaurants, and grocery stores.
Integration with Local IT Systems: We integrated Salesforce with local inventory and compliance systems, ensuring that sales reps had real-time access to data about stock levels and equipment usage during their visits.
Compliance and Reporting: Custom compliance tracking features were built to allow reps to easily verify that branded equipment was used correctly and report non-compliance in real time, ensuring adherence to Beam Suntory’s policies.
Mobile Access: To accommodate the mobile nature of sales reps' work, we ensured that they could access customer data, stock levels, and compliance checklists on their mobile devices while on the go.
Localized Training and Change Management: To ensure high user adoption, we utilized myTrailhead to create tailored learning paths for local teams, addressing their specific tasks, such as tracking sales, upselling equipment, and submitting compliance reports. Multi-language support was also incorporated to ensure ease of use.
The Solution
To tackle these challenges, we employed a multi-pronged approach:
Understanding Sales Reps' Needs: We engaged with local sales teams to understand their day-to-day responsibilities and how Salesforce could be optimized to support their tasks, such as logging sales visits, tracking equipment usage, and gathering competitive intelligence.
Customization of Salesforce Functionality: Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud was customized with workflows tailored to sales reps' daily tasks. We developed custom Lightning Web Components (LWC) for logging activities, managing stock levels, and reporting on competitor behavior during visits to bars, restaurants, and grocery stores.
Integration with Local IT Systems: We integrated Salesforce with local inventory and compliance systems, ensuring that sales reps had real-time access to data about stock levels and equipment usage during their visits.
Compliance and Reporting: Custom compliance tracking features were built to allow reps to easily verify that branded equipment was used correctly and report non-compliance in real time, ensuring adherence to Beam Suntory’s policies.
Mobile Access: To accommodate the mobile nature of sales reps' work, we ensured that they could access customer data, stock levels, and compliance checklists on their mobile devices while on the go.
Localized Training and Change Management: To ensure high user adoption, we utilized myTrailhead to create tailored learning paths for local teams, addressing their specific tasks, such as tracking sales, upselling equipment, and submitting compliance reports. Multi-language support was also incorporated to ensure ease of use.
Conclusion
Outcomes
Increased Sales Rep Efficiency: The mobile-optimized tools allowed sales reps to perform their tasks more efficiently, reducing the time spent logging visits and tracking compliance. This freed up more time for sales and upselling.
Higher Sales and Improved Stock Levels: Reps could quickly assess stock levels and negotiate better shelf placement in grocery stores, increasing product visibility and ensuring better availability of Suntory products.
Improved Compliance Management: Custom compliance features allowed sales reps to monitor equipment use in real time, ensuring that Beam Suntory's policies were adhered to and any issues were resolved promptly.
Better Competitor Insights: Sales reps could log competitor activity in real time, providing the company with actionable intelligence to stay competitive and adjust sales strategies based on market conditions.
Analysis
Mobile Functionality as a Key Driver of Success: The integration of Salesforce Field Service Lightning provided a seamless mobile experience for sales reps, enabling them to log their activities and access key data while in the field. This greatly improved productivity and data accuracy.
Localized Customization: By building custom LWCs and tailoring Salesforce workflows, the solution aligned perfectly with the specific needs of local markets. The use of MuleSoft to integrate with local IT systems ensured that real-time data was available, enhancing the reps' ability to make informed decisions during sales visits.
Cultural and Language Adaptation: Localized training materials, translated documents, and multi-language support in Salesforce helped reduce the learning curve for the local teams, ensuring smoother adoption and higher engagement with the new tools.
Reflection
Adapting Global Solutions to Local Markets: This project underscored the importance of customizing global IT solutions to fit local contexts. The Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, tailored to the specific needs of sales reps in Korea and Taiwan, improved not only sales efficiency but also compliance management and competitor tracking.
The Power of Integration and Mobility: Enabling mobile access and integrating local systems gave reps the tools they needed to perform at their best, resulting in better outcomes for both the sales reps and the company as a whole.
Collaborative Leadership and Communication: Strong collaboration between local teams, the central IT team, and external consultants was essential to the project’s success. This case highlights how cross-functional alignment and clear communication channels are critical when deploying global systems across diverse markets.
