Post-Game Report: Turning Field Reality into a Winning Commerce Strategy
How we aligned headquarters with field teams and built a quote-first eCommerce roadmap that works for relationship-driven sales.
Project Snapshot
The Client
Agriculture Leader (California Operations)
The Problem
Headquarters and field teams were completely misaligned on how eCommerce should work in a relationship-driven market.
The Play We Ran
The "Alignment Drill" — Translate field reality into a winning product strategy.
The Win
Total alignment from field to headquarters, and a quote-first commerce roadmap that honors how sales actually works.
The Scouting Report: The Challenge
The headquarters team wanted to build a traditional eCommerce site. The field teams in California? They were running a completely different playbook—one built on relationships, trust, and negotiated deals.
The field teams made their position crystal clear:
- Publishing online prices would undercut relationship-driven sales and spark bidding wars.
- Wrong prices during peak season would tank the entire system.
- List prices alone don't reflect the bundled, negotiated value that consultants deliver.
- Branch workflows would be completely disrupted by a standard commerce site.
The headquarters team didn't understand: This wasn't a traditional eCommerce problem. This was an alignment problem.
The Game Plan: How We Ran the Play
We didn't try to force a standard commerce playbook. Instead, we ran the "Alignment Drill"—the same play we use to forge brand new C-suites into a single team.
Play 1: The "Film Session" (Field Research & Listening)
We hit the field. Three research trips across four California locations. We sat with branch managers, sales consultants, and field teams. We watched how they actually work—not how headquarters thought they worked.
Play 2: The "Sprint Demo" (Bringing Reality to Headquarters)
We synthesized all that field feedback and brought it directly to the digital leadership team in a live demo. Instead of a report, we showed them the actual workflows, the real pain points, and the guardrails that make the field work.
Play 3: The "Reframe" (Quote-First, Not Price-First)
We didn't say "no eCommerce." We said "different eCommerce." We reframed the entire experience:
- Quote-first instead of price-first to reflect negotiated, bundled deals.
- Early, mandatory compliance checks with branch visibility.
- Branch-friendly operations—multi-recipient notifications, inventory management, GPS tracking.
- Regional flexibility built into the workflow, not bolted on afterward.
The Final Score: The Results
The "brilliant chaos" ended. Headquarters and field finally spoke the same language.
Alignment to a Single Playbook
'Don't publish list prices; start with quotes.' Both headquarters and field teams committed to this approach.
Clear, Prioritized Roadmap
Inventory management, order tracking, and compliance checks became first-class features—not afterthoughts.
Pricing Governance with Branch Flexibility
A clear framework for how prices work, who can adjust them, and where regional variance is not just allowed but designed in.
A Design Principle for the Future
Regional flexibility requires configurable workflows. This became the guardrail for all future design decisions.
Coach's Notes: What This "Game" Taught Us
1. Quotes and Bundles Beat List Prices
In relationship-driven markets, value isn't about having the lowest price—it's about having the right deal at the right moment. When you expose list prices alone, you're lying about what your product actually is.
2. Compliance and Operations Are Product Features
Don't bolt them on. Make them first-class. RUP verification, inventory checks, branch notifications—these aren't "back office." They're the core of what makes the system work.
3. Regional Flexibility Beats Uniformity
California isn't Texas. New York isn't the Midwest. Design the guardrails, not the rules. Let regional teams make the calls within a clear framework.
Is Your Team Talking Past Each Other?
Let's run the alignment drill and get everyone on the same page.
Run the First Drill