Many CPG brands still rely on spreadsheets or outdated tools and settle for stale, incomplete data to measure trade promotion performance and effectiveness. This limits their visibility and ability to control their destiny in retail. It can also lead to inefficiencies, lost revenue, and missed opportunities. In this blog, we introduce the idea of Real-Time Trade Promotion Management (TPM) as a solution to optimize trade spend, reduce costly errors, and enable timely, data-driven decisions that improve the health of your overall business.
In a competitive CPG market, promotions are crucial for driving sales velocity, keeping or expanding your shelf space, and boosting your brand’s awareness. For a long time, brands have been working with old-school tools and outdated or incomplete data to manage their trade programs. In a market that is more competitive than ever, without the right tools and insights you might feel like you’re flying blind in the realm of trade spend management.
Relying on outdated systems or fragmented data isn’t ideal, and this may not even be in your control, but not dealing with these issues quickly enough can ultimately lead to much more negative impacts across your sales and accounting teams. Even worse, it can lead to real losses on-shelf. If any of this resonates with what you’re seeing in your business, then read on to learn about a potential game-changer that can improve your company’s cash flow, profitability and growth: real-time Trade Promotion Management (TPM).
We’ll explore what is meant by “real-time” trade promotion management and how it can help your brand maximize the return on a program, reduce costly errors, and make data-driven decisions for your future.
Common Trade Promotion Management Challenges
For many brands, trade promotion management is a confusing and disjointed process. Without an integrated system, a brand has to track promotions manually in spreadsheets, with key data scattered across different departments. POS register data needed to assess actual performance is not usually available for 30 days or more. This lack of visibility makes it nearly impossible to track the true performance of promotions as they are happening. It can take months to gather all the data from each team, verify it, and analyze it. And by that time, you’ve lost any chance to make meaningful adjustments that would have positively affected performance. Most of the time you are still stuck wondering, “How are we doing?”
Consider these common issues that arise when your current system lacks timely feedback or real-time data:
1. Missed deductions and un-validated chargebacks.
Without timely access to accurate expense data, brands fail to catch invalid deductions quickly. This leads to lost revenue, which, if not addressed over time, will significantly affect the course of your business before you even realize it.
2. Delayed promotional analysis.
When you have to wait weeks or even months for post-promotion data, you're unable to make quick, informed decisions for future promotions. Imagine having a promotion on the calendar that provided no lift, and cost you 5x more than you thought? Now imagine not knowing about it for 12 months. That’s a frustrating reality for many CPG brands - and one that should be mitigated whenever possible.
3. Inefficient resource allocation.
Without a trade management platform that has real-time insights, you’re playing poker at a casino where the retailer is the house. The house always wins. Brands often invest heavily in promotions without knowing if or how they’re going to deliver the expected return on investment (ROI). Chances are high that your team is not built to manage all of this.
These problems not only impact profitability, but also limit your brand's ability to pivot and move quickly as needed to compete effectively. And in today’s CPG retail environment, competition is certainly not getting any easier...or slower.
"Without a trade management platform that has real-time insights, you’re playing poker at a casino where the retailer is the house.
The house always wins."
The Solution: Real-Time Trade Promotion Management
Real-Time Trade Promotion Management (TPM) refers to having the insights you need to make just-in-time decisions that impact your trade business. This includes access to key metrics and insights related to promotion performance, expense/deduction tracking, and profitability virtually as they happen. The seamless flow of data allows brands to make proactive decisions instead of reacting to key issues long after a promotion has ended, or a deduction invoice has been issued.
How real-time visibility can transform how you do TPM:
1. Immediate Access to Performance Metrics
With real-time visibility, you can track the performance of trade promotions as they unfold. Instead of waiting for a promotion to end to analyze its success, real-time data allows you to measure sales lift, return, and other key KPIs throughout the promotional period. This instant feedback helps you quickly identify what’s working—and what isn’t—so you can adjust your strategy in the future for a better return.
2. Effective Deduction Management
With an organized process for handling deduction data as it comes in, you can proactively categorize and validate deductions as they occur – or dispute invalid charges. Your accounting team, in turn, can accrue the valid expenses. This eliminates the common surprises that occur by the time deduction invoices come in – and facilitates future planning. Most importantly, you’ll avoid costly revenue leaks that typically result from lack of deduction awareness and planning. Out of control deductions can make a big dent in your business, so having immediate visibility is crucial for ensuring that every dollar is accounted for and allocated correctly.
3. Faster Decision-Making
In today’s dynamic retail environment, waiting weeks for post-promotion reports is not an option. Real-time visibility allows you to make quicker, data-driven decisions. Whether it’s tweaking a promotion to better align with consumer demand or shifting resources to high-performing SKUs, real-time insights give you the power to act immediately and maximize the impact of your dollars.
4. Increased Accountability Across Teams
When everyone in your organization has real-time access to a single source of data truth, plus insights that help them do their jobs better, accountability increases. Sales can spend less time chasing data and more time selling. Teams can collaborate more effectively, track promotions in the same tool, and stay aligned on the company’s strategy. This also reduces errors caused by miscommunication or delayed reporting, leading to more efficient operations and better promotional outcomes.
5. Optimized Trade Spend
Trade spend represents as much as 25-30% of topline revenue – and the second-largest expense on the P&L for CPG brands. Optimizing trade spend is essential to achieve profitability. Real-time visibility into how promotions are performing vs how much they cost helps brands ensure that every dollar is being fully leveraged. With near-instant access to sales and deduction data, you can reallocate resources to where they’re needed most, ensuring your trade spend delivers maximum ROI.
The Case for Real-Time TPM: Why Now?
The need for real-time trade promotion management has never been greater. Inflation has deeply impacted the CPG industry and reshaped consumer behaviors. The CPG space is not as flush with capital as it was just a few years ago. Put bluntly, it’s much harder for a brand to survive in today’s environment – and it wasn’t an easy business to succeed in to begin with. So ultimately, brands today must be smarter about building a strong, profitable foundation for their businesses.
Seamless, timely access to data and insights gives brands the tools and information they need to make the best possible decisions and stay ahead of market forces. Relying on spreadsheets, outdated systems or manual processes is no longer a sustainable or viable option for brands looking to scale.
Until a couple of years ago, an advanced TPM software platform that could provide real-time insights and data was non-existent. When Promomash partnered with Crisp two years ago to provide integrated, real-time analytics on sales and promotion effectiveness, we pioneered it. Today, the CPGenius Trade Management System by Promomash offers real-time insights into trade spend, promotion effectiveness, sales performance, and profitability out of the box without the hours of manual spreadsheet work and analysis. The best part is that you get a holistic view of your business when you need it, from one source of truth.
Why adopting real-time TPM is critical for your brand’s growth:
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Adaptability: In an ever-changing retail environment, being able to pivot quickly based on live data gives you a competitive edge.
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Accuracy: Real-time visibility reduces the risk of human error, ensuring that your data is always accurate and up to date.
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Efficiency: Automated real-time reporting saves time for your teams and eliminates the need for manual data collection and 20th century analysis.
Don’t Fly Blind—See Your Business Clearly, and in Real Time
If your brand is still flying blind when it comes to Trade Promotion Management, it’s time to consider how real-time visibility can change the game. The ability to track promotions, manage deductions, and measure success in real time can transform the way your brand operates and significantly improve your bottom line. Don’t wait until it’s too late—take control of your trade promotions today and ensure your brand is never in the dark again.
Want to talk about your brand’s specific needs and get guidance on where to start? We’re happy to help. Contact us.
