Collaborative Business Planning: The Coca-Cola Company’s Innovation in Sales Effectiveness

Sales forces often struggle to align their objectives with demonstrable value creation from customers’ perspective. This challenge is acute in key and strategic customer accounts, where misaligned objectives or weak account plans can disrupt substantial revenue streams.

Since 2015, The Coca-Cola Company has been attacking this challenge with investments in an innovative planning capability led by Goizueta MBA alumnus Mark Rajewski. Mark operationalized a customer value creation process under the moniker Collaborative Business Planning, or CBP. He then was asked to bring that process to life in an immersive planning environment, purpose-built for rethinking traditional approaches to supplier-customer planning. As Coca-Cola’s “Collaborator-in-Chief,” Mark has firsthand experience in creating shared value with Coca-Cola’s largest global customers.

In this presentation, Mark explains how CBP recasts customer account planning as something wholly new, profoundly impactful, and, as the name implies, centered on real collaboration. His talk offers practical ideas actionable for any sales force focused on improving customer planning and key account selling effectiveness.

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