Deduction management is one of those tasks that looks simple on paper but spirals into a much larger process in practice, eating up unexpected amounts of time and brain power. While that can be frustrating on the job, it also makes it a great topic to explore with open conversations among those who are living it every day.
That’s what makes in-person conferences so valuable, and it’s why roundtable discussions are among the most popular sessions at our Deduction Summits. We were excited to bring them back again this year.
For this session, we split attendees into small groups, each assigned to workshop a specific topic:
To guide their discussions, we asked them to identify the main challenges, what’s causing those challenges, what success looks like, and how to achieve that vision.
Here’s a summary of the key themes and takeaways each group presented.
Earlier in the summit, speakers highlighted the familiar pain of spending hours pulling together backup documentation for a dispute, only to have it denied in ten seconds.
The two groups who took on this topic echoed that frustration, along with some more challenges:
These issues can be further complicated by processes that rely on third parties instead of direct customer involvement.
Looking forward, participants scoped out what success would look like in overcoming these issues:
Even when teams know what they need, getting your hands on the backup is another challenge on its own.
This group shared how this can drag on their teams, including a mix of unnecessary back-and-forth and idle waiting time:
One major contributor to this problem is that customers have no incentive to address your disputes. “It’s like, ‘I took my money, now you prove it’s unjust,’” said one participant.
The vision of success here, on the other hand, is straightforward: The ability to easily get complete backup in a uniform manner.
The group listed a few things that could make this dream achievable:
Collecting backup is only half the battle; the other half is making it readable and usable once you have it.
Many teams find themselves manually interpreting scanned documents, inconsistently formatted spreadsheets, and handwritten notes.
This group talked about how an OCR tool can be a quick fix for this issue, and not having it can lead to a lot of inefficiencies.
The picture of success took it a bit further with a fully digitized system.
More specifically, this goal includes:
Success in dealing with promotion deductions often relies on internal collaboration.
This group highlighted the struggle of identifying what a deduction is for.
Oftentimes, that’s because the promotion was never documented properly on the sales side. That’s why the group focused on clarifying the role of sales and making them accountable for their role in deductions.
This all ties into their ideal scenario: a cleaner internal process where everyone knows who’s responsible and accountable for which task.
One approach they described was called a “rainbow report”: a weekly document that lists all active promotions and their status. Each promotion’s color coding escalates as the date approaches without being committed, providing an easy-to-read visual of what needs to be addressed.
Additionally, the presenter talked about conducting weekly reviews on every newly planned promotion. With a few quick questions, they ensure each one represents legitimate trade spend before it ever becomes a deduction to chase down.
The same group also addressed non-promotion deductions, which require a slightly different lens.
These often have the similar pain points to promotion deductions, including coordinating with other stakeholders and tracking down documents.
However, unlike promotions, these claims often have an underlying cause further down the supply chain.
Since these can span a wide range of categories, the presenter identified that the most effective approach is consistent data collection and root-cause analysis.
He shared some specific strategies including:
Getting ahead of these regulations can help brands avoid the headache of disputing the consequences after the fact.
The throughline across all five topics is that deduction management rewards proactivity. CPG brands agree that the best road ahead is averting non-promotion and invalid deductions as much as possible ahead of time. Then, when all else fails, these collaborative processes should result in a system that’s easier to navigate. This shift in team operations is ultimately what will move the needle for forward-looking organizations.
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.
