McPherson’s Reveals its Promotions Operations Transformation, Agentforce Journey at Dreamforce

As the consumer goods industry shifts increasingly toward data-driven decision-making, McPherson’s, one of Australia’s oldest public businesses, has successfully integrated Salesforce’s unified platform to transform its trade promotions and field operations.

This digital transformation is not only enhancing operational efficiency but also driving significant ROI through smarter trade promotions and more productive customer interactions, as revealed by Nathan Alexander, CTO of McPherson’s, at Dreamforce.

Speaking as part of the Consumer Goods Theatre program at Dreamforce, Nathan Alexander highlighted the need for the business to drive greater productivity and unlock efficiency for key account teams by utilising a unified platform built for visibility, agility and growth.

Driving change in a challenging landscape

The consumer goods (CG) sector is under increasing pressure to optimise costs and boost customer engagement. 53 per cent of local CG business leaders anticipate that achieving profitable growth will be challenging this year. 

McPherson’s, known for its Australian health, wellness, and beauty brands such as Dr LeWinn’s and Manicare, faced its own set of challenges stemming from a complex digital history. Inconsistent visibility into market performance hindered the company’s ability to understand the impact of its field teams and analyse promotion tactics effectively..

To address these challenges, McPherson’s turned to Salesforce’s unified platform, implementing Consumer Goods Cloud and Trade Promotions Management. This strategic move has empowered field teams to work more flexibly and effectively on the road, enabling better route planning, more focused store visits, and enhanced negotiation capabilities with customers regarding products and distribution.

The improved transparency has also led to more effective discussions around promotion strategies, particularly in key locations such as pharmacies and supermarkets. Moreover, the company has seen a significant improvement in measuring the ROI of promotions.

Unlocking productivity and strategic growth

McPherson’s is poised to further optimise its internal processes and guide ‘next best actions’ for future promotions by integrating agentic AI via Agentforce. This approach aligns with the predictions of 85% of local CG leaders who believe AI agents will be crucial for consumer brands within the next two years.

At Dreamforce, Nathan Alexander highlighted the potential of this technology: “Instead of our key account teams having to spend huge amounts of time creating trade promotions, they can very quickly ask the agent: ‘Tell me about what the leading promotion tactics for these particular customers are’ and it will surface that information.”

“The agent is really unlocking productivity, which means that instead of spending all their time on promotions, our key account teams can actually start to have better and more strategic conversations around how we’re investing our trade spend with them.”

Nathan Alexander, CTO, McPherson's

“This is technology that is driving meaningful change, with a unified platform that works together with our teams and will help solidify McPherson’s position as a leader in the industry.”

“The future of the Agentic Enterprise is now, fundamentally shifting how businesses operate by unifying data with AI agents,” said Jeremy Smith, AVP Sales, Salesforce. “For consumer goods companies like McPherson’s, this means implementing digital labour to help automate tasks and empowering human teams to focus on delivering the personalised, high-touch interactions that can drive profitable growth and meet rising consumer expectations head-on.” 

Learn more:

• Catch up on the McPherson’s presentation from Dreamforce
• Get the latest insights on AI from Australian consumer goods leaders
• Learn more about the Agentic Enterprise