Trade promotions are one of the most significant investments for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies, yet most brands still rely on outdated tools, disconnected systems, and guesswork to manage them. With over $500 billion spent annually on promotions across the industry, the lack of visibility into performance, ROI, and cross-functional collaboration costs companies time, money, and growth. In this blog, we’ll break down the most common pain points CPG brands face when managing trade promotions and how MyFirst TPM™ offers a smarter, faster, and more scalable implementation leveraging Salesforce TPM.
Common Pain Points CPG Companies Face
The Challenge: Why Trade Promotion Management Is Broken for Most CPG Brands
Trade promotions are one of the largest investments for Consumer Goods companies, second only to the cost of goods sold. Despite their critical role in driving purchase behavior, most brands still manage promotions with outdated tools, siloed data, and little visibility into ROI.
Here are some of the challenges CPG companies face today:
1. Trade Promotions Are a Major Investment—But Poorly Tracked
- 20% of annual revenue is spent on trade promotions, compared to just 7.5% on advertising (repsly).
- The CPG industry spends $500 billion annually on promotions, but most don’t know if they work (repsly).
- Without a TPM platform, brands lack visibility into which promotions drive ROI and which lose money.
- 70% of trade promotions generate no return (Forrester).
- 61% of CG leaders do not feel strongly that they can get the right data to the right teams (Salesforce).
2. Promotions Often Lose Money Without TPM Software Analysis
- 72% of companies lose revenue on trade promotions in the U.S (McKinsey).
- Globally, 59% of promotions fail to break even without TPM software (McKinsey).
- Promotions become a high-cost guessing game when companies rely on spreadsheets or homegrown tools.
3. Internal Time and Labor Costs Are Too High!
- 25% of a salesperson’s time and 30% of brand management’s time is spent managing promotions manually (HBR).
- Account Managers are forced to plan, develop, and implement promotions alone, often without time for ROI analysis.
- Manual work increases labor costs, reduces strategic focus, and introduces data entry errors.
- SMBs are at a disadvantage in securing inventory and negotiating with vendors, as they lack the purchasing power and prioritized status of larger companies (Software Advice).
- Inability to meet minimum order sizes or pay premium prices can result in less favorable terms or even being dropped by vendors (Software Advice).
4. Feedback Loops Are Too Slow
- Reviewing promotion results can take up to 12 weeks, and by then, it’s too late to course-correct (repsly).
- Without real-time insight, companies repeat underperforming promotions year after year.
- 70% of trade promotions are repetitive (Forrester).
5. Legacy Systems and Excel Are Not Enough
- ERPs + spreadsheets lack the intelligence and user experience required to manage promotions effectively.
- Homegrown systems are expensive to maintain, prone to breaking, and become obsolete if key personnel leave.
- Data remains siloed, making it impossible for Sales, Finance, and Field Teams to collaborate or analyze performance.
- Many Consumer Goods companies still lack the proper data structure and integration needed to leverage AI for intelligent insights, leaving valuable opportunities for optimization and automation untapped.
6. Lack of Visibility = Lack of Growth
- Without centralized TPM software, teams can’t track deductions, measure execution, or identify best practices.
- Excel crashes, lacks audit trails, and isn’t built to support cross-functional decision-making or rapid scaling.
7. Barrier to Entry for Modern TPM Solutions
- Many mid-sized and emerging brands hesitate to move forward due to:
- High implementation costs
- Complex deployment processes
- 12+ month rollout timelines
How MyFirst TPM™ Is The Solution:
1. Poorly Tracked Promotions
The Problem: Brands spend 20% of revenue on promotions but lack visibility into what works.
How MyFirst TPM™ Helps:
MyFirst TPM™ delivers built-in visibility into promotion performance. Through integrated Salesforce reporting and real-time data capture, teams can identify which promotions drive ROI.
2. Promotions That Lose Money
The Problem: 72% of companies lose revenue on trade promotions.
How MyFirst TPM™ Helps:
MyFirst TPM™ equips CPG teams with the insights they need to stop guessing and start optimizing. Instead of relying on static spreadsheets, users get structured workflows that guide strategic planning and post-event evaluation, helping cut losses and maximize promotional impact.
3. High Internal Labor Costs
The Problem: Manual promotion management drains sales and brand teams’ time.
How MyFirst TPM™ Helps:
With MyFirst TPM™, workflows are streamlined so Account Managers and Brand teams can spend more time on strategy. The system automates time-consuming tasks and centralizes collaboration, reducing errors and freeing up valuable resources.
4. Slow Feedback Loops
The Problem: Results can take 12 weeks to review
How MyFirst TPM™ Helps:
MyFirst TPM™ provides real-time visibility into promotion performance. With timely data and integrated post-promotion analytics, teams can act faster, reducing cycle times and improving agility.
5. Legacy Systems and Spreadsheets
The Problem: ERPs and Excel lack the intelligence needed for modern trade planning.
How MyFirst TPM™ Helps:
Leveraging the Salesforce TPM solution, MyFirst TPM™ offers a user-friendly experience with modern tools and insights, eliminating the dependency on homegrown systems. It ensures continuity, scalability, and a better UX across teams.
6. Lack of Cross-Functional Visibility
The Problem: Data silos prevent collaboration and performance tracking.
How MyFirst TPM™ Helps:
MyFirst TPM™ connects Sales, Finance, Field Execution, and more in one centralized platform in Salesforce TPM. Shared access to key data helps ensure alignment, promotes accountability, and supports smarter, cross-functional decisions.
7. Barriers to Entry
The Problem: Traditional Salesforce TPM implementations are too expensive, slow, and complex.
How MyFirst TPM™ Helps:
MyFirst TPM™ was explicitly designed to eliminate these barriers. It brings the core value of Salesforce TPM to emerging and mid-sized brands with a fast-track deployment model and a right-sized approach, without the long timelines or expensive costs.
Empowering Emerging Brands with Smarter, Scalable TPM Solution
Trade Promotion Management doesn’t have to be complicated, costly, or reserved for enterprise giants. MyFirst TPM™ bridges the gap by delivering a modern, cost-effective Salesforce TPM solution that empowers mid-sized and emerging brands to plan, execute, and analyze promotions with confidence. With faster deployments, lower costs, and built-in visibility, CPG teams can finally take control of their promotional spend and drive measurable growth.
If you would like to learn more about MyFirst TPM, please contact us.
About Corrao Group
Since 2008, Corrao Group has been a trusted global Salesforce partner, helping B2B organizations across retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, and healthcare drive digital transformation. Our expertise spans Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud for Sales & Service, Retail Execution (REx), Customer Planning & Forecasting (CPF), Trade Promotion Management (TPM), Agentforce, and Data Cloud. With seamless integration and a deep understanding of industry challenges, we translate complex business processes into scalable, high-performing Salesforce solutions. As power users and implementation experts, we optimize operations, enhance decision-making, and accelerate growth—ensuring your business stays ahead in a competitive market.
Sources:
- https://hbr.org/1990/03/the-costly-bargain-of-trade-promotion
- https://www.repsly.com/blog/the-amount-of-money-you-could-be-losing-to-poor-promotion-execution
- https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/how-analytics-can-drive-growth-in-consumer-packaged-goods-trade-promotions
- https://www.repsly.com/blog/the-amount-of-money-you-could-be-losing-to-poor-promotion-execution
- Drive your CPG Firm’s Digital
- Business Initiatives with New Trade Promotions Application
- Trade Promotion Management
- http://poinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/QuriPaperonPromotionalPerformance-2.pdf
