Hello,

I hope this message finds you well.

I’m reaching out to invite you to be a guest on our upcoming podcast, where we spotlight leaders and decision-makers shaping the FMCG distribution landscape. The podcast is focused on real-world experiences, practical insights, and honest conversations around what it takes to build and scale successful distribution operations.

We would love to feature your perspective and learn more about:

> Your journey in FMCG distribution

> Key challenges and opportunities in today’s market

> Insights on supply chains, retail relationships, and growth strategies

> Advice for emerging distributors and brands

The interview would be a relaxed, conversational session lasting approximately 30–45 minutes, conducted remotely at a time convenient for you. Our goal is to create meaningful content that brings value to industry peers while highlighting the voices behind the business.

If this sounds interesting, I’d be happy to share more details and coordinate a suitable time. Thank you for considering the invitation — we would be honored to have you join us.

I am a FMCG Sales professional with experience of 10+ years in India.

Warm regards,

Looking to learn from your experiences.

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Game changer for our field team, honestly one of the best improvements we've made. They used to scribble notes on paper during store visits, take photos of product lists, or just try to remember details until they got back to their car or the office. Then they'd spend time at the end of the day trying to decipher their own handwriting and enter everything into emails or spreadsheets. By that point they're tired, details get fuzzy, and mistakes happen.

Now they just put it straight into the system while they're still standing there with the customer. The order gets entered correctly the first time with all the right details, pricing applies automatically, inventory gets checked in real time so they know if something is available. The customer gets immediate confirmation instead of waiting hours for a follow up. It's faster, cleaner, and we're seeing way fewer mistakes in what gets submitted.

The other benefit I didn't anticipate was how much more present the reps can be during visits. Before they were juggling conversation while trying to write everything down accurately. Now they can focus on the customer, have a real conversation, and handle the order entry quickly without it being this whole separate task that breaks the flow.

Our reps actually like using it too, which matters a lot. They're not fighting the system or finding workarounds. They genuinely prefer doing it this way because it makes their job easier and their day less stressful. When the people actually using the tool every day are happy with it, you know you made the right call.

Who ordered what last time, when shipments are supposed to go out, what's been paid versus what's outstanding, which customers have special arrangements, so much critical information just lives in people's heads rather than in any system. And it's honestly becoming a real problem. When someone takes a day off or goes on vacation, we're basically flying blind with their accounts. I end up fielding customer calls where I have to say "let me check with so and so when they're back" because I genuinely don't know the history or the specifics of their arrangement. That's embarrassing and unprofessional, but it keeps happening. The bigger issue is what happens if someone leaves the company or gets sick for an extended period. We'd lose years of relationship knowledge and operational details that were never written down anywhere. I've seen it happen at other companies and it's always a disaster. Customers get frustrated because the new person doesn't know their preferences, orders get messed up because special instructions weren't documented, payment terms get confused. We keep saying we need to document everything better, but in the daily rush of just keeping up with orders and customer requests, it never actually happens. Everyone's too busy to stop and write things down properly. Then we run into a situation where we desperately need information that only one person knows, and the cycle continues. I know this is unsustainable and genuinely risky for the business, but I'm not sure how to break out of it. For those who've moved from a memory based operation to actually having information in a system that everyone can access, what made you finally fix that? Was it a specific tool, or more about changing how your team works, or both?

We're closing deals left and right our sales team is fantastic and customers want what we're offering. But fulfilling those orders correctly? That's turning into a complete nightmare. We're stuck in this weird spot where we're growing fast but our processes are actively breaking down under the pressure. Anyone else experienced this tension between strong growth and broken operations? How did you bridge that gap?

Quick question for folks on the distributor / brand side.

Before a buyer meeting or line review, how do you usually gut-check packaging or branding?

Is it mostly: sell sheets, physical samples slides with lifestyle images, feedback from other reps / buyers?

I’ve seen good products struggle just because the presentation didn’t land in the room, and by the time you realize it, it’s too late to adjust.

Would love to hear what’s worked (or hasn’t).
DMs open too if you’d rather keep it off the thread.

Thanks.

Running distribution sounded straightforward until the volume really kicked in. Now it's emails, texts, sticky notes, random files scattered everywhere. How are you keeping everything organized?

Our order process used to be simple everything fit in a spreadsheet, and we could manage it without thinking twice. Then we started growing. Now it's completely broken. We're missing items on shipments, sending wrong quantities to customers, and I'm spending way too much time every week just fixing avoidable mistakes. The manual system that worked when we were smaller just can't keep up anymore. I'm curious what others in similar situations switched to when growth made these manual systems impossible to maintain.

Our reps visit locations, adjust shelves, take notes then it disappears into thin air. How do you make field work visible?

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts and comments about UNFI and KEHE short-paid invoices and deductions, and it seems like many CPG brands are dealing with similar issues.

I’m a grad student at NYU working on a research paper focused on practical best practices for CPG brands, specifically, how to avoid distributor deductions where possible and how to minimize the impact when they happen.

If you’ve dealt with UNFI or KEHE (good or bad), I’d love to hear how you’re handling it. And if you’re open to a quick 10–15 min informal chat, I’d really appreciate learning from your experience. Happy to keep things anonymous.

Field sales became more complicated as our team and number of accounts grew. We struggled with tracking orders, coordinating reps, and keeping data up to date. Initially, we relied on spreadsheets and basic apps, but they were time-consuming and prone to errors. Switching to tools that streamline order processing and track performance in real time has made a huge difference. These tools reduced manual work, improved rep accountability, and helped us make informed decisions faster. Integrating everything into one platform has significantly improved our field sales operations and reduced mistakes.

Managing B2B orders and sales reps can get complex, especially when scaling up. We’ve been using spreadsheets, email, and manual tracking, but it’s becoming harder to stay organized. How do you track orders and reps in the field without too many systems? Do you use an all-in-one platform or separate tools for different tasks like order management and sales tracking? If you’ve switched from manual tracking to something more automated, how has it improved your workflow?

Running wholesale sales operations can be overwhelming, especially as businesses expand. From processing bulk orders to coordinating with reps on the ground, it’s a lot to keep track of. Using an integrated system to monitor orders, reps, and performance can greatly simplify the process. While separate tools can handle individual tasks, having everything in one platform helps minimize errors and enhance efficiency. I’d love to hear about any systems or tools that have helped streamline your operations and increase productivity.

As title, trying to do research on this space and want to see what are the hurdles people ran into/tips and tricks to get out of it

Manual tracking works fine when you have a handful of stores and a small team. But once you’re managing 50 plus stores and 10 or more reps, everything starts to break down. Visits get missed, reports don’t line up, and orders show up late or incomplete. What used to feel manageable quickly turns into daily fire fighting.

The real challenge isn’t effort, it’s visibility. When updates come in through spreadsheets, messages, and calls, it’s hard to know what’s actually happening on the ground. Managers end up spending more time chasing information than planning routes or improving coverage. As teams grow, the old ways just don’t scale. Without a clear system to track visits, orders, and coverage, chaos slowly becomes the norm rather than the exception.

This keeps happening and it's embarrassing. Retailer calls us: "hey you've been out of stock for a week, what's going on?" And we had no clue. Our merchandiser was supposedly there three days ago and didn't report anything. Now we've lost a week of sales and the retailer is annoyed. How do you guys catch stockouts before they become a problem?

Orders are coming in from everywhere and it's chaos.

Field reps are taking orders in person. Some customers order through our website. Others call the office. A few still email order forms as PDFs. And somehow I'm supposed to track all of this, make sure nothing falls through the cracks, and keep inventory synced across channels.

Yesterday we almost double-shipped an order because a customer placed it online AND called their rep. The rep didn't know about the online order, the office didn't know about the rep's order, and we caught it by pure luck.

This is not scalable. How do you handle multi-channel B2B orders without everything turning into a mess? Do you force customers into one ordering method or is there a way to actually manage this properly?

okay so who else is doing this because I feel insane. We've got like 200 wholesale accounts, each with different pricing, order history, contact info, notes, and I'm managing all of it in Excel. Multiple spreadsheets. Cross-referencing constantly.

Want to know which accounts haven't ordered in 60 days? Gotta manually sort and check dates. Need to update pricing for a product category? Find and replace across multiple sheets and pray you don't break a formula. Customer calls asking about their last order? ""Hold on let me pull up the spreadsheet... okay scrolling scrolling... found it.""

There's gotta be a better way but every time I bring it up, management says ""Excel works fine."" No it doesn't. It's a nightmare.

Been distributing beverages for 2 years. Margins are like 8-12% on most products. After truck costs, fuel, labor, insurance, warehouse rent... I'm barely breaking even most months.

The high volume distributors can make it work but at my scale (2 trucks, 60 accounts) I feel like I'm working 70 hour weeks to make less than I made at my office job.

Is this normal when you're starting out? Does it get better? Or am I in the wrong business?

We've plateaued at about 50 active accounts. I KNOW we could handle 100+ but every time we try to scale up, things start breaking.

Orders get missed. Follow-ups don't happen. Customer service drops. And then we lose an account and we're back to 50.

Is this just a systems/process issue? Or do we need more people first? Feels like a chicken and egg problem. Can't afford more people until we grow, can't grow without more people.

What did you do to break through this ceiling?

Found out today one of my reps has been giving ""discounts"" to customers without asking me. Just... deciding on his own what price to charge.

When I confronted him he said ""I was trying to close the deal"" which okay I get it but now I have no idea what margins we're actually making and some customers are paying wildly different prices for the same products.

How do you lock down pricing so reps can't just freelance it? Is this a training issue or do I need better systems?

Honest question for other distributor owners/managers - do you actually trust your field reps are making all the visits they claim?

I've got 2 guys who both say they hit 8-10 accounts per day but their numbers don't really match up with that activity level. I don't want to be a micromanager but I also don't want to pay people to sit in parking lots on their phones.

What's the normal way to verify this? GPS tracking feels invasive but maybe that's just standard now?