General Trade has built some of the strongest FMCG businesses in India. In my experience working closely with sales and finance teams, I have seen how deeply this engine has shaped growth across categories. For years, the formula was clear: expand distribution, add feet on street, increase coverage, and push deeper into the market. That model delivered scale for years and shaped the FMCG landscape as we know it today.
But the environment around that engine has changed.
Margins are tighter. Categories are more competitive. Input costs are volatile. Working capital cycles are under pressure. Growth is still expected, but now it must come with discipline. And that changes the conversation.
The question is no longer just, “How many outlets are we covering?”
The strategic lens must move beyond presence in the market to the economic quality of that presence.
From a P&L perspective, field force strength is not just an operational metric, it is a capital decision. Yet in many organisations, when growth slows or competition intensifies, the first instinct is still to add more feet on street. It feels like momentum. It signals action. But, beyond a point, adding people does not automatically add productivity.
Every additional deployment unit increases supervision layers, coordination complexity, training effort, and fixed costs. If revenue per foot on street is not improving, expansion quietly begins to dilute operating leverage instead of strengthening it. The system looks bigger, but not necessarily stronger.
Importantly, this is not about effort. Most field teams are working extremely hard. The issue is design.
Static beats that have not been re-evaluated in years. Uniform servicing norms for outlets with very different revenue potential. Activity tracking that measures visits but not impact. These are not dramatic problems. They are small, structural inefficiencies that accumulate.
A few percentage points lost in routing precision. Extra time spent on low-yield outlets. Delayed correction of execution gaps. Individually, all of this seems manageable and often does not receive the importance it deserves. Collectively, it turns out to be very expensive for the brand.
What I see will build stronger organisations is not a reduction in ambition or expansion plans, but a shift in discipline. Organisations need to rethink how deployment is structured.
Instead of geography-first coverage, they need to move towards potential-led allocation. Outlet segmentation needs to be sharper. Servicing frequency should reflect revenue contribution. Productivity conversations need to shift from “calls per day” to evaluating whether field effort is translating into sustained commercial value, either through revenue, distribution depth, or stronger retailer relationships. Technology supports this by providing visibility, but the real shift is in mindset. Using data to continuously question whether effort is aligned with economics.
Even modest gains matter. A 5 percent improvement in productive time across thousands of0020outlets is not incremental, it is meaningful. Faster correction of gaps improves sell-through. Better allocation protects margins. Growth begins to come with stronger contribution, not just higher volume.
Speed is another lever that is becoming critical. Stock-outs, competitive discounting, and new SKU introductions all require quick reallocation of field effort. Traditional planning cycles are often too slow. Smart workforce systems allow organisations to respond faster, protecting both retailer relationships and revenue realisation.
From a financial standpoint, that responsiveness reduces volatility and improves planning confidence.
General Trade will continue to anchor FMCG growth in India. What will differentiate organisations is how intelligently they manage the economics beneath it.
Bigger budgets can fund expansion. But without structural clarity in workforce deployment, they rarely translate into sustained return. Smart workforce models and automation tools now make it possible to bring precision into routing, visibility into execution, and agility into redeployment decisions. When deployment is governed by economic logic, scale strengthens margins rather than stretching them.
In the next phase of General Trade, the advantage will not lie in spending more. It will lie in deploying smarter and converting effort into durable value.
(Views are personal)
