Important: Brand Secrets and Strategies has been rebranded to Retail Solved. Please swap all BrandSecretsandStrategies.com URL’s with RetailSolved.com. This is now the Bulletproof Your Brand podcast. Thank you for listening!

Effective promotions can add rocket fuel to your brand growth. Ineffective promotions can derail and even bankrupt your brand - a key reason why over 80% of natural brands fail. I’m committed to fix that.

Most brands rely on cookie-cutter strategies that do nothing to grow sustainable sales. There is a better way to confidently grow and scale your brand. It’s the simple but critically important things brands overlook that can be the difference in being a thriving success or a failed experiment.

Mastering these skills will put on a direct path toward sustainable sales and profits.

This includes EVERY brand - including those that use trade promotion software applications.

$244 Billion was spent on promotions in 2017 that resulted in only a 17% increase in sales. Promotions represent 25% of your gross sales and yet over 70% is wasted or ineffective - a big reason brands struggle.

Stop wasting money! Every slight trade marketing ROI improvement means more runway for sales growth, higher brand valuations, better terms when negotiating with investors, fuel for more innovation, greater support for mission-based causes, and more!

That was super helpful info, and I think every new CPG brand should take it to heart. So, to follow up on what Dan said, trade marketing and promotions are all about raising awareness with shoppers. When you raise awareness, you’re more likely to get them to pick your product off the shelf.

This is especially true this year and maybe even into 2021. Competition will be fierce, we know that.

And this year has been tough for emerging CPG brands. But we have to stick to what works and figure out how to beat our competitors.

Ready to learn how to gain a competitive edge? Let’s start the podcast. Hello and thanks for joining us today.

Welcome. The best way for you to grow and scale your brand, especially now with COVID, is to make the most of your money and resources. That means you need to maximize every promotional opportunity.

And don’t just throw money away at promotions that don’t work. That’s what this episode is about. This is a recording from one of the live webinars I did with my friend Yuval from Promomash.

Now, here’s Yuval. The secret to effective promotion management. I invited Yuval to be on this because he has a solution that I think is perfect for every brand out there. So, we’re going to talk about the nuts and bolts of trade promotion, because I have to be honest, I’ve been doing this for a long time.

And a lot of people think that if I have a solution, I just press a button and it’s done. Or that if I hire someone else to manage my trade promotions, that’s all taken care of. This is usually the biggest expense on your income statement.

Hey everyone, and welcome to this chat! I’m Daniel Lohman, and I’ve been in the CPG industry for quite some time. I used to be the category captain for Kimberly Clark and Unilever, so I’ve got a good understanding of category management.

One of the things I’m passionate about is helping emerging brands succeed. I believe that with the right strategies, anyone can level the playing field with the big players.

Now, I’d like to introduce you to Yuval Selik. Yuval has been in the CPG industry since 2005, and I think it’s great to have someone with such experience here. Yuval, you’re on! Tell us about yourself and what you do.

Hey everyone, and welcome to this webinar! I’m excited to share some insights with you today.

First, let’s talk about Yuval’s information. You’ll find it on the last slide of this presentation, and you can also reach out to him in the chat. Yuval and I have been working together for a while now, and we’ve been collaborating on various projects.

We recently hosted a three-part webinar series, and you can find the link to it on Yuval’s website. But the main point is that we’ve been partnering and trying to push the boundaries together.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Why should I care about Yuval?” Well, let me tell you, he’s an expert in demo management and trade promotion. He knows exactly how to maximize the effectiveness of your promotional efforts, including demos.

But what really sets Yuval apart is his ability to adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic. He’s taken his game to the next level and beyond.

And guess what? He’s got an amazing tool that can help you take your trade marketing to the next level. You saw me yesterday how much he’s done with it, and it’s come a long way. This is exactly what every brand needs.

So, let’s talk about some of the solutions that Yuval offers. Many of them are similar to QuickBooks for trade marketing. They help you keep track of your trade spend, which is super important.

But Yuval has taken things to a whole new level with some of the integrations he’s made into his system. They’ve really brought this to a whole new level.

Yuval is going to talk about all of this in a minute. So, thank you, Yuval, for being here today. Let’s get started!

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Retail is broken, right?” And you’re not wrong. One of the biggest challenges in this industry is that everyone follows the same strategies. It’s like we’re all teaching each other how to raise money, then we teach each other how to raise money, and then we teach each other how to raise money. And then we teach each other how to hire. It’s like we’re all trying to hand our keys to someone else.

But Yuval is different. He’s got a unique approach that can help you break free from this cycle and achieve success in retail.

Hey everyone, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Shouldn’t your go-to-market strategy be as creative as the ingredients in your package? Natural products are so unique and destructive, so different from what everyone else has. We’re all about helping you leverage that unique strength to drive sustainable sales for your brand at retail.

Remember, cookie-cutter strategies don’t work. If you’re working with someone who has a templated or canned strategy, the same one they use to sell motor oil won’t differentiate your organic baby food or anything else. It won’t make it easier for customers to find your product, and it’ll waste a ton of your money.

You’ll end up in front of the wrong people, and that’s not cool. We want to help you avoid those challenges. That’s why we’re here.

So, what’s the number one reason why brands fail today? I’ll quickly pull up a slide and let you know what you think. We can chat about it while we’re doing this.

Yuval, do you have any thoughts?

I know the answer, so I won’t give it away unless you want me to mislead everyone.

Alright, go for it!

I think… No, I’ll leave it to the answer. I don’t want to mislead anyone.

So far, the answers are… Okay, so now it’s a split.

Come on, a couple more people, a few more people. We’ve got a couple more minutes. We’ll jump right back into the presentation.

What’s the number one thing right now? What’s leading?

Actually, it’s tied. Cash flow and too much competition. Okay, so the questions are poor shelf placement, poor merchandising, too much competition, and cash flow issues.

And right now, it’s split between cash flow and too much competition.

Alright, let’s wrap up the poll. The two top winners are… drumroll… cash flow!

And guess what? This solution solves all our problems. You’ve heard the saying, “cash is king,” and there’s some truth to that.

But here’s the thing: it all comes down to where you’re putting your product, where you’re selling it, and how you’re getting in front of people. And that, my friends, goes back to trade marketing.

So, how do we fix this? The best way is to raise more money. But here’s the catch: one of my pet peeves in this industry is that we constantly tell people they need to be perpetual fundraisers.

I disagree with that completely. So, we’re going to show you how to get around that. The second thing we can do is sell more product.

Well, that’s all great if you have the right product in the right stores, merchandise correctly, and so on. But here’s the next thing: save money. And again, that’s why we’re here.

So, the best solution is, what if you could do all three? And that’s what we’re talking about here. How would it impact your business? If you could leverage all three of those things, capitalize on them to grow and scale your business.

Instead of focusing on raising money forever, let’s focus on raising more money. Instead of raising more money, let’s focus on helping you get more runway from your available resources. In other words, how can we help you decide which promotion is the most effective promotion to be a part of?

How can we give you the strategies to say no to a retailer or a broker or anyone else? That particular promotion doesn’t make sense for your brand at this stage, etc. We’re going to teach you how to do that, and that’s what this webinar is all about.

So, how do you do that? Well, we need to level up your skills and give you skills that your competition doesn’t have.

That’s a big part of this weekly webinar series. Go back and check out old webinars. But more importantly, everyone applies cookie-cutter strategies, even the big brands, by the way.

In fact, when I worked for Kimberly Clark and Unilever, it was simply rinse and repeat. This is what we did last year. This is what we’re going to do this year.

Maybe a slight tweak, but really no creativity. This is your unique opportunity to really differentiate your brand on the shelf and show people what your brand’s about and how creative you can be. And by the way, this is what retailers really want.

You’ve heard me say this before. Retailers want three things: more traffic in their store, a competitive advantage in their market, and a reasonable profit in the category.

And if you can help your retail partners achieve that, then savvy retailers will have been over the top to support you. And this has been my secret to success, and this is how I pushed around some of the biggest, most iconic brands in the planet, including P&G, Frito, et cetera, where retailers would literally come to me and give me opportunities that they wouldn’t give anyone else. So, and the best part is that all three of what we’ve just been talking about, all three of those things together will help you grow and scale your brand confidently.

So, better strategies and skills equal better results.

Well, I want to spend most of my time talking about Yuval’s solutions, so I’m going to just go through this kind of quickly. But the podcast, Yuval’s been on a couple of times, great insights. Listen to that, there are 210 episodes.

I just talked to Gail Becker of Collie Power, great episode. Listen to that for resources. By the way, this stuff is free, right?

Hey there! Here’s a quick tip: check out free weekly webinars. Last week, we discussed a creative strategy where you can actually get paid to sample your products. Isn’t that awesome?

Go back and look at that and this will also be available. I’ll be doing other things with Yuval as well, like starting a new YouTube channel called ‘BRAND SECRETS AND STRATEGIES’.

And guess what? I’ve got a bunch of free courses on my website. Most of them are free, so you don’t have to spend a dime.

Now, let’s talk about this free trade promotion calculator. Yuval will explain it better in a minute, but here’s the deal: twenty-five percent of your gross sales are tied to trade marketing.

And here’s the kicker: at least seventy percent of that is wasted or ineffective. When I say wasted, I mean it’s not helping you introduce your product to new customers.

So, here’s what you can do: use this tool on my website. It’s free, and it’s my way of giving back. You can play around with it to see how much you’re actually spending on trade marketing.

Then, you can figure out how to change things up and get more bang for your buck. I won’t go into too much detail here, but there’s a video that shows you how to use the tool and explains all the nuts and bolts of trade marketing.

I’ve talked about this on my podcast and in other webinars, so if you want to learn more, check those out too!

Hey there! You can now easily create and run trade promotions. The tool will crunch the numbers and give you a clear ROI on your trade spend. This is super important because when you have these insights and use tools like what Yuval is going to share in a minute, you get the best bang for your buck.

Here’s how we help you: we give you more runway for sales, more out of your resources, more customers, and more sustainable sales. Every little improvement means more runway for growth, higher brand evaluations, better terms in negotiating with investors, and more. Think about it: if you can reward a brand for doing something good, people want to do it. So, take a look at this on the website, and let’s see where you are on this page.

Now, let’s say you’re a million-dollar brand and spend about $250,000 on trade promotions. That’s a 10% improvement, which is $17,500. What would you do with that extra money? And remember, your results keep getting better year after year.

As you get better and understand trade promotion more, you’ll get the most out of it. Yuval is going to share a tool in a minute that’ll help you organize your promotions. When you think about the challenges of managing promotions, there are two main things: what are the things that maximize your promotion? What are the levers you can pull to drive the most sales and get the best ROI? And how do you organize it?

Hey everyone! If you’re a new brand and you’re using spreadsheets or napkins, that’s totally cool. I suggest you get good at one account and one SKU. But as you grow, you need a way to organize.

And this is one of the places that brands fail. That’s why I invited Yuval. By the way, another thing is that you need both to really be successful.

So, as I said earlier, all the strategies I kind of glossed over went through really quickly. Go back and learn those, and that’ll help you make the most of Yuval’s tool. So, with that in mind, Yuval, here you go.

We’ll get to the slide in a second. But Dan, thank you so much for hosting this webinar. You do so much for the community and you provide such great information.

I can’t even imagine how you’re not charging for all the stuff you put out. It’s amazing and you must have some rich uncle or something that gave you some inheritance because- Yeah, send me the bill later.

But that was really great information and that’s information that I think every emerging CPG brand should heed. So, to piggyback off of what Dan said, you know, trade marketing and trade promotions really means that you’re raising awareness, right, with the shopper. When you raise awareness, you have a much greater chance of getting that shopper to select your product off the shelf.

Now, this is more true, especially this year and perhaps into 2021. Competition will be fierce. We know that.

But the reality is that emerging brands are really behind in their promotional efforts. In-store demos were halted. We know that.

We all suffered. The whole community suffered. And they’re just coming back right now.

Whole Foods, Costco, same with TPRs and ads. There was a halt on all promotions for, I don’t know, four to five months now in general, especially when the virus hit. And this year has just been crushing for emerging CPG brands.

But we have to stick to what works and figure out how to get ahead of our competitors. So the way we…

Hey, can I jump in for a sec?

What was that? Yeah, I think so.

Sorry, I didn’t rub. Let me go a step further. Thanks for sharing that.

One of the challenges, another thing we need to be aware of, is because retailers haven’t been able to get that job done, that drug we call trade promotion. Yep. They’re looking to big brands to fill that need.

Yep.

Why this matters is that they’re looking to big brands that can pay big sliding dollars, and so on. Yep. So they’re more effective and the more efficient you can be, as Yuval is going to talk about, it’ll give you that leg up.

It’ll give you that competitive advantage. And you need to be more aware of what Yuval just said right now, more than ever before. So sorry about that, Yuval.

Please go ahead.

No, I mean, it’s so true. I always say that, and this is just from my own experience and I’ve seen it with working with over 400 brands, especially the startups, right? The large multinational conglomerates have a leg up and the emerging brands just, it’s just so difficult to compete, especially in the Me Too category.

You know, if you’re a bar, a kombucha, you know, if there’s a lot of you on the shelf, it’s hard and you got to think of really creative ways to do so. So the way we look at it here in Promomash is that there are two main points for effective CPG promotional management. The first is obviously the data, right?

You must manage your promotional effectiveness with data. And I’m sure that Maya Angelou wasn’t thinking of CPG promotional management when she said, if you don’t know where you come from, you don’t know where you’re going. But that’s the truth.

And really the second main point that brands need to think about is actually just as important as managing the data. And that’s managing the people. A lot of people don’t talk about that because people management is hard.

So, these folks focus solely on managing data, but that’s a huge mistake. At Promomash, we’re all about data, but we also believe that brands must manage and hold accountable the people who create the data.

You need to look at it from a broad perspective, from the big picture to the tiny details. Brands need to make big moves and small ones. But people are responsible for effective promotions because promotions aren’t done in isolation.

They’re real activities, negotiations between real people in real time. And you need to manage your promotions that way. You can’t just make optimization decisions 30 days or longer after everything is said and done.

That means you can’t make proactive optimization decisions without real-time data. And as you can see on this slide, which is right here, this is the current state of CPG promotional management. It’s a bit scary, right?

This is probably one of 15 spreadsheets that brands use to manage their promotions. It’s just crazy! When a startup brand enters the retail landscape, the most important thing the founder needs to do is iterate and learn from their customers.

Products need to be good. Because if the product isn’t good, I don’t care how much money you’re spending on trade. People won’t keep buying your products, and you’ll be out of business.

But if you have the product and the margin, you need to figure out what your customers think, where they are, especially as the founders expand their distribution. Promotional effectiveness means sustainability, growth, and retail. So, yes, you can do it on a napkin or a spreadsheet if you’re just starting out.

I’d highly recommend it, but to have a fighting chance, especially as you grow to one to five million, promotional effectiveness is still crucial for sustainable growth. However, at this scale, spreadsheets are hindering your team’s progress. Real-time team management and analysis are too complex for a two-dimensional spreadsheet.

The biggest challenge, I believe, is that each sales rep, broker, analyst, and executive needs their own spreadsheet, especially if you have five or six brokers or ten across the country. They all manage it differently.

So, the founders and managers suddenly receive a flood of spreadsheets with their promotional activities, leaving them clueless about what’s going on. Attempting to combine multiple spreadsheets is a waste of time and effort. It’s not only difficult but also increases the risk of errors.

A startup can’t afford to make a $10,000 promotional mistake, let alone a $50,000 or even a $100,000 one. That’s just plain deadly. I’ve personally experienced this in my own business.

Let’s move on to the next slide. Can I join the discussion?

Go back to the spreadsheet. Can you give me a thumbs up or like, yes, if you’ve seen a spreadsheet like this before for your promotional management on your team?

I’m sure I have. There you go.

So, it’s definitely there. Now, let’s look at the next slide.

This slide presents a comparison of two garden scenarios. On the right side, there’s a garden with weeds, and on the left, there’s a clean garden. Why is the clean garden better? Well, the weeds are stealing the resources from the vegetables that need them, right?

Hey there! That’s a fantastic analogy for how your promotions perform. If you have a bunch of ineffective promotions that are hogging the resources for your effective ones, you’ve got a dying promotional garden. And you need to be proactive and make corrections in real time to keep your promotional garden healthy.

I really want you to think about that because in my company, everyone wanted something from me. As Dan calls it, I became the ATM of my industry. And that was really nice.

I was giving everyone money and they kept on coming back, right? But what is that? That’s promotional ineffectiveness.

That’s letting your weeds grow, your trades spend to grow without really understanding what’s going on, and your people to be mismanaged, meaning that they do whatever they want, there are no guardrails, and guess what happens? Your brand fails. That’s exactly what happens.

So, why am I and my team so passionate about helping brands promote better? Well, my experience, and some of you know this already if you know me, but my experience with my first CBG brand taught me what not to do. Like I said, I wish I had Dan back then, but I actually failed in retail because I didn’t have control over my spend.

I had very little control over my brokers and ambassadors because I was using spreadsheets, email, and texts to manage them. And God forbid, I don’t know if anybody knows this, but I used facts. Like it was a common thing back then in 2005.

I don’t think it’s that common anymore. Maybe it is. So we are here to help brands manage the promotional efforts in a three-dimensional way versus a two-dimensional way, which if you go to the next slide, you’ll be able to see.

What we created is a single source of truth. Plus real-time data. And again, super, super important.

Hey everyone! Let’s talk about people management. If you’re in the trading business, managing your trades and demos, then trade really comes down to trade tactics. But if you’re juggling all that with five or six different spreadsheets, data is all over the place.

Now, imagine a founder and management team with a single source of truth. They can look at each individual tactic and manage it across the entire company. That’s what we’re talking about! Brokers, ambassadors, merchandisers, your management team, your executive team - all the data, training, and everything else is in one place. Trust me, it’s a game-changer, especially for smaller brands that want to compete against big names.

Let me give you an example. Imagine you’re a nutritional bar or an energy bar. With 300 bars on the shelf, guess what people are going to choose? The Cliff Bars, the RX Bars, the ones they know. Why? Because they’ve spent millions of dollars on advertising and marketing that you don’t have. And some of the best brands have achieved success through trial and demos.

Take Kashi, Hashka in the natural skincare space, or GT’s Kombucha and Evolution. They all started strong and spent most of their money on sampling, trying out new products, and promoting their brands.

So, it’s crucial to do it right, but it’s not easy. That’s why Dan is in this industry, and that’s why we’re here too. We want to help people promote their brands better.

The dreamers out there who risk everything, who mortgage their house, or take loans from their family - they need to win. They need a win. And we’re here to support them every step of the way.

So, Dan, thank you for everything you do in this space. We really appreciate it. And we’ll keep working with you and others to help small brands succeed.

Here’s what I’ve got. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to meet with you for 30 minutes as a consultation. Just send me an email.

The email is on the chat, Yuval at promomash.com, or you can reach me on LinkedIn at Yuval, Y-U-V-A-L, Selik, S-E-L-I-K. Let’s schedule some time and chat about your promotional planning and how you’re doing.

No matter what you choose, whether you use Promomash or stick to spreadsheets, we can definitely identify some key points that can help you. Because what you don’t know is hurting you. And I believe Dan and I can help you figure out what you don’t know and guide you on the right path.

Thanks to everyone for showing up. I appreciate it. And Dan, it’s all back to you.

Alright, let’s do the Q&A. And I’ll try to reinforce what you all said.

Thanks for sharing that. One thing I didn’t mention is that trade promotion includes everything it takes to get your product in the hands of a consumer. It’s a bit too broad, but if you don’t consider everything, you’re missing out.

Let me give you an example. Many brands I talk to talk about the cost of attending Expo East for a trade show.

I’m not trying to criticize them, but let’s say you spend $5,000. You get a booth in a bad location, not much traffic, and your team shows up. You have samples, and so on. By the time you’re all there… Oh, and by the way, you have to feed your team too, right?

So by the time you’re all in, you’re spending about $25,000. Will you get $25,000 worth of sales at that event? Yes or no?

Hey there! I’m here to help you decide if that spend is a good one. Let’s take a look at what it looks like in Big CPG. You know, when I worked for Unilever, we had so many deductions that I was trying my best to deal with them.

My boss actually came to me and said, ‘Hey, we’re paying you to sell, not to do deductions. There are retailers deducting things that don’t make sense, deductions that we actually have a leg up on.’

We shouldn’t have had to deal with that kind of nonsense. It was a huge waste of time. I’m trying my best to weed it out because I want to be a good steward of our company’s money.

But my boss said, ‘Just let it go.’ And a lot of companies do that. The way they put the deductions in front of people is a huge issue.

That’s one of the most important services that Promomash offers. So, if you don’t do anything else, take advantage of that.

Managing your deductions. By the way, in these webinar series, I talk about how to avoid that headache in the beginning. So, go back and watch some of those old episodes.

Now, let’s talk about the trade marketing piece. When I worked for Unilever, we came up with our own trade marketing tool back before there was anything in the market. It was amazing!

We had a push-button category management system. We could put the information in, and it would spit out whether or not it was a good promotion or not.

Well, that wasn’t enough! You see, if you rely on cookie-cutter strategies and promotions, you won’t achieve the results you expect. Kimberly Clark, as a category captain for Huggies and Kleenex, and other brands, realized this. I had the privilege of working with them to develop a promotion that went beyond the basics.

I delved deep into the details and identified the factors that drove sales. I gained complete control over the promotion, which is rare. I was able to introduce a product in 108 stores.

The results were astounding! We sold an additional $500,000 in cases, or 10,000 cases, in just one week. I also helped the retailer understand how much cold and flu medicine they needed to stock in advance to support the promotion.

Here’s the key: when you apply this level of resourcefulness and insights to a retailer, they’ll reward you. The retailer didn’t charge me for promotions in the future, for most of them, and for shelf placement and other things. They even promoted us for free in their rotos and other promotions.

This is what we aim to help you achieve. In short, you need to level up your skills and go beyond what every other brand does.

I know it’s frustrating to hear a brand say, ‘I have this fancy tool and I push a button, and this is what it gives me.’ There are many issues, even if you use syndicated data. Syndicated data doesn’t always match up with how retailers actually promote. There are so many problems.

The coding in your databases doesn’t match how your customers actually buy your products, and that can vary from store to store. So, you need to think about this.

Now, you take that data and plug it into Yuval’s tool. And guess what? You’ve got a complete solution and a unique edge over anyone else in the industry. Yuval, here are a couple of other thoughts, and then let’s hear your questions. We’re here to help!

Oh, and you mentioned deduction management. I get a little twitch every time I think of deductions. But it’s a big business, right? If you think about what deductions are, it’s a big business, and people are making a lot of money. I won’t mention names, but people are making a lot of money off small brands because they don’t have the resources to handle the thousands of deductions coming in from those invoices.

They’re counting on it. It’s in your best interest to either find people within your organization to understand what you’re spending with your indirect and direct customers. And you want to make sure you’re fighting and validating those deductions because, on average, 7 to 10 percent of them are invalid.

That’s real money you can use for promotions to raise awareness. Those are the weeds. They’re ineffective.

And if you’re not managing them, if you don’t have the resources forever, reach out to someone else. You can reach out to Promash. We can help.

You can reach out to someone else. It’s not about Promash or Dan. It’s about you guys. And that’s why we do what we do. Okay, so please understand that this isn’t a sales call.

This webinar isn’t just about selling; it’s about helping brands succeed. And we genuinely care about it.

We’re passionate about it.

Absolutely. In fact, Yuval, I think that number seems incredibly low. There are companies that play dirty.

They make money, so they get a cut of whatever they collect. And the things they do… I don’t know if I should say it’s illegal, but it’s really unethical. The challenge is that going back to cash flow, that’s why we’re having these conversations. That’s why I have a whole section in the course that I’m about to launch about this very thing.

I put up on the screen a guide that I made, my most popular guide that will walk you through some of the things you need to think about and pay attention to. So thank you for sharing that. I have a couple of questions from before.

And again, please send any additional questions you have.

I have one more thing to add, Dan. And that’s to finish off with deductions. The one thing that customers or clients, sorry, brands need to really think about are your checks.

When they get paid, the 2% net 10. Watch out for that because your client or customer will pay 45 days in and still charge you for the 2%. So please, it’s not just standard deductions.

There’s a lot more to it that you need to focus on. And if you don’t, I implore you to do so because that’s cash money in your pocket. Sorry, Dan, go on.

No, no, no, I’m glad you said that. In fact, okay, this is really scary. One of the different sessions we had, Eric Skay was on and he was talking about how to manage a team and how to build a team, etc.

Yuval, I remember when you were a brand. You called your wife, and she had some news. You were excited, but then she told you the bad news. Turns out, you sold a truckload of stuff for $12,000, but the distributor only gave you $12.34. I hear that all the time.

I went to Expo once, and it was crazy. It’s frustrating because it’s your money.

I was going to tell you about a brand I met at a podcast event. I was mentoring her, and she was in tears because the distributor was holding their cash and they had bills to pay. It’s such a challenge.

On the webinar series, we talk about debt financing and other tools. People have been asking about these things, so go back and use them.

But Yuval, I’m sorry, this is mostly a scam. Promomash does a great job of addressing this. I wouldn’t give this to a broker.

I wouldn’t give this to anyone else because they don’t know what it’s like to be in your shoes. But if you have someone like Yuval, who’s been a brand and understands this, definitely take advantage of it.

Here are a couple of quick questions.

Matt asked about the difference between a demo and a TPM. Yuval’s question for you is about managing the demo piece. I said that managing the demo involves managing people, all those components, and then leveling that up to the trade promotion.

Yeah. Many brands mistake a demo for something nice to have or a necessity, but it’s not profitable. If I can avoid it, I will.

There’s a reason for that. First, you have to manage people again. Nobody likes to manage people. If you can’t manage people, it’s hard. I get it.

Hey there! So, let’s talk about demos in trade marketing. They’re like tools or tactics in your brand’s arsenal to raise awareness. That’s what promotions are all about, too. Now, I think the term “promo” in this industry is a bit of a misnomer.

For most people, “promo” means “TPR.” But that’s not the case. Promotions are about raising awareness so that shoppers know who you are and can buy your product. It’s simple, really. Marketing helps make sales happen.

If you’re not a great marketer, well, you need to become one. Your business depends on it. So, what are some marketing tools?

Well, you’ve got demos. You can do them in person or at events. You can also do them online with online activations. We’re doing stuff with online brand ambassador influencers right now. So, there are multiple ways to promote a product with a person.

Then there’s merchandising. How do you promote a product with merchandising? Well, if it’s eye-level on the shelf, looks good, has a good price, and is clean and not dusty, it’s more attractive to shoppers.

Again, that’s marketing. And then you’ve got price reductions, advertising, posters, end caps, off-shelf displays, and coupons. These are all tools that you use to promote to your shoppers. So, what do you do?

The best way to manage all this is through a one-system approach. You want to have one source of truth where everyone, your marketing team and your sales team, can access and understand what’s happening with all your customers. It’s super important.

You can’t have five different places to go to, trying to understand every tactic. It’s suicide for smaller emerging brands, especially fast-growing brands. So, that’s the difference. And I think people don’t understand that a demo is just as important as a price reduction, an ad, or a coupon.

Hey John! I’m glad you reached out. I’m here to help you figure out the best way to promote your product.

The key is to increase your TPR (Total Product Recall). This means getting people to remember your product and buy it again. Here are some ways to do that:

- Use ads: Ads can help you reach a wider audience and get people to notice your product.
- Use off-shelf displays: These displays can help you get people to pick up your product and take it home.
- Have someone stand in front of the shelf: This can help you attract customers and get them to buy your product.

The more you do these things, the better your TPR will be.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Hey there! I know you’re busy, but I wanted to chat about managing a platform. I understand that you have more important things to focus on, and I totally get that. But I think it’s important to work with the people and the data.

Working with data can be tricky. If you’re dealing with a small spreadsheet, it’s usually manageable. But if you’re dealing with a large dataset, like over one to two million records, it can get really complicated. And as you continue to work on the spreadsheet, it becomes more and more difficult to manage.

Then, to leave that spreadsheet and get people to adapt to a new process is even harder. People don’t like change, and it can be tough to convince them to switch. So, if you want people to use your platform or product, it’s best to get them in early. The longer they get used to their current systems, the harder it will be to convince them to change.

Now, there are exceptions to this rule. Some emerging brands are really forward-thinking and know that they want to grow and do it right from the start. They’re willing to invest in their company before they have all this activity that really requires a platform. They’re using companies like Promomash not just for the platform itself, but also for the expertise on the team.

If you’re six months or a year away from really pouring the fuel on the fire, you still need to manage and understand how your DEM program will look like, where you’ll demo, what kind of reporting you’ll need, and all the other things you need to know. Trade promotion, how do you set it up?

There’s a lot of teaching and training involved in setting up a process effectively. The more time you have to do so, the better because you’re not rushing. But when you’re starting to grow, it’s like people saying, “I’ll do it when I’m 10 million or 20 million when I need a platform.”

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Hey Dan, I know you’re feeling overwhelmed right now, but I want to encourage you to take a step back and think about your business. I know you’re passionate about your brand, but if you’re not taking the time to plan and prepare, you’re putting yourself at risk of failure.

I’ve worked with many successful brands and entrepreneurs, and I’ve seen that those who are serious about their business invest in experts in the field. They don’t try to do everything themselves, because they know that there are things they don’t know.

If you’re just starting out, you’re probably a first-time entrepreneur for CPG, and there’s a lot you don’t know. That’s okay! You don’t have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. You can use the help of experts like the Promash team and other consultants to grow your business.

I know I wish I had that support when I started my own business. I had to start over several times because I didn’t have the right infrastructure, technology, or website. It was a huge learning curve, and I wish I had known what I know now.

I want to emphasize the importance of having a solid business plan. Your business plan needs to be so comprehensive and thorough that someone else could take over and run your business in your absence. This will help you grow and scale your business more effectively.

I know you’re feeling overwhelmed, but I believe in you. You have the potential to create a successful business, and I’m here to help you every step of the way.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Let’s chat more about how we can help you achieve your goals.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me, Dan. I really appreciate it.

Hey Yuval, listen up! You know Collie Power, right? She’s a household name because she surrounded herself with the best people and experts. Not all experts are created equal, you know?

We’ve talked about this in other episodes, but Collie knew she needed help. She wasn’t the smartest person in the room, but she was always learning. John Foraker even said that on one of our episodes.

Collie’s a great example of how a brand can leverage others’ brilliance to become a household name. In trade marketing, it’s even more important because we were talking about, and there are a lot of inefficiencies in her system. But she has the right people, and that’s what matters.

We also talked about a way she could take her game to the next level. We discussed that on the podcast. So, thanks for sharing that with us, Yuval.

Again, it’s super important that you level up. This is your most important thing. The most important thing you need to think about is when to integrate these tools.

I get this question all the time, Yuval. John Foraker also asked it. When do you start thinking about putting these tools into effect? The answer is, as soon as you can. That way, you’ll get comfortable with them and won’t have to learn something new when you start growing.

Any other thoughts, Yuval?

I think we covered it all. I highly recommend everyone to check out Dan’s website and start learning and reading the most valuable information you can for CPG growth, especially if you’re starting out. There’s some great stuff there.

Again, thanks to Dan for all you do for the business and the industry. I look forward to collaborating again in the future.

Thanks a bunch! And guess what? He’s even paying for it! Just kidding.

Oh, he’s sending me a check.

I’m sending him checks every week now.

Well, lots of zeros. Thanks for sharing that. Now, I really appreciate it.

Well, I’ve only got a couple more minutes, so we actually have about eight more minutes. So, Michelle wants to know the reference to the garden. Can you go back to that?

She liked it. The fact that you had a healthy garden on the left side and an unhealthy garden with a lot of weeds on the right side.

Can you go back to that analogy and talk about how trade marketing, using that analogy, how does trade marketing impact the rest of your business?

That’s a great question. And I felt that way with my company as I grew into retail and we grew nationally pretty quickly, which is another discussion we can talk about offline. But we grew nationally, and as we grew, every distributor and broker wanted support for the stores.

As the first-time CEO of a CPG brand, you almost believe that every store can be a profitable store for you. And that’s why you’re spending money, because you’re saying, well, if I support the store, I’ll get a return. And all of a sudden, you’re just spending.

So let’s say you have a 15, 20, or even 30% trade spend compared to your gross sales, right, initially. As you start scaling and growing, if you don’t manage it, all of a sudden, it’s 35, 37, or 40. Your margins didn’t increase, but your spend increased.

And that’s where brands fail. So you need to keep as much cash as possible available to you. So if you’re promoting, if you don’t understand the promotions that aren’t effective, the 70% that aren’t effective, guess what?

Hey there! So, I wanted to chat about those pesky weeds in your marketing efforts. You know, those promotions that seem to drain the life out of your budget? Well, guess what? They’re doing their job! But here’s the thing: if you can identify the 70% of those ineffective promotions, you can take that cash and use it for other awareness activities.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “But what about the other 10% or 20% that are just mediocre?” Well, they’re doing their best too. But here’s the thing: if you can focus on the 70% that are truly ineffective, you’ll be way ahead of the competition. Most brands don’t do this, and they’re getting sucked dry every month, believing they’ll succeed.

And let’s be real, not everyone’s going to like you. There will be haters out there, and that’s okay. The first time you understand that, everything changes. You can’t run after everyone; you have to focus on the ones who come to you. Those are your ideal clients, and those are your ideal promotions.

So, here’s the takeaway: take that cash from those ineffective promotions and use it for other awareness activities. Focus on the 70% that are truly ineffective, and you’ll be way ahead of the game. And remember, not everyone’s going to like you, but that’s okay. Focus on the ones who do and you’ll thrive.

That’s all for today’s webinar. Go out there and find your ideal clients and your ideal promotions. You’ve got this!

Thanks for listening, and I hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.

Listen up, folks. A brand with deep pockets can buy visibility and shelf space. They might look great in that canned ranking report you’re sharing with retailers, but that’s not a sustainable story. They’re draining money from the category.

And it’s not fair. If you get caught up in thinking that’s the way to do it, there are people out there who are great at taking your money. If you believe that’s the right way to do it, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

It’s really… Anyhow, it’s not a good thing. So, please don’t do it.

There are better ways. I’ve talked about contribution and some of the things we’ve discussed here.

And again, it all comes down to leveling up your skills, really challenging yourself, becoming an expert in trade management, and then having the right tools, like Yuval mentioned, to maximize every opportunity. Any other thoughts? We’re almost out of time.

You know why Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett are successful? They know who to say no to and what to say no to. That’s why they’re successful.

They don’t focus on everything. They focus on what matters most. Another Stephen Covey thought there.

But if you know how to say no, I’m sorry, if you know, K-N-O-W, if you know how to say no, you’ll have a much better chance of success than if you have trouble saying no. So, remember that. You have to empower yourself to succeed.

No one’s going to do it for you. You’re the only one who can do it.

Absolutely. I’m just typing in my computer here. Yes, there is.

And so, Heidi, yes, there will be a replay of this. Please share it and help us raise the bar in the industry. That’s what this is all about.

Hey everyone, thanks for joining me today! I’m excited to share some insights on how to help your product reach more store shelves and shoppers, both in-store and online.

You know, I’m here to help level the playing field, just like my mission statement says. And that’s why we have so many amazing people like Yuval here, all on the same mission of helping you grow and scale.

I really appreciate each and every one of you being here. It means a lot to me. Yuval, do you have any parting thoughts?

If you’d like to chat more about this, no worries, no strings attached. I’m here to help you however I can. Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions or want to discuss further.

I’m happy to jump on a call and share some tips and tricks. We can go from there. If not, I hope to catch up with you soon.

By the way, I had a great time at this webinar. Thanks so much for sharing your expertise, Dan.

I’ll definitely be reaching out to Yuval about his solution. I’ve worked with some big brands and multi-billion dollar companies, and I’ve seen their systems from the inside out. Yuval’s got something really special, and I’m sure it’s worth your time.

I’ve looked at a lot of other tools out there, but this one stands out. It’s the only one I recommend.

Thanks again, Yuval, and to everyone else for joining me today. I look forward to seeing you next week!

By the way, I want to thank Yuval for coming on and sharing his great solution. This is exactly what brands need to think about as they grow and mature. Remember, you still need to understand the basics, the concepts, and how things work. The cause and effect of different promotion strategies are all important.

Once you grasp this concept, you can leverage tools like Yuval’s Promomash to optimize your trade marketing ROI. This tool allows you to track your spending and plan accordingly to achieve your goals. I’ll make sure to include a link to Promomash in the podcast show notes and on the website.

This week, I’m sharing a free downloadable guide called the Trade Marketing Optimization Checklist. I believe this is the perfect tool for us since we’ve been discussing how to optimize trade marketing and maximize opportunities.