Developing an Indirect Sales Planning Roadmap for a Frozen Foods Manufacturer
In this indirect sales planning roadmap case study, Clarkston Consulting assessed a food manufacturer’s forecasting and sales planning processes and developed a more consistent plan. Read a synopsis of the project below or download the full case study.
Download the Indirect Sales Planning Roadmap Case Study Here
A frozen foods manufacturer needed a more consistent approach to planning for distinct customer types within a single trade promotion management (TPM) system. Foodservice made up a significant portion of its business, but the existing solution was designed around retail planning, making it difficult to accurately forecast and plan spend with distributors, redistributors, and wholesalers. Over time, planning approaches had evolved differently by customer, with limited standardization.
Clarkston was engaged to conduct a four-week assessment of forecasting and sales planning processes to help the organization pinpoint how to improve consistency and visibility while better aligning the solution design with indirect customer planning needs.
As part of this assessment, Clarkston conducted a series of stakeholder interviews and cross-functional workshops focused on business processes, organizational roles, systems, and data, comparing the current methodology to industry-leading practices. Clarkston documented existing challenges by team and presented recommendations related to volume forecasting, trade fund management, customer planning, financial forecasting, and master data management.
The team also evaluated the existing system configuration to identify adjustments need to better support indirect planning needs/nuances. Clarkston developed customer-specific planning scenarios and implementation alternatives to help leadership make informed decisions about the path forward and company’s future tech stack. To support these future efforts, Clarkston presented an organizational change management (OCM) framework emphasizing the importance of proactive stakeholder engagement, leadership alignment, regular communications, clear ownership, and comprehensive training to support successful adoption of future changes.
As a result of this assessment, the client now has a structured path toward modernizing its indirect sales planning capabilities and improving collaboration between Sales and other business functions. The recommendations connect future-state planning processes with supporting technology requirements and provide an approach to preparing the organization for change.
