The Indian FMCG industry has grown by 9.4% in the January-March quarter of 2021. Moreover, specifically, the rural market witnessed an increase of 14.6 %, as per Nielsen. In addition to that, the FMCG market in India is expected to increase at a CAGR of 14.9% and will be reaching US$ 220 billion by 2025. So, with this ever-growing demand for consumer goods, there is no space for complacency for FMCG companies. In this blog post, we will be discussing some challenges faced by the FMCG companies and how the automation and optimization of their sales processes through Salesforce can help them overcome these challenges.

Data Monitoring

The retail chain is considered to be the backbone of FMCG companies. Also, no one is unaware of the complexity of the retail supply chain. Any FMCG company, on its path to growth, finds it increasingly difficult to monitor the data at various levels. Using the Salesforce CRM, FMCG companies can easily monitor the data through various reports and dashboards. These reports can be accessed on the go as well using the Salesforce Mobile App. Real-time visibility of all the reports and data will help the decision-makers of the companies to do their job more efficiently. Using the Salesforce reports and dashboards, the managers will no longer have to worry about playing with the data in excel and then making the decisions and forecasting based on it.

Calculations Leading to Human Error

Manual calculation of prices, commissions, discounts, schemes, etc. on various levels, leaves a lot of room for error. Moreover, as the business of any FMCG company grows, the calculations need to be faster and more robust which in turn creates a lot of room for miscalculation. Through Salesforce, the companies can manage prices, commissions, discounts, schemes, etc. and thereby making the work of sales managers and sales reps a bit easy and error-free. This will also improve the productivity of the sales managers and sales reps because they will not be wasting their efforts on manual calculations.

Optimizing and Monitoring Sales Reps’ Activities

The sales reps present on the field play a crucial role in the overall growth of any FMCG company. The sales reps are the people who will be taking the products to the retailers. So, it is very crucial for FMCG companies to monitor the activities of their sales reps and also figuring out ways to optimize their work for better output and results. Salesforce features are designed to serve this need of FMCG companies. Using Salesforce, the sales managers can track the team of sales reps on a real-time basis. Also, they can assign the routes that the sales reps will visit and change those routes whenever necessary. Moreover, it becomes easy for the sales reps to execute all their activities through the Salesforce mobile app as they are always on the go and it will be difficult for them to manage sales and other activities data manually.

Process Automation

As an FMCG company grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage various processes and approvals through traditional communication channels like email. So, the inbox of the managers is usually flooded with a lot of approval emails like discount approvals, deals approvals, expense reports, etc. Moreover, it becomes difficult to manage these processes’ data manually. Using the Salesforce solution, FMCG companies can easily automate these processes and approvals to execute these tasks more efficiently and quickly.

Files Sync and Sharing

Various files like product collaterals, price lists, etc. are circulated internally and externally in FMCG companies. The traditional channel of communication of these files is usually email, WhatsApp, etc. However, due to the unorganized distribution of files over various channels, team members find it difficult to access these files, especially when they are on the go. Salesforce can make this process of file sharing very easy. Using Salesforce, companies can  put all their files in one place so that they are easily accessible whenever needed on any device. Moreover, notifications are pushed whenever a new file is uploaded or any changes are made in the current file with an accurate time stamp. Through this option, it will also become very easy to manage the visibility of these files across various teams and levels.

With the growth of any FMCG company, the need for CRM becomes inevitable to compete in this highly competitive and growing market. Moreover, while implementing the CRM, a proper strategy is needed so that people in the company adapt to it and start taking the maximum benefit out of it. The pool of experts at CRM Masters can help your company in the end-to-end implementation process of CRM. Being a Salesforce Partner, we will help you build your CRM from scratch. Feel free to get in touch with us for any CRM-related queries.