Often, analysts are expected to be psychics.
Take a Sales Analyst at a well-known outdoor power equipment OEM – let’s call him Steve.
He is in charge of sales numbers, looking for trends in the data, calculating market share, keeping track of competitors, and forecasting sales. On top of that, he also supports their product management team whenever they want to know how their market is doing, the impact of new product introductions, and if they’re gaining market share.
The problem?
As the data guy, members of his team come to Steve asking him for direction. This happens especially frequently when challenges like supply chain disruption plague the market. But Steve isn’t a psychic, and his data isn’t a crystal ball – there’s only so much you can do in situations out of your control. Especially if the data you’re looking at doesn’t paint a complete picture.
Steve’s company used to source their market data from another OPE association. But the coverage wasn’t comprehensive – there was still a lot of guesswork needed. But once they switched to using Constellation Dealer Group’s Market Data reporting, things became much clearer.
Accessing more comprehensive data
The Constellation Data Solutions Market Data has a 60-80% manufacturer participation rate, and a 95%+ participation rate among handheld manufacturers. Because the majority of dealers are reporting their aggregate sales numbers, Steve can access reliable, comprehensive data to inform his forecasting.
“You really can’t get much more – it’s very good.”
Knowing inventory levels at dealerships
Steve has access to sales and inventory information, and a pretty good understanding of retail. But they didn’t know what their inventory levels were at dealerships. The Constellation Data Solutions Market Data reports provide an extra layer of detailed information. Now, he can get into the granularity of the transactions in categories and use it to understand their actual performance against competitors. This tells him how much of the market they’re holding and how much is in jeopardy.
Forecasting more accurate numbers
Every month, Steve gets together with the sales planning team to compare year-over-year sales and review back-orders. In that meeting, he compares their sales to individual dealers to their retail activity. By comparing the two, he’s able to see if inventory is increasing or decreasing at dealerships. If inventory is decreasing, they can know that demand will remain strong because the pipeline will need to be refilled. If inventory is increasing or leveling out, that signals that sales are starting to come down.
But as the saying goes, “forecasting is always wrong.” Especially when the market is faced by a sudden and monumental variable like the COVID-19 pandemic. By using the Constellation Data Solutions Market Data, Steve was able to identify abnormal trends earlier on than they would have otherwise, giving their business the ability to react faster.
“Earlier on in the year, in 2020, we were able to get a head-start on everybody else when we saw the demand increasing instead of decreasing. We had a great year.”
Leverage Constellation Dealer Group’s Market Data reports at your business
Constellation Dealership Software companies, Ideal, c-Systems and Charter, have developed the largest database of dealership transactional sales, inventory position and task completion information in the outdoor power equipment (OPE) market. Drawing from over 1,500 dealers on a nightly basis, this data warehouse is the largest, most accurate source for dealership and market year-over-year trending information in the industry.
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