By Ken Accardi
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.
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:
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.
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.
UpClear is a software company and maker of Blue, an intelligence platform used by Consumer Goods brands. We deliver a holistic Revenue Growth Management solution, including capabilities for TPM, TPO, IBP, and RGM. Our mission is to empower brands to maximize revenue performance and trade investment returns through intelligent, collaborative software— providing a single source of truth, streamlined automation, and actionable insights.
The Blue RGM Intelligence Platform supports end-to-end gross-to-net revenue management processes: Annual Operating Planning, Account Planning, and Execution. Solutions are woven together with analytics, artificial intelligence, and data management that connects teams and business systems.
