Asking the Right Questions

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Suppose that the executives at Orion Star Sports & Outdoors want to be proactive in regard to their products, customers, delivery, staff, suppliers, and overall profitability. They might begin by developing a list of questions that needed to be answered, such as the following:

Product Sales Trends

• What products are available in the company inventory?

• What products are selling?

• What are the time and place dependencies of product sales?

• Who is making the sales?

Slow-Moving Products

• Which products are not selling?

• Are these slow sales time or place dependent?

• Which products do not contribute at least 0.05% to the revenue for a given country/year?

• Can any of these products be discontinued?

Profitability

• What is the profitability of products, product groups, product categories, and product line?

• How is the profitability related to the amount of product sold?

Discounting

• Do discounts increase sales?

• Does discounting yield greater profitability?

Initial Questions to Be Answered

After reviewing their list of questions, Orion Star executives might select a few questions for a pilot project. The executives might choose the following two questions, for example:

• Which sales person is making the most sales?

• What are the time and place dependencies of product sales?

The executives would then direct the data warehousing team to answer the selected questions. The examples used in this manual are derived from the selected questions.

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