Fix promotions before they leak cash.
Download the Trade Marketing Optimization Checklist and pressure-test your promotion before money leaves the business.
Get the free promotion checklist.
Use it before your next promotion, retailer ask, trade planning session, or post-event review.
Slow down before you spend
Clarify the promotion's job, shopper target, retailer objective, expected lift, and margin impact before you commit.
Protect shelf execution
Check inventory, pricing, displays, broker follow-through, and store-level readiness before a weak read creates bad decisions.
Learn what to change
Use the post-event review to decide whether to repeat, redesign, negotiate differently, reduce support, or stop funding the event.
A promotion can lift sales and still make the business weaker.
Promotions should introduce your product to the right shoppers, improve repeat purchase, strengthen retailer confidence, and support profitable growth.
But when the objective is unclear, the costs are incomplete, or execution breaks down, promotions can create a temporary spike while cash gets tighter after the event ends.
Cash Drain
Discounts, fees, scan downs, billbacks, deductions, demos, and display costs can quietly drain runway.
Execution Noise
Out-of-stocks, bad pricing, weak displays, and poor broker coordination can make good promotions look bad.
Repeat Mistakes
If no one compares the plan to the actual result, the team keeps funding what should be fixed or stopped.
Build the checklist before the promotion leaks.
- How to give every promotion a clear job before you fund it
- How to connect the event to the right shopper, retailer objective, and brand strategy
- How to know your numbers before committing to discounts, fees, and support
- How to use scorecards to protect execution and clarify ownership
- How to monitor inventory, pricing, display compliance, broker follow-through, and shopper response
- How to evaluate the event and decide what to repeat, change, reduce, or stop
A simple way to stop guessing before the money leaves.
Use the checklist before, during, and after the event so every promotion becomes a better next decision.
Define the job
Clarify the objective, target shopper, retailer win, offer, cost, and success criteria before you commit.
Know the numbers
Model the promoted price, discount depth, expected lift, inventory need, margin impact, and deductions risk.
Protect execution
Use scorecards to align the retailer, broker, distributor, inventory, pricing, and display plan.
Capture the learning
Evaluate true ROI, base sales, deductions, execution, and shopper response before funding the next event.
Promotion planning is a runway protection system.
Trade spending is one of the largest controllable expenses in a CPG business. Every weak promotion gets more expensive when costs are higher, shoppers are more selective, retailers are more demanding, and private label is stronger.
The checklist helps you answer the better question: did the promotion make the business stronger?
- Stop repeating promotions just because they were on last year's calendar
- Know whether the offer reinforces the brand or trains shoppers to wait
- Protect execution so bad compliance does not create a false read
- Review results with your retailer and build trust through useful insight
- Turn every promotion into a decision about what to repeat, change, or stop
Practical retail clarity from someone who has been there.
I’m Daniel Lohman, CPSA, founder of Retail Solved and host of Bulletproof Your CPG Brand. I built this checklist to help founders stop treating promotions like expensive guesses and start using them as a learning system.
Keep learning with Bulletproof Your CPG Brand.
300+ episodes of practical retail strategy for founders, CEOs, and industry leaders trying to grow smarter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this guide for?
This guide is for CPG founders and growth-stage brand teams trying to improve promotion planning, execution, trade spend discipline, retailer follow-up, and post-event learning.
Is this only for trade marketing teams?
No. Promotions can affect cash, margin, deductions, execution, retailer trust, and runway. That makes promotion discipline a founder-level issue.
Is the guide really free?
Yes. Enter your email and you’ll get instant access to the guide.
Will this calculate my promotion ROI?
The guide gives you the checklist and decision questions to improve the promotion read. For deeper math, pair it with the Free Promotion ROI Calculator or a custom Retail Clarity Decision Tool.
What happens after I download?
You’ll receive the guide and occasional practical resources to help you protect runway, improve execution, and compete smarter.
Before your next promotion, run the checklist.
Download the free guide and fix the plan before the promotion leaks cash, margin, execution, and runway.