Revenue Growth Management is a strategic framework and enterprise-wide process that maximizes revenue and profit at the customer level. RGM should be viewed as a journey in the organization that requires a mindset shift to drive value generation and decision making.   

Today, many organizations are focused on bringing in RGM tools to provide scenario planning, trade optimization, and calendar optimization. And even more so today, organizations are counting on AI to enable faster data analysis for strategic decision-making.   

While the right tools and technology are required and will enable faster and better decision-making, it’s equally critical to enable the right organizational structure and capabilities to utilize the information generated by those high-tech tools.   

For RGM to be successful, it must be integrated across the organization, not just within the finance or sales teams. Sales, Finance, Trade/RGM, Shopper, and eCommerce teams all must be engaged in thinking about value creation in RGM. Beyond those teams, other parts of the organization should also be engaged in the RGM journey, including Brand, Category Management, Innovation, and Supply Chain.  

A truly cross-functional and organizational-wide mindset and way of working is essential to maximize revenue and profit at a customer level. 

Performing a Capabilities Assessment 

To fully realize the RGM opportunity, individuals need to understand core RGM concepts and the skills required to review, analyze, and make decisions based on the data.  Performing a capabilities assessment of the individuals on core teams involved with TPM, TPO, and RGM will allow you to understand the comprehension and skill gaps that exist today as well as upskill the organization and build training and change management curriculum to support the teams in the future.   

But first, let’s clarify the difference between TPM, TPO, and RGM: 

• TPM (Trade Promotion Management) refers to the process and systems that an organization uses to track, plan, execute, and evaluate their trade promotion efforts. This helps to keep tabs on trade spending  provide tracking and traceability across the organization. 
• TPO (Trade Promotion Optimization) is the process and system that leverages historical data from past promotions to enhance future trade promotion plans in such a way as to improve or optimize the return on investment. Learning from what we’ve done and making intentional changes to improve performance. 
• RGM (Revenue Growth Management) is a strategic framework and enterprise-wide process that enables organizations to maximize revenue and profit at a customer level. Making decisions that drive desired outcomes and overall business performance at a customer level and looking across all the levers that can be utilized to impact the Customer P&L. 

Understanding the Importance of a Capabilities Assessment 

A capabilities assessment allows RGM leadership to understand what skills and competencies are needed at certain levels or roles in the organization. The assessment process will identify and evaluate the key RGM processes (create reports, use the TPO tool, use the TPM tool, utilize price elasticity data, etc.), and help organizations identify any gaps in specific skills and competencies that teams/roles/personas need to be successful.   

The assessment itself can be deployed by role or persona and be done via self-assessment, supervisory assessment, or by having individuals demonstrate their understanding and analytical abilities with case studies and sample data.  

Assessment results can be used to identify gaps in current skills, and develop and execute a phased training plan to close the gaps. From there, you can reassess teams and individuals along the learning path to build momentum and quantify progress. Routine updates in skill building and learning are necessary, especially as people may shift in and out of roles over time.  

The RGM Journey 

RGM is a journey – don’t expect to get there with one tool implementation. Instead, look at your 3–5-year plan and start moving toward that vision through a combination of tools, people, and data.  

AI will support this transformation by helping sift through data, optimize plans, and learn what is effective. Equally important is the organizational structure and human capabilities to support that data and technology – to embed that mindset into the organization to build for the future. And while RGM is a cross-functional responsibility, an organizational investment with dedicated focus to RGM helps to ensure continued focus and improvement in anticipated RGM outcomes. 

A capabilities assessment can be valuable at the start of your RGM journey or an opportunity to take a pulse check on your inflight RGM efforts and journey. To learn more about RGM and conducting a capabilities assessment of your team, contact us today.