Navigating the Complexities: Overcoming Trade Promotion Management Challenges

Managing promotions effectively is a critical challenge for many businesses. With 73% of consumers more likely to do business with a brand that offers promotions,¹ the pressure to manage promotions effectively is high. Tools like Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM)² offer significant support for planning and running promotions. However, consumer goods companies encounter common hurdles that can impede the success of their promotional activities. With every hurdle, there’s a way to conquer it.

One of the primary challenges companies face with trade promotion management is ensuring data quality and consistency.³ A grocery chain, for example, might receive inaccurate data from various suppliers, leading to unreliable forecasting. Siloed data can make it difficult to accurately track budgets or measure ROI. With data at the heart of a promotion — from planning to post-event analysis — unified, accurate, consistent data is needed to support long-term promotional strategies. This can be solved by eliminating manual data and unifying and synchronizing it across systems to ensure real-time, up-to-date information.

Another significant challenge is managing complex promotional structures. For example, a beauty brand might navigate intricate terms such as discounts for different makeup lines. Running these separate promotions and accurately calculating their financial impact can be cumbersome, requiring sophisticated tools and expertise. One way to manage these complexities is to integrate your trade promotion tools with your ERP so you can create products with different hierarchies and attributes. This will not only make it easier to manage but also enable you to maximize profitability.

Collaboration and communication also pose challenges. Because managing trade promotions involves multiple parties, it can be a challenge to coordinate with internal teams, individual retailers, and marketing agencies. Information can get lost. Deadlines can be missed. This can lead to misalignment and inefficiencies. With 90% of revenue for Consumer Goods companies coming from retailers,⁴ collaboration is key to optimizing promotional impact. Integration with your ERP can also prove helpful here. Successful joint planning through connected systems can help you manage accounts and stakeholders in one place.

User adoption and training on promotion management tools and technology are additional hurdles. For example, a consumer goods company might encounter user errors due to an employee’s lack of training on Salesforce TPM. Moreover, scalability issues could arise. A beverage distributor who manages a large number of retailers and promotions with complex sales structures could be missing out on efficiencies if they’re properly using all the technological capabilities at their fingertips. Implementing new technology is tough⁵ but worth the growing pains. Ensuring your team is adequately trained to maximize the potential of your tools is vital to also maximizing the potential of your promotions.

Overcoming the complexities of promotion management is essential for success. By addressing these challenges, consumer goods companies can optimize their promotional strategies and drive growth. Leveraging tools like Salesforce TPM and relying on a trusted partner to guide you can transform these challenges into opportunities for innovation and efficiency. Mastering promotion management will not only boost profitability but also strengthen brand loyalty and market presence. Embracing these strategies will ensure that consumer goods companies are well-equipped to meet the demands of today's dynamic retail landscape.

Sources:

1. SellersCommerce, https://www.sellerscommerce.com/blog/promotional-products-statistics/
2. OSF Digital, https://osf.digital/library/blog/unlocking-success-a-deep-dive-into-trade-promotion-management
3. OSF Digital, https://osf.digital/library/blog/mastering-data-proliferation-strategies-and-use-cases-to-prepare-for-the-ai-era
4. Salesforce, https://www.salesforce.com/consumer-goods/trade-promotion-management-software/guide/
5. OSF Digital, https://osf.digital/library/blog/digital-transformation-can-be-hard-we-make-it-easier