Leadership Perspectives

Julian is an experienced business director with a particular focus on sales and general management of outsourced sales teams. Julian has also found success in start-ups and the sale and acquisition of SMEs. His skills in turnaround situations with excellent business insight, strategic planning, and team building have been reflected in strong partnerships and ongoing growth during his time as CEO at Field Sales Solutions, Group Managing Director at Activate Solutions Group, and previously at the start-up BOX Marketing.

The new economic reality within our retail environment provides the biggest challenge and opportunity. As we all know and see from daily life, the large grocery retailers have cut back on colleague store hours significantly. This inevitably leads to out-of-stock products, poor compliance, and disappointed consumers. Providing solutions that overcome these challenges in a value-adding way is the key challenge for field teams. Within the less centrally managed landscape, retailers are looking for products with a high ROI that fit with the needs of their shoppers. Providing category advice, relevant products, and innovative display solutions help to drive these retailers’ business.

We are awash with data in the UK marketplace, particularly within the major grocers and increasingly within the convenience sector. Utilizing this data to drive performance is key to driving retail execution and brand growth. Working with StayinFront, we can provide a complete view of everything in the store, including stock in the system, field alerts, and many other key points of insight. This enables the limited time in each store to drive the maximum return for our brand partners. I am most excited to see how the AI world will enhance the way we operate to provide insight and action.

The only way to show the level of organic growth we have achieved is to demonstrate a very strong return on investment for our partners. The word ‘partners’ is also very important and one of our key values. Developing relationships with our brand partners at all levels of their business to ensure that we are all fully aligned and can openly challenge each other is essential. We constantly review our ways of thinking, and trial new ideas, some of which won’t work, but we accept that the status quo must be challenged.

There are many factors that provide an advantage to brand owners. Ultimately, though, we are experts; it’s what we do. Whilst brand owners are experts at brands, we are experts at field sales. We can provide the best practice from our non-competing clients to ensure that brands get a holistic view of all the best ways of working. The other key advantage is the flexibility that we can bring through scaling up via tactical resource if needed and managing our team’s direction of travel to meet with the brand owner’s needs.

AI will, I am sure, influence the thinking and positioning of consumer brands. Research on consumer purchasing patterns, product reviews, and responses to advertising and media will, I am sure, be a big factor leading to much more personalized targeting and advertising. I also believe that AI will open many more omnichannel experiences. All of us, as consumers, go on many varied purchasing journeys. AI will help drive consumers toward the best solution for their needs. The speed of development of AI remains staggering and where it will ultimately lead, nobody yet knows.