FieldAssist: Enabling Sales Performance and Incentive Design for Strategic Alignment of Frontline Salesforce in FMCG

Effective goal setting in performance management and appropriate incentive design are critical for ensuring the compliance of frontline sales employees with an organization’s strategic objectives. It is further challenging for leaders and managers, as they work on contextually diverse business objectives. In this context, two FMCG firms sought the help of their partner firm, FieldAssist, to devise appropriate performance indicators and variable pay designs for their frontline sales staff. FieldAssist is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that enables FMCG firms to improve their route-to-market capabilities across the value chain. Founded in 2014 by Paramdeep Singh and Divir Tiwari, the platform provides data-driven insights across sales and distribution, catering to over 650 clients in more than 15 countries and covering 8.3 million outlets. The platform’s advantage lies in customizing information for each stakeholder and integrating it with their agents’ or distributors’ ERP and accounting systems, thus promoting transparency. The platform’s key features include inventory management, secondary order, fulfillment, claims management, on-ground schemes, tax compliance, auto-replenishment module and rural distribution management systems features.

This case examines the challenges of aligning an organization’s objectives to deliver high performance across the organization’s hierarchy. Through a hands-on simulatory exercise, the instructor may ask students to assume the role of the National Sales Manager and select appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the sales incentive design for Frontline Sales Agents (FAs).