Cost Analysis Data Request

Purpose:

Cost analysis can be a lengthy process. In order to expedite the process, it's important to have the data staged properly to return suggested pricing in a timely manner. Staging the data also gives the franchisee or sales rep the opportunity to get a better understanding of what their prospective customer is currently purchasing. Follow these steps to stage the data before submitting for pricing.

Parameters and Time Line Expectations:

Predicated on all of the data prepared and teed up properly for our Pricing Team based on the process below, the following is a guideline of what to expect. In our experience, there is no need to do more than 50 items for a customer on the initial cost analysis as that will make up 60-80% of the spend or more. We can always do more down the road if they request. In the sales meeting I like to declare "We'll take this info back and price out the top 50 items as that typically makes up 60-80% of a businesses spend"

50 items or less
- IQ's team will have the data turned around in 4 business days or less following the day you submitted
- Add one day of time to the timeline for each additional 25 items

Notes:

Depending on the data you recieve, regardless of the size, we typically don't price out items with 1 or 2 usage.
If the data spans over a long period of time, a year for example, choose the most recent date and use that price
If the data you recieve is older than a few months, I'd strongly encourage you to request the most recent data. Pricing changes often and sometimes it can be substantial. No need to leave margin on the table by quoting outdated pricing

Process:

Navigate to our templates directory
1. Shared Drives > Templates - Franchisee > Cost Analysis
2. Open up the "Cost Analysis Data Request" template
Save a copy of the template into your prospective customer's folder in Shared Drives
Go through each column inputting the appropriate data from the invoicing data the customer has provided
1. Vendor - This is the name of the vendor that the customer is currently purchasing the particular item from
2. Product ID - This is the unique identifier that the customer's vendor has assigned to the item
3. Description - Every invoice should include a description of the item. Please use the vendor's invoiced description to input this field.
4. Package Quantity - This is number of units the vendor sells a particular item for. For example, if the item is a dozen pens, the packaged quantity would be 12. It's important to understand how many units are being sold to give the most accurate pricing based on IQ's package quantity
5. Unit of Measure - This is a descriptor for the "Package Quantity". For example, a carton of paper has 5000 pieces of paper in the package. We would refer to this as 5000 sheets or abbreviated to "SH". The unit of measure for a carton of paper would be SH. This information can typically be found on the invoice as well.
6. Quantity Sold - This is the total number of units sold to the customer. Most invoice(s) provided by the customer will have their top items listed multiple times since they order it frequently. It's important that this total sold number is a cumulative number of all sold
7. Price - If provided by the customer, put the unit price here
8. Substitutes - Notate your substitute preference here by selecting one of the following options
  1. Exact Match Only - This option provides no substitutes and only the original product purchased by the customer
  2. Exact Match with Substitutes - This is a combination of an exact match and a substitues if available
  3. Substitutes Preferred - This option would provide only substitutes if available. Exact match will be used if no substitutes exist
9. Notes - Use this field for any other information you think is relevant to the cost analysis process
After completing this process, make sure to save in the customer's folder
Submit a Cost Analysis request form in WorkZone. Follow this link to instructions on how to do this.