There’s no denying, the consumer goods industry has been profoundly impacted by COVID-19. How we live and work are different. How and what people buy is different. And the relationship between sales leaders and retail partners has had to dramatically evolve to match these changes.

The sales process as we knew it will have to be adapted to succeed in the new, ever-changing environment of the consumer goods industry. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the changes that sales leaders will need to be prepared to face and how to navigate them.

More Virtual and Remote, Less In-Person

One thing is certain, face-to-face time with retail partners will continue to be significantly limited or non-existent. In a recent survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, of 135 global consumer-goods sales leaders, 60 percent said they believe 2021 planning sessions will continue to be conducted remotely and another 93 percent believe virtual communication with retailers is here to stay.

For decades, the use of video conferencing was not considered part of the standard sales process. The feeling towards sales meetings was similar to that of buying shoes before Zappos was created, it had to be done in person. But just as the shoe industry has come to grips with how technology has changed the buying process, sales leaders have had to do the same with the rapid growth of Zoom, Teams, GoToMeeting, Webex, and other video conferencing technology.

With these changes have come several new realities we must recognize and adapt to:

• Having to learn the “rules” of virtual meetings (sometimes the hard way): proper backgrounds and lighting, muting your microphone, when to have your camera on and off, how to make eye contact with an inanimate object, and much more.

• Dealing with the exhaustion of working from home without the in-person interaction of the office environment and teams we were so used to.

• Many buyers have leaned into this new reality and have started to compress their time. They are taking more meetings than they used to since they don’t have to physically transition between them.

• With more meetings and less time between each, we are all guilty of moving on to each without taking the time to process what was just discussed.

Rapid Change of Product Line Reviews

One major change that you need to be prepared for is that in-person line reviews and product decisions are now being moved online. At the same time, the decisions being made around these are changing as well. If a retailer has experienced a lift from COVID-19, buyers will be looking for ways to grow comps in 2021. If a retailer has experienced a decrease from COVID-19, buyers are seeking ways to hone their offering to turn current financial performance back to the positive. Your ability to better communicate the opportunities and take-aways of your product offering, and to show the retailer that you have a winning strategy, are more important now than ever.

Making New Introductions in a Remote World

Previously, a 30-minute meet and greet in the office of a buyer was not unheard of. Now, you have to find your way to the buyer through the digital forest. Buyers are seeing a massive growth in the number of emails, text, video calls, etc. they are receiving daily due to new remote working arrangements. You have to somehow stand out amongst all of the noise.

A big piece of a new introduction has always been demonstrating your product features, advantages, and benefits, and possibly even showing a competitor’s product and how you compare. Now you have to get creative in how to show this. Do not underestimate the value of demonstrable data, as it can help you provide a buyer with more meaningful reasons to detour from an incumbent and consider your product.

Buyers are More Externally Focused Than Ever Before

We all know there is a lot of uncertainty right now, especially in retail. The uncertainty coupled with the inability to travel has caused buyers to focus even more on what their competition is doing to stay abreast of opportunities. The need to better understand how their financial performance compares to other retailers in the same category has increased dramatically. Buyers also “see the blood in the water,” focusing on competitive retailers that were in weak positions before COVID and seeking “knock-out” strategies from their suppliers.

As a sales leader, it’s more important now than ever to be sure that you are tailoring your strategy for what each retailer is looking for. Take the time to better understand their customers and their market, be sure to fill the gaps they may have in information, and willingly offer insights on coming industry changes. By doing so, you will forge stronger relationships with your retail partners, which will be invaluable during times of change.

The Positives

Change is difficult, and we all have seen a lot of it in 2020. It’s important to shed some light and look at the positives that have come from the change.

• You now have more time to engage with current and potential customers - any barriers caused by travel are eliminated and video conferencing is more accessible.

• Sellers are better prepared to react to opportunities on short notice and pull together a diverse team from different geographies and job functions.

• The cost of new customer exploration has decreased.

• To save time, everyone is becoming more data-driven.

The Challenges

We also have to be realistic and point out the challenges we may face due to the changes.

• Without the ability to engage in-person to achieve a comfort level adequate to make a change, buyers might be more apt to stay with incumbents.

• It’s more difficult to show and compare samples.

• Consumer engagement has become more difficult, such as focus groups, in-store intercepts, etc.

We’re all taking the pandemic day by day at this point, and understand that changes could happen at any time. Although many consumer goods sales leaders have come to terms with the crisis, they are still challenged to know what comes next. We will continue to keep you updated on the insights that we have on industry changes due to COVID-19. Please reach out or leave a comment with any challenges you may have related to the pandemic and we’d be happy to discuss how we can help.