Blue Diamond Growers is a leading almond producer known for its high-quality products and strong relationships with retailers. To manage trade spending, streamline sales operations, and improve cross-functional collaboration, Blue Diamond uses UpClear’s BluePlanner Gross-to-Net Revenue Managment software.
Key Challenges Before BluePlanner
Before implementing BluePlanner, Blue Diamond Growers faced several roadblocks in their trade management and sales operations, such as:
- Lack of centralized data, with teams relying on Excel and offline tools
- Limited visibility and control over trade promotions and deductions
- Fragmented communication between sales, finance, and supply planning teams
- Difficulty in providing data-driven insights for decision-making
How BluePlanner has Transformed Sales Ops
- Promotion Planning & Approval Workflows: BluePlanner enables their teams to track base and incremental volume, projected spending, and performance. BluePlanner also facilitates greater financial control through approval workflows. Blue Diamond Growers has also seen more strategic, data-driven trade investments, reducing the risk of unapproved spending.
- Payments & Deductions Management: Handling payments and deductions has become more efficient with BluePlanner, as deduction information from the cash application process are imported directly into the platform for reconciliation and categorization. Deductions are researched, matched to planned promotions, and cleared or disputed within the system, ensuring a structured and transparent process. Additionally, all backup documentation is stored centrally, eliminating the need for physical or scattered digital files and improving accessibility for teams managing trade spend.
- Flexible & Exception-Based Reporting: BluePlanner’s reporting and dashboards have enhanced visibility across teams, providing senior leadership with high-level insights for strategic decision-making. Sales operations and finance teams benefit from granular exception reporting, allowing them to track and address issues with greater precision. Easy data exports also enable seamless integration with other systems.
- Expanding into Other BluePlanner Capabilities: In an example of BluePlanner’s ability to provide additional value as time goes on, Blue Diamond has prioritized work to import Circana retail sales data into BluePlanner. Once implemented, this integration will provide accounts with a more complete planning view, including statistics-driven baselines alongside inputs from demand planners to facilitate greater forecast accuracy and stronger alignment with their retail customers.
- Integration & Data Centralization: Because BluePlanner is integrated with ERP, other cross-functional systems, and soon actual retail sales, BluePlanner has become a centralized, structured repository for customer data: revenue, volume, trade spending, and promotion data.
Key Results & Business Impact
The implementation of BluePlanner has delivered measurable improvements across key business functions. Real-time tracking and approval workflows have strengthened control over trade spend. Faster deduction resolution has created more efficient financial management. Additionally, BluePlanner has empowered sales teams by enabling field reps to verify trade investments with retailers, leading to better decision-making. Improved collaboration between sales, finance, and operations has fostered a more streamlined and connected workflow.
Advice for Companies Without a Trade Management System
According to Alfred Dias, IT Business Partner at Blue Diamond Growers:
“It’s a night-and-day difference trying to do everything in Excel versus using an integrated system with built-in controls.”
For companies still relying on spreadsheets, adopting a trade management solution like BluePlanner can dramatically improve efficiency, accuracy, and control.
Future Outlook
Blue Diamond plans to further expand BluePlanner’s integration with additional data sources, strengthening its role as a centralized gross-to-net revenue management hub. As the company continues to grow, BluePlanner will play a key role in optimizing sales planning, trade spend, and operational efficiency.
About UpClear
UpClear provides software solutions that help Consumer Goods brands improve gross-to-net revenue management. Sales, Operations, Finance, and Accounting from companies in different stages of growth use UpClear’s BluePlanner integrated platform for planning collaboration, visibility, automation, and intelligence. Capabilities for annual operating planning, account planning, and execution help them manage promotions, use trade spending effectively, and understand their business more comprehensively. This helps them succeed in a rapidly changing business landscape.
