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Integrate the Consumer Goods Route-to-Market to Accelerate Growth

Learn how consumer goods technology optimizes everything from account planning to incentives.
 
June 04, 2021. 8 MIN READ

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.

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.

 
50% of CG companies are highly likely to invest in integration of customer data with other systems (enterprise resource planning, supply chain risk management, etc.) over the next two years to support its customer experience strategy.
(Source: “Consumer Goods Firms Dig Deeper into Data for Superior Customer Experience,” Harvard Business Review, 2021.)

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

Sales reps can analyze category and SKU mix performance tied to each account as well as past sales information, upcoming promotions, and syndicated data associated with individual store locations. Based on this data, they can make strategic recommendations, stay proactive in their customer relationships, and devise mutually beneficial joint business plans.

Spend trade dollars intelligently

Trade promotions are typically the biggest expense on the income statement after cost of goods sold (COGS). In fact, 15%-25% of a CG company’s gross revenue is spent on trade promotions. Sales reps can use Tableau CRM to conduct a pre-event analysis to visualize data and conduct accurate trade allocations. They can find savings and opportunities to reroute investments elsewhere to drive growth. Without this visibility, CG companies cast too wide of a net for trade dollars with too little ROI.
 
<25% of a CG company’s gross revenue is spent on trade spend.
(Source “How analytics can drive growth in consumer-packaged-goods trade promotions,” McKinsey, 2019.")
 
See how ABInBev uses a flexible CRM to improve trade promotion management.
Watch the video
Archaic siloed tools and spreadsheets make trade promotions difficult to maintain and measure. Trade promotion solutions need to help sales reps be opportunistic and reactive on top of being able to track the tactical and numerical aspects of promotions. Simplified promotion maintenance, live spreadsheet-like profit and loss (P&L), and adaptive trade calendars transform trade promotion management from an administrative task to a helpful selling tool.
 
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An integrated route to market makes all the difference.

Unlock the rest of the guide to learn how to:
 
  • Streamlining account management
  • Optimizing field execution
  • Providing superior customer experiences
  • Incentivizing channel partners
 
 

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