As a part of StayinFront’s Leadership Perspectives Series, Dale Hagemeyer, a leader of the research, best practices, and advisory function at POI shares how to use data and technology to impact sales and retail execution. He also talks about some key challenges to having a global solution.

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Esat Angun
Director Sales Operations
Octapharma, USA
Biography
Dale Hagemeyer (1 of 2)
Partner
Promotion Optimization Institute
www.stayinfront.com
Do More, Know More & Sell More
Biography
Dale Hagemeyer leads the research, best practices, and advisory function at POI and has been active
on the POI Board since its inception. Previously, he was a research vice president and managing vice
president at Gartner for 15 years. There, he did research in the application of technology to the
business processes of trade promotion and field sales automation for consumer goods
manufacturers. Prior to Gartner he spent 14 years in management positions related to the
promotion and distribution of products at Sunbeam Corporation, The Quaker Oats Company,
PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, and Kroger. He also fulfilled an international assignment in Mexico from 1995
to 1996. He has served on various industry advisory boards for trade associations and industry
periodicals.

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You've transitioned from Gartner to the Promotion Optimization Institute (POI) - Why the
change?
There are a few key reasons for the change. First, I wanted to focus more on business
process and less on technology because, fundamentally, I think technology is something
you purchased 5 years ago. Today, technology is something you rent – and you can
move in and out of technology. What’s really important is the business process. You’ve
heard me say many times, it’s really more about the people and the process, than the
technology.
That’s the practical reason. The second reason for the change is that it allows me to do
more in surveys, present more data, increase the frequency, and to be more fact based in
the data.
The final reason is that I now have fewer constraints in my delivery. Since I am a partner
at the POI and the head of research, I can format the research how I want and I have a
considerable amount of flexibility, which I really enjoy.
What is the strategic vision of the POI and what do you see as the most relevant services
that you provide to your clients?
The Promotion Optimization Institute exists to form a collaboration between
manufacturers and retailers. There are problems, or call them opportunities if you will,
that have existed for decades around the whole promotion cycle. Promotions aren’t
effective or efficient. Products are not on the shelf and what we’re trying to do at POI is
to get manufacturers and retailers to work together.
For a long time, there’s has been lip service about collaboration. Collaboration usually
meant ‘hold still while I get my hand in your pocket for my own advantage’ as opposed
to ‘let’s work together.’ Today, there are many threats to that sort of way of life for the
manufacture and retailer, not in the least of which are Amazon and other newer formats.
So the idea here is to ask: How do manufacturers collaborate? What are the business
processes that allow them to collaborate better? What are the enabling technologies that
make it happen? That’s the central focus of the Promotion Optimization Institute.
POI doesn’t wander away from the central themes of headquarter-selling and in-store
execution. These have been fundamentally broken for the longest time. At POI, we don’t

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get into category management, sales and operations planning (S&OP) or supply chain.
We concentrate on the planning and executing promotions. Hence, the Promotion
Optimization Institute.
You’ve recently authored the POI Retail Execution Vendor Panorama 2016, which began
with the statement “(you) are satisfied with your ability to execute at the store level.”
Were you surprised that only 20% of the responders agreed with the statement? In fact,
not a single responder strongly agreed with the statement. What’s going on in the
market?
You spelled it out. Eighty percent of these manufacturers are not currently satisfied with
their retail execution. I was surprised that it was that severe because nobody’s ever really
quantified it. Certainly, manufacturers can be their own worst critics, but, the fact of the
matter is, they are executing promotions that don’t work and are dealing with some
underlying sinister indicators. Notice I didn’t call them, ‘key performance indicators.’
These indicators are sinister because of things we’ve always known, like there is a certain
set of retailers that don’t allow sales people in their stores.
Our survey also revealed that manufacturers recognize they may not have the right
people in the stores doing the work, and their people may not be able to handle the
systems. There’s another sort of sinister indicator that people in the head office don’t
have the tools they need to make decisions. These are decision makers in the macro
sense. They’re district managers or senior leaders directing people to do certain things,
but they don’t have the tools they need to make the decisions, and similarly, the people
walking through the front door of the store don’t have the tools they need to make
decisions.
These are just a couple of examples, sub-bullets as to why manufacturers are not
satisfied: Not having access, not having the right people, and not having the necessary
tools. Then it goes on from there: How happy are manufacturers with their ability to
execute through brokers, or what we now call ‘sales agents?’ The answer is – not
substantially happier than they are with their own field force.
If you think about all of these sub-bullets as contributing factors as to why they’re not
happy, it’s pretty easy to understand. At POI, we’re just trying to get to the “What are we
going to do about it? Do we get different people? Do we find a way to get access?” It’s
more about the how.
That’s the long answer. Again, the short answer was I was surprised that 80% are not
satisfied. It’s clear we have a long way to go. As I said earlier, it’s a problem that has
existed for decades.

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What are some of your key takeaways from the survey and in speaking with industry
manufacturers?
The main takeaway for me, is that there’s a sort of a magic triangle that says, you’ve got
to have the right people, and a good, well-defined process before you can enable it with
technology. These three sides support each other. People support process, process
supports people and technology supports people and process.
In my previous life at Gartner, I learned that technology doesn’t fix the problem. After all,
a fool with a tool is still a fool. The right combination of people, process, and technology
can solve any problem. That’s the key takeaway. You can throw as many people as you
want at a problem, but that won’t fix it. You can do whatever you want on the process
side, but you need the right people, and so on and so forth. The key is knowing exactly
what to do with respect to people and how to support them. It’s knowing how to fix the
process and the technology piece to complete the magic triangle.
In POI’s Retail Execution Vendor Panorama, some vendors are designated as “best in
class.” How do you define “best in class” and what factors go into determining this
designation?
First of all we determine the categories that really matter. Typically, this means the
capabilities that improve sales performance. Then we look at the entire market place and
see if there are one or two vendors that really stand out relative to the others. It is a
relative rating system, not an absolute one. If there isn’t a stand out, or best in class
solution in a category, then there is nothing to talk about. But being able to call out best
in class vendors sets the bar for the rest of the market to understand “what great looks
like”. That doesn’t mean that everybody needs to buy what is great, but it is useful to
know what the POI sees as great.
Thank you Dale for taking the time to share your thoughts with us today.

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Source: https://www.stayinfront.com/PerspectivesDetail/dale-hagemeyer-2/
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