Employee Spotlight: Fred Boutros, SVP Sales
Bedrock’s SVP of Sales, Fred Boutros, knows his way around CPG sales. As an accomplished industry sales leader, Fred is taking his 27 years experience in sales & business development management and launching Bedrock and its customers to new heights in the midst of hyper-growth.
Fred Boutros knows the customer’s voice by heart, and his resume speaks for itself. He’s brought a unique set of skills to Bedrock from his time at industry elite companies including IRI and Nielsen, where he was brought in as a Change-Agent to revamp sales. Fred is used to selling to the C-suite and VP levels within Fortune 500 organizations and is well-versed in reengineering sales processes to accelerate revenue growth.
Throughout his broad career, he has helped companies transform sales and accelerate revenue growth within the Fortune 500 CPG industry. He has sold complex sales deals within a matrixed company structure, with contracts consisting of consumer and shopper marketing data, syndicated, panel, social media data, consulting resources, client service resources, technology, and advanced analytics.
Let’s read on to find out more about this industry vet, whose vivacious personality and impressive background selling strategic technologies is one of the driving forces behind Bedrock’s rapid growth.
What was your professional background before Bedrock?
I’ve been immersed in software startups for the majority of my career, working for large data analytics companies in Silicon Valley. I’ve also ran advanced analytics at Nielsen and was VP of Strategic Sales at IRI, selling data & analytics and business intelligence tools to the consumer packaged goods industry.
Working with so many startups over the years, and seeing how the industry has evolved, it’s clear what has happened with data analytics. It’s a problem that has plagued the industry for close to 50 years. Too much data. And too many disparate data sets siloed in different locations. It’s become too time consuming for a human operator to extract insights and put it together in a cohesive story that sells products and protects them at retail. Not only that, but the tools to mine those data sets have been so complex… Until now.
What drew you to Bedrock?
I was instantly drawn to the innovative work Bedrock was doing. We are solving the two major pain points our industry is facing. We are breaking down complex systems and eliminating manual work by:
- Bringing those disparate data sets together in one harmonized data base
- Making it super easy and automated for CPG sales organizations and category management to understand what’s going on in their business so they can share that sales story in a compelling, automated way.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a small, emerging brand, or a global corporation – both have these barriers to contend with, and Bedrock is pushing through them. Once I got on board, my motto has been, “I believe Bedrock is the future of data analytics.” We are ten years ahead of the competition, and we’re uniquely positioned in the marketplace to win. Harmonization and automation have been the biggest pain points for decades, and Bedrock is solving it.
How do you think your prior experience has helped you develop sales and business strategies for such a transformative company like Bedrock?
I’ve been in thousands of CPG sales meetings, so I’ve heard the voice of customers for many years. I’ve sold tools similar to Bedrock before, but they were too complicated and highly manual. I’m always engaging with my past customers, so I bring those relationships to Bedrock and use that customer perspective to help us understand how to position ourselves in the marketplace. The obstacles for CPG sales managers are still the same. They need next-generation technology that will transform data into retail sales—Bedrock is simplifying that process.
Can you tell the reader about the Bedrock Sales Team and the culture overall?
I know this sounds cliche, but it’s a very passionate group of like-minded individuals who have bought into this vision. We all believe and understand the value Bedrock brings to the marketplace, and that belief drives us all in our individual roles. Most everyone on the team has experience sitting in on hundreds of meetings in the CPG and retail space. Now, they see first-hand how excited customers get when they realize how Bedrock takes their frustration away and gives them back something we all need – time. The power of Bedrock has turned our team into the best salespeople, and it’s because they wholeheartedly believe in what they’re selling.
Bedrock opened an office in Mexico City in 2021, what is it like operating and working alongside an international team?
Working for a company that has an international branch reflects the core of the company, which is all about diversity and inclusion. I know that term is saturating all industries, but for a data analytics company, it’s significant. This expansion into Mexico is a testament to our founder and CEO, Will Salcido, and his belief that technology knows no boundaries. There is no one-size fits-all. Bedrock’s ethos is about bringing people to the table who normally wouldn’t otherwise be considered for a technology position. It’s something we’re really proud of.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges for most CPG brands in 2022?
There will be two main things to consider:
- Supply Chain- The pandemic will continue to have an impact on getting the product from the factory to the shelf. You don’t have to look far to see the surplus of empty shelves. It’s not because there isn’t demand. It’s that there is such a high demand for products that companies are having a hard time forecasting it.
- With the supply chain crisis comes the pressure of topping off what was undoubtedly a record year. Last year, companies experienced such banner years with the demand and stocking up of such necessary consumer goods. (Think #toiletpapergate, except that extended to diapers, formula, dry goods and more.) Heads of Sales are telling us, “We had such a great year. I just don’t know if we can do it again.” After all, double digit growth on top of the best year is tough to do.
What elements of the work you are doing at Bedrock Analytics do you think will make the most impact in the market?
We’re currently in hyper-growth mode. I’m excited about refining our strategy on how to scale the company, making sure we can take advantage of this rapid growth in 2022, which is sure to be the most important and transformative year in the company’s history. We’re on track to take Bedrock to a whole new level from a sales perspective to new technology iterations to improved customer success strategies. We’ve been in the huddle changing processes dramatically so we can properly scale sales.
I think what’s most promising is the validation we’re seeing out in the market. There are some serious industry heavyweights whose Senior Executives are validating the work we’re doing and the industry-first technology we can provide. The years of experience these industry leaders have, paired with the thousands of meetings they’ve taken over the years, they’re now looking at our platform and saying – “What Bedrock is doing is unique. And it works.”
