Consumer Goods and Retail

How do companies deliver an effective and efficient customer engagement, adjusting to the breadth of the market and profitability of different sectors?

When deciding the optimum route to market, organisations will encounter many issues that will require smooth, fast resolution.

Many will struggle to configure the right offer to meet rapidly and constantly evolving customer needs and demand. Further, the sales force, which is an increasingly scarce resource, is all too often ineffectively deployed – lacking a clear picture of which customers should be visited, with what frequency and through what channel (face‑to‑face, video, telephone) to deliver maximum return and minimise 'cost to serve'.

Proactively addressing key considerations

The complexity of the commercial environment in FMCG has grown and continues to do so. Having the right 'go to market' model in this dynamic environment is more important than ever.

Ensuring optimal configuration of the offer is essential. This means ensuring pricing, channel strategy, and distribution models are 'fit for purpose', and tailored by segment to address differences in customer scale, profitability and needs.

It is also important to pinpoint the most valuable sales conversations to have with each customer, questioning the size of the sales force required to service them, and how the sales force should be configured. To effectively manage the sales force, it is critical to identify, measure and manage the right KPIs – striking the right balance between leading and lagging indicators. Lastly, an organisation should establish how its sales force will be led, coached and held to account.

We partner with our clients to agree on customer and sales force strategy, implement actions, and get value flowing quickly. Our results speak for themselves – not only in increased revenue and profitability but also in terms of customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

As omnichannel shopping becomes expected by customers for convenience and choice, how do companies align their networks and capabilities to best serve customers in the next five years and beyond?

The multi‑year trend towards engaging more customers digitally increased significantly during the pandemic. This acceleration of customer habits and expectations should galvanise organisations to ensure a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints. However, taking such steps requires careful consideration of the organisation’s value position and how to maximise value in the existing network.

Furthermore, supply chain disruption and significant volume changes continue to impact retail networks. For retailers with overseas inbound logistics, additional challenges are being experienced and cost increases are starting to be seen.

Creating and securing the store network of the future

With decreased footfall and a move towards local products among customers, organisations should examine which of their existing stores are needed, and where, as well as the optimum store size to maximise return, with immediately available ranges.

As customers continue to move online, there may be opportunities to reduce cost and meet demand by proactively driving customers to digital channels. Some ‘supply chain pain’ can be relieved through online fulfilment managed by local physical stores to reduce delivery times and last‑mile costs. With careful consideration of how a ‘single pick operation’ fits within the existing high‑volume network, some products could be delivered directly from suppliers to consumers.

These efforts all coalesce under a commitment to working with our clients to understand all expected and unexpected challenges in the context of their operations, technology, brand and customer value proposition, to enable sustainable growth in the evolving landscape.

How do you build an organisation that delivers against your strategy in an increasingly dynamic market?

Sound strategy is only the starting point in navigating complex global markets. Converting strategy into successful delivery against targets – for market share gain, new product launches, improved margins or better customer experience – requires the right capabilities, deployed in the right ways. As markets become increasingly dynamic, traditional structures and ways of working are falling short.

Collaborative, measured impact

Effective transformation programs reinvent core capabilities and processes to deliver against what customers most want, faster and more cost‑effectively than competitors can.

As customers increasingly seek frictionless, automated interactions, leaders must carefully reconsider how they allocate capital, how they attract, develop and retain the people they need, and how they deploy these combined human and technical capabilities to respond rapidly to the market. Effective resourcing and coordination across product development, marketing, sales, production and supply chain can make – or break – large consumer‑focused organisations.

We have dozens of FMCG and retail leaders to build the organisation needed to achieve its strategic objectives. We work together with our clients to deliver measurable impact by developing key capabilities and scalable processes to enable rapid growth, reallocating resources to areas that most impact customer experience, building agile operating models and skills in product development, pricing and other dynamic teams, aligning sales and operations planning, and defining end‑to‑end accountabilities to accelerate decision‑making.

Fundamental to all profitable companies is an efficient engine, one producing and delivering quality goods consistently. What do you need to build that engine?

Core to any successful consumer goods or retail company is excellence in operational delivery. Producing quality products at competitive prices requires a committed team and efficient facilities.

Quality assurance and ongoing cost and efficiency gains require a focus on operational excellence. Having the tools and skills to deliver these consistently is key for any successful company.

Identifying and delivering improvement

We work with our client partners to identify and prioritise improvement opportunities. Our teams leverage a suite of tools from process review through to the adoption of digital tools to identify opportunities.

Drawing on a wealth of experience and benchmarks, we not only identify solutions but also work with businesses to deliver benefits. Success is increased efficiency, and most importantly, the development of skills across a client’s organisation so that they can continue to deliver improvements year on year.