Setting your company up for future success is just great leadership. And that's exactly what was top of mind for Melissa Ferrie, Head of Sales at growing olive oil brand Graza, when she came to Promomash looking for improved visibility into trade spend, streamlined trade planning, and a better way to manage deductions. Most importantly, moving away from the spreadsheets at this crucial point in the company's retail journey would allow them to capture critical data and insights that would help them better plan for the future.
Watch the video below, or keep scrolling to read more about Graza's success story with Promomash.
The Challenge
Before partnering with Promomash, Graza faced the typical challenges many new brands face in managing trade spend. While the brand had no real historical data to rely upon, the team used their past experience and educated guessing to determine trade rate and level of spend for promotional plans, balancing the need to support retailers while maintaining a relatively conservative approach. This meant managing trade spend, promotions and deductions on spreadsheets - a method that was time-consuming, inefficient and prone to errors. Additionally, the team responsible for handling deductions found the manual processes overwhelming. As a young brand, accurate deduction management was going to be critical to avoid future issues with cash flow and margin. However, Graza’s existing setup was not scalable, and would not be able to support their growing needs. Based on an existing partner's referral, the Graza team found Promomash.
"I wanted to get us set up for success. That means getting this type of tool in place just a hair before we feel like we need it...before we feel like we're outgrowing our millions of spreadsheets."
The Solution
After seeing the Promomash trade platform (TradeGenius) in action and learning about its done-for-you deduction management service (DeductionGenius), the Graza team realized the complete Promomash solution was just what they needed to streamline their finance and operations, and set up a framework for future growth.
The first order of business in onboarding the Graza team was to take over deduction processes, including automating capture and categorization of deductions, and having the Promomash deduction team of experts begin validating deductions - as well as disputing those found invalid. Once set up, the Graza team would be able to instantly see all deductions and trade spend in detail, all in one dashboard and drillable by customer, product, promotion, and more.
Graza was already using the Crisp platform to track sales performance for KEHE and all their major retailers. Leveraging the Promomash + Crisp partnership to plug Crisp data into the Promomash platform and measure actual trade performance was, as Ferrie said, a "no-brainer" and would add even more value to the new solution. This integration would allow the Graza team to get near real-time insights to compare plan vs actual performance, monitor profitability at several levels, and make data-driven decisions quickly.
Results So Far
Since implementing and onboarding with Promomash, Graza has experienced substantial time savings, particularly on the deduction side. The team has been freed up to focus on more strategic, growth-oriented initiatives. Additionally, they now have access to in-depth trade spend and deduction data via the Promomash deduction overview dashboard in just a few clicks, saving untold hours with spreadsheets.
With TradeGenius set up and Crisp data flowing in, the Graza team can now access real-time performance insights only possible through this integration. The team is now set up to begin tracking the effectiveness of their promotions and track other crucial insights they were not able to easily access before, like sales lift. Ultimately, the Graza team now has access to insights that will help them streamline the trade planning process and better plan promotions for future growth.
"There's a lot of exciting things that we're getting ready to do with the tool...a lot of what I'm really excited about is trade planning."
Next Steps
With Promomash fully onboarded, Graza is eager to maximize the software's trade planning capabilities. The next steps involve developing and executing annual trade plans using from data and insights from Crisp and Promomash to continuously improve the business. Now armed with all the tools and support they need to succeed, the future is sizzling hot for Graza!
