334. The Promotion Was Approved. So Why Is the Shelf Empty?

334. Your promotion is live. The retailer approved it. The funding is committed. Inventory shipped. The team believes everything is ready. Then someone walks into the store. The sale tag is there. The shelf is empty. Or the display never got built. Inventory is sitting in the back room. The product was moved. A competitor took the space. Something changed between the plan and what the shopper actually experienced. And here is the dangerous part: Your report may eventually tell you the promotion underperformed. It may not tell you that the shopper never had a fair chance to respond. In Episode 334 of Bulletproof Your CPG Brand, Dan Lohman explains how to close one of the most expensive gaps in retail: the distance between the strategy you approved and what actually happened at the shelf. Your broker should not own your strategy. But because brokers work directly with retailers, promotions, resets, inventory, displays, competitive activity, and execution, they can become one of your most useful sources of field intelligence. Dan shares the lessons he learned managing broker performance at Unilever and Kimberly-Clark, working from inside a broker environment at SPINS, building the original SPINS Distribution Tracker, and later writing hundreds of articles and training leadership teams on broker and trade effectiveness. You'll learn how to: recognize execution problems before the post-promotion recap use your broker as a field resource without handing over your strategy ask five better questions before the next retailer or broker decision connect shopper truth, retailer needs, competitive activity, and field reality turn what the broker sees into a clear decision, owner, and next action give the broker a clearer assignment and definition of success Dan also introduces the free 5-Minute Broker Advantage Check™. Use it with one broker, one retailer, and one live priority before your next broker conversation. Start here: 5-Minute Broker Advantage Check™: RetailSolved.com/leakfinder Then go deeper: The free Broker Advantage Playbook™: RetailSolved.com/guide11 Episode notes and resources: RetailSolved.com/session334 CHAPTERS 00:00 The promotion is live. The shelf is empty. 00:45 The expensive blind spot your report may miss 01:53 How the last several episodes lead to the shelf 02:46 How I learned and earned broker strategy 04:13 Why broker management can feel like herding cats 05:20 Your broker is close to the execution gap 05:57 Five questions to ask before your next broker call 07:37 Shopper truth + field reality + data 08:14 Don't wait for the post-promotion recap 08:59 The free 5-Minute Broker Advantage Check™ 09:32 Give your broker a better assignment 10:15 Accountability, meetings, and stronger partnership