Integrate the Consumer Goods Route-to-Market to Accelerate Growth
The COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst for permanent changes in consumer shopping behaviors. Consumers today now navigate between multiple physical and digital touchpoints to buy and sell goods, which impacts everybody on the value chain from distributors to retailers.
Consumer goods (CG) companies need to navigate a complex route-to-market as they choose how and where to sell their products to the end-consumer. Teams face increased pressure and scrutiny from leadership to better allocate trade spend.
To meet customer needs and accelerate growth, CG companies must create clear connections across the entire value chain — from account planning to field execution — in an omni-channel way. When CG companies have access to high-quality, usable data, they can automate workstreams and collaborate across teams while staying close to both key accounts and long-tail customers. This integration is key to maximizing brand relevancy and smarter distribution.
The right digital tools will empower CG companies to strengthen their trade planning and execution strategies. This guide will teach you how Salesforce can help you integrate the route-to-market across account management, field execution, B2B commerce and service, and channel incentive programs.
Contents
Improve account planning and management
Learn how to fuel stronger alignment and drive collaboration with customers to increase growth.
Your company needs to know which customers drive the most traction and growth for your business — whether they are a national account manager for the biggest retail chain in the world or a regional business development manager working with neighborhood outlets in their territory.
Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud is a single platform that aggregates your customer data across legacy systems and third-party sources. All data is consolidated on one platform for a 360-degree view of your customers. Here’s how that helps your sales team improve account planning and management.
Understand account standing and health at a glance
With a single source of truth, sales teams have easy access to real-time, granular data. They can dynamically assign accounts to the right customer segments based on activities and outcomes. This segmentation provides clarity into account potential so that your teams can determine the right engagement strategies and allocate trade dollars accordingly.
And, when you track planned and past sales activities and agreements in one place, you get a real-time model of account health, a view of your run-rate business, and guidance on next steps. This view enables you to identify accounts that are trailing behind your forecasts.
Turn sales reps into brand advisors
Spend trade dollars intelligently
Manage trade promotions more effectively
Enhance field execution to drive revenue
Enhance field execution to drive revenue
Discover the top ways to ensure your merchandising and trade marketing plans are executed as intended.
CG leaders say 52% of their merchandising and marketing plans aren’t executed as intended in stores. That means of the $200 billion spent in the U.S. annually on these activities, $104 billion is wasted due to poor store and digital execution.
Part of the problem is that many CG companies still rely on spreadsheets, paper trails, and point solutions when field reps visit stores and outlets. That makes it difficult for CG companies to track compliance in real time and use their data to course correct. Here’s how to improve field execution:
Give field reps data at their fingertips
Consumer Goods Cloud delivers mobile capabilities to field reps, who generate helpful data for account managers to propose better business plans, including adjustments to execution frameworks on the fly. They can ensure that in-store marketing assets are present or that damaged or missing materials can get replaced in a timely manner. Field reps also have the ability to share digital marketing materials with store managers and educate store personnel on the brand’s products.
Sales reps can also work with channel partners in real time to optimize joint business plans and activate the right brands at different shopper touchpoints. Reps review activities performed by channel partners on behalf of the brand and the data generated from those activities. This level of granularity allows reps to make smarter business decisions.
Expedite the entire field execution process
Consumer Goods Cloud uses automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline the entire field execution process, including auditing shelf availability. Consumer Goods Cloud expedites field execution in the following ways:
- Generate visit recommendations based on desired business outcomes
- Direct field reps to the optimal route with embedded geolocation technology
- Automate the generation of tasks for field reps to preform
- Use AI to automatically detect planogram metrics like product facings, out-of-stock items, and voids
- Identify AI-driven next best actions and surface the potential impact on critical metrics
When everyone works off the same platform, sales teams have access to the right data. They can use that data to optimize field rep schedules to visit the stores that need the most support.
Create superior commerce and service experiences
Create superior commerce and service experiences
Uncover the key to better collaboration with a B2B commerce platform and self-service tools.
Fifty-six percent of CG companies are highly likely to invest in digital over the next two years to support a customer experience strategy. A state of the art, consumer-grade digital commerce experience can help CG companies balance digital and in-person interactions with their business customers. CG companies that offer a B2B commerce storefront can better serve long-tail customers, which may otherwise bog down employees with routine requests, while offering an always-on channel to meet their needs.
The best digital experiences provide flexibility, transparency, and control to customers. CG companies can evolve their strategies from high-touch to low-touch engagement by offering seamless self-service experiences on a powerful digital commerce platform. Here’s what you can do:
Offer consumer-grade experiences to channel partners
Collaborate with partners in real time
Incentivize channel partners
Discover the ways to drive loyalty beyond rational rewards.
Traditional trade marketing tactics tend to focus on offering incentives to channel partners at the highest levels, like large-volume discounts. This works when a global brand wants to increase shelf space at a national retailer, but not when the brand filters down into smaller markets. The same incentives that apply to the large retailer may not work for local stores.
Successful incentive programs generate value for your channel partners and long-tail customers, including mom-and-pop shops, which drive sales for your business. In order to do this, CG companies must offer incentives that show that they really understand their business. Consider these tactics:
Use your data to offer the right incentives
Drive value for your partners’ business
Support corporate responsibility
Integrate the route-to-market with Salesforce
Learn how you can hit the ground running with the right consumer goods technology.
Integrate the Route-to-Market with Salesforce
- Plan, execute, and service B2B customers
- Drive business growth and collaboration
- Give field reps tools to increase productivity