Stock management is the key point to a successful field operation for all industries. A disorganized warehouse not only has negative effects on logistics processes but also leads to financial stress. When you expand the product range, facing a much more complex picture is only a matter of time. You cannot plan an effective territory and route, correctly direct sales teams, ensure customer satisfaction, and, plus, you lose money and time. Well, what do you need to do? As FieldScope, we have listed 5 steps to follow for effective stock management!
Stock management is not as tough as you think!
A company must set up its stock management on a specific strategy, and this strategy must be coherent with the corporate vision for success. This is only possible through the right tools, technology, and knowledge. You can reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction and make your company’s sales processes and goals sustainable through stock management planned with the proper steps. In order to achieve these, you have to follow the five steps listed below.
1. Segment your customer base
The first step for effective stock management is to know your customers well and segment them based on their purchasing behavior. Thanks to this, you can see which customer groups prefer which products and measure the product performance in your stocks. Plus, you can decide which products to close out and which to invest more in. All these both optimize stock management and the performance of your sales teams. Moreover, you can reach your sales targets more easily and improve your customer satisfaction to the highest levels.
2. Analyze your product range
The majority of the companies believe that it is a good idea to offer various options to better meet their customers’ needs. However, this means managing a large number of products. It creates pressure on companies in terms of time and cash flow management. Researches also show that 80% of turnover is generated by only 20% of the product range in most companies. In other words, it is of utmost importance to invest only in products that enrich the company or its customers because increasing product diversification can mean losing control. It is a must to analyze the product range and examine the products functionality and their advantages to customers. Constantly having high-performance products in stock improves the service quality apart from the stock management performance.
3. Get rid of surplus inventory to simplify stock management
Storing obsolete or no longer in use inventories is one of the most common mistakes in stock management today. However, sustainability is relevant not only to processes but to products as well. The optimization of the inventory life cycle is crucial. It is a must to follow the growth and maturity stages following the shelf life or entry into the warehouse for optimization. Avoiding excess inventory is a significant basis for effective stock management as well. In this way, you set up an effective warehouse and eliminate inventory waste along with saving costs.
4. Track your stocks in real-time
Stock optimization is closely associated with customer service and sales level. It is essential to instantly track each stage of field operations, including the stock status, since there is a need for the integrated process set up for effective stock management. Many details such as sales forecasting, supplier delivery time, customer locations that sales teams will visit are critical. The end-to-end tracking of the whole process is a must. So, it becomes possible to intervene when necessary, and sales targets are more easily achievable than before.
5. Take advantage of stock management software
Digital transformation in stock management, like many processes, is essential for the industries today. So, they can keep up the times and maintain their competitive power as a sustainable organization. This is only achievable with dynamic and interactive control systems. The stock management software automates many processes that have an essential role in stock management, such as stock taking, goods entry/exit, tracking, product search/find, and eliminating the margin of error. It enables to increase sales and operational efficiency through these advantages.
FieldScope is on your side in stock management!
FieldScope establishes stock management processes and decisions on data rather than sensations and intuitions through its stock management software. You can easily manage many processes from instant stock tracking to operational data, to product, time & personnel based statistical reporting, easy product search/find, and product prioritization through FieldScope’s field management solution. All the data you need for effective stock management is at your fingertips, regardless of time and space. Now is the high time if you haven’t met FieldScope yet!
