What Does It Take To Be Best In Class?
Dale Hagemeyer of POI talks about the organization's vision, industry trends and what it takes to be "best in class."
Nearly every company strives to achieve a best-in-class designation with the CRM software solutions they are equipped with. But what exactly does it mean to be best in class and, perhaps even more importantly, what does it take to earn this title? To find out, StayinFront CEO, Tom Buckley recently interviewed Dale Hagemeyer, Partner at the Promotion Optimization Institute (POI), and asked about the criteria POI used to determine “best in class” status in the 2016 POI Retail Execution Vendor Panorama.
As a partner and the head of research, at POI, Dale offered some important insight into what distinguishes the best companies from their competitors in the ever-changing, increasingly competitive consumer goods market.
According to Dale, the first step POI takes in defining, “best in class,” is determining the categories that really matter and that are essential to today’s market – in essence, the capabilities that help companies improve sales performance. While conducting the research for the Panorama, POI assessed a wide range of vendors and their capabilities. They looked at company viability, geographic strategy, market responsiveness and track record, deployment capabilities, market understanding, vertical and industry strategy, partner leverage, and company vision. Next, they analyzed and compared product aptness and flexibility, solution completeness, offline capabilities, user experience, analytical capabilities, delivery flexibility, product vision, and configurability.
Dale stated that POI’s “Best in Class” designation is relative rating system, not an absolute one. The designation seeks to recognize excellence in the field and set the bar for the rest of the market. This enables competitors and vendors to gain an understanding of what resembles greatness and earns top honors from POI. Board members of POI collaborate as manufacturers, retailers, solution providers, analysts, academics, and other industry leaders committed to promotion optimization. These members work on an industry-wide effort to produce a guided roadmap and matrix on how trading partners can continuously improve their approach and profitability in real-time through relevant promotions.
To read the full interview and learn more about the POI’s vision, industry trends and key takeaways from the survey, visit StayinFront’s Leadership Perspectives series.
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StayinFront is honored to have been awarded “Best in Class” in the 2016 POI Retail Execution Vendor Panorama for analytical insights, guided selling, and mobile UX by POI this year.
StayinFront has 20 years of experience in developing an industry-specific sales force automation solutions, ensuring sales teams have the latest and most innovative technology to be able to do more, know more and, most importantly, sell more.
