Barilla: updating sales coverage pressure and reorganizing its regions

“The end result is that we cover our stores better. We gained five points of weighted distribution in terms of coverage.”
Rémi Ginoux, Sales Support Manager, Barilla

Barilla at a glance

Barilla is a multi-category company and a leader in its markets, present with Harrys in sliced bread, Barilla in pasta and sauces, as well as Wasa and Mulino Bianco.

This testimonial comes from Rémi Ginoux, Sales Support Manager, who co-led the roll-out of the 2022 territory design. The sales force has 94 sales reps spread across twelve regions: 78 territory sales representatives and 16 key account sales reps, making a team of 116 people including management and sales support.

stat: 94 | sales reps

stat: 12 | regions

stat: 116 | people in the field team

The challenge: adapting its field strength to the market of 2022

The previous territory design dated back to 2018. Since then, stores had opened, closed or grown, retail chains had gained or lost market share, and new channels had developed after Covid. Three challenges stood out:

• Updating sales coverage pressure in response to changes in the store base and channels, particularly click-and-collect and convenience stores.
• Balancing workloads across the 94 sales reps.
• Making regions more even in revenue potential across the four categories.

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“We had to adapt our field strength to the playing field of 2022.”
Rémi Ginoux, Sales Support Manager, Barilla

The Datakiss solution: a collaborative project, from head office to the field

Barilla relied on Datakiss Territory Planning, working alongside the panel provider Nielsen.

1. An internal study of growth pockets and a reverse schedule with Datakiss and Nielsen
2. A store ranking delivered by Nielsen
3. A scenario zero provided by Datakiss to map out the future regions, areas and territories
4. A workshop with regional managers to adjust each boundary to field realities
5. Fine-tuning by the territory sales representatives, as close as possible to the stores

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“It's a tool that lets you make a diagnosis that takes routing into account, reflecting the teams' working time, with visit frequencies and targeted stores.”
Rémi Ginoux, Sales Support Manager, Barilla

Project benefits

• Better coverage: five points of weighted distribution gained and more stores visited, including in channels that had previously been under-covered.
• A better-balanced workload across sales reps and across regions.
• A clear view of the workload: the share of face-to-face customer time and the share of travel time in each territory.

stat-bis: +5 pts | of weighted distribution in coverage

The key to success

For Rémi Ginoux, the human and collaborative side of the project was decisive: regional directors and territory sales representatives contributed their field knowledge, working directly with Datakiss.

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“Datakiss also had the ability to offer us solutions to the issues we raised, and to other issues we discovered as the project went on, solutions we would never have thought of.”
Rémi Ginoux, Sales Support Manager, Barilla

In summary

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“I would say that Datakiss is an essential tool for establishing a sales workload, because we have all the KPIs in real time on the changes we make.”
Rémi Ginoux, Sales Support Manager, Barilla