Sector:

Distribution

Service Lines:

Customer Segmentation, Go-to-Market Strategy, Salesforce Effectiveness and Pricing

Client Situation

  • A $500M industrial products distributor was experiencing slow sales growth and flat margins
  • New leadership wanted to understand the underlying commercial challenges and to take quick action to improve performance

How We Helped

  • Analyzed commercial data on sales, products and pricing, margins, customers, branches, sales force (outside and inside reps) and e-commerce
  • Conducted many interviews and site visits to branch locations to gather views
  • Researched customer needs and identified several distinct customer segments where the company’s value proposition could be better leveraged
  • Analyzed pricing approach and performance across products, customers, sales reps and e-commerce
  • Developed a number of commercial improvement options and worked with management to prioritize and develop an action plan

Result

  • Improved focus on several targeted customer segments where the company’s value proposition would lead to growth
  • Clarified the roles and focus of outside and inside reps, and how e-commerce should be used to support both customers and sales reps
  • Prioritized specific branch locations for salesforce improvement based on regional growth opportunities
  • Developed a new pricing approach that tightened transaction controls and lined up discount policies with customer value
  • The company realized a significant improvement in both sales growth and margins within the first year