Articles

By Ken Accardi

Executive Summary

Three quarters through the year, you’re in the midst of understanding performance and managing the headwinds and tailwinds you’ve encountered as you work to deliver annual targets. Managing trade promotion spending in this portion of the year is one of the most critical and complex functions within Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies. As actual sales and spending data has taken shape, CPG organizations must continuously refine and adjust their promotional strategies to ensure alignment with business objectives and profitability. This paper outlines the best practices for CPG brands to create a framework for effective trade spend management and collaborative retailer engagement.

In-Year Trade Promotion Execution & Management

Actual sales & spending is received from promotions. Integrating this data with plans is a feedback loop that enables a reconciliation process for brands to compare forecasted performance to actuals. As the months close, more actual performance information becomes available, and high-performing CPG companies use this to identify and manage gaps to target that may have developed and adjust promotions for the balance of year. The following best practices enhance the effectiveness of this process:

1. Account-level plan revisions at the event, SKU and retailer level 
   • Identify variances between forecasted and actual shipments, point of sale data, and overall event spending. 
   • Adjust promotion plans with updated assumptions around base volume, lift, and retailer execution. 
   • Prioritize high-impact accounts and events for adjustment. 

2. Forecast Accuracy 
   • Track plan accuracy across both base and incremental volume components. 
   • Monitor accuracy of both shipments and retail sales (POS).  
   • Use historical error trends to calibrate forecast assumptions moving forward. 

3. Trade Accrual Management 
   • Maintain alignment between forecasted/accrued trade expenditure and actual expenses.  Reconcile actual expenses to what you accrued. If actual spending will not consume the accrual, eliminate the open balance and close the promotion. 
   • Ensure Finance teams have real-time visibility into trade liabilities and unspent accruals. 
   • Use accrual data to validate profitability at customer and event levels. 

4. P&L and Total Cost-to-Serve Analysis 
   • Integrate non-trade costs (e.g., logistics, deductions, unsaleable) into account-level P&Ls. 
   • Assess true margin contribution by customer and product. 
   • Enable more accurate customer segmentation and prioritization. 

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration 
   • Facilitate monthly Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process with Sales, Finance, and HQ Trade Strategy to align on current-year performance. 
   • Use technology to consolidate insights and support rapid decision-making.  Claw back funds or redeploy according to the overall trade strategy. 

Conclusion 

Effective account forecast and trade spend management is a year-round discipline that blends operational rigor with strategic foresight. Established and growing CPG companies stand to benefit greatly from best-in-class planning processes that integrate in-year management in everyday work.  By aligning functional teams, ensuring data accuracy, CPG teams can optimize trade spending and build stronger, more profitable retailer partnerships.

About the Author

Based in Los Angeles, Ken Accardi is responsible for Sales in North America.  Ken brings over 25 years of experience in the CPG space, specializing in Sales, Trade Management, Category Management, Sales Strategy, and business process optimization.  Ken has experience in-house for leading manufacturers, partners and vendors such as Bayer Consumer Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Clarkston Consulting and Kantar Xtel.  Ken has spent the last decade working with dozens Consumer Goods manufacturers in solution discovery, delivery, and support for TPM, TPO, and RGM capabilities.  In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his daughter and hiking the many trails of Southern California.

About UpClear

At UpClear, our mission is to empower Consumer Goods brands to maximize revenue performance and trade investment returns through intelligent, collaborative software—providing a single source of truth, streamlined automation, and actionable insights. 

BluePlanner Revenue Management software supports end-to-end processes, from Annual Operating Planning to Account Planning and Execution.