The consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector is deeply integrated into the fabric of our lives. A day rarely goes by without us reaching for our favorite CPG items, including food and beverages, cleaning products, and toiletries.
Given its ubiquity, it’s no surprise that the CPG industry makes up a significant portion of the global economy. In 2022, the global CPG market was valued at about $160.75B. That figure is expected to reach $244.92B by 2030.
The expected global value of CPG by 2030:
Yet, despite the industry’s size, CPG sales reps still face many daily challenges, from intense competition to changing consumer preferences to ever-evolving regulatory requirements.
That’s where CPG sales enablement comes in.
In this post, we’ll deeply dive into some of the top challenges CPG sales reps encounter and explore how CPG sales enablement can equip them with the training, tools, and resources they need to overcome hurdles and close more deals.
Challenge #1: Intense competition
CPG is a crowded market. Sellers must contend with large, legacy brands as well as private labels and digital-first brands that seem to spring up out of nowhere and threaten to capture market share.
Consumer goods sellers often struggle to stand out from the competition. As a result, they miss out on opportunities to grow deals and secure prime shelf space.
How CPG sales enablement can help
A holistic sales enablement program helps CPG sales reps master the skills they need to stand out. For example, discovery skills can help buyers quickly uncover the needs and challenges of the buyer. Value articulation skills can help those sellers convey how their product will help the buyer address their unique challenges. Competitive knowledge ensures sellers anticipate (and be prepared to overcome) questions about competitors.
While competing CPG products may be similar, a great buying experience can set one apart. A robust sales enablement program also equips sellers with the tools to deliver engaging buying experiences, like customized content and Digital Sales Rooms.
Challenge #2: Shifting consumer preferences
CPG shopper preferences are always in flux. For example, a growing number of consumers now seek out health-conscious products and environmentally friendly packaging.
CPG companies must be willing and able to adapt to shifting consumer preferences. After all, 70% of businesses fail to stay competitive due to their inability to adapt quickly to market shifts.
How CPG sales enablement can help
Successful CPG companies innovate to align with consumer preferences. This can involve changing existing product offerings or developing new ones.
CPG sales enablement ensures sellers are always up to speed with changes to product offerings. That way, sellers can confidently convey how their CPG products align with consumers’ preferences.
Challenge #3: Time consuming administrative work
The more time a CPG sales rep spends on selling activities, the more deals they can close. Yet, CPG sellers are increasingly bogged down with administrative tasks like price control. This takes them away from what they do best: selling.
How CPG sales enablement can help
Today, innovative CPG organizations leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in their CPG sales enablement programs to help sellers streamline (or even automate) many tasks that take up their time.
For example, AI can deliver content recommendations to CPG sellers, which means they can spend less time searching for relevant content. AI can also draft contextual emails sellers send prospects to accompany the content.
AI can also make it much easier for CPG sellers to prepare for meetings, which historically takes time. For example, a seller can ask Mindtickle Copilot what objections a prospect brought up during a recent sales call. Then, the seller can properly prepare without listening to meeting recordings.
Challenge #4: Ever-evolving regulatory compliance
CPG is a heavily regulated industry, and non-compliance penalties can be steep. CPG training programs must be regularly updated to keep up with regulatory changes, but this is often easier said than done.
It’s time-consuming to update existing CPG training content and ensure sellers are well-versed in current regulatory standards. There’s also always a risk that sellers will continue to use outdated, non-compliant training and content.
How CPG sales enablement can help
The right sales enablement platform makes updating existing CPG sales training and enablement content to reflect regulatory changes easy. You can also quickly build and deploy new CPG sales training programs that ensure sellers are up-to-date with regulatory standards.
A CPG platform ensures sellers only use current, compliant content with prospects. Enablement teams can change existing content and publish it in real time. That way, CPG sellers know they’re always using the latest, greatest versions of sales content.
Challenge #5: Long sales cycles
Relationship-building is critical in CPG sales. When a seller builds a strong relationship with a prospect, they’re more likely to win their business and secure prime shelf space.
However, CPG sales cycles are often long and complex. They can last up to 12 months (or even longer) and often involve complex price negotiations, volume commitments, and promotional strategies.
Many CPG sales reps struggle to keep buyers engaged across long, complex sales cycles.
How CPG sales enablement can help
CPG enablement gives CPG sellers the skills and tools to keep buyers engaged and build long-lasting relationships. For example, CPG sales training can focus on bolstering skills like:
- Active listening
- Trust-building
- Consultative selling
- Relationship management
Role-plays allow sellers to practice these relationship-building skills and get feedback from their managers, peers, or AI for improvement.
Sales enablement also equips sellers with the CPG tools to keep them engaged throughout the sales cycle. For example, digital sales rooms provide CPG buyers and sellers with a single source of truth for sharing content, communicating, and collaborating throughout the sales cycle. Sellers can see how buyers engage in the digital sales room and use those insights to adapt their CPG sales strategy.
Organizations can also equip CPG sellers with just-in-time enablement, which allows them to get the information and answers they need in real-time. For example, a CPG buyer asks a question about a product and the seller doesn’t know the answer. The seller can pose their question using a tool like Mindtickle Copilot and get a real-time answer. That way, they can get back to the buyer faster and deliver a CPG sales experience that keeps them engaged.
Challenge #6: Scaling CPG training and coaching
Ongoing training and coaching ensure CPG sellers have what it takes to deliver outstanding CPG sales experiences. However, CPG training and coaching must be personalized to be effective. Otherwise, CPG sellers are wasting their time on irrelevant training and coaching and still not getting what they need to improve.
But tailored training and coaching is hard to scale.
How CPG sales enablement can help
With CPG sales enablement, sales leaders can identify every seller’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, they can assign tailored training to close skill gaps. Sellers can also access just-in-time enablement whenever and wherever a need arises.
That means CPG sales reps always have what they need to strengthen weaker skills, and they don’t have to waste their time on irrelevant training.
A holistic sales enablement strategy also allows for personalized sales coaching at scale. Sales managers can easily identify a seller’s strengths and weaknesses, which can inform sales coaching opportunities.
In addition, many organizations now leverage AI to deliver real-time sales coaching during a role-play exercise or after a sales call. Consumer packaged goods sales reps can apply this tailored feedback immediately to improve their skills and sales performance – without waiting on a manager. One company saved 38 weeks of manager time with AI role-play reviews in Mindtickle, increasing deal size by 31%.
AI role-plays saved one company
One company saved 38 weeks of manager time with AI role-play reviews in Mindtickle, increasing deal size by 31%.
Challenge #7: Geographically dispersed sales teams
Usually, a company’s CPG sellers aren’t all based outside the same office. Instead, CPG companies commonly leverage a mix of internal and partner sellers, often scattered across the globe.
Regulations and customer needs and preferences vary widely by geographical region. This makes it difficult (and costly) to ensure that every seller has what they need to be successful (and compliant) in their role.
How CPG sales enablement can help
With a solid sales enablement strategy, you can deliver consistent training and support that ensures both internal and partner sellers are ready to deliver engaging CPG sales experiences.
For example, enablement teams can create and deliver country-specific training and content that reflects regional needs and regulations. Sellers can easily access the training, tools, and resources they need – whether sitting in an office or in the field.
Challenge #8: Measuring the Impact of CPG sales training
By now, most CPG brands invest in sales enablement and training. However, they often struggle to measure the impact of their initiatives on revenue outcomes.
Optimizing your training and enablement for maximum results is impossible if you can’t measure impact. Furthermore, making a case for additional resources will be difficult if you can’t prove impact.
How CPG sales enablement can help
Data is a key component of sales enablement for CPG.
With the right sales enablement platform, you can see which sellers engage with different training and enablement and how this engagement impacts outcomes. For example, you can see whether sellers who complete objection handling training are improving their skills and their sales performance.
With the right data, you can understand what works and what doesn’t. Then, you can invest more resources in consumer packaged goods sales enablement programs that improve behaviors and performance.
Conquer CPG sales enablement with Mindtickle
The CPG industry makes up a significant portion of the global economy. Yet, CPG sellers face several challenges to attract, engage, and convert customers.
A CPG sales enablement strategy, paired with the right tools, ensures that CPG sales reps have the right training, tools, and resources to overcome these challenges and thrive.
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