Optimising Sales Productivity: Lessons Learned from a Successful Implementation Project

INTRODUCTION

The manufacturer-to-retailer B2B market for FMCG products is dynamic and subject to constant change. Manufacturers and distributors need to continually adapt to evolving market dynamics, consumer preferences, and technological advancements to stay competitive.

These supply chains have been under pressure from COVID-19 and technology disruptions. As such, manufacturers and retailers need to stay updated with the latest technological advancements and invest in digital capabilities to stay competitive in the evolving FMCG landscape.

THE CHALLENGE

After 30 years of operations, our Client is the biggest distribution company in Indonesia. Supporting over 500,000 direct coverage outlets with capability reaching throughout the country, the company faces fierce competition in the Indonesian FMCG market. This has provided additional impetus to improve and grow, and to capitalise on the growing economy through better sales and distribution processes and management.

The Client engaged Renoir to collaborate in enhancing their ways of working to grow their sales volumes through better distribution management, processes, control and implementation of best practices.

ANALYSIS

Renoir’s  initial analysis highlighted some key actionable opportunities:

1. Route management (including outlet classification)
2. Vehicle stock demand planning
3. Salesforce productivity
4. Sales call effectiveness
5. Merchandising effectiveness
6. Field promotion effectiveness

Following the analysis, the Client engaged Renoir in the implementation project. The main objective of the project was to increase sales volumes by improving sales productivity and effectiveness.

The objective was to be achieved through the optimisation of sales routes and the improvement of contact-to-customer conversion rates, utilising best-in-class management and sales tools, such as dashboards and data-driven reviews.

PROJECT APPROACH

A Management Action Team (MAT) was set up consisting of company staff and was responsible for installing new systems, reviewing the progress and reporting to the Steering Committee on a regular basis. MAT meetings were designed to solve issues and roadblocks, ensuring the project would run smoothly within the business environment.

In addition, staff were assigned full time to create a Task Force. Task Force members were trained in change management techniques, participated in all phases of the project and undertook the roll out of changes throughout Indonesia.

The duration of the project was fifty weeks. The first eight weeks followed Renoir’s proprietary Focus Process, during which performance improvement solutions were designed and developed and building on the opportunities identified during the initial analysis. The process included observational studies, process and control process mapping, brown paper studies and brainstorming sessions and closely involved the MAT, senior managers and key stakeholders.

IMPLEMENTATION

Implementation centred around improving performance monitoring through structured and standardised meetings, reporting, planning and sales visit content. The goal to deploy these management system elements was to increase sales supervisors performance monitoring capabilities, which in turn would drive the increase in revenue.

The main management system elements installed during the implementation phase included:

1. Outlet Segmentation
2. KPI Performance Dashboard
3. Visit Effectiveness Dashboard
4. Standardised Meeting Agendas and Reports
5. Monthly Catalogues to Promote Upselling/Cross-selling

The implementation process for the project involved installing and training at each branch, with ongoing coaching and support provided by the Task Force. Joint visits were conducted by supervisors to review and correct ineffective routes and visits, and sales productivity was monitored through a dashboard and reports.

Updates were provided to the MAT and Steering Committee to guide focus on KPIs for volume increase. The implementation covered 30 branches in multiple phases, with fine-tuning and roll-out of management system elements nationwide. The Task Force grew from 8 to 16 members during the implementation phases.

KEY RESULTS

Working with the Client, Renoir achieved the following results at the end of the project: