Category: Trade Promotion Management (TPM)

Salesforce Spring ’25 Release Notes for Consumer Goods Cloud

The Spring ’25 Release for Consumer Goods Cloud is here! Enhance Retail Execution with streamlined delivery tools, geofencing for accurate visits, and improved usability. Trade Promotion Management now features quicker workflows, simplified permissions, and smarter data retrieval. See the latest features to drive efficiency and maximize results!

Retail Execution

Streamline Delivery Execution and Efficiently Complete Tours

With convenient access to delivery documents, tour drivers can swiftly deliver preordered products, obtain signatures, generate invoices, and handle returns. After deliveries are done, tour drivers can complete end-of-tour tasks by easily checking in the remaining products and recording the vehicle’s mileage or status. After finishing the end-of-tour activities, drivers can complete the tour and track the time spent.

Ensure Visit Integrity with Geofencing and Time Tracking

Implement explicit start visit to make sure sales reps and tour drivers begin a visit before its execution in the Consumer Goods Cloud offline mobile app. By using geofencing and time tracking, oversee visits, reduce the risk of fraudulent visits, and make visit execution accurate and reliable. Make sure the sales reps or tour drivers are physically at the stores during the visit by letting them start or finish a visit only within the defined radius and by limiting the number of in-progress visits to one.

Boost Brand Visibility by Adding Your Company Logo on Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App

Make your brand more visible and meet the different needs of different markets, places, and business groups with company logos in the Consumer Goods Cloud offline mobile app. Showcase a unique logo for each sales organization on the Summary card of the Your Day page.

Share Visits Is Retired

Starting Spring ’25, you can no longer enable the Share visits setting under Retail Execution Settings and only the owner of the visit has access to the visit. For your users to share visits and access related records, implement custom sharing using any of Salesforce platform sharing capabilities. If you’re an existing customer and haven’t turned off the Share visits setting, you ‌must first implement platform-based visit sharing and then manually turn off the setting before upgrading to Consumer Goods Cloud Spring ’25. Complete this step to prevent unexpected results while sharing visits on the Consumer Goods Cloud Managed package.

Usability Improvements for Desktop Orders

Learn about the layout changes for desktop orders in Spring ’25.

  • Configurable default tab for Orders: By default, the All Items tab is shown as the default tab. Configure the default tab as Basket with the defaultTab attribute in Custom JSON for Order Items.
  • Easy management of product quantities: Starting Spring ’25
    • On the Add products page in Advanced Orders, you can now directly add products with quantities.
    • To add multiple products with the same quantities, change the quantity for a product. Use the context menu of the Quantity field to update the quantity for all products that are filtered and selected.
    • You can further modify the product quantities in the Basket or the Order Items tab.
    • The quantity is added to Custom JSON for Add Items by default. In existing projects and templates, for Quantity to be shown on the Product List grid, you must add the Quantity field to Custom JSON for Add Items on Order Template.
  • Layout improvements for the desktop order Lightning Web Component: Font size and padding for the product grids have been enhanced for readability. The tables now align with the Salesforce Lightning Design System.
  • Search bar for simplified search: Search for an assessment task definition by using the search bar in the Assessment Task Definitions list view.

Other Improvements in Retail Execution

Delete completed visits, add more promotions, customize the signature area, and ensure system compatibility with Consumer Goods Cloud.

  • Deletion of completed visits: Use the new Delete_Completed_Visit and Age_of_Visit custom system settings to turn on the deletion on the Consumer Goods Cloud desktop app or through the API. By default, the app prevents the deletion of completed visits.
  • Increased promotion limit: Add up to 49,000 accounts per promotion.
  • Consumer Goods Cloud batch process changes: Starting Spring ’25
    • In Progress visits are marked with Distribution Relevant as False when the start date isn’t between the current date (Today) and Distribution Relevant CutOff Date.
    • AggregatePromotionBatch considers only the promotions that are of the Sellable Promotion record type. To consider all types of promotions, use the PromotionAggregationForAllPromotions custom system setting.
  • Direct Store Delivery Sync Rule Change: Extension of sync rule to include assortments not only for customers whose orders are linked to tours but also for customers whose orders or visits are linked to tours.
  • Sharing for Substitution: Starting Spring ’25, if the OvrideSharingForSubstTeamMbr setting is enabled, a user can activate account substitution for a period, which is valid for the current date without sufficient privileges to add team members to the substituted account. Until Spring ’25, the activation of account substitution for a period which is valid for the current date fails if the user didn’t have sufficient privileges to add team members to the substituted account.
  • Granular versioning details for troubleshooting: Find your installed app version and Salesforce build number on the Consumer Goods Cloud offline mobile app. Use this information when you contact Salesforce to report an issue. This information is available on the Device Status Overview page in the Sync Management app.
  • Enhanced signing experience: Customize your signature area with the new buttons and labels that align with the Salesforce theme. To style the signature area, configure the default Salesforce mobile theme or implement a custom theme.
  • Package compatibility validation: Ensure compatibility of Consumer Goods Cloud with version validation checks for these components:
    • Consumer Goods Cloud offline mobile app, during the installation of deployment package
    • Consumer Goods Cloud managed package in Salesforce, during the assignment of deployment package
    • Deployment package, during the addition of a deployment package in the deployment package assignment process
    • Visual Studio Code based Modeler simulator app, during the implementation of a customization project

Trade Promotion Management

Reduce Time and Effort by Copying Manual Inputs for Tactics

Give key account managers (KAMs) the option to copy the manual inputs of a tactic when they copy a tactic. Previously, when KAMs copied a tactic, they couldn’t copy the tactic’s manual inputs.

Retrieve and Audit Account Plan Manual Inputs

With the new Get Manual Inputs integration API, you can now retrieve the manual inputs for an account plan recorded as session data in Consumer Goods Processing Services. If multiple changes are made to the account plan, the changes made at different times and by different users are recorded as separate sessions. Use the Get Comparison integration API to retrieve the manual inputs recorded in two separate sessions.

Manage TPM Permission Sets Efficiently

The Consumer Goods managed package now has new permission sets, such as TPM Standard Object Admin and TPM Master Data Admin. These permission sets are automatically updated whenever the managed package is upgraded. Assign your users these permission sets to save the hassle of managing permission sets every time you upgrade to the latest version of the Consumer Goods managed package.

Preview Your Processing Service

Verify that a new version of the processing service is working seamlessly with the existing managed package. Test the new processing service version in your Sandbox early on to ensure that you don’t face any hiccups when your production org uses the latest processing service. The new processing service version is automatically available in Sandbox and Production org when the new version of Salesforce core is available per the release timelines.

New and Changed Objects for Trade Promotion Management

Do more with the new and updated Trade Promotion Management objects.

Copy manual inputs of a tactic when you copy the tactic

Use the new Duplicate_manual_inputs field on the tactic_template object.

If you would like to learn more about the Salesforce Spring ’25 Release Notes for Consumer Goods Cloud, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,250+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,500+ Salesforce projects. If you are interested in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Why Retail & Consumer Goods Companies are Investing in Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud

As 2024 comes to a close, retail and consumer goods companies are pressured to keep up with the evolving consumer market. Rising costs, changing consumer behaviors, and the need for more efficient operations are some of the challenges faced by the industry. Many companies are discovering that traditional and manual processes (via Excel) no longer work as effectively as they once were. Businesses are now confronted with the reality of investing in technology like Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud to drive growth and streamline their operations.

Challenges Facing the Consumer Goods Industry

The Consumer Goods industry faces many challenges in optimizing trade promotions, managing retail execution, and more. According to Salesforce, U.S. consumer goods companies spend about $200 billion annually on in-store merchandising and marketing. Still, consumer goods leaders say that 52% of their merchandising and marketing plans aren’t executed as intended within stores, leading to more than $100 billion in annual trade spend not being optimized. Additionally, only 36% of consumer goods companies report a high adoption of trade promotion software, with less than half of the respondents (46%) fully satisfied with their promotions’ returns. The stats reflected reveal the urgent need for better strategies and solutions to enhance trade promotion effectiveness and in-store execution.

Deliver Profitable Growth with Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud offers a solution tailored to the unique needs of consumer goods companies. Companies can accelerate growth and productivity by combining sales, trade promotion management, retail execution, and service on one unified platform. The platform empowers businesses to optimize customer planning and forecasting, improve trade promotion effectiveness, unlock perfect retail execution, and more.

Here’s how each Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud product can help you:

Consumer Goods for Sales

Accelerate account growth and drive sales productivity with tools to increase revenue, enhance collaboration, and maximize efficiency.

Grow Accounts: Manage accounts and opportunities, handle cases, and leverage detailed reports and dashboards/analytics.

Collaborate Efficiently: Utilize collaborative forecasting, omnichannel case routing, and Einstein Activity Capture.

Reduce Costs: Benefit from workflow automation, a data processing engine, and actionable segmentation.

Save Time: Access the Consumer Goods Cloud Data Model, Sales Console, and Omni-Studio for streamlined operations.

Consumer Goods for Service

Enhance customer satisfaction and revenue with intelligent, integrated service designed for consumer goods companies.

Improve the Resolution Experience: Use omnichannel routing and Einstein conversation insights.

Scale Service: Empower agents with generative AI-powered service replies and answers.

Increase Account Sales: Utilize telesales, penny-perfect pricing, and advanced order management.

Drive Operational Efficiency: Streamline operations with ID verification, einstein bots, and knowledge management.

Customer Planning & Forecasting

Develop a single source of truth for effective account planning, forecasting, and reporting to eliminate silos and improve data visibility.

Eliminate Silos and Improve Data: Utilize the Consumer Goods Cloud data model, customer product lists, and product hierarchies.

Develop Customer Plans: Enhance planning with data aggregation, manual input automation, and metric definition.

Simplify Account Planning: Leverage tools for customer business planning and managing long-term agreements.

Reporting and Analytics: Get detailed account reporting with powerful reports and dashboards.

Trade Promotion Management

Improve trade promotion effectiveness by empowering key account managers with promotion planning, managing budgets, and simplifying claims.

Eliminate silos and improve data visibility: Use the Consumer Goods Data Model, customer product lists, and product hierarchies.

Manage Funds and Budgets: Efficiently handle budgets, rate-based funding, and overspend management.

Simplify Claims Management: Manage claims and long-term agreements with ease.

Report in Real-Time: Get insights with promotion evaluation and account reporting.

Retail Execution

Unlock perfect retail execution, enabling field reps to maximize selling time, enhance strategy, and drive growth.

Maximize Selling Time: Leverage the Consumer Goods Cloud data model, offline mobile app, and advanced order capture.

Drive Growth: Use Einstein Visit recommendations and penny-perfect pricing to boost sales.

Improve Strategy: Optimize operations with real-time reporting, customer segmentation, and routing.

Perfect Store Execution: Conduct store audits, surveys, and ensure planogram compliance.

Staying Competitive with Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud

The consumer goods industry is at a pivotal point where a digital transformation is no longer optional but necessary for staying competitive. Salesforce is leading the way with Consumer Goods Cloud, providing customizable solutions that address the industry’s unique challenges. Whether you’re looking to drive sales, improve promotion effectiveness, or enhance in-store execution, Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud offers the tools needed to stay ahead in a competitive market.

If you want to learn more about Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

Corrao Group is a top Salesforce consulting partner in the retail, consumer goods, and professional service industries. Since 2002, we have helped organizations of all sizes and industries optimize and streamline their business processes with Salesforce. Our mission is to translate your business processes into Salesforce flawlessly, promoting successful integration and widespread user adoption.

Top Takeaways from Dreamforce 2024

Dreamforce 2024, the world’s largest software conference, delivered new innovations that are set to transform industries. Highlights include the launch of Agentforce, Salesforce’s autonomous AI suite, and major updates to Data Cloud and the Customer 360 platform. Powerful Retail & Consumer Goods sessions with McKee Foods, Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC), and Dole Fresh Fruit showcased how Consumer Goods Cloud is helping businesses optimize processes, strengthen relationships, and drive growth. Here are the top takeaways from Dreamforce 2024!

Agentforce

The biggest news coming from Dreamforce 2024 was, of course, Agentforce. Salesforce’s new Agentforce suite represents a major leap in the AI landscape, with CEO Marc Benioff claiming, “The Agentforce platform represented the third wave of the AI revolution.” The autonomous AI agents are designed to handle tasks independently across sales, marketing, service, consumer goods, commerce, and more. Unlike traditional chatbots or copilots, Agentforce analyzes data, makes decisions, and takes action autonomously. This significant breakthrough allows organizations to quickly scale their workforce, responding to business demands in real-time without requiring human input.

The true power of Agentforce is its ability to operate accurately and efficiently by integrating deeply with Salesforce’s Data Cloud. Whether resolving customer service inquiries, qualifying sales leads, or optimizing marketing campaigns, these agents can perform tasks that free up human employees to focus on more strategic and high-level activities. This will increase productivity and customer satisfaction, making Agentforce a game changer in AI.

With its bold vision of empowering one billion agents by 2025, Salesforce is not just advancing AI technology but redefining what’s possible in the workplace. As Marc Benioff says, “This is the biggest and most exciting piece of technology we have ever worked on, and we are just starting.” For businesses across industries, Agentforce offers the opportunity to enhance efficiency, improve customer relationships, and drive growth—all with a few clicks and without the complexity of traditional AI implementations.

Consumer Goods Cloud Customer Success Stories

Three leading consumer goods companies took the stage to share how they harness the power of Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud to transform their businesses.

Jack Corrao, Managing Partner of Corrao Group, highlighted McKee Foods’ success in optimizing trade promotions using Salesforce Trade Promotion Management. With trade spending being one of the biggest challenges in the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) industry, McKee Foods has found that the right tools can make a significant difference. By leveraging TPM, they have been able to navigate the complexities of trade promotions, maximize ROI, and enhance their overall business performance.

Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) showcased how they use Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud and Data Cloud to unify B2B and B2C data on a single platform. The session focused on how integrated planning and new data sources are helping RNDC make smarter, more profitable decisions, ultimately transforming their route-to-market strategy.

Dole Fresh Fruit shared its success story of improving planning and forecasting with Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Customer Planning & Forecasting (CPF). By utilizing Salesforce’s CPF capabilities, Dole has strengthened their relationships with retailers and boosted revenue through more accurate forecasts. Salesforce CPF has set a new standard for driving business growth and enhancing retailer partnerships.

All three of these sessions highlighted the transformative impact that Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud has across the consumer goods industry, empowering companies to make data-driven decisions, optimize processes, and achieve greater success. Corrao Group has been proud to partner with McKee Foods, RNDC, and Dole Fresh Fruit to ensure a seamless rollout and successful adoption of these cutting-edge solutions.

Data Cloud

Salesforce’s Data Cloud continues to show impressive growth and innovation, with a 130% year-over-year increase in customers and the capacity to process over 2.3 quadrillion records per quarter. Salesforce’s Data Cloud, the foundation of the Salesforce Platform, and Agentforce continue to drive innovation in unifying customer and business data to deliver personalized, contextually relevant experiences across Customer 360 applications, Flows, Analytics, and Agentforce. “In this new era of AI and Agents, customer data and metadata are the new gold for the enterprise,” said Rahul Auradkar, EVP and GM for Data Cloud at Salesforce. At Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce introduced several key innovations that enhance Data Cloud’s capabilities, cementing its role as the heartbeat of Salesforce’s AI ecosystem.

One of the most notable additions is Data Cloud’s support for unstructured data, which can natively process audio and video content such as customer calls or webinars. This opens up new opportunities for deeper customer insights and enhances the accuracy of Agentforce’s agents. Data Cloud also features a standardized semantic data model, allowing AI and human users to interpret and use data consistently. With improved search capabilities, Data Cloud enables a quicker discovery of relevant information. Real-time data activations also enhance the ability to instantly respond to changing customer needs, providing organizations with more dynamic and timely customer interactions.

Finally, Salesforce has strengthened Data Cloud’s data security and governance features. New policy-based governance allows organizations to maintain strict control over how sensitive data is shared with AI agents. These innovations, combined with Data Cloud’s role as the foundation for Agentforce, enable businesses to harness the power of AI while safeguarding their crucial data and operations.

Customer 360 Platform Innovations

Salesforce unveiled a range of exciting new innovations within its Customer 360 platform, further enhancing AI-powered, personalized experiences across sales, service, marketing, and commerce. These innovations leverage shared data and services to deliver a seamless customer experience while integrating powerful analytics and collaboration tools such as Tableau and Slack. Built on the Salesforce Platform, Customer 360 ensures that every touchpoint is connected, enabling businesses to deliver customer interactions that are both efficient and impactful.

Among the standout innovations announced is Tableau Einstein, which opens up the power of business intelligence (BI) and analytics to everyone who wants to make data-driven work scalable, efficient, and more valuable. By bringing data and insights across workflows in Customer 360 apps, Agentforce, Pulse, and Slack, teams can make data-driven decisions faster and more effectively. Slack has also introduced a new user interface for agents, enabling users to interact directly with data, surface insights, and collaborate in real-time. This includes an integration with Agentforce agents, making it easier for teams to stay aligned and move work forward by connecting Salesforce CRM records with Slack channels. (More updates on Slack are below).

Salesforce has also enhanced its core products with AI innovations. Sales Cloud now features Agentforce SDR and Sales Coach and capabilities like account planning, forecasting, and compensation management. Similarly, Service Cloud’s new features provide service agents with step-by-step resolution plans, sentiment tracking, and AI-based recommendations to improve the customer experience. Agentforce’s Service Agent can autonomously handle customer cases 24/7, seamlessly escalating problematic cases to human representatives when needed. These innovations and the introduction of Agentforce agents tailored for commerce, field service, and marketing demonstrate Salesforce’s commitment to transforming every role and workflow across industries with AI.

Slack Innovations

Salesforce announced a new series of Slack innovations, transforming the platform into an agent-powered work operating system that unifies company knowledge, data, agents, apps, and automation in one seamless interface. Denise Dresser, CEO of Slack, mentioned, “We’ve moved beyond collaboration; every day, millions of teams are leveraging purpose-built AI, with customer data, automation, and now agents seamlessly integrated into the flow of work. This isn’t just about getting work done. It’s about unlocking new productivity levels to drive results and move business forward for every team and department.”

With an Agentforce integration, teams can now collaborate with AI-powered agents directly in Slack to surface insights, automate tasks, and access customer data from Salesforce. Additionally, third-party AI agents from partners like Adobe and Anthropic can be deployed securely within Slack, allowing users to work smarter and faster. New features like Slack AI huddle notes, automated workflows, and enhanced search capabilities further streamline productivity, while Salesforce channels bridge CRM data and Slack conversations to keep teams aligned. These innovations position Slack as a central hub for boosting department efficiency and collaboration.

Free AI-Training

Salesforce has announced a major initiative to offer free hands-on AI courses and certifications through 2025, investing over $50 million to help bridge the growing AI skills gap. Salesforce will provide premium AI training through Trailhead, making AI education accessible to everyone. Additionally, Salesforce plans to open AI centers at its San Francisco headquarters and global offices, providing community and employee training spaces. This initiative reflects Salesforce’s commitment to preparing the workforce for the future of AI, equipping individuals with the tools and skills needed to succeed in an AI-driven world.

Dreamforce 2024 Conclusion

Mark it down as another successful Dreamforce event by Salesforce. We want to give a big shout and thank you to Salesforce as they put on an extraordinary event that featured some incredible guest speakers. The energy around San Francisco was electric as attendees gathered to witness and learn what new features Salesforce would release next. We are already getting excited for Dreamforce 2025!

If you would like to learn more about any of the new features from Dreamforce 2024 and how it can relate to your business, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

Corrao Group is a top Salesforce consulting partner in the retail, consumer goods, and professional service industries. Since 2002, we have helped organizations of all sizes and industries optimize and streamline their business processes with Salesforce. Our mission is to flawlessly translate your business processes into Salesforce, promoting successful integration and widespread user adoption.

Brown-Forman Partners with Corrao Group for Salesforce TPM Implementation

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Brown-Forman, a global leader in the beverage alcohol industry, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Corrao Group, a premier Salesforce consulting firm for Retail and Consumer Goods. This collaboration will leverage Corrao Group’s extensive business and technical expertise to implement Salesforce solutions that will drive operational efficiency, enhance customer engagement, and support Brown-Forman’s continued growth.

The partnership will focus on implementing Salesforce TPM to fully align with Brown-Forman’s business objectives, including:

Trade Planning & Budgeting

Trade Promotion Execution

Trade Tracking & Optimization

Adam Paton, Senior Finance Manager at Brown-Forman: “Partnering with Corrao Group will be instrumental in ensuring a successful TPM deployment at Brown-Forman. Their expertise in this area will empower us to optimize our strategies, ensuring greater efficiency and effectiveness in our promotional efforts.”

Carlos Brito, Senior Consumer Goods Architect at Corrao Group: “Pursuing a successful Salesforce TPM implementation, Brown-Forman, a company renowned for its iconic brands and commitment to excellence, has chosen Corrao Group as its implementation partner in this complex ecosystem of solution implementors,” said Carlos Brito, Senior Consumer Goods Architect at Corrao Group. “Our team is dedicated to delivering a Salesforce solution tailored to Brown-Forman’s unique complexities and needs, enabling them to enhance customer engagement, streamline operations, and drive growth. This partnership is a testament to our shared vision of leveraging technology to achieve business success, and we are committed to ensuring a seamless and impactful Salesforce implementation.”

This partnership underscores Brown-Forman’s commitment to innovation and continuous improvement. By implementing Salesforce with the guidance of Corrao Group, Brown-Forman aims to further solidify its position as a leader in the beverage alcohol industry.

About Brown-Forman


Brown-Forman Corporation has been building exceptional spirits brands for more than 150 years, responsibly upholding our founding promise of “Nothing Better in the Market.” Our portfolio of premium brands includes the Jack Daniel’s Family of Brands, Woodford Reserve, Herradura, el Jimador, Korbel, New Mix, Old Forester, The Glendronach, Glenglassaugh, Benriach, Diplomático Rum, Chambord, Gin Mare, Fords Gin, Slane, and Coopers’ Craft. With a team of approximately 5,700 employees worldwide, we proudly share our passion for premium beverages in more than 170 countries. Discover more about us at brown-forman.com and stay connected through LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.

About Corrao Group


Corrao Group is a leading Salesforce consulting firm, specializing in Retail and Consumer Goods, with over 30 years of experience in providing business and technical expertise to organizations across various industries. Specializing in Salesforce implementation, optimization, and integration, Corrao Group helps clients maximize the value of their Salesforce investment and achieve their business goals. Please visit corraogroup.com to learn more. 

Link to the original press release: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brown-forman-partners-with-corrao-group-for-salesforce-tpm-implementation-302248087.html?tc=eml_cleartime

Top Salesforce Retail & Consumer Goods Dreamforce 2024 Sessions Not to Miss

Dreamforce 2024 is just around the corner, and it’s shaping up to be an incredible event for anyone in the retail and consumer goods sectors. As Salesforce continues to push the boundaries of innovation with AI, data, and cloud technologies, this year’s sessions promise to deliver insights and strategies that will empower businesses to thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace. From enhancing trade promotion management and retail execution to driving growth through AI-powered customer experiences, these top sessions will provide the tools and knowledge to stay ahead of the curve and ensure your business is ready for the future.


Consumer Goods Cloud Roadmap

  • Hear the latest innovations for Consumer Goods Cloud across data, AI, and planning and execution.
    • Objective 1: Learn about the latest innovations from Consumer Goods Cloud.
    • Objective 2: Understand the focused investments driving Consumer Goods Cloud vision and preview the next three releases in our roadmap.
    • Objective 3: Discover how Data Cloud and generative AI create a seamless planning and execution solution for consumer goods companies.
  • When: Tuesday, September 17
  • Time: 3:45 PM – 4:05 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Intercontinental Ballroom A

And

  • When: Thursday, September 17
  • Time: 12:45 PM – 1:055 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Intercontinental Ballroom A


Consumer Goods: Improve Planning and Execution with Data

  • Intelligent, integrated planning and execution are critical to success. Hear about innovations improving the route to market and how incorporating new data sources makes this even more powerful.
    • Objective 1: Understand how Data Cloud brings B2B and B2C data together in one platform.
    • Objective 2: Hear how RNDC is using data to improve the route-to-market with integrated planning and execution.
    • Objective 3: See how Salesforce’s new innovation makes planning more intelligent and profitable than ever.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM PDT
  • Where: Moscone South, LL, Content Pavilion, Stage 6

And

  • When: Thursday, September 19
  • Time: 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Intercontinental Ballroom C


Consumer Goods Keynote: Profitable Growth with #1 AI CRM

  • AI + Data are changing consumer goods (CG) faster than ever. See how leading CG companies partner with Salesforce to deliver profitable growth through integrated, intelligent planning and execution.
    • Objective 1: Understand how consumer goods companies are uniting and activating data as a foundation for AI.
    • Objective 2: Learn how to improve your route-to-market with integrated planning and execution and new innovations.
    • Objective 3: See how embedded AI comes to life in the flow of work across integrated planning and execution.
  • When: Tuesday, September 17
  • Time: 1:45 PM – 2:35 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L3, Grand Ballroom ABC


Deliver Perfect Retail Execution

  • Hear how Consumer Goods Cloud Retail Execution is improving productivity and efficiency for field reps, merchandisers, and now direct store delivery and van sales drivers.
    • Objective 1: Hear how the route-to-market is evolving in consumer goods, creating new challenges to perfect retail execution.
    • Objective 2: Hear how Pepsico’s uses Consumer Goods Cloud Retail Execution to deliver the perfect store.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 12:15 PM – 12:35 PM PDT
  • Where: InterContinental, L5, InterContinental Ballroom A


Future of Data, AI, and Service for Apparel and Beauty

  • See how apparel, footwear, accessories, and beauty companies are using data, AI, and service to create new experiences and increase brand relevance.
    • When: Tuesday, September 17
    • Time: 4:00 PM – 5 PM PDT
    • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Stockton


Empowering the Retail Store of the Future with Salesforce

  • The retail store is not dead and is actually more important than ever. Learn how to harness the full power of Salesforce within the physical store to deliver next-generation omni-channel experiences.
    • Objective 1: Learn how to build long-lasting relationships with your customers and how to boost customer loyalty.
    • Objective 2: Learn how to modernize your loyalty program, optimize member engagement, and transform your program into a value advantage.
    • Objective 3: Learn how to effectively use technology to help modernize your loyalty programs.
  • When: Thursday, September 19
  • Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L4, Cathedral Hill


Get Started with AI for Consumer Goods

  • See how you can get started with AI for Consumer Goods to grow customer satisfaction and revenue. Learn how to utilize predictive and generative AI to deliver service excellence to customers at scale.
    • Objective 1: Discover Large Action Models and how LLMs are evolving to take action, driving the future of AI agents and multi-agent systems.
    • Objective 2: Get acquainted with our industry-leading xLAM family, including the acclaimed “Tiny Giant,” as featured in VentureBeat.
    • Objective 3: Watch a demo of multiple xLAM-powered agents working autonomously to solve real customer challenges.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L3, Marina


Improve Trade Promotion Effectiveness

  • Trade spend remains one of the largest categories for consumer packaged goods. Hear how you can manage, optimize, and win in trade promotion planning with Consumer Goods Cloud.
    • Objective 1: Understand the main challenges to trade promotion in the consumer goods industry.
    • Objective 2: Hear how McKee Foods is using Consumer Goods Cloud Trade Promotion Management to improve the bottom line of their programs.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 12:15 PM – 12:35 PM PDT
  • Where: InterContinental, L5, InterContinental Ballroom A


Modernize Productivity for Retail Front-Line Workers

  • Join retail peers for a discussion about the challenges facing retail store managers and associates. Hear how Slack is innovating to keep work flowing from headquarters to the point of sale.
    • Objective 1: How H-E-B uses Slack across hundreds of storefronts.
    • Objective 2: Why Slack is an ideal solution for retail frontline productivity.
    • Objective 3: How we’re innovating to solve unique frontline challenges.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Stockton


Plan and Forecast More Effectively with Consumer Goods Cloud

  • Strong relationships with retailers start with strong forecasts and plans. Hear how a leading Trailblazer is leaning into customer planning to improve revenue.
    • When: Thursday, September 19
    • Time: 1:45 PM – 2:05 PM PDT
    • Where: Moscone South, ILL, Content Pavilion, Stage 8


Retail and Service: Preparing for the Future of AI

  • Join us for a discussion on the emerging AI technologies and future trends that will have the biggest impact on customer service in the retail industry.
    • When: Wednesday, September 18
    • Time: 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PDT
    • Where: Moscone West, L2, Service Lodge Roundtable 3


Retail: Finding Retail Holiday Success in 2024 and Beyond

  • With growing complexities, costs, and evolving expectations, retailing is not easy. Come learn about the top challenges and priorities in modern retailing, and how Salesforce can help.
    • Objective 1: Learn about the top challenges and priorities in modern retailing.
    • Objective 2: Learn how Salesforce can help you succeed during the holiday shopping season.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L3, Marina


Retail: Drive Faster Retail Media Revenue Growth

  • Learn how one Trailblazer grew revenue by launching and monetizing retail media experiences.
    • Objective 1: Learn how one Trailblazer grew revenue by launching and monetizing retail media experiences.
    • Objective 2: Learn how to run your retail media network from one connected platform.
  • When: Tuesday, September 17
  • Time: 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM PDT
  • Where: Metreon AMC, L2, Theater 11


Secrets to Digital Customer Service Success in Retail

  • Say goodbye to abandoned carts and hello to growth. Learn how to create personalized end-to-end shopper experiences from discovery to post-purchase with an effective digital channel and AI strategy.
    • When: Wednesday, September 18
    • Time: 12:30 PM – 12:50 PM PDT
    • Where: Moscone West, L3, Cloudy Theater


Slack: Where Work Happens for Retail and Consumer Goods

  • Through industry use cases and customer stories, learn how Slack is helping the world’s top brands and retailers improve customer experiences and deliver new products to market faster than before.
    • Objective 1: Learn what Slack is and why it’s the ideal work operating system.
    • Objective 2: Learn why Slack is a powerful tool for brands and retailers.
    • Objective 3: Discover real-world demos and customer use cases.
  • When: Thursday, September 19
  • Time: 1:30 PM – 1:50 PM PDT
  • Where: Moscone West, L3, Slack Theater


Unlock Efficiencies and New Shopper Experiences with AI

  • The possibilities of generative AI in omni-channel retailing are endless. Join us as we unpack the best practices and use cases of where to start and how Salesforce helps retailers get there faster.
    • When: Thursday, September 19
    • Time: 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PDT
    • Where: Intercontinental, L4, Twin Peaks

If you would like to learn more about the Dreamforce 2024 Sessions, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

Corrao Group is a top Salesforce consulting partner in the retail, consumer goods, and professional service industries. Since 2002, we have helped organizations of all sizes and industries optimize and streamline their business processes with Salesforce. Our mission is to flawlessly translate your business processes into Salesforce, promoting successful integration and widespread user adoption.

Come See Corrao Group’s Clients at Dreamforce 2024

We are thrilled to announce that our clients — McKee Foods, Dole, and Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) — will take the stage at Dreamforce 2024 to share their success stories and insights on leveraging Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud. Each session will showcase how each company is driving innovation in trade promotion effectiveness, planning and forecasting, and retail execution. As valued clients of Corrao Group, they are at the forefront of transforming the consumer goods industry, and we are excited to have Salesforce highlight their achievements. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear from these industry trailblazers and gain strategies to elevate your business!

Improve Trade Promotion Effectiveness: McKee Foods

Trade spend continues to be one of the most significant expenses for consumer packaged goods companies, with managing and optimizing this spend often posing a challenge. At Dreamforce, join our Managing Partner Jack Corrao as he shares how McKee Foods is at the forefront of utilizing Salesforce’s Consumer Goods Cloud Trade Promotion Management to streamline trade promotion planning, ensuring every dollar spent effectively drives growth. Join this session to discover how to enhance your trade promotion strategies and win in a competitive market.

When: Wednesday, September 18

Time: 12:15 PM – 12:35 PM PDT

Where: InterContinental, L5, InterContinental Ballroom A

Link to Event

Plan and Forecast More Effectively with Consumer Goods Cloud: Dole

Building strong relationships with retailers begins with accurate forecasts and well-crafted plans. Dole, a leading Trailblazer, is leveraging Consumer Goods Cloud Customer Planning & Forecasting to enhance their customer planning and forecasting processes, ultimately driving revenue and fostering stronger partnerships. Don’t miss the opportunity to improve your planning and forecasting efforts to stay ahead of the curve/competition.

When: Thursday, September 19

Time: 1:45 PM – 2:05 PM PDT

Where: Moscone South, LL, Content Pavilion, Stage 8

Link to Event

Consumer Goods: Improve Planning and Execution with Data: RNDC

In today’s fast-paced market, intelligent and integrated planning and execution are more crucial than ever. RNDC is pushing the boundaries by incorporating new data sources into their strategies, leading to more powerful and effective routes to market. This session will explore the innovations RNDC is embracing to revolutionize their approach to planning and execution.

When: Wednesday, September 18

Time: 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM PDT

Where: Moscone South, LL, Content Pavilion, Stage 6

And

When: Thursday, September 19

Time: 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM PDT

Where: Intercontinental, L5, Intercontinental Ballroom C

Link to Event

Don’t miss out on the chance to hear directly from industry leaders about the innovative ways they’re using Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud to transform their business. Whether you’re looking to improve trade promotion effectiveness, enhance customer planning and forecasting, or integrate new data into your strategies, these sessions will produce valuable insights you can apply to your business.

Be sure to add these sessions to your Dreamforce 2024 agenda! We hope to see you there!

If you would like to learn more about how Corrao Group was able to help McKee Foods, Dole, and RNDC, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

Corrao Group is a top Salesforce consulting partner in the retail, consumer goods, and professional service industries. Since 2002, we have helped organizations of all sizes and industries optimize and streamline their business processes with Salesforce. Our mission is to translate your business processes into Salesforce flawlessly, promoting successful integration and widespread user adoption.

Salesforce Winter ’25 Release Notes: Consumer Goods Cloud

The Winter ’25 Release Notes are here, bringing a wave of innovation and improvements across the Consumer Goods Cloud landscape. This release significantly enhances Trade Promotion Management (TPM) with support for custom months and quarters in reports and KPI exports, along with customized promotion workflows for faster promotion creation. New TPM permission sets simplify user management, while sales data clustering improves prediction accuracy.

On the Retail Execution (RTX) side, features like Van Sales Delivery Execution and Penny Perfect Pricing Batch V2 enhance efficiency. The mobile app now supports Bluetooth keyboards and hybrid mode for real-time data access, boosting field productivity. Discover how these updates can elevate your business operations to new heights.

Trade Promotion Management (TPM)

Do More with Enhanced Support for Custom Months and Quarters

Include data for custom months and quarters in real-time reports and export KPIs for custom months and quarters. Previously, you could include data only for custom weeks in real-time reports or KPI exports. When you copy a promotion to create the new one, save time and effort by transferring any manually adjusted data for custom months and quarters to the new promotion.

Create Promotions Faster with Customized Promotion Workflows

Give your key account managers customized derive and copy promotion workflows to help them create promotions with their business-relevant details faster. Use customizations to add fields to newly created promotions or delete a field from the current derive and copy wizards. Configure a metadata wizard to customize user interface workflows for derive and copy promotions. Use the Business Object APIs to customize the Apex process that derives and copies promotions.

Manage TPM Permission Sets Efficiently

The Consumer Goods managed package now has new permission sets, such as TPM Finance User and TPM RBF User. These permission sets are automatically updated whenever the managed package is upgraded. Assign your users these permission sets to save the hassle of managing permission sets every time you upgrade to the latest version of the Consumer Goods managed package.

Enhance Prediction Accuracy by Clustering Your Sales Data

Segment your sales data based on historical sales patterns to create meaningful data clusters for training prediction models. Use the Scoring Framework to create a CRM Analytics app that effectively clusters accounts and product categories, enhancing the relevance of your data for baseline predictions. This feature streamlines data preparation and eliminates the manual selection of required accounts and products before installing the TPO Baseline app.

Retail Execution (RTX)

Streamline Delivery with Van Sales Delivery Execution

With van sales orders, the tour drivers can place orders and deliver products during each visit with available on-truck inventory. During delivery execution, the tour drivers can initiate a visit and deliver products or collects returns through orders. Tour drivers then finalize the orders, generate cash invoices, print or share invoices, and complete orders. Use van sales orders to optimize the efficiency of truck drivers, streamline the delivery process, and integrate sales, merchandising, and logistics.

Experience Enhanced Performance with Penny Perfect Pricing Batch V2

With Penny Perfect Pricing Batch V2, increase batch performance by increasing the number of pricing conditions processed in a batch run. Run the enhanced batch process to improve logging, support rebuild mode, and provide better scalability of processed pricing conditions. However, you can continue to use the existing version (Batch V1) of Penny Perfect Pricing.

Boost Mobile App Productivity with Bluetooth Keyboards

Connect a Bluetooth keyboard to your mobile device and easily enter single or multiline text (such as notes) when processing orders and during other retail execution activities on the Consumer Goods Cloud offline mobile app.

Manage Tab and User Permissions for Deployed Profiles

If you create profiles through Metadata API version 60 or later, you must assign the new unmanaged permission set CGCloud Retail Standard User to all existing and new retail users. Use the new unmanaged permission to ensure your retail users have the necessary tab access for standard objects and user permissions for retail execution activities. If you clone and manually create profiles, you already have the required permissions and don’t need to assign the new unmanaged permission set to the users.

Ensure Accurate Inventory Reconciliation

Inventory Reconciliation Batch updates product quantities to ensure that the reconciled inventory records are accurate and current. Use this batch process when using the inventory framework in Retail Execution and Direct Store Delivery solutions. Streamline inventory management and ensure product availability using the Inventory Reconciliation Batch.

Increase the Effective Account Manager Sync Batch Performance

Consumer Goods Cloud batch process runs a new, enhanced version of the account manager batch (EffectiveAccountManagerSyncBatch) by default. The new version creates or updates an account team member record only when there are changes in customer managers. This prevents re-creation of account team members with each batch. New customers automatically get the enhanced version; however, existing customers must configure a custom setting to use the new version.

Generate Reports in Non-Latin or Custom Fonts in Consumer Goods Offline Mobile App

Sales reps can now generate and preview reports such as Order Confirmation PDF reports in non-Latin fonts like Korean, Chinese, and Thai, or custom fonts in their Consumer Goods offline mobile app.

Use Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App in Hybrid Mode With Remote API Calls

Consumer Goods offline mobile app now supports online interactions with Salesforce. This change helps the offline mobile app receive data directly from Salesforce or from external endpoints set up via Salesforce using remote API calls. For example, sales reps can make informed order decisions by referring to real-time data in Salesforce. You can implement workflows that require online data by integrating the offline mobile app with Salesforce endpoints (Apex-based REST API calls).

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,200+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,400+ Salesforce projects. If you are interested in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sources:

Salesforce Winter ’25 Release Notes: Consumer Goods Cloud

Salesforce Summer ’24 Release Notes: Consumer Goods Cloud

It’s that exciting time again as we reveal the much anticipated Salesforce Summer ’24 Release Notes, bringing a wave of innovation and improvements across the Consumer Goods Cloud landscape. This release is packed with features designed to empower your teams, streamline operations, and elevate performance. From Retail Execution enhancements enabling seamless delivery management to Trade Promotion Management tools strengthening promotional effectiveness, each update is crafted to meet the evolving needs of the industry.

Retail Execution

Plan and Start Tours Activities Efficiently

With Direct Store Delivery and Van Sales, deliver consumer goods products directly to retail customers and manage deliveries seamlessly. Set up tours and routes for specific markets by using the Direct Store Delivery data model. Direct store delivery drivers can load their vehicles and start the delivery process by following the tour schedule.

Capture Store-Related Data Easily

Enable your sales reps or supervisors to choose a picklist option during a store visit for comparison with the target value. Configure the picklist values for a visit assessment task to help your users measure store performance with more flexibility.

New and Changed Objects in Retail Execution

Do more with the new and updated Retail Execution objects. Use these tour and route custom objects in Retail Execution to support the Direct Store Delivery and Van Sales feature. Link to see new and changed objects in REX.

Trade Promotion Management

Retain Manually Entered KPI Values for Periods
With the new Rounding feature within the Period rounding type, retain the KPI values manually entered for a period. This rounding type adjusts the KPI values only within the period where the value is manually entered, and you don’t lose the changes you made in the previous period.

Download and Share Promotion Data Easily

Key account managers can download data from the promotion P&L grid to a CSV file, and easily share the data with other stakeholders or use it in third-party systems. To ensure that they download only the required data, they can filter the promotion P&L grid data before starting to download.

Share Claim Data With Third-Party Systems

Use the Payment API to extract KPI values, such as Payout Amount, for each product and product level for every claim tactic that you want to use in third-party systems. You can extract up to 60 KPIs per claim.

Execute Push Promotions Faster

Configure system settings to change how batch processes are orchestrated. As a result, the Push Promotions process is completed faster.

Improve Promotion Effectiveness with Analytics Dashboards

Analyze account participation during promotional periods by using the new analytics dashboards for Trade Promotion Management. Use the data on sales volume, value, and product placement compliance to assess the impact of promotions. Gain insights into your brand and product performance. Compare the insights with competitor categories, brands, or products to measure and monitor the effectiveness of your products.

Upgrade Your CG Managed Package Seamlessly

Test a new version of CG Managed Package (CGPS) in your sandbox environment to verify that your business workflows are working seamlessly with the updated CGPS. Test the new CGPS version in the sandbox early on to ensure you don’t face any hiccups when upgrading your production org to use the latest Trade Promotion Management features.

Manage Permission Sets Efficiently

Assign new permission sets, such as TPM Funds Calculation Worker and CG Cloud Retail Supervisor User, to users and save yourself the hassle of managing permission sets every time you upgrade to the latest version of the Consumer Goods Cloud managed package. The new permission sets are now shipped with the managed package and are automatically updated whenever the managed package is upgraded.

Sync Management

Centrally Administer Your Sync Experience

Get a consolidated view of the most relevant sync features and manage the feature settings on the Sync Settings page. Determine the usage of those sync features for your users. Optimize your sync experience by downloading only relevant incremental data and setting a threshold on the maximum number of users who can sync simultaneously. Trace sync logs using unique IDs and resolve sync configuration issues by sending sync-related KPIs to Salesforce.

Expedite Sync Using Optimized Named Fetch Trees

Save on data volume and the time taken to download data as well as avoid redundant data transfers by downloading incremental REST-based named fetch trees updates.

Identify Sync Records in Logs Easily with Sync IDs

Use the unique ID assigned to each synchronization operation to improve your debugging and troubleshooting experience. With the sync ID appended to the logs, you can easily filter and trace sync transactions and plan necessary actions.

Process Simultaneous Sync Request Load Efficiently

Configure the maximum number of concurrent users on the Sync Configuration tab. Prevent overloading the system and maintain optimal performance when the number of sales reps initiating sync simultaneously from their mobile devices exceeds the configured limit.

Improve Support for Solving Sync Issues by Logging Extended Sync KPIs

Get better support and assistance to analyze and resolve your sync configuration issues by sending sync-related KPIs to Salesforce. Sync admins can review the KPIs collected for a sync process and take actions to optimize sync performance. Improve support for solving sync issues by logging extended sync KPIs

Include CPU Calculation Time in APEX Calculation

Protect your system from reaching potential Apex CPU governance limit exceptions by incorporating a buffer in the calculation of sync execution time.

New and Changed Objects in Consumer Goods Cloud Sync

Do more with the new and updated objects in Consumer Goods Cloud Sync Management.

Visual Studio Code-Based Modeler

Simplify Contract Customization with Keyword Suggestions

Use the auto-completion capability in your VS Code-based Modeler to create or customize a well-formed and accurate actionType keyword in the process flow contract and the pagePattern and bindingMode keywords in the UI contract.

Add Validation Methods in A Few Quick Steps

Avoid the manual creation of validation functions during customization. The sf modeler workspace add CLI command now supports the creation of the validation method type of business logic contract.

Deep Link Additional Apps in Your Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App

Your sales reps can collaborate, manage data efficiently, and streamline their field operations by using these third-party apps – Facebook, Workplace from Meta, GoSpotCheck, Star PassPRNT, and MicroStrategy Library.

Misc.

Consolidate Your Customer Data with Data Cloud for Consumer Goods

Install Data Cloud for Consumer Goods Data Kit to deploy data streams and connect to pre-configured data model objects (DMOs) in Data Cloud. Use the data streams to ingest data from Consumer Goods Cloud to Data Cloud, and use the integrated data to segment retail customers and strategize planning activities.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,200+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,400+ Salesforce projects. If you are interested in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sources:

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Release Notes

Salesforce Winter ’24 Release Notes: Trade Promotion Management

It’s that exciting time again as we reveal the much-anticipated Salesforce Winter ’24 Release Notes, bringing a ripple of innovation and improvements. Amidst all of the features and cloud enhancements, there’s one area that’s catching our attention: Trade Promotion Management. The spotlight is on Trade Promotion Optimization (TPO), a game-changing feature that can help consumer goods companies improve the effectiveness of their trade promotion strategies. Let’s dive into the latest enhancements and features for Salesforce Trade Promotion Management.

Improve Performance of Promotions By Predicting the Sales Uplift Volume

Improve the effectiveness of trade promotion strategies by predicting the sales uplift volume for each promotion. Use these predictions to understand the impact of a particular combination of promotional tactics and attributes, improve the uplift volume by changing the promotional tactics for products, and maximize your investments in trade promotions.

Easily Identify Custom Periods by Using Custom Labels

Enable custom labels in your Sales org to use a custom period’s short description as a label. See the custom labels in various views in Trade Promotion Management, including Trade Calendar, promotion P&L views, volume planning cards, spend planning cards, account plans, customer business plans, and real-time reports.

Choose the Best Scenario for Your Customer Business Plan

Create scenarios in your customer business plan (CBP) while planning for current and future financial years. Easily exclude promotions from a scenario and manually adjust key performance indicators (KPIs) to simulate different strategies. Compare KPIs from different scenarios and activate a suitable scenario to maximize your revenue and sales.

Understand the Calculations Behind Your Promotion’s Profit and Loss

Use APIs to analyze information related to your promotion’s Profit and Loss calculations, including both raw data and calculated key performance indicators (KPIs). Review the source KPIs, calculation variables, and formulas used in the calculated KPIs. See how weekly values are distributed into daily values.

Export Key Performance Indicator Grids Using APIs

Use APIs to export Key Performance Indicator (KPI) grids in Trade Promotion Management. The APIs can trigger calculation events and retrieve KPI information based on product levels, subsets, periods, and period types. Retrieve data for a specific period in JSON, serialized JSON, or CSV format.

Gain Valuable Insights with Better Visibility into Bill of Material Products and Components

Export component level key performance indicators (KPIs) with their associated components in a CSV file. The exported CSV file contains information about promotions and their associated bill of material components, along with a field that indicates whether a product is a bill of material or not.

Add Product Attributes in Real-Time Reports

Define the product attributes that are available in a real-time report based on your specific requirements. Show additional product attributes, such as Product ID, Product Code, or global trade item number (GTIN), in a real-time report. Previously, real-time reports used only the product dimension, and you couldn’t define multiple product levels in the product hierarchy.

Use Real-Time Reports More Intuitively

Real-time reports in Trade Promotion Management now show totals at the top of the details section of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) report, instead of at the bottom. If a promotion or tactic falls within the selected report time frame by at least one day, it’s included in the KPI report.

Get Intelligent Document Reader with Trade Promotion Management

Automatically extract information from uploaded documents by using Amazon Textract through your AWS account. Use the extracted information to create or update record fields, or to verify data that’s already in Salesforce.

Updates for Permission Sets

Improvements have been made to the permissions that are assigned to CGCloud Finance Admin, CGCloud Business Admin, CGCloud Finance User, and CGCloud Finance Manager permission sets to provide better access control. The CGCloud Refresh Update Activation Service permission set is no longer available in Trade Promotion Management.

If you would like to learn more about the Salesforce Winter ’24 Release Notes for Trade Promotion Management, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

For two decades, Corrao Group has stood as a pillar of expertise, assisting B2B organizations across various industries and sizes in implementing and optimizing their business processes through Salesforce and integrated third-party applications. With an unwavering dedication spanning 21 years, we have cultivated a deep knowledge and understanding of Salesforce as power users ourselves. This recognition of Salesforce’s flexibility empowers us to cater to various departments’ needs, ensuring seamless alignment. Our mission is to seamlessly translate your business processes into Salesforce, promoting not only successful integration but also widespread user adoption.

Sources

Salesforce Winter ’24 Release Notes Trade Promotion Management

How Salesforce Trade Promotion Management Solves These Top 3 TPM Challenges

Top 3 TPM Challenges

Defining Trade Promotion Management and its Immediate Necessity

Trade promotion is a marketing technique aimed at increasing sales of a product by making it more attractive to potential customers. A great example is the ‘Buy One Get One Free’ promotion that we see everywhere in stores. There are multiple departments involved, with many cumbersome processes involved. In today’s fast-paced world, companies are turning to new technology to support these processes. Trade Promotion Management (TPM) is the process of streamlining promotions planning, breaking down silos, and creating a single source of truth that helps maximize trade spend effectiveness. It provides in-depth insight into the volume and profitability of trade promotions to help manufacturers improve their business, and aids in gathering real-time data to produce actionable information.

Even before COVID-19, changes in consumer behavior were driving companies to shift to a digital strategy. The pandemic made it clear that cross-functional collaboration among supply chains, finance, and marketing needs to be more structured than ever before. With companies putting out 20% of annual revenue towards promotions on average (McKinsey), TPM software reduces the possibility of leaving money on the table or overspending. Without TPM software, companies in the US are losing 72% of revenue with promotions, and about 55% don’t even break even (Repsly). Most companies don’t realize these large losses due to not having analytics to easily show this data; one of the main challenges facing TPM. Other harmful challenges include having outdated & unscalable technology and time-consuming manual processes that have become archaic in today’s world.

Outdated and Unscalable Technology

Many companies use ERPs combined with Microsoft Excel to run most of their trade promotions. While effective to start, these systems quickly become outdated. They do not have the required intelligence and planning built within them to manage a company’s promotions. For example, the manually built experiences never capture the entire process and are difficult to scale along with the constantly-growing company. Homegrown technologies aren’t usually the most user-friendly either. With the primary focus on “just making it work”, UI always gets left behind. If users aren’t finding the technology effective to use, user adoption always suffers. Internally built systems also consistently “break” and are costly to fix, requiring constant updates that delay everyday users. If the main architect leaves the company, it’s extremely difficult to pick up where they left off. Hiring a new architect will be costly as they need to review the entire structure, and typically need to make their own updates in order to take control of it.

A TPM software, such as Salesforce TPM, provides world-class technology to help companies control every technological aspect of their trade promotion. Using industry best practices, Salesforce TPM takes the processes and technologies that have helped Retail and Consumer Goods companies plan, execute, and track promotions and provides them to all customers. The system is scalable, sound, and constantly updated with new features to help its customers. The extremely user-friendly TPM system also makes it easier than ever for anyone involved to use the system. Available training is also available for users to understand their system and even suggest new ideas to their Admins to further enhance the customizable solution.

Time-Consuming Archaic & Manual Processes

An Account Manager’s time is stretched thin between planning, developing, and implementing promotions. These labor-intensive tasks can be extremely time-consuming without TPM software. They also need to coordinate with field reps, drive store initiatives to ensure stock is fulfilled, and analyze if they drove positive ROI. Having to complete all these tasks manually results in high overhead and potential data entry errors, causing headaches, requiring steps to be redone, ultimately slowing processes down, and costing the company money. That’s only the Account Manager. Rinse and repeat for District/Territory Managers, Sales Reps, Merchandisers, and the rest of the team, and the entire process can be extremely costly. Manually copying and pasting promotions without adjustments no longer work in today’s world either. Managers need to make adjustments before and during promotions, and doing so manually is cumbersome.

TPM software completely streamlines the entire trade promotion process, while allowing real-time visibility into the entire process. No more waiting for specific excel sheets from one person. Managers can quickly drill down into the Account or Store level, see promotion performance, and make adjustments on the fly within minutes in order to boost sales. Email notifications are automatically sent out based on these updates, ensuring everyone is kept in the loop without any surprises. Promotions can easily be cloned via drag and drop, where Reps can make adjustments that take effect immediately. Trade budgets and accrued liabilities data are in real-time so Account Managers can verify available funding to support trade plans and match claims with payment once the promotion has finished. TPM software allows teams to spend more time selling, rather than getting stuck in the manual processes. These are just a few ways TPM software is accelerating the industry.

No Easy Access to Analytics

On average, 60% of promotions go unevaluated due to the lack of analytical tools and staffing (Pointstitue). Without TPM software, companies are left in the dark when it comes to easily reporting on the success of their promotions. It can take hours to pull together metrics across multiple systems, and there’s always the chance of incorrect numbers being shown. With 72% of US companies actually losing revenue on promotions, managers need to know which ones were unsuccessful so they don’t repeat them year after year (McKinsey). Success metrics including POS growth, primary vs secondary vs tertiary sales, consumer units, incremental and spend ratios, and ultimately ROI need to be readily available in today’s fast-paced world. Manually gathering these metrics across archaic systems is no longer an option. Managers need this information in real-time, with the ability for others to also have access to the data.

Companies can unlock larger ROI from their trade spend investment if they can spot and scale their most profitable programs immediately. TPM software provides easy-to-use analytics that displays all key promotional stats in real time. Salesforce TPM even allows for the ability to easily create custom reports and dashboards to track custom KPIs from company to company. Dashboards can zoom out to display all KPIs across all promotions run that year with the ability to drill down into states, regions, cities, and specific stores. Filters can display KPIs on how specific promotions performed nationwide as well. Analytics allows teams to replicate the highest-performing promotions, and eliminate promotions that fail to break even.

Trade Promotion Management Exceeds the Standard

Without TPM software to help plan, manage, and track promotions, each one is at risk of causing overspending, stock surplus, and negatively impacting the customer’s perception of your company. The RCG industry has undergone massive changes in the last few years, causing new technology to emerge that streamline processes across the company and boosts ROI. Software like Salesforce TPM for Consumer Goods Cloud provides the ability to maximize employee productivity and maximize ROI on trade promotions.