Category: Updates

Salesforce Spring ’26 is here, and while the general release focuses heavily on AI, automation, and tooling improvements across the platform, Consumer Goods Cloud continues to get enhancements that matter for real-world retail execution, planning, promotions, and sales/service workflows.

In this blog, we’ll cut through the hype and outline the updates that actually land in Retail Execution (REx), Customer Planning & Forecasting (CPF), Trade Promotion Management (TPM), and CG Cloud for Sales & Service — with a hard eye on what’s actionable for CPG & retail teams.

1. Smarter Retail Execution with Embedded AI & Automation

Field execution isn’t getting gimmicks — it’s getting practical intelligence.

• AI-Powered Visit Recommendations: AI-driven insights help prioritize store visits based on performance signals, compliance gaps, out-of-stock alerts, and historical behavior, so reps spend time where it matters most.
• Offline & Synchronization Improvements: The CES mobile app remains solid for offline execution. Spring ’26 reinforces sync stability and ensures data captured in the field flows back to HQ fast enough to inform next-day planning without missing a beat.

Why it matters: Field teams don’t need more buttons; they need smarter decisions and less wasted time. Salesforce REx powered with AI nudges and cleaner sync equals coverage where it counts.

2. Trade Promotion Management Gets Real-Time Context

TPM has always been about managing spend and claims, but Spring ’26 moves it further toward real-time visibility and execution elasticity.

• Smarter Promotion Planning Interfaces: Salesforce continues to build out its trade planning calendar, budget controls, and claims reconciliation so planners can build, modify, and track promotions on a single screen.
• AI Agents Helping Promotion Strategy: While not a consumer-goods-specific object, Spring ’26’s platform-wide AI agents (Agentforce) can now surface promotion insights, exceptions, and suggested next actions embedded right alongside your TPM workflows.

Why it matters: Promotions are expensive. We still see brands waiting to reconcile after the fact. Spring ’26 helps surface issues earlier and help planners know what to change before claims close.

3. Customer Planning & Forecasting: Better Forecasts, Less Guesswork

Customer business plans and CPF have been a focus for brands that are tired of spreadsheets. Spring ’26 doesn’t overhaul CPF, but it layers on visibility and predictive guardrails.

• Unified Data + Analytics Foundations: CPF benefits from Salesforce’s broader platform advances in reporting and unified data, giving planners one place to see sales history, forecast trends, and plan scenarios without disconnects.
• AI-Augmented Forecasting Inputs: Agents can help highlight outliers, suggest forecast adjustments, and identify demand signals that traditional planning tools miss — reducing the guesswork that kills margin.

Why it matters: Salesforce CPF isn’t just nicer charts — it’s about building trust in the numbers your sales and finance teams use every day.

4. CG Cloud for Sales & Service: Consistency Across Customer Touchpoints

Consumer Goods Cloud has matured beyond field execution. Spring ’26 reinforces the role of CG Cloud for Sales & Service’s workflows:

• Cross-Cloud AI Agents: Spring ’26’s AI agent platform plugs into sales and service workflows, helping field reps, planners, and support teams get recommendations and next steps right when they need them.
• Service Productivity Boosts: Case routing and service context in CG Cloud now mesh more cleanly with CPF and TPM data — meaning support reps see promotion history, forecast plans, and account execution signals without toggling systems.

Why it matters: Your sales and service teams deserve the same unified view that retail and trade planning teams have — no more “I didn’t know that promo was live.”

5. Practical Tips for RCG Teams Before You Go Live

Spring ’26 brings big ideas, but successful adoption is about discipline:

• Start with clean data. AI and automation punish fragmented records more than they fix them.
• Pilot with power users. Field teams should be first adopters — they’ll reveal gaps and drive real-world ROI.
• Lean into AI insights, but don’t outsource strategy. Agents are assistants — not replacement decision makers.

If you want help bridging the gap between Salesforce’s new features and your system, we’re here to help you win. Visit our website to contact us.

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

1. Don’t wait for “next quarter” — schedule a 30-minute conversation with us this week to map your holiday ’26 plan.
2. 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?
3. Choose a partner who understands RCG and Salesforce — you don’t want to re-build basic functionalities from scratch.
4. 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.

Most consumer goods leaders don’t lose sleep over their strategy. They lose it over execution — what actually happens at the shelf.

It’s the last mile that separates market leaders from everyone else. The perfect promo or forecast means nothing if the product isn’t stocked, priced right, and visible in-store. That’s where Retail Execution (REx) inside Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud changes the game.

The Reality: Field Teams Are Fighting Uphill

Even the best field reps struggle against three common blockers:

1. Visit Adherence Is a Moving Target

Reps spend too much time driving between stores or bouncing between systems. Static route plans and disconnected task lists make it hard to stay on schedule — or hit priority accounts first.

Result: Missed visits, duplicate work, inconsistent coverage.

2. Audits Don’t Equal Action

Most retail audits still live in spreadsheets or third-party apps. Data is collected, exported, and emailed back to HQ. By the time issues are reviewed, the shelf has already changed.

Result: Slow response to out-of-stocks, promo non-compliance, and wasted store trips.

3. Real-Time Alerts Are Missing in Action

Without live insights, reps often find out about problems too late — missing promotional end-caps, pricing errors, or expired displays that should’ve been fixed days ago.

Result: Each lost day = lost sales and a bruised relationship with the retailer.

How Salesforce REx Closes the Gap

Salesforce REx inside Consumer Goods Cloud was built for this exact reality — connecting route planning, store visits, audit data, and tasks in one live ecosystem.

Smart Route Optimization

REx automatically prioritizes visits based on KPIs, sales data, or geography. Reps see the most impactful stores first and can re-route mid-day when priorities shift.

Impact: 20–30% reduction in drive time and a measurable increase in store coverage.

Guided Store Visits

Within Salesforce’s mobile app, reps follow a guided flow that walks them through audits, orders, returns, and merchandising tasks — all in one screen. No juggling apps or losing photos in the camera roll.

Impact: Field productivity up 25% and task completion accuracy up 40%.

Instant Issue Capture & Alerts

When a rep flags a problem — a missing display, wrong price, low stock — REx pushes real-time alerts to the right internal teams (trade marketing, supply chain, finance). Tasks are created automatically, so nothing slips through the cracks.

Impact: Issue resolution time drops from days to hours.

Analytics That Drive Accountability

All that store data flows back to dashboards for managers: visit completion, shelf compliance, sales impact, and rep performance. Instead of reacting, they can coach and plan proactively.

Before & After

Why It Matters

CPG field teams are the face of the brand. When they’re armed with disconnected tools and outdated info, everyone loses — sales, marketing, and the customer. REx brings precision and speed to that chaos, giving your team time to sell, fix, and grow.

If you want to know what “perfect store execution” actually looks like in Salesforce, we can show you — not just in theory, but in your routes, your KPIs, your data. Contact us today if you’d like to have a discussion.

Most AI stories sound the same—“game-changing,” “revolutionary,” “paradigm-shifting.” The truth is, success can be defined in many ways, big and small.

Agentforce isn’t magic dust. It’s Salesforce’s way of putting automation, data, and decisioning exactly where work happens—in sales, forecasting, and field execution. For consumer goods companies under pressure to move faster with less, that’s a serious edge.

Here are three practical Agentforce use cases we’re building and deploying that actually move the numbers.

1. Sales Coaching Without the Backlog

The problem:
Field managers and key account leads spend hours chasing call notes, figuring out which reps need coaching, and compiling weekly performance summaries that arrive after it’s too late to change behavior.

With Agentforce:
An AI agent monitors meeting notes, call outcomes, and opportunity data inside Salesforce. It flags patterns (low-margin deal habits, missed upsell cues, stale leads) and surfaces personalized coaching recommendations automatically—no spreadsheets, no waiting for end-of-month reviews.

Impact:

• Time saved: ~8 hours per manager per week
• Win-rate lift: +12% in accounts where reps acted on suggestions
• Coaching lag: From 3 weeks → same-day guidance

What this means: You get consistent sales improvement loops that scale beyond one manager’s bandwidth.

2. Trade Promotion Exception Handling

The problem:
In traditional TPM, reps only see problems after claims fail—duplicate deductions, off-invoice pricing errors, or overspent fund buckets. Manual reconciliation burns time and ruins visibility.

With Agentforce:
An agent monitors live trade promotion data. When an anomaly hits (e.g., claim variance > 10%, unapproved SKU spend, or expired fund used), it alerts the TPM owner, recommends the fix, and—if approved—executes corrective actions through workflow automation.

Impact:

• Exception resolution time: From 5 days → under 1 hour
• Claim error reduction: −30% within the first quarter
• Finance visibility: Real-time alerts instead of weekly reports

What this means: TPM stops being reactive firefighting and becomes proactive margin protection.

3. Predictive Retail Execution Prioritization

The problem:
Field reps often visit stores based on static routes or outdated priorities. High-value accounts slip through, while others get over-serviced.

With Agentforce:
A retail execution agent continuously evaluates point-of-sale data, out-of-stock alerts, and visit history. It dynamically reprioritizes store routes each morning, highlighting which visits will drive the biggest lift in shelf compliance or revenue.

Impact:

• Visit planning time: Down 40%
• Shelf compliance: Up 15% on priority SKUs
• Incremental sales: +6% in targeted regions

What this means: Reps focus where they’ll make the most impact—every visit counts.

Where This Goes Next

Agentforce turns insight into action across the CPG value chain—sales enablement, promotion management, field execution, even forecasting feedback loops. It’s the connective tissue that brings AI to life inside Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud.

If you’re still running your sales or trade processes on gut feel and spreadsheets, this is your signal to start small and scale fast. Contact us today, and let’s see how we can help.

The Breaking Point of Spreadsheets

For many mid-market consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, spreadsheets have long been the default tool for forecasting demand, allocating trade spend, and managing promotions. They’re cheap, flexible, and familiar. But as businesses grow, those same spreadsheets quickly become a bottleneck.

• Version chaos: Multiple teams updating different files leads to conflicting numbers.
• Data silos: Finance, sales, and supply chain teams each rely on their own models, creating a fragmented view of the business.
• Inaccuracy: Outdated formulas and manual inputs cause costly errors—errors that ripple across the supply chain and erode retailer trust.

Scaling with spreadsheets isn’t just inefficient—it’s risky. That’s why mid-market firms are turning to Salesforce Customer Planning & Forecasting (CPF), a solution built for visibility, collaboration, and growth.

What Salesforce CPF Brings to the Table

Unlike static spreadsheets, CPF centralizes planning and forecasting in a single platform. That means:

• One source of truth across sales, finance, and operations.
• Predictive forecasting using Salesforce AI to reduce error rates.
• Real-time visibility into trade spend effectiveness and account-level performance.
• Scenario planning so teams can model promotions, product launches, or shifts in demand.

For mid-market firms, CPF isn’t just an upgrade—it’s a competitive edge against larger players with deep analytics budgets.

Lessons Learned Across the Board

Working with some of the most successful CPG companies, we’ve learned:

1. Excel is good until it isn’t—what works for startups eventually breaks at scale.
2. Collaboration matters—CPF aligns finance, sales, and operations on a shared set of numbers.
3. Visibility drives ROI—better forecasts and clearer trade spend insights translate to measurable growth.
4. Scaling doesn’t always require more people—with automation, existing teams can handle more complexity.

The Bottom Line

For mid-market CPG firms, the leap from spreadsheets to Salesforce CPF isn’t just about adopting new software—it’s about adopting a new way of working. Centralized forecasting, AI-driven insights, and cross-team alignment create the foundation for sustainable growth.

Contact us today if you’d like to see how Salesforce CPF can help your organization.