How can strategic and operational marketing be combined to maximise sales impact?

In many structured companies, the marketing and sales departments define ambitious objectives each year, which are then translated into trade plans, sales campaigns and field operations. But once the strategy has been established, local execution - in-store, on the shelf or via sedentary teams - often fails to faithfully reflect these objectives.

This disarticulation between strategy and operations is well known to sales managers, but also to trade marketing managers, who find themselves in the front line, acting as a link between central services and the distribution channels. The challenge for marketing and trade managers is not just to design effective campaigns, but to ensure that they are fully in line with brand strategy and are deployed consistently across all distribution channels and networks.

This is precisely where the GIS professions (sales force, merchandising, sales activation, distance selling) come into their own. They make it possible to translate strategic intentions into measurable action on the ground - whether through shelf promotion, supermarket events or targeted telephone calls.

Let's explore how to effectively combine strategic marketing, operational marketing and trade marketing, to maximise the commercial impact while keeping a close eye on costs and performance.

Why integrate GIS into your operational marketing?

At SIG, we have developed a comprehensive, modular and multi-sector approach to meet the operational challenges of brands and manufacturers in all distribution channels. Our solutions cover both permanent operations and one-off campaigns, in all sectors: supermarkets, hypermarkets, pharmacies, local networks, direct sales and B2B. This ability to adapt means we can act effectively, whether it's a question of developing DN/DV, supporting an increase in visibility or accelerating the marketing of a product innovation.

Before talking about coordination or steering, it's important to understand what operational marketing is all about. Operational marketing is the practical implementation of the strategic plan: actions in the field, local communication systems, point-of-sale events, prospecting campaigns, loyalty-building initiatives... In short, everything that enables the strategy to be implemented in a visible, measurable and local way.

SIG's 4 areas of expertise - all interconnected - provide concrete, measurable solutions that can be implemented in the short term:

• Outsourced sales force Deployment of permanent or temporary back-up sales staff to strengthen our coverage on the ground.
• Merchandising optimising product visibility, setting up point-of-sale displays, shop audits.
• Commercial activation point-of-sale activities, promotional operations, sampling, sales events.
• Remote selling canvassing, follow-up and customer loyalty via sedentary teams managed remotely.

This expertise enables us to cover all distribution channels - supermarkets, hypermarkets, pharmacies, B2B or e-commerce - while guaranteeing consistent execution and structured monitoring. Sales outsourcing then becomes a performance driver, provided it is perfectly integrated into the overall system.

Where are the gaps between strategy and the field?

Despite good intentions, a number of recurring sticking points are holding back sales performance:

• The division between strategic marketing, sales and trade teams in the field.
• Lack of alignment of objectives with local operations.
• Underestimation of in-store conditions.
• Commercial outsourcing poorly integrated into overall systems.

These obstacles are all the more critical during peak sales periods or product launches. A strategy without appropriate operational support loses impact, and generates costs for which there is no return. Conversely, well-structured execution can compensate for certain strategic limitations.

Good practice for effective articulation

Expert advice and strategic support

In addition to execution in the field, SIG also supports its customers from the upstream phase through its Consulting division. This strategic support enables us to co-construct the systems best suited to business objectives, the specific features of each network and the product life cycle. Our project managers draw on collective intelligence to provide a reliable, contextualised and actionable assessment of the situation on the ground in the short term.

Integrated logistics and last-mile management

A well thought-out campaign can fail if the logistics don't follow. That's why SIG relies on reliable logistics partners capable of managing the entire operational chain: storage, dispatch, equipment provision, returns management and after-sales service. This last-mile control guarantees that field operations are carried out on time, with optimum efficiency at every point of contact.

Here are a few concrete ways of successfully linking strategy, operations and trade marketing:

Joint governance

Involve business line managers (sales force, activation, merchandising), telesales) from the campaign design stage ensures realistic and aligned execution. This approach strengthens commitment on the ground and reduces the risk of inconsistencies in the messages delivered to distributors and consumers.

Structured operational marketing plan

The plan must take into account the constraints on the ground, the resources available per channel and the trade objectives: volumes, visibility, activation, loyalty. It must also provide for adjustment scenarios in the event of negative returns or changes in the economic climate.

Recruitment, training, support

All our SIG solutions are based on a solid HR foundation. Thanks to our in-house recruitment unit, we select qualified profiles tailored to each customer context. Training is provided via our SIG Academy, with personalised face-to-face or e-learning courses. In addition, our teams benefit from ongoing on-the-job coaching, focusing on skills development, consultancy and sales effectiveness.

Success depends on the quality of our operational teams. SIG relies on its own training structure (SIG Academy) to guarantee continuous skills development, adapted to each sector and each type of campaign.

Unified management tools

Dashboarding, live reporting, geomarketing, automated field feedback: the data needs to circulate between all the teams involved in order to adjust actions. This makes it possible to measure the impact of an operation in real time, to capitalise on successes and to quickly correct any deviations.

Active use of feedback from the field

Feedback from teams in-store or on the telephone is a real performance sensor. They must be integrated into a continuous improvement approach, and included in the weekly or monthly reports sent to the marketing and sales departments.

Managing the performance of field operations

Each GIS business line has specific KPIs that enable fine-tuned management:

• Sales force coverage, sell-in volumes, shelf presence.
• Merchandising compliance, share of shelf space, frequency of visits.
• Activation contact rate, transformation, promotional impact.
• Remote selling : contactability rate, number of qualified appointments, conversion rate.

Weekly monitoring and monthly consolidated reporting ensure consistency between the initial objectives and the results achieved. For further information on this subject, see also the analyses by E-marketing.fr.

Realistic sector scenarios

Retail

A food manufacturer is rolling out a promotional campaign at 1,200 points of sale, using a sales force and merchandising. Result: +25 % of shelf visibility in 2 weeks. Daily field monitoring and live reporting enabled the sales pressure to be adjusted according to geographical zone.

Pharmacy

A dermocosmetics brand combines distance selling and merchandising in the field to increase its referrals in pharmacies. The result: +30 % sell-in in 6 weeks, with a customer satisfaction rate of over 90 % measured at the end of the campaign.

High-tech B2B

A printer manufacturer combined in-store activation with targeted telephone follow-up. The result: generation of qualified leads, improved brand awareness and an 18 % increase in the post-campaign sales conversion rate.

Conclusion

The link between strategy and execution is no accident. Intelligent coordination of strategic, operational and trade marketing ensures coherent management, better ROI on the ground and the flexibility that is essential in complex channels.

The SIG businesses are part of this shared, measurable performance approach. By integrating them into your overall strategy, you can turn your sales ambitions into visible results, at every point of contact. Find out more about our expertise, consult this pageor explore our industry-specific solutions under Our jobs. You can also find out more about our DNA at Who we are.

Would you like to go further?

Talk to an expert about auditing your current system, co-constructing a tailor-made operational marketing plan, and strengthening coordination between central strategy and execution on the ground. Contact us for a personalised analysis.