Pressured by a smaller, more sophisticated, and increasingly demanding group of retailers, upward of three-quarters of North American consumer goods manufacturers have reorganized their sales forces since 2002, a survey finds (Exhibit 1). Yet only a handful of these manufacturers have gained market share during this period without incurring higher selling costs. An examination of the sales force winners highlights three ways in which top manufacturers distinguish themselves and suggests that the talent-management approaches many manufacturers use are not sufficient to achieve success.

These insights are among the principal findings of the 2005 McKinsey Customer and Channel Management Survey of 29 leading North American consumer goods makers, which together represent some 30 percent of the industry's sales.¹ This survey, the seventh in a series begun in 1978, was undertaken in partnership with AC Nielsen and the Grocery Manufacturers Association.²

We defined sales force winners as companies with top-quartile market share growth, by revenue, relative to their peers in the same category. On average, the eight companies in this group increased their share by more than 4 percent from 2003 to 2004, while the others'...