How The Beverage Industry Can Overcome Inefficient Sales Departments

By Customertimes

The beverage industry is looking to uncork new strategies for success as it collectively marches towards a future of ample growth.

And that’s something to drink to.

But challenges remain, namely, a need for efficiency among sales teams within beverage companies.

VP of Enterprise Platform Solutions at Customertimes (CT), Mykhailo Maksymenko, points out that in some cases, sales team members are spending unnecessary time on administrative tasks or on targeting the wrong customers, which can hamper sales-related efforts.

“Your sales team [should] be focusing on sales,” Maksymenko says, adding that in one instance, he came across a sales team that was spending 64 percent of its time on non-sales related efforts.

It begs the question: as a beverage company, how do you streamline your sales efforts and create more efficiency in sales departments?

The AI Advantage in the Beverage Industry

AI continues to revolutionize just about every industry and the beverage industry is no different.

AI is creating efficiencies among sales departments at beverage companies, allowing team members to focus on sales-related goals while AI tools do the rest. As Maksymenko points out, AI allows CT partners in the beverage space to have their finger on the pulse of popular behaviors in the industry.

“We’re currently using AI to identify the most trendy bars and restaurants, because the trendy bars and restaurants create behaviors that then are replicated at other bars and restaurants,” Maksymenko says.

Not only does this free up time for sales teams so they can focus on finding the right customers, but also gives beverage companies a key insight around what’s in vogue among their current and prospective customers.

But the use of AI as part of CT’s strategy to support growth among beverage companies doesn’t end there, Maksymenko says.

As noted, valuable time is wasted by sales teams overwhelmed by administrative and other non-sales tasks—tasks that AI can handle.

It’s why CT uses an AI tool that analyzes menus at bars and restaurants—an AI engine that can generate valuable data to support efforts among sales teams. “Most bars and restaurants have their menus online. We collect this data and we analyze it,” Maksymenko says.

Once the menu data has been sifted through, it’s used to provide CT partners with powerful promotion recommendations for their products.

A Deep Domain Expertise in the Beverage Industry

In addition to its use of AI in supporting beverage companies, CT offers its partners a deep domain expertise, Maksymenko says, adding that the organization has worked with some of the largest beverage brands across the globe, offering CT deep insights into the unique pain points and needs of its partners while supporting them through an array of core delivery centers across different geographies.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for example, CT’s AI-laden solutions have driven nearly 60 percent of revenue for one leading beverage company.

“It’s significantly improved their processes efficiently.”

Having worked with these partners amid the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, Maksymenko says there was a need for beverage organizations to create e-commerce channels in addition to on-trade ones.

“We cover [the entire] range of solutions—off trade, on trade, e-commerce, and self-service,” Maksymenko notes.

CT also remains a leader in its use of Salesforce to support its customers, having partnered with the cloud-based software company for 15 years now. In addition, CT has also been in the SAP ecosystem for more than 15 years, Maksymenko adds.

Final Thoughts 

The success of sales teams has a significant role to play in the continued growth of today’s leading beverage brands. By working with a partner that offers innovative solutions to tackle inefficiencies in sales departments, beverage companies can carve out a path that offers ample opportunity for years to come.