Explore Einstein for Consumer Goods Cloud

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Outline the intelligent selling capabilities of Einstein for Consumer Goods Cloud.
  
• Explain how Einstein for Consumer Goods Cloud helps sales managers and field reps.
  
• List the license and permissions required.
  

Prerequisites

Before taking this badge, make sure to complete the following prerequisites.

Suggested

• Complete the Retail Execution in Consumer Goods Cloud badge to find out how Consumer Goods Cloud helps sales managers and field reps with retail execution.
  
• Complete the Consumer Goods Cloud Data Model badge to understand the different objects and components in Consumer Goods Cloud.
  

Sell Intelligently with Einstein for Consumer Goods Cloud

In the consumer goods world, field reps visit retail outlets and perform a series of tasks. Sales managers plan these visits so field reps know which outlets to visit and what tasks to perform. This retail activity helps sales managers and reps to sell the right product in the right retail outlets at the right time. 

Although there are different types of retail outlets, the ones that field reps commonly visit are retail stores. In this module, we refer to all retail outlets as stores.

Einstein for Consumer Goods Cloud brings intelligent selling capabilities to sales managers. Let’s take a look at its features, which sales managers can use to sell better.

• Retail Activity Optimization (RAO): Use multiple data points around retail visits and on-site tasks to maximize the return on your investments.
  

• Visit recommendations: Get intelligent recommendations about the right stores that field reps can visit each day within a planning window.
  
• Task recommendations: Get recommendations about the right set of tasks that field reps can perform during a store visit. These recommendations help sales managers increase the share of shelves, maximize in-store sales, and optimize promotional returns.
  

• Route optimization: Use Salesforce Maps to identify the optimal route for field reps to execute visits.
  
• Visual inspection: Perform planogram checks for on-shelf availability, product facings, and share of shelf.
  
  

While Einstein for Consumer Goods Cloud helps sales managers achieve a number of business objectives, we focus on its retail activity optimization (RAO) capabilities in this module. 

Meet the Players

Let’s meet some key players responsible for retail activity optimization. Remember Gustavo De Luca from Retail Execution in Consumer Goods Cloud? He is a sales manager at Alpine Group Nutrition & Beverages, managing a team of field reps who carry out store audits primarily in the American West territory. Gustavo spends his time strategizing the best ways to sell Alpine Group Nutrition & Beverages products in NTO (Northern Trail Outfitters) stores across the West territory. 

Chantelle Jackson, a field sales rep on Gustavo’s team, visits NTO stores in San Francisco. On an average, Chantelle visits five stores each day and is often pressed for time. While on a store visit, Chantelle needs to complete a number of tasks to ensure sales efficacy and brand recognition for Alpine Group products. So it’s crucial for Gustavo to plan such visits and let field reps like Chantelle know what tasks they must perform. 

Fatima Daniel, the admin for Alpine Group, has set up the consumer goods data model and retail execution features for Gustavo and his team. 

Richard Wu is a talented data science partner who works with Alpine Group. In this module, we’ll follow along as Fatima and Richard set up Einstein for Consumer Goods Cloud in the Alpine Group org. 

Identify Top Stores to Visit and Top Tasks to Perform

Gustavo spends hours planning the daily visits and tasks for his field reps. He wishes he had a solution that helped him make such business decisions faster. 

He seeks help from Fatima, who introduces him to the RAO capabilities of Einstein for Consumer Goods Cloud.  

Here’s how Einstein’s Visit Recommendations and Visit Task Recommendations help Gustavo.

Using Einstein, Gustavo can receive visit recommendations based on multiple criteria, such as store priority, territory performance, and current quarter sales performance. He can also receive recommendations for tasks that field reps must prioritize, such as replenishing out-of-stock products and ensuring promotional check compliance.

Licenses and Permissions

In this module, we assume you are a Consumer Goods Cloud administrator with the proper permissions to set up Einstein. If you’re not an administrator for Consumer Goods Cloud, that’s OK. Read along to learn how your administrator would take the steps in a production org. Don't try to follow these steps in your Trailhead Playground. Consumer Goods Cloud isn't available in the Trailhead Playground.

For visit and task recommendations, you need the Lightning Retail Execution Plus license. You also need permission sets Action Plan and Industries Visit to carry out your day-to-day retail tasks. Fatima has already set up these licenses and permissions for Alpine Group in Retail Execution in Consumer Goods Cloud.

She now configures the following licenses and user permissions for Einstein for Consumer Goods Cloud.

To find out how you can set up these user licenses and permissions, see Configure Retail Execution Users and Permissions.

In the next unit, we’ll join Fatima and Richard as they set up visit recommendations.

Resources

• Trailhead: Consumer Goods Cloud Data Model
  
• Trailhead: Retail Execution in Consumer Goods Cloud
  
• Trailhead: Plan and Manage Store Visits with Consumer Goods Cloud
  
• Salesforce Help: Set Up and Maintain Retail Execution
  
• Salesforce Help: Configure Retail Execution Users and Permissions