How can Revenue Growth Management maintain your post-vacation vibe all year round?

When we return from our summer vacation, we should feel more than relaxed and tanned. We should feel refreshed, optimistic, and ready to try new ways of doing things. We should feel like everything just got…easier. 

Then, at least in the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) world, reality hits. Workloads spike as we begin planning for the year ahead. This means negotiations with retailers, coordinating with colleagues, and planning strategies for the year ahead. 

This can be stressful. But that’s when the benefits of our downtime should really kick in. We should be drawing on that energy, that urge to try new ways to do things, that new-found sense of agility. 

But nothing crushes that vacation vibe than the realization that, really, nothing is going to change. That a combination of legacy systems and legacy thinking means the space to innovate is minimal at best.  

Instead of making leaps and bounds in increasing revenue or market share, team members are stuck, working their way through a succession of spreadsheets. They have little autonomy to identify new opportunities, think “what if?” or otherwise make a difference.  

Smart CPG organizations know that this is fatal. Not just because it does little to grow revenue or increase value. But because it grinds down talented people, ultimately leading to a brain drain. Which is why taking a holistic approach to building sales, or adopting revenue growth management (RGM), is crucial in CPG.

Revenue Growth Management and its benefits

A whole spectrum of teams and functions play their part in ensuring a CPG brand’s success, from demand forecasters to sales teams to marketers to trade promotion specialists.

Each has a role not just in growing sales for the company, but in creating value for consumers and retailers. And the best outcomes arise if they are all working together, creating an optimal mix of strategies spanning pricing, placements, marketing, and assortment optimization.

The Revenue Growth Management model aims to get all those individuals and teams collaborating and sharing data and insights, under a comprehensive commercial plan to deliver sustainable and profitable growth.

But developing that plan assumes they have a common version of the truth against which to plan and review their promotions, marketing plans, and other activities. Establishing that truth becomes much easier to achieve when different teams are operating on a common platform which allows the seamless integration, sharing and analysis of data.

This removes the danger of misalignment between departments or layers of management, whether it’s the marketing department not coordinating activity with the promotions team, or the CEO questioning the foundations of the sales team’s forecasts.

But it also removes much of the drudgery and friction which can undermine morale and stifle innovation, not just after holidays or at busy times but all year round.

How Visualfabriq supports the key components of Revenue Growth Management

Visualfabriq’s Revenue Forecasting and Optimization solution supports the most crucial elements of revenue growth management (RGM). With distinct but connected modules covering trade promotions, trade investment, trade pricing, marketing investment and commercial planning it allows you to coordinate and optimize across the critical domains underpinning Revenue Growth Management. 

Seamless data integration, including external sources, and cutting-edge AI technology mean better grounded forecasts and more flexible planning.  

Configurable workflows and common data mean teams are working together with the same version of the truth. Each can see how their activities and initiatives are contributing to the business overall. Instantly. And it gives them the freedom to optimize or change their plans as needed. 

In the short-term, this means the post-vacation planning period becomes a smooth ramp-up towards those critical retailer negotiations, instead of a stressful scramble. 

Longer term, it means that individuals and teams can maintain that open-minded, optimistic post vacation outlook all year round. They have the data and visibility to spot new opportunities and develop fresh approaches and are agile enough to spot and react to the unexpected, whether that’s local disruptions or global dislocations. 

Maintaining the vacation spirit all year with Revenue Growth Management

An environment that is data driven and focused on collaboration is just the start. A true revenue growth management approach eliminates inefficiency and removes friction. It means commercial teams always have up-to-the-minute insights and are always well-prepared for negotiations with retail partners. 

It means each professional and each team becomes better aligned, so that all strive for the best possible outcomes, whether that’s increasing ROI on promo spend, deepening connections with consumer and retailers, or simply increasing profit overall. 

Because they have visibility across their activities, and the company as whole, team members can see the effect of their activities while they’re in progress and optimize them as necessary. 

It also removes the stress and frustration that comes from working with rigid systems and tooling, and knowing the space for agility and fresh thinking is limited at best. 

This is a crucial part of maintaining a CPG brand for the long-term. Losing market share or revenue is bad, but losing talented people is worse – because when the unexpected happens, whether that’s an opportunity or a disruption, that’s when you need them most. 

Conclusion

Switching to a revenue growth management model and putting the right tooling in place frees up CPG professionals to rethink how they build the business, whether their expertise is in promotions, pricing, forecasting, planning, or marketing. 

When they know they can trust the forecasts and data, they’re able to focus on optimizing and improving what they do, strengthening the business for the long term. 

The tan might fade but keeping that post-vacation vibe all year round can re-energize a business. To see how Visualfabriq’s Revenue Forecasting and Optimization solution can help you do this, head here and book a demo.