As a team who have seen hundreds of execution cycles in the retail & consumer goods space, we’ll tell you plainly: winning during the holidays isn’t about last-minute sprinting—it’s about early positioning. So if your team is saying, “We’ll start planning next year,” we’re here to say that’s too late.
The 2026 holiday season will arrive before you know it. And in the RCG world, where trade promotions, retail execution, and field teams determine the difference between a “good year” and a “record year,” you’ve got to act now.
Here’s why—and how deploying the right tools via Salesforce can give you the edge.
Why the early start matters
- Typical Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) or Retail Execution (REx) deployment timelines in our world: 8 months or more. Start late and you’re rolling promotions while still ironing out the system.
- Holiday promotions inherently amplify risk: more SKUs, more tactics, more retailer demands + higher stakes on shelf visibility, shopper traffic, and in-store compliance.
- Behind the scenes: the earlier your key account managers (KAMs), trade teams, and field operations are aligned, the more seamless your execution will be. The last three months before the season are for execution—not system learning curves.
- When you delay: you risk partial adoption, manual workaround creep, low ROI on trade spend, and missed display/stock opportunities that your competitors will capture.
So if you’re targeting holiday ’26, your planning window starts now.
Two big levers for holiday success
1. Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM)
If you’re running trade spend—discounts, bundles, display incentives, co-op campaigns—then deploying something like Salesforce Trade Promotion Management is non-negotiable.
Here’s what it unlocks (and what you’ll regret if you don’t have it):
- You can set up one source of truth for all promotional activities—plan, execute, claim, analyze—all in one platform.
- You can manage budgets, funds, and claims across retailers with transparency—so you’re not flying blind on spend and ROI.
- You can evaluate promotions in near real-time, adjust tactics, and see what’s working vs what isn’t.
- For holiday season prep, you need to coordinate many promotions across many retail customers, align calendars, ensure trade spend is optimized, and plan for margin pressure. The faster you put TPM in place, the more options you’ll have in your holiday window.
2. Salesforce Retail Execution (REx)
Promotions and trade are only half the battle. If the product isn’t placed well, visited, audited, in stock, and priced right at the store level, you lose. That’s where Salesforce Retail Execution comes in.
Here’s what it does:
- It helps plan and optimise store visits for your field reps so they hit the right stores, at the right time, with the right tasks.
- It captures audit data, tasks, inventory status, shelf compliance — all mobile, live — so you’re not relying on spreadsheets or delayed reporting.
- For holiday season readiness: you’ll want to ensure your displays go up early, that your SKUs are allocated & in-store, that your field team executes on end-caps and impulse-zones, and that you have real-time visibility into what’s working and what isn’t. REx gives you that control.
Why now, from deployment to ROI
Here’s how the timing breaks down:
- Month 0-1: Decision & kickoff. Choose your partner, scope your holiday ’26 plan, baseline your trade & retail execution processes.
- Month 2-7: Configure & deploy core TPM + REx capabilities. Set up master data (accounts, products), calendar/tactics, and field visit workflows. Data integrations, user training, and field-pilot execution. Test holiday-promo workflows, trial store visits, and refine reporting.
- Month 8+: Full holiday readiness: promotions are loaded, field team trained, dashboards are live, you’re ready to execute when holiday demand hits.
If you start today, you’re potentially live after summer — well ahead of the holiday ramp. If you wait six months, you’re scrambling in Q3, and your execution window is narrow.
And that’s where Corrao Group comes into play. We know holiday cycles. We know RCG challenges. We know Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud inside-out (TPM, REx, CPF, and more). In fact, we’ve helped brands deploy faster, smarter, and with less cost.
- We offer discounted implementations that get you up and running within 2-5 months (not the standard 8-12).
- Low-cost entry-options mean you don’t have to wait for a massive project to launch basic capability.
- You get partner expertise, loosening the typical deployment friction so your team is ready when it matters most.
What to do next
- Don’t wait for “next quarter” — schedule a 30-minute conversation with us this week to map your holiday ’26 plan.
- Audit your trade spend and field execution status today: ask yourself — do I have visibility into promotion ROI? Do I know which stores are underperforming visits? Do I have the execution tools in place?
- Choose a partner who understands RCG and Salesforce — you don’t want to re-build basic functionalities from scratch.
- Commit to a 2-5 month deployment so you’re ready well ahead of the holidays.
Final word
In the retail & consumer goods world, timing is everything. The holidays don’t wait—and neither do your competitors. By deploying TPM and REx now, you’re not just preparing—you’re creating an advantage: trade promotions aligned to your goals, field execution tuned to your strategy, and real-time visibility into what’s working.
If you’re serious about holiday ’26 and want to own the shelf (not just play catch-up), let’s talk. Contact Corrao Group today, and let’s get you set up for success.
