190. Stop Wasting Trade Spend: Maximize Promo ROI

190. If your promotions spike sales but leave you with less cash, you're shortening your runway—and you may not even know it. Most CPG brands pour 25% of gross sales into trade marketing, yet the majority of that spend fails to grow sustainable base sales. That's not a promotion problem. It's an ROI problem. In this episode, I pull back the curtain on why syndicated data misleads brands, how poor retail execution distorts results, and why most trade promotion software can't fix flawed strategy. You'll learn how to evaluate one SKU, one retailer, one promotion at a time—and how to design promotions that increase base sales instead of just renting volume. I also walk you through the Promotion Analysis Tool and Trade Promotion ROI Calculator so you can model scenarios, reduce waste, and reinvest savings into distribution, innovation, and growth. Download the free guide at brandsecretsandstrategies.com/session190 and listen to related episodes to go deeper into trade marketing mastery. Get instant access on the show webpage: RetailSolved.com/session190