What is the finished products industry?

Manufacturers that produce finished products are situated at the end of the value chain. The most important subindustries are B2B investment goods (e.g. machines or planes), or consumer durables (eg furniture or bikes), or fast moving consumer goods (beer or bread). Businesses in this sector are sales-driven. However, interest in marketing capabilities is quite high as well, certainly for the consumer goods, as these products are often branded. After-sales and customer service is important and a potential revenue stream, certainly for high value products (B2B investment goods and consumer durables).

Business needs and challenges in B2B investment goods

Typically, companies in B2B investment goods have these five major business needs:

• Long, Complex Sales Cycles: supporting multi-stakeholder buyer journeys and high-investment evaluations.
• Value & Spec-Based Selling: differentiating on technical specifications, ROI, and total cost of ownership (TCO).
• Indirect Channel Motion (B2B2B): partnering effectively with dealer and reseller networks to extend market reach.
• Branded B2B Marketing: driving marketing-led demand (both online as via trade shows) and brand positioning for high-value end products.
• Field Service Management (FSM): turning maintenance, spare parts, and service contracts into high-margin revenue drivers.

Alongside these, they usually see four core challenges:

• CRM Adoption Barriers: overcoming sales team inertia and resistance to routine software logging.
• Dealer & Reseller Disconnect: lack of direct visibility into end-user accounts and assets trapped in channel networks.
• Complex SLA Maintenance: coordinating on-site preventative and reactive field maintenance under strict SLA terms.
• Installed Base Integration: unifying traditional CRM records with ERP data, asset history, and service contracts.

Business needs and challenges in consumer durables

• Indirect Channel Motion (B2B2C): partnering effectively with dealer and retailer networks to maximize market coverage and sales velocity.
• Dealer Portals & Webshops: empowering resellers with automated ordering, self-service portals, and digital collateral.
• Dual-Tier Marketing Strategy: driving overall brand awareness while running co-op campaigns that pass qualified consumer leads to local dealers.
• Faster Sales Cycles: managing higher transaction frequencies and shorter buying journeys compared to heavy machinery deals.
• Streamlined After-Sales Support: managing warranties and customer service efficiently to safeguard brand reputation without eroding margins.

Alongside these, they usually see five core challenges:

• Dealer & Reseller Disconnect: lack of direct visibility into end-user accounts and sell-through data trapped in partner channels.
• Multi-Tier Inventory Aging: managing stock obsolescence across central warehouses and independent dealer locations.
• Competing Marketing Demands: juggling general brand positioning, product launch pushes, and dealer lead-generation activities.
• Support Overhead Control: minimizing high-volume consumer inquiry and service costs without sacrificing brand equity.
• Channel Platform Adoption: encouraging dealer sales staff and external partners to actively utilize shared CRM/portal tools.

Business needs and challenges in fast-moving consumer goods

Typically, companies in fast moving consumer goods have these four major business needs:

• Structured Retail Execution (branded): equipping field sales teams with Retail execution tools to win shelf space, and route planning and visit optimization to gain efficiencies.
• Key Account Management (Unbranded): managing long-term volume contracts and strategic corporate relationships with major retail chains.
• Trade Promotions & Stock Alignment: running dynamic trade promotion campaigns that align tightly with inventory levels
• E-Commerce Enablement: expanding commercial reach through digital B2B webshops and direct-to-consumer (D2C) channels.

Alongside these, they usually see five core challenges:

• Micro-Margins & Massive Scale: operating in ultra-high volume environments where minor unit cost variances heavily impact profitability.
• High Cost of Retail Execution: managing the high expense of physical field visits while maximizing rep productivity across thousands of retailers.
• Omnichannel Brand Management: balancing traditional retail marketing with digital consumer branding and online retail execution.
• Consumer Data Attribution Gap: processing massive volumes of end-consumer data without having direct point-of-sale insight
• Aggressive Retail Price Pressures: navigating tough price negotiation cycles with dominant supermarket networks and retail buyers.

Solution architectures

When we are at the end of the value chain, finished and often sophisticated products are delivered to the market. These finished goods are often branded products and because of that, marketing is very influential and in fast-moving consumer goods even in charge.

Because they are delivering sophisticated and branded products to the market, these companies are in need of:

• Marketing capabilities to build and maintain the product branding
• Advanced CRM solutions for the sales teams to sell these products at scale in the market (producers of finished products tend to be large enterprises)
• Indirect sales (often volume-dependent)
• Fast-moving consumer goods: supermarkets
• Consumer durables: dealers or installers
• B2B investment goods: through agents, resellers or dealers, but also direct for very specific and expensive made to order products
• Advanced deal execution capabilities:  A lot of companies in this industryrequire advanced CPQ, dealrooms and contract lifecycle management solutions
• Strong customer service solutions to deliver service for these sophisticated products.
• Keeping installed base: knowing what goods are installed at customer premises is vital to be able to maintain investment goods
• Field service management tools are mostly needed for B2B investment goods

At Elixir, we integrate all of this onto one commercial platform, integrated with your ERP system (SAP or other), which will drastically improve your efficiency.