The 10 Most Innovative Solution Providers in Food & Beverages 2019

1. The 10 Most Innovative Solution Providers in Food & Beverages-2019 Vol. 08 | Issue. 10 | 2019 + Franchise Ecosystem Franchise Ecosystem Is Franchise a Is Franchise a profitable stroke profitable stroke of business? of business? Infrastructure Transformation AI Moving Transformation of Industries Pitching Success The Importance of a Sales Strategy Rony Granros Founder & President Oak Barrel Software Oak Barrel Software Oak Barrel Software Solves Data Frustration via DigiFacturing

4. E Eat to Live? Or Live to Eat? It won’t be surprising to say that nowadays, humans don’t eat to live, instead they live to eat. D inexplicable. ecades ago, food was just a necessity of a human to stay alive. But now, it includes satisfying their soul too. Consumers have become more interested and curious about the variety of the food they eat, and hence, to them, taste plays a crucial part. Similar is the case with beverages too. The love for food and beverages among people is Be it meeting someone, celebrating the happiest moments of life, raising a toast, or a craving for food, we always count on variety of food cuisines and beverages to make those moments enriching. Food and beverage industry has witnessed a severe rise in its graph in past few decades. This vast industry encompasses various segments including groceries, oils and fats, food additives, functional foods and beverages, packaged foods, health and natural foods, canned food, baked food, baby food, animal food, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks, energy drinks, and packaging. Whenever we talk about leveraging technology into this industry, we often come across the ultimate convenience businesses have been able to provide to consumers, which they were looking for. For instance, food delivery apps such as Uber Eats are enabling people with busier lifestyles to order food anytime, anywhere at their doorsteps as per their convenience. As we are gradually surging towards the digital era, certainly more technological innovations will emerge to shape the future of the food and beverage industry. Many organizations are already redefining the industry by delivering cutting-edge

5. The love for food and beverages will never come to an end “ “ Hitesh Dhamani solutions. With an intent to shed light on the contributions of these organizations, Insights Success has curated a list of “The 10 Most Innovative Solution Providers in Food & Beverages 2019”. These organizations are not only creating value- added offerings, but are also providing unprecedented experiences to consumers. Oak Barrel features as the cover story of this edition. With the mission of creating the next generation of world-class enterprise solutions, Oak Barrel Software, LLC is targeting Process Manufacturing issues that have been unaddressed by the large software/service leaders. The organization is a food industry technology provider that solves one of the most pressing business issues food manufacturing companies face today: digital data management to meet all of the operational and compliance requirements in this industry. Oak Barrel invented the term “DigiFacturing” ™ to uniquely describe all of its solutions, which include intelligent document conversion and data capture, process management and publishing digital content to address nine categories of needs. Intelligent date management and pre-configured reminders automate information housekeeping to ensure data accuracy, compliance management and ongoing change control. Also, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our editorial team and CXO standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector. Let’s start reading!

6. 08 Solves Data Frustration via DigiFacturing Cover Story Oak Barrel Software Articles Infrastructure Transformation AI Moving Towards Tranformation of Industries 30 Franchise Ecosystem Is Franchise a Profitable Stroke of Business? Pitching Success The Importance of a Sales Strategy 42 22 34 Tessa Clarke How to Do Your Best Work when You're not Actually Working! Maintaining a personal and professional life balance 20 Tech-Know Insights What a tech CEO can teach your business about digital CXO Standpoint

7. Contents 16 Company of the Month Double Dutch Drinks Redefining the Mixer Market in the Drinks Industry Company of the Month 26 Driftless Glen Delivering Unprecedented Experience of Unique Spirits 38 TouchBistro Supporting Restaurateurs Since Inception

8. Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Executive Editor Hitesh Dhamani Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes Managing Editor Anish Miller Co-designer Visualizer David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Associate Designer Rahul Kavanekar Poonam Mahajan Senior Sales Manager Business Development Manager Co-designer Kshitij S Peter Collins Sales Executives Max, Anish, Irfan Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Technical Head Jacob Smile Steve, Joe, Alan, Digital Marketing Manager Andy Mitter Technical Specialist Aditya Research Analyst Calvin Jones SME-SMO Executive Prashant Chevale Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes Circulation Manager Robert Brown sales@insightssuccess.com August, 2019 Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com Follow us on : www.facebook.com/insightssuccess/ We are also available on : www.twitter.com/insightssuccess Copyright © 2019 Insights Success, All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Insights Success. Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success.

10. Rony Granros Founder & President Oak Barrel Software

11. 10 THE Most Innovative Solution Providers in F BEVERAGES2019 D COVER STORY AND Oak Barrel Software: OAK BARREL SOFTWARE SOLVES DATA FRUSTRATION VIA DIGIFACTURING Food industry data management Food industry data management is different and we can begin to is different and we can begin to solve your formula solve your formula tracking/creation, compliance tracking/creation, compliance mandates, auditing and storage mandates, auditing and storage expiration needs easily and as fast expiration needs easily and as fast as 96 hours to see gains. as 96 hours to see gains.

12. Oak Barrel supports the Australian Food and Grocery Council by creating a standard format to exchange technical food industry information. W So?ware, LLC is targe?ng Process Manufacturing issues that have been unaddressed by the large so?ware/service leaders. The organiza?on is a food industry technology provider that solves one of the most pressing business issues food manufacturing companies face today: digital data management to meet all of the opera?onal and compliance requirements in this industry. Oak Barrel invented the term “DigiFacturing” ™ to uniquely describe all of its solu?ons, which include intelligent document conversion and data capture, process ith the mission of crea?ng the next genera?on of world-class enterprise solu?ons, Oak Barrel management and publishing digital content to address nine categories of needs. Intelligent date management and pre-configured reminders automate informa?on housekeeping to ensure data accuracy, compliance management and ongoing change control. Oak Barrel offers three unique capabili?es that currently aren't available today: real/provable results within 96 hours of licensing/using; an itera?ve data add/expand/change capability of any data (structured or unstructured) and business intelligence capability (with infused AI) to improve business decisions. Our game- changer approach says this is easy now: just drop in one data doc at a time and continuously input as you go.

13. COVER STORY So?ware that Makes Life Easier When it comes to products, Oak Barrel So?ware offers nine specific categories of solu?ons; Ÿ Supplier Compliance and Risk Management: Collabora?ve portal-based processes provide an easy way to con?nuously assess risk and remain in compliance of FSMA, ISO, GSFI and/or other quality/safety cer?fica?ons; Ÿ Supplier Specific Management: A one-stop single portal combining technical data and documents, ePIF and other informa?on for suppliers, brokers, distributors, co-packers and contract manufacturers; Ÿ Supply Chain Voyance: Risk and compliance processes and transparency across all products to the lowest level of the value chain to meet customer mandates, minimize risks and validate product claims. This includes open end-point web services, document-to- data transforma?on and automated conformance valida?on which minimizes the ?me to collect, validate and publish risk and compliance data at all levels of the value chain; Ÿ Project Catalog and Configurators: A simplified catalog front end to products and guided level-by-level product configurators streamline product or component re-use. This minimizes the innova?on and R&D ?me to vet and deliver similar or redundant products and new (ve?ed) products, and improves consistency and quality; Ÿ Project Requirements Management: The ability to automate new or product change processes, samples or product informa?on requests and stage gate processes to minimize cycle ?mes, project/iden?fy issues earlier and meet customer service levels; Product Informa?on Publishing: Unites mul?ple product content sources of customer, ingredient and technical data, plus key legal and specifica?on documents to create customer specifica?ons or ePIFS, sales sheets, cost quotes and generate product informa?on for websites, Amazon and Walmart market places; Opera?onal Quality Management: This fills the gaps between corporate PLM data and ERP/QMS quality applica?ons, Gold Quality Steps, QAS sheets, SOPs, process flows, HACCP diagrams, magnet checks, lab equipment calibra?on, chief table product crea?on comparisons, approvals and publica?on. By delivering easy access to this wide-spectrum opera?onal data, companies gain improvements in mul?ple areas like batch-to-batch consistency, minimizing spec batches and audit risks; Opera?onal Recipe and Spec Management: A comprehensive solu?on for uni?ng mul?ple recipe and specifica?on content sources to easily spec and create plant/line-specific recipes. It leverages S95 equipment lines and includes general or site/line specific steps so that recipes can be flow-designed or assembled. This step assembly process minimizes variability and improves both quality, consistency and ul?mately customer sa?sfac?on; Opera?onal Quality Voyance: This is Oak Barrel's silver bullet for seeing, flagging and minimizing cri?cal quality management issues through mul?ple processes and technologies, including ar?ficial intelligence. By “DigiFacturing” processes, conver?ng documents to data, accessing PLM, ERP and Opera?onal Quality data and automa?ng comparison spec data, and automa?ng communica?ons, companies can immediately predict, catch and/or minimize bad outcomes. This module facilitates spec correc?ons, quaran?nes, correc?on, out-of-tolerance no?fica?ons, and streamlines rapid correc?ons. It includes automated no?fica?ons to R&D, communicates SOP correc?ons and minimizes the impact of worst-case situa?ons like recalls that can damage brands. Deploying this module can save food manufacturers hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages or lawsuits and is cri?cal for problem recogni?on, ac?on and risk mi?ga?on. Ÿ Ÿ The Veteran Industry Leader Rony Granros, Founder and President of Oak Barrel So?ware, is an enterprise so?ware industry leader and manufacturing industry veteran. Mr. Granros was a forerunner in introducing a wide variety of technology industry firsts in the food and beverage industry, including new MRP, ERP, Data mart- based analy?cs, PLM, SCM and EAM solu?ons. He is a progressive thinker with deep technical, product, sales, services and leadership experience across all aspects of process manufacturing. Ÿ Mr. Granros always stays on the cu?ng edge of new technologies to solve real business issues. Therefore, in the fall of 2019 he will reset the bar for food and beverage industry technology solu?ons when he leads Oak Barrel into the formal launch of Ÿ

14. his nine-part, mul?-tenant, cloud- based solu?on. When Data Frustra?on Inspired Leading- Edge Innova?on When it came to inspiring the leading-edge innova?on behind Oak Barrel So?ware's solu?on sets for manufacturers, two words inspired innova?on the most; customers' “DATA FRUSTRATION”. The solu?on for that data frustra?on is DigiFacturing: effec?vely, efficiently collec?ng, managing and changing data easily/accurately, as needed. This is not a new problem, it's been a frustra?on for manufacturers since the first plant was built, and with the rapid growth of the food & beverage industry, the U.S. and Global economy, complex trade agreements, even more complex regula?ons and compliance requirements – manufacturers’ data frustra?on problems has grown in size and scope. opportunity. With each new wave of technology, industry capabili?es and infrastructure is developed (for example, mul?-tenant cloud hos?ng, mobile data communica?ons, analy?cs, ar?ficial intelligence, etc.) The organiza?on challenges itself to take advantage of the best of those capaci?es and deliver them to our customers as part of its solu?ons. Today, as new technologies have emerged suppor?ng digital transforma?on, Oak Barrel So?ware's solu?on takes another step forward to solve this problem. Helping to Seamlessly Collaborate and Manage Data Oak Barrel So?ware delivers precocious pre-planning for “what’s to come” and rescues customers from data frustra?on woes without locking them down. For over 20 years, customers have been stuck with enterprise systems that largely The Next Thing As a company that is always looking to leverage “the next thing” and not stay glued to old technologies and solu?ons, Oak Barrel So?ware's single biggest challenge is not so much a challenge but an Oak Barrel’s multi-audience (role-based) data portals provide an easy, trackable and audit-ready way to manage the multiple food industry stressors facing executives.

15. managed data (and daily ac?vi?es) via excel, word and PDF documents. Both small and large food manufacturers are struggling with document control, but Oak Barrel So?ware's compe?tors' data- oriented solu?ons are complex, expensive, and difficult to change. They struggle to manage the escala?on of documents from disparate sources and on disparate formats. Oak Barrel protects its customers from expensive mistakes like lost knowledge (from one-off, yet cri?cal internal or external data sources), increases product quality controls, reduces compliance risks, and accelerates innova?on. This can result in significant bo?om and top line growth. We call it the three 'I's: Input, Iterate and Insights; this is DigiFacturing. This is what we do. When it comes to the future, Oak Barrel So?ware is leveraging the newest digital technologies to deliver to market a unique cri?cally important food industry solu?on that does not exist today, which is an industry game changer! Oak Barrel also allows food manufacturers to seamlessly collaborate and manage data and documents to eliminate re-entry of data. It also supports internal collabora?on, receives and inputs data from mul?ple systems, and manages the analysis and repor?ng. Client Feedback “Oak Barrel understood that we could go directly from documents to 100% data overnight. Based on risk, we selectively rolled out data-oriented processes while improving our compliance gaps with digitized document control.” - QA Manager, Food Copacker “Oak Barrel's intelligent object and document date management and reminders allowed us to initially eliminate a large team of temporary staff and ramp from 500,000 documents to over 3,000,000 documents without adding staff.” -PLM Business Owner, Food Manufacturer “Oak Barrel's focus on ease of use for internal and our partners has results in 96% supplier participation and 90% first pass approval of supplier data.” - QA Director, USA Copacker. "Oak Barrel enables us to manage 24 pages of material specification content to the farm, ocean or ranch." - PLM Business Owner, UK Copacker.

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18. Joyce & Raissa de Haas Co-founders Double Dutch Drinks 16 insightssuccess.com August 2019

19. Double Dutch Drinks Redefining the Mixer Market in the Drinks Industry F more than 5,000 bar stockists across the UK alone. Using molecular pairing techniques, Double Dutch’s drinks have been specifically designed to enhance the taste of higher- quality spirits, while offering an innovative alternative to standard mixers. ounded in 2015, Double Dutch is a UK based premium tonic and mixer brand, selling over half a million bottles per month across 23 countries, with Double Dutch was the first mixer brand to launch quinine- free tonic and being underpinned by both a genuine founder story and credible expertise, they have established themselves as a reputable brand in the space, providing a refreshing and vibrant alternative to incumbent brands. Double Dutch aims to continue their growth by entering into new international markets as well as more domestic on- trade venues and retail stores. Molecular Pairing Techniques Double Dutch creates a range of versatile mixers that can be drunk with a range of spirits, and taste equally delicious on their own as they do in a cocktail. All their flavours are developed through molecular pairing techniques. This 17 insightssuccess.com August 2019

20. technique identifies the chemical components and aromas shared between specific spirits and certain ingredients, with the core hypothesis being that ingredients combine better when they share key flavour aromas. The process starts with determining and quantifying the aroma compounds of a particular ingredient. The next step is to then combine this ingredient with others that share the same intrinsic properties to create unique and counter-intuitive flavour combinations. This results in flavours that enhance rather than mask the quality of spirits. ““ Challenging The Market With consumers now becoming more and more health conscious, low-calorie drink purchases are currently accounting for 27% of all drinks sales. Double Dutch’s drinks are all naturally low in sugar and only use 100% natural and organic ingredients. This is one of the ways Double Dutch is challenging the original tonic and mixer industry and encouraging the market to become more diverse and consumer friendly. The We are committed to supplying our customers with the most refined and highest quality ingredients. company is looking forward to seeing how the market continues to grow and change and they plan to stay at the forefront of these changes. Perfectly Balanced Leadership Double Dutch was founded by Dutch twin sisters, Joyce and Raissa de Haas, who have a natural affinity with superlative drinks and excellent blendings. Both Joyce and Raissa have continued to personally direct the brand from key positions, with Joyce overseeing the financial and operational aspects of Double Dutch, and Rasisa looking after sales and marketing. Both have the perfect balance of overseeing the function-critical aspects of the business and are more than determined to bring flavour, fun and excitement to the mixer market. Overcoming Challenges One of the biggest challenges Joyce and Raissa faced when they founded Double Dutch was they had no prior experience in the Food and Beverage industry which meant they also had limited industry contacts. As many start up brands, their budgets were very small compared to their big corporate competitors which made it hard to reach 18 insightssuccess.com August 2019

21. COMPANY OF THE MONTH the massive MOQ’s for production runs in a big brand landscape. There was also the challenge of being stocked by Wholesalers. Joyce and Raissa overcame these challenges by building a large brand presence on social media as well as constantly increasing their network of industry influencers and investors who have been able to directly help the brand. Joyce and Raissa will always undertake a lot of personal research before making big decisions, for example, their work with agencies is limited as they know that internally undertaking work has a personal touch and that people always react better when you make the effort yourself. Future Aspirations Double Dutch aims to revolutionise the drinking experience! Along with leading in flavour and innovation Double Dutch is looking to leave a positive impact on the environment by ensuring they become 100% carbon neutral. They are also continually exploring new flavours to add to their range as they believe there are still many flavour profile opportunities. It is through this flavour development that they plan to take on the leading brands head-on with superior tasting products. Seasonality, low calorie drinks and healthy living are three trends that the company will be focusing on for the next two years as it looks to align with the trends that are driving consumer behaviour. Continued international growth is a big focus as well. Double Dutch wants to be easily accessible from all around the globe, so as well as continued expansion in their current markets, they are always looking to enter new markets. 19 insightssuccess.com August 2019

22. HOW TO DO YOUR BEST WORK WHEN YOU'RE NOT ACTUALLY WORKING! Maintaining a personal and professional life balance I events. And without fail I’m almost always asked something along the lines of “How do you juggle having a family with a start-up?” Whilst this is an extremely valid question – and it touches on a topic that’s very close to my heart, it really frustrates me because I never hear the same question levelled at male peers. As a result, this seemingly innocuous question is laden with an enormous amount of gender bias, generally to the exclusion of men. I would suggest that if we want to achieve a fulfilled balanced life for all – male and female – we have to ensure that we’re all participating in this debate about work/life balance, and that inclusivity needs to be the starting point. n my role as chief evangeliser for OLIO – the world’s only neighbour-to-neighbour food sharing app – I speak about our work and journey at a lot of Tessa Clarke Co-Founder & CEO OLIO Another challenge in this area is, funnily enough, the gender bias experienced by men who choose to be the “stay at home Dad”! Several years ago my husband and I decided that given our respective career paths and motivations in life, it made sense for me to be the “bread winner” and for him to look after our two kids and home, whilst developing property in his remaining time. This has given me the flexibility to pursue the opportunities for OLIO with full vigour, and has been absolutely invaluable in terms of helping me to achieve a balanced life. However, sadly, my husband experiences more than the occasional disparaging passing comment and has even been asked “When are you going to get a proper job?” Thankfully he has no self- 20 insightssuccess.com August 2019

23. esteem issues, and thinks he has the best job in the world! But I highly doubt that in this day and age anyone would ever dare say this to a woman; and so why to a man? If women are to be truly equal in the workplace – and to achieve a balanced life, then we need to adjust our perceptions of what it means to be a male in a modern society, and accept that this will require men to taking on an increasingly prominent role in the delivery of childcare – which is to the benefit of all involved, not least the children! employee’s induction, we talk about the importance of a balanced life, and in our line manager training, we stress that the line manager is responsible for working with their direct reports to ensure that they are achieving a balanced life. What this means is that on a day to day basis our team chat will often show someone walking the dog at mid-day, someone else with their kids at 3pm and others heading off to swim or yoga. Each team member is responsible for ensuring that their work is done, according to whatever schedule best suits them, and as a result, we have an incredibly motivated and productive team, the majority of who say that working for OLIO is the best job they’ve ever had! If you aren’t already talking about how you can achieve a balanced life as individuals and as a company, then I can highly recommend spending some time on it, as the rewards will be enormous! Gender issues aside, I spend a considerable amount of mental energy working towards achieving a ‘balanced life’. I prefer the terminology of a ‘balanced life’ rather than ‘work/life balance’, because when you’re an entrepreneur (and especially an entrepreneur working from home), the two can become very mixed! And to suggest that ‘work’ and ‘life’ are the antithesis of one another surely isn’t what we should aspire to. In the very early days of setting up OLIO, it was pretty much impossible to lead a balanced life because we had to achieve so much, in so little time, and with virtually no resources. As we’ve grown the business and the team however, both Saasha my Co-Founder and I have achieved a much more balanced life – which is important, because the start-up journey is a series of marathons, not a sprint, and so it’s essential to avoid burnout. We find that working predominantly from home is extremely helpful in achieving balance (5-10 hours per week gained back through not having to commute!), and we both carve out time during our working days to exercise. In the early days we used to feel quite guilty about exercising when we ‘should’ be working, but now we recognise that if we’re to perform at our best then we need to be mentally and physically fit and exercise is absolutely critical for this. Plus, I find that I have many of my best insights and inspirations for OLIO when working out, so it really is killing two birds with one stone! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tessa Clarke is the Co-Founder and CEO of OLIO, a free app tackling the problem of food waste by connecting neighbours with each other, and volunteers with local businesses, so that surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. Since its inception in 2016, 850,000 people have joined OLIO and have together shared over 1.2 million portions of food. OLIO also publishes ZeroWasteWeekly.com, a website and newsletter that aggregates all the best zero waste news from around the world. Prior to founding OLIO, Tessa spent 10 years as a digital Managing Director in the media, retail and financial services sectors, and gained her MBA from Stanford. Tessa is passionate about the sharing economy as a solution for a sustainable world, and is equally passionate about the importance of leading a ‘balanced life’. As well as working towards a balanced life for ourselves, we’ve really baked this into the DNA of the company too. And this has manifested itself in a couple of important company policies. The first is our holiday policy – we have no cap on the number of day’s holiday an employee can take; however we do have a minimum and insist that everybody has at least 20 days off. This is because we saw research from other companies who had adopted a limitless holidays policy, and it actually showed that the number of days worked by employees increased, not decreased! We also think it’s really important for the team to have a collective break over the Christmas holidays so everyone can really relax, confident in the knowledge that their email inbox isn’t rapidly filling up! We also ensure that in every 21 insightssuccess.com August 2019

24. T implications and stimulated them into becoming a global brand. Yet, many organizations are striving to attain the full benefits of being a globally recognized brand. To stretch out confinements, various organizations often offer franchise licenses to franchise owners in potentially profitable regions for acquiring a better customer approach. Instead of starting from a scratch, an individual can purchase a franchise and start with a proven business model that has a more probability of achieving success. echnology, technique—name it, the world has bestowed some remarkably adaptive With adequate management and guidance, one can easily flourish in the business world. Franchise business strikes down certain hardships and struggles that might be faced in the start-ups. Choosing franchise 22 insightssuccess.com August 2019

25. Franchise Ecosystem businesses over a start-up could prove as a better idea, as it has more fruitful benefits that of any initial-staged businesses. one to adapt and make appropriate business decisions. Besides, a strong support system is often a necessity rather than a want. It supports an individual in maintaining balance between both independent ideologies and the brand’s business modules. The support mostly includes the vast knowledge about the franchise and an expertise outlook on products. With such system, many new business personalities can perpetually sustain in the massive markets. Less risk factor and Higher Success Rate One of the primary concern factor and the misconception in franchise business lies within the limitation of autonomy. Unlike individual enterprises, a franchise business might be facing some problems regarding receiving a full scale autonomy which can be overruled thereafter. It requires compassion over choosing a franchise which is more suitable with a purchaser’s business ethics. This reduces the risk of being dominated by franchisors and other investor entities and helps in drafting own rules to follow on. An Established Open System Unlike any start-ups, a franchise business allows an individual to carry out the operation directly from the established foundation. From brand cultivation and marketing to future plans and customer base, a new franchise owner is blessed with almost everything. An outlet of a franchise ensures the idea of following the similar business modules and operational methods can be more effective. And, implementing some new tweaks in such absolute aspects makes the task easier for a distributor. Though a franchise comes with a well- established platform, it does require consistent efforts on bringing the organization upwards. According to various reports and facts, it has been also stated that the success rate of franchise business is quite higher than an independent entrepreneurial venture. As franchisees operate under a systematic business model, they get an indirect training in marketing as well as staff handling. With a large-scale marketing, the franchisees can promptly attain more customer attraction resulting into a higher growth rate. In addition, it also allows professionals to overview the business reports and key performance indicators which aid 23 insightssuccess.com August 2019

26. How Franchise Business works? Quite a few requirements are needed to be fulfilled by a prospective franchisee owner in order to get qualified for licensing the brand’s name. The qualification requirements significantly vary from one franchisor to other. It often includes maintaining a higher net worth and a good credit score for a larger initial investment. In addition, a franchisee must be having another source of income also an industry/management experience for guiding business effectively. Subsequently considering all the factors, the franchisor determines whether the prospective owner is worthy enough to be qualified for the business or not. A Franchise agreement includes certain sets of terms which are required to be followed by the franchisees. After being qualified, an individual signs an agreement where he/she has to pay a franchise-fee in order to acquire the license to use the brands name and its business processes. Simultaneously, the franchisor assists franchisees with allocation, supplier connections, store- management and staff training. However, it also bestows various facets like specific tested operating system, with creative marketing strategies. Instant Customer Access Customer engagement is one of the most crucial and difficult processes in a business to bear. To gain more number of customers, an organization has to invest their time and efforts on processing various marketing aspects. In case of franchise business, the odds are quite similar but with fewer efforts. As most of franchise brands have a national or a global recognition, franchisees are required to contribute into a “marketing budget” through which the parent companies could process out an extensive promotion campaigns. Meanwhile, franchisee can also start an independent campaign in order to gain instant customer engagement. Below are some methods through which franchisees can uplift the business, independently. Focusing on target audiences—instead of exaggerating over customer approaches, one can narrow down the target audiences to highly qualified prospects. It allows business owners to concentrate and come up with best prospects to deliver. Return-policy—being the most traditional and effective way to attract customers, utilizing return-policies in franchise business will aid the franchisees to get better customer approach. Providing something in return and offering various schemes helps in creating an adverse marketing network. Initially, the opportunities of implanting reinvention in franchise business are narrowed down as the focus of a franchiser is on delivering a consistent experience across all the locations. A multiple franchised locations, a franchisee can easily attain increased purchasing power. Also, Franchise business allows business persons to be flexible to try new products or services in order to test in the real-time market scenario. Thus by considering above aspects, it can be concluded that the franchise business is most secure and best option to invest in. 24 insightssuccess.com August 2019

28. The 10 Most Innova?ve Solu?on Providers in Food & Beverages-2019/ Dri?less Glen Dis?llery Driftless Glen Delivering Unprecedented Experience of Unique Spirits Driftless Glen F has been named “Wisconsin Distillery of the Year”, by New York International Spirits Competition and shared as a “Top Ten US Spirits Brand You Must Try”, by London Spirits Competition. Its American spirit has over 5,000 barrels aging on-site making a name for itself Nationally and Internationally. "Grain to Glass and back to Farm" is the company’s philosophy which means it is a 0% waste distillery in terms of the creation of the spirits. ounded in 2015, Driftless Glen Distillery is a Grain to Glass Craft Distillery. Most recently rated by Whiskey Advocate with a “90” for Bourbon Whiskey, the company Driftless Glen recycles 100% of the by-product. The spent mash and grain go to feed local livestock, while the wastewater is sent off-site to an anaerobic digester, converting it back to energy. The used bourbon and whiskey barrels are sold to breweries, cideries, and wineries to create unique brews or are re-purposed by local artisans to enjoy in their homes which makes the company an environmentally focused distillery. Moreover, At Driftless Glen, the creativity doesn’t stop with the spirits. It also offers distillery inspired cuisine, a menu with delicious food created with its spirits as well as unique mixology by using its olive oils and balsamic vinegars. Driftless Glen is set just around the hillsides of the Baraboo valley, purposely. “ 26 insightssuccess.com August 2019

29. An Eminent Leader as an Entrepreneur 360 Company and Renee has spoken at many Business Conferences and Woman Empowered Leadership Summits, sharing her story, leadership and successes within the spirits and food and beverage industry. Renee Bemis is the CEO and Co-Founder of Driftless Glen Distillery. She leads the team working with each member to make executive decisions and assist where hurdles are presented. Renee isthe Elections Chairman for the American Craft Spirits Association. She and her husband have been awarded with the prestigious honour of being featured in an upcoming publication as Inc. Magazines Top 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies, Delivering Experience Driftless Glen believes that its impact on its customers is driven by their experience. They experience Driftless Glen first-hand when they visit the distillery. Bourbon 27 insightssuccess.com August 2019

30. Renee Bemis CEO, Co-founder has considered additional locations for tasting room experiences within the states it is distributed. Its focus is on the core regions to ensure success as the brand awareness continues to grow. Clientele Assessments and Whiskey groups are finding the enterprise online and socially, reaching out for their own private barrel picks. Consumers are hearing about it on the radio and through other media outlets. The team at Driftless is constantly promoting its spirits at events, with on and off premise locations in every state that carries the products. “Driftless Glen is more than craft; they are pumping out a lot of Bourbon and Rye with over 5,000 barrels aging which is a huge number. Some smaller craft distillers have in the range of 200-300, so this is an impressive operation. We did a special blend and called it First marriage. It is really good. If you are looking to step out with a new craft distiller, this is a good one to go with.” - Blake Riber, Seelbach.com and Bourbon R Review Stereotypical Adversities According to the company, one of the major challenges that it faces right now is the misconception that Bourbon originates only from Kentucky. Apparently, there is a saying that goes, "You can’t call it Bourbon, Bourbon comes from Kentucky." which the company believes is not accurate. Yes, the majority of bourbon comes from KY., but that is due to the pure water sources that are available there. Pure water sources make for the best bourbon. The water used in Driftless region is sweet and clean as it flows through 700 feet of sandstone and limestone, one of the purest aquifers, this natural resource of a double filter for the water was one of the reasons the company built its distillery on the Baraboo river. “Review Tasting Notes - Driftless Glen Bourbon Whiskey - Some unique things going on here with a beautifully designed bottle with thumbprints on the side. A unique Bourbon Nose. Spicy, and well done!! Rich flavour and melts away. No real burn or bite which you would typically find from a 48% ABV. You can really start to find the barrel and the brown sugar. Unique flavors. Damn Good Whiskey.” - Daniel and Rex- Whiskey Vault Another current challenge is educating the consumer that not all distilleries hand craft their spirits. Driftless Glen is competing in the marketplace with popular products that are mass produced in a plant, and then sourced to the craft distilleries. There is no initial investment of all the equipment. Those craft distilleries put their own label on the product. Thoughtfully Planned Growth Driftless Glen envisions thoughtfully planned growth and expansion for sharing its spirits throughout the United States and beyond. It currently distributes to ten states and will also soon be distributed in Costa Rica. The company 28 insightssuccess.com August 2019

32. AI Moving Towards Transformation of Industries I n the recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed various industries and helped to perform better and achieve success in their respective arena. An ideal amalgamation of human intelligence and machines has proven that it can create wonders in the businesses. This attachment of human intellect with the machine assists businesses, to automate their day-to-day activities, to understand customer behaviors, to decrease work expenditures and to create occurrences on an individual level. Therefore, business individuals need to keep a close eye on the latest developments occurring in AI industry. This information can be vital as they can utilize AI in areas where it can create profit for them. There are various industries that are already utilizing AI in their respective business functions and are getting benefited. Following are some of the leading industries that have utilized AI as an instrument to optimize their operations: 1. Healthcare Healthcare sector has shown a positive response to assimilate AI in its field. That is the reason; Healthcare has received enormous funding to develop and execute AI. The modern day machine intelligence is assisting healthcare sector to examine medical data extracted from X-rays, CT scans and various other tests. Segregation of this information is important as doctors go through the patient's history to check and diagnose illness. Healthcare experts are dependent on their years of experience and prefabricated algorithms to acknowledge the symptoms of an illness. However, sometimes they overlook and make mistakes unconsciously. A BBC report titled 'AI Early Diagnosis Could Save Heart and Cancer Patient' stated that 30 insightssuccess.com August 2019

33. Infrastructure Transformation nearly 20% of experienced doctors make mistakes while diagnosing patient's illness. Therefore, this arduous as well as daunting task is certainly made easier by AI. There are famous examples of utilization of AI in healthcare sector. The Babylon AI doctor app avails speech recognition to interact with patients cross-examines carefully against its database and provides necessary treatment. Another interesting healthcare AI, Molly by Sense.ly -virtual nurse app- links patients to scientific recommendations and help, with the assistance of proprietary categorization engine pays attention to the patients and replies appropriate response to them. Microsoft's Hanover project utilizes machine comprehension with natural language processing to forecast productive cancer drug compatible to the patient. 2. Automobile and Logistics Automobile industry is witnessing crucial shifts such as autonomous driving, connectivity, electrification and divided mobility. It is anticipated that the automobile industry will experience rise in economic growth by shifting from conventional to disruptive technologies and unconventional business models. On October 14 2015, Tesla announced that it is going to launchan autopilot car i.e. a car with self-driving capability. The car is expected to drive itself from coast-to-coast with the help of autonomous navigation. Other car makers are aiming to implant AI services like Amazon's Alexa. This will authorize passengers to self-command car technologies with the help of natural language voice orders. German premium car maker Mercedes-Benz has deployed voice command personal assistant in CES show 2018 held in Las Vegas. Its arch business rival BMW followed the footsteps and decided to adopt Alexa and its assimilation into its handpicked BMW and mini automobiles. KIA Motors has also proclaimed that it is thinking about assimilating Google assistant in its cars. It is the need of the hour for any business to perform better in its services and increase profit as much as possible. It is expected that machine learning (ML) will empower systems to an extent that they will comprehend the data and utilize it to increase their performance. This is where AI comes into the picture. The association between AI and ML can create wonders in logistics, where time is a paramount entity. The logistics sector gathers extensive data from diverse sources such as websites, smartphones and various telematics tools. Predictive analytics not only rearranges delivery schedule but also predicts subsequent orders which gives logistics sector an advantage to utilize its resources effectively. 31 insightssuccess.com August 2019

34. Interestingly, AI does not stop there. It assists in semi- autonomous driver assistance, autonomous fleets for ride sharing, engine overseer and forecasting maintenance for automobiles. Virtual Assistants such as Amazon Echo as well as Google Home incorporates 'Routines' attributes which allow these Virtual Assistants to carry out many tasks on a single command given by the user. This means a user can create a 'Routine' command which will instruct the Virtual Assistant to start multiple tasks it supposed to execute. Also, AI has been assisting logistics sector to construct supply chains beforehand with the help of advanced systems. This computer assistance in automobiles delivers goods in the efficient manner which is essential for the success of a logistics company. The forecasting helps logistics to avoid disastrous calamities such as difficult weather situations, traffic delays and many unexpected occurrences. Industries are constantly trying to update themselves by adapting new technologies. AI is transforming industries and helping them to grow their businesses. It is going to advance into more sectors. It will help human beings to operate risky tasks, decode universal issues and take care of various human tasks. We can definitely anticipate a future where AI will be the new normal. 3. Marketing and Advertising Marketing sector has changed drastically over the years. Customers anticipate for a personal experience and it is the need of the hour for marketing sector to change itself and adjust accordingly. They are required to leave the conventional methods of marketing and concentrate on enhancing their communication, execute demands as well as aspiration. This adaptation of AI is vital for marketing sector as reluctance to implement this new technology can lead to loss of business for the company. AI assists marketers to find and forecast customer attitudes. This precious information allows marketers to carry out impactful keywords and communicate with consumers on a more personal level. Moreover, chatbots also help to execute this communication in a less expensive, effective and in a persistent way. On top of it, AI generates ideas which are subdivided into many sub ideas. This way the risk of catering a sole idea is eliminated and various ideas can be catered according to customers and their preferences. Brands have started to acclimatize on this useful technology and are focusing on selected customers. Startups have also begun to apply AI with the help of AI automated personalization and compelling video content. 4. Virtual Assistant A Virtual Assistant can help you to handle smart home devices. This feature will allow you to administer door locks, lights, appliances and many smart home devices. There are Virtual Assistants available in the market, which show the capacity to function as an intercom. A user needs to place Virtual Assistants in every room to communicate with others. Amazon Echo's 'Drop In' feature enables users to interact with each other from different rooms. Users can also utilize Virtual Assistants to shut down and start TV sets on compatible television models. In addition, a Virtual Assistant in the kitchen can also be utilized to handle kitchen machines. 32 insightssuccess.com August 2019

36. Pam Bateson CEO & Co-founder Thrive Partners 34 insightssuccess.com August 2019

37. Tech-Know Insights What a tech CEO can teach your business about digital About the Author Pam Bateson is an expert coach and mentor in business, training others to Masters level qualifications and supervising coaches. She has worked within the healthcare, retail, hotels, construction, media, agencies, education and public sector. She specialises in Coaching, Mentoring, Employee Engagement, Change Management, Learning and Development and Organisational Design. She has worked with all levels in organisations from graduates to the CEO. She has designed change programmes that connect projects, outcomes, training and coaching. The performance outcomes have been outstanding. She is CEO and Co-founder at Thrive Partners. P am Bateson set up Thrive Partners, an on-demand coaching company, three years ago. In this article, she shares her point of view on how important humans are in a more digital world, what she’s learned as a tech CEO, and what this means when you’re looking to use tech in a way that’s both disruptive and works for customers. In October 2015, I gave up a successful career as a management consultant and coach to set up Thrive Partners. Lots of people thought I was crazy. I was approaching 50, with two children still at home. But for the decade running up to that decision, I’d been thinking about a better way to deliver coaching – supported by digital, to share more widely the coaching tools I’d used to help clients for many years. This was the business I set out to build three years ago. Today, we’re working with 25 clients on five continents – delivering our own brand of on-demand coaching, backed with insights for the whole business. The learning curve has been steep – particularly for someone who, by their own confession, didn’t have 35 insightssuccess.com August 2019

38. a lot of experience in learning technology. So here, I wanted to share some of the things we’ve learned – and what it might mean for your business. Early on in the development of our MyThrive platform, we realised that delivering digitally would enable us to do more than just scale and facilitate coaching in global organisations; it would also mean we could spot trends and patterns within communities of users, in organisations or society at large. Just as carefully listening has a powerful and transformative role in one-to-one coaching conversations, carefully listening to and analysing anonymised version of the conversations we host has a powerful and transformative role within whole organisations. Dream big I didn’t really set out to build a business that would be considered disruptive, but my background as a lean engineer and coach did mean that we ripped up the rulebook when it came to the coaching industry. We scrapped the idea that you needed to meet face to face, and that sessions had to last an hour, or even two hours. And we made it a lot easier for people to access a coach to answer the questions they had there and then – increasing access so people could chat to an expert within an hour. The whole-system insights we produced has helped to make sales processes smoother, improved communications and created more opportunities for people to learn. Keep it human With suicide being the biggest killer of men under 45, loneliness sweeping through developed economies in epidemic proportions and a third of all young people suffering from anxiety, I strongly believe that we have a duty to keep talking to each other as a society. Working with my co-founder, we then rebuilt the industry by asking the biggest questions we could imaging. What if we could make coaching available to whole organisations? What if we could get listening as valued as speaking? And what if we could help organisations learn as quickly as individuals? I found these questions irresistible: I wanted to do for coaching what Uber had done for getting a taxi, Netflix had done for home entertainment, and Tinder had done for dating. It’s these big dreams that have galvanised our success in the last few years – and which has set us in the right direction for the future. We believe that keeping the art of conversation alive in this digital age is essential; only humans can master creativity, empathy, humour and imagination in a way that’s compelling. Information is everywhere, so we’re using technology differently – to offer real human experiences at scale, at any time of the day, whenever our clients need a conversation, for everything you can’t Google. Build for modern users Despite big dreams, we’ve also made our fair share of mistakes! A lot of them mistakes happened when we took our attention away from our end customers. It sounds obvious to see it there on the page. But it can be easy to lose sight of the customers that matter most, especially when, as a tech CEO, sometime we get preoccupied with a shiny piece of new technology. And what of the future? Curiously, even the structures of artificial intelligence and machine learning look set to mimic human patterns. It’s still early days, but leaders in this space talk of ‘deep learning’ with AI – by layering up different tools that connect in the same way as our brain’s neural networks. And so, the next three years? My recent experiences have led us to ask even bigger questions than we did to begin with – which I suspect will lead to our next irresistible set of adventures! What if we could transform learning management systems into learning ecosystems? What if any community of learners could connect with any community of teachers? And what if a better understanding of outcomes from learning could help both individuals, organisations and society to thrive? So, what to consider first when it comes to users? The main thing to bear in mind is that they expect experiences that are easy and fast to access – a shift brought about by what we call the ‘Amazon Prime Mindset.’ In this era, clunky user experiences reduce the chances of uptake of services. In short, if your technology can’t match or exceed the quality of digital experience people get in their everyday lives, then you’ll need to go back to the drawing board. Create wins for the many So, if users come first – who else can we harness the power of technology for? I for one believe there are exciting times ahead. Our answer? Everyone else in the system. 36 insightssuccess.com August 2019

40. The 10 Most Innova?ve Solu?on Providers in Food & Beverages-2019/ TouchBistro Supporting Restaurateurs Since Inception W organization, TouchBistro knows that while passion is plenty in this industry, time and money usually aren't. That's why TouchBistro was built as an iPad POS and integrated payments solution that helps restaurateurs put more money in their pockets and more time back in their day. ith the goal to support the passion of restaurateurs through cutting-edge technology, TouchBistro was founded in 2010. As an In an interview with Insights Success, Alex Barrotti, CEO & Founder of TouchBistro describes the story of the organization. Below are the highlights of the interview between Alex and Insights Success; Give a brief overview of the company, its uniqueness and its vision. TouchBistro is an iPad POS and integrated payments solution with every feature designed for the unique workflows of restaurants to achieve optimum operational efficiency, deliver an exceptional dining experience for patrons, and take the guess work out of making business decisions to improve the bottom line. Describe your company's cutting-edge food & beverages solutions which address all the needs of your customers? TouchBistro was built from the ground up to work as the heart of a restaurant's operations by streamlining and simplifying all aspects of running a restaurant – from order Alex Barrotti CEO & Founder 38 insightssuccess.com August 2019

41. Many POS solutions do not offer this flexibility which can significantly impact the total cost of ownership of a POS solution with higher bill processing fees. taking, payment processing, menu management, accounting, reporting, and inventory management, to staff scheduling and customer loyalty – and continues to add functionality that restaurateurs need most. We carefully listen to our customers to guide product development, so we solve the problems they have. As we are focused only on the restaurant vertical, our award-winning product development team gets to design workflows and use cases that are specifically tailored for restaurants and benefit the lives of restaurateurs. This creates a best-of-breed solution for the restaurant vertical. With the escalating number of food & beverages solutions providers, how is your company creating an impact on its customers? TouchBistro immediately stands out with its rich feature set and intuitive graphical user interface – restaurateurs can literally download the app and learn how to operate it in 30 minutes or less as it automates the actual workflows and processes that are already familiar to people in the restaurant business. Staff can be rapidly trained on it as well, which is important with the high turnovers that are common in a restaurant. Cost is a sensitive issue for restaurateurs. With TouchBistro, they don't overpay for features they don't need that are often found in POS solutions that were designed initially for other types of businesses, like those that sell clothes or repair cars. In TouchBistro, the functions are essential to running a restaurant – such as our patented bill splitting or combining feature, management of restaurant staffing, inventory tracked against dinners served, table assignment and reservations control – which may not be found in other POS solutions that are not specifically built for restaurants. High cost proprietary POS hardware has also been a problem for restaurateurs with legacy systems. To resolve this problem, TouchBistro was designed to run on any off- the-shelf iPad available at an authorized reseller. In addition to lower or comparable monthly license fees, TouchBistro offers a flexibility in the choice of integrated payment processors, so restaurateurs can choose the one they prefer. Enticing photos of menu items, along with ingredients, can be displayed on the iPad to show to diners and to rapidly respond to allergy concerns, helping customers with meal choices and providing servers with a great upselling tool. Servers are prompted with a pop-up display of modifiers to customize menu items, such as well-done or rare for a steak, or for adding combos like fries or a salad to a burger. This feature prompts servers to upsell specific items automatically, lowering the burden of training or memorizing while increasing the bill. Customizing the system for items like daily menu changes or seating rearrangement can be easily done by management in-house without requiring any costly outside programming. 39 insightssuccess.com August 2019

42. partnering with payment acquirers so we can offer greater operational efficiencies and financial services to our end users by integrating with banking services. Finding the right partners, localizing the app with translations and tax/legal regulations and local currency are all challenges faced when expanding into a new market. TouchBistro has already partnered in this new model with JPMorgan & Chase in the USA, BarclayPayments in the UK, and EVO Payments in Mexico. Product updates and enhancements are provided to users about every eight weeks at no charge. These are simply downloaded by users when they chose to implement that functionality. “ What challenges does your company face in providing your solution and how is TouchBistro tackling them? TouchBistro is leading the charge in overseas markets in What could be the potential future of TouchBistro and how do you envision sustaining its competency? The total addressable market for TouchBistro is $72 billion. Our SaaS business model enables us to open and expand markets around the world with extraordinary agility. To support sustainable and profitable growth, we are continually fine-tuning our operations, expanding our product features, opening new markets, and adding new partnerships. Most importantly, our product quality is unmatched. No other system is able to duplicate our design, making TouchBistro the most innovative solution for improving restaurant operations. We are restaurant experts who are passionate about improving the experience of restaurant owners, staff and customers. We build easy to use world class technologies that inspire success. About the Leader Alex Barrotti, TouchBistro CEO & Founder, is a successful serial entrepreneur who has emerged as a visionary in the advanced technologies that help retail and hospitality businesses expand. Alex launched TouchBistro iPad POS solution in 2011. As of today, TouchBistro has helped over 16,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries to increase sales, improve the customer experience, and make better business decisions. Before TouchBistro, Alex was at the forefront of e- commerce development when he founded INEX in 1997. While others doubted online shopping would one day become the norm, Alex persisted in developing a novel turnkey solution that enabled storeowners to create online storefronts with pre-designed templates. At 29 years old, Alex sold INEX for $45 million. 40 insightssuccess.com August 2019

44. OF A SALES STRATEGY E efficiency of its sales strategy. This strategy can only be devised by engaging in the creation and implementation of a sales management system. It is a technique of formulating sales strength, synchronizing sales operations, and applying sales skills that lets a business to constantly improvise and exceed its sales targets. Sales management aids the functioning of activities and tasks which are involved in the dispersal of goods and services. devised strategy. To be precise, a sales workforce is as important to the organization as increased profits. Evidently, both these factors are inter-dependent. Therefore, a sales manager or any employer has to craft up a proficient team to meet the organization’s desired goals. This task of staffing competent sales representatives requires an employer to consider certain facts. For instance, if the organization functions locally, a sales representative with the knowledge of the local language would be the desired candidate. Other such constraints, which should be considered while hiring a candidate include, familiarity with local geographies, willingness to travel, to work on varying time zones etc. An effectively working sales team will carry out all the vital tasks that directly lead to the sale of a product, thus resulting into increased profit. very business thrives solely on its sales as the revenue generation revolves around the be called as the art of assessing and surpassing the sales objective of an organization through efficient planning, controlling, budgeting and effective leadership. An efficient sales management strategy can act as a massive turnabout for any organization in its long run. The process involved in sales management: Ÿ Planning the Sales Process: The primary task in the hands of anyone managing the sales of an organization, before even forming a team is planning the sales process. One has to analyze who’d be the prospective buyers and construct a sales plan to meet their requirements. For instance, an organization which sells computers plans to enter a new market. To do so, it will have to devise a sales plan based on an extensive research about that market’s economy and the scope of their product’s sale potential. The channels of targeted audience; be it online or offline should be adequately analyzed, and recognizing the geographical areas where the organization would thrive should be considered as a priority while planning a sales process. Selling a product or a service, even to an average consumer needs strategic planning and its effective implementation. One thing evident in a product’s life cycle is that sales management isn’t as easy as it sounds. It depends comprehensively on crafting the organizations’ offerings in terms of the targeted market needs and desires, and using evaluation, communication and distribution. Designing the Sales Strategy: A sales strategy is fundamentally the most vital requirement of an organization in order to sell its products and gain profits. This strategy is usually formulated by the aforesaid sales team. But for a strategy to be derived, the manager of the team has to provide insights and essentially indulge in the activity. This strategy should be Ÿ Sales management as a terminology directly applies to the section of a business that interacts with a prospective customer and attempts to convert it into a sale. Although this task sounds effortless, prolonged research and planning are involved behind its execution. On a less technical note, sales management can Hiring the right people: Efficient staffing plays a vital role in the accurate functioning of any Ÿ 42 insightssuccess.com August 2019

45. Pitching Success based on the factors considered during the planning of the sales process. The designing process of the strategy should include clarity and shouldn’t jeopardize the integrity of a team member. Every team member’s performance should be assessed and provided with guidance during difficulty in attaining targets or deadlines. Regular appreciations and rewards account for improved work motivation and performance. Such a design of the sales strategy when implemented, prove to be beneficial for the organization as well as the team members. Analyzing the Sales Efforts: The resulting productivity of the sales strategies should be constantly measured. Every strategy implemented must be evaluated pertaining to the data of its performance, so as to understand how well it has been executed. This aids the sales team in analyzing common errors in the strategies and achieves enhanced sales. Ÿ Ÿ Why sales management isn’t a walk in the park: It’s a common stereotype that sales people work comparatively less than people in other departments. The role of a sales representative is not just making voice calls and having conversations with people. It involves a giant of an effort in converting a lead into a customer. This isn’t feasibly possible unless a sales representative possesses equivalent skills and smart work techniques. The sales department in contrast to any other workforce is accountable to target achievements and regular performance reviews. This creates a constraint which evidently proves the complexity involved in the profile of a sales representative. Since sales people personally interact with a probable customer, they gain the benefit of being able to gain knowledge which will help in performing their sales pitch and offerings to the customer. A sales person is also responsible in building trust and loyalty between customers and businesses. This can only be achieved pertaining to the transparency between the sales person and the customer. While making sales interactions, urging a customer to recommend a friend or provide positive feedback draws an impact on the development of the business through brand awareness and sales. Forecasting the Sales Results: Positive sales forecasting is possible only by a productive analysis of the organization’s sales patterns and also considering the current trends in the industry. This allows one to interpret the number of sales one can achieve in the next term. This analysis is provided by the sales team with the data they have collected over the time, about the amount of leads turned into customers and the leads which are yet to be converted for business. By the use of sales forecasting, the future sales plan can be assessed, providing an opportunity to employ experimental strategies and methods. This also allows one to expel the old and unproductive strategies. Ÿ Ÿ Efficient sales person not only make a sale, but also build a continual impact on the customer. Long term customer associations lead to repeated customer referrals that increase the organization’s reputation. To conclude, sales play a pivotal role in the all-encompassing growth of an organization and thus, cannot be overlooked. Reporting the sales: The sales reporting process inspects the efficacy of the various sales strategies applied currently or previously. It is essential to measure the performance of the sales team as well as the proposed sales strategies to evaluate their productivity. The sales team should be required to provide reports of the tasks executed based on which, the future decisions must be taken by the management to implement measures of improvement. 43 insightssuccess.com August 2019