Customer Business Development
Matt’s story
University of NSW – graduated in 2003
As part of Customer Business Development, I help to grow business by working as a strategic partner with our customers. I look after all customer-related initiatives on three brands: Vicks, Metamucil and Pantene. This can range from organising the funds for a price promotion, to providing customer inputs to the strategic direction of the brand.
Customer Business Development (CBD) is the ‘face’ of P&G with our customers – like Coles, Woolworths or Priceline. A CBD Manager’s goal is to work collaboratively with customers to develop plans that enable our brands to win at the first moment of truth – the point at which the shopper first discovers our brands in-store and decides whether or not to purchase. Those who join CBD enter as a Retail Account Manager, with responsibility for a territory of accounts. You’ll spend a lot of time out on the road, partnering with each individual business to understand their needs, securing volume, distribution, shelving, pricing, and merchandising in support of head office activity. It’s a great way to learn the fundamentals of Customer Business Development.
You’ll grow relationships with customers taking responsibility in a very challenging retail environment. Moving into an Account Manager role, you’ll sell, implement, and evaluate joint business plans with the customer to deliver sales and shipment. You’ll also sell new item initiatives, developing and rolling out creative merchandising plans.
I accepted a role at P&G because it’s a global business that offers international opportunities. It also offers well-known, market-leading brands and has a reputation for first class training. The company is dedicated to its people. For P&G to grow, it understands it needs top talent – the best of the best. Through its ‘build from within’ philosophy, P&G trains and supports its people to take that next career step – something that helps us to grow as individuals and as a company. My career highlight to date would have to be the Gillette Fusion launch. Firstly, seeing the months of hard work pay off in-store, then getting feedback from family and friends about how the razor made a positive difference to their shaving rituals. There aren’t many jobs that offer that kind of tangible outcome.