Why CPGvision is a better option for Trade Spend Management

We get it. There are quite a few trade management vendors popping up, and finding the right fit can be tough. It is tempting to select the cheapest cost, especially when you are drowning in deductions and need to get a solution, anything, up and running fast! But you don’t have to sacrifice long-term for quick and easy. With CPGvision you can have the best of both worlds - and work with the most experienced team in the industry. 

Why CPGvision is the better trade management option NOW:

Maybe you are a startup, cash is tight and you need to get your trade under control. You found a TPM software that  was founded by people just like you, so they must know what you need, right? Stop and think, are you planning to be a startup for eternity? The folks at PSignite, the company behind the CPGvision platform, have worked with and in all stages of CPG. high-growth startups, SMBs, all the way through enterprise. We not only understand your pain points now, we know how to help you get to where you want to be. We can help you see around the corner and set you up for success through EVERY stage of your business.

What does CPGvision offer that is different or better than competitors?

CPGvision started in 2012 as CPGToolbox, and since then we have been innovating every aspect of transactional TPM. From the UI to the data architecture and beyond, well over a decade of incorporating client feedback so you can get:

Sound financials flowing where they need to flow
Configurable Accruals
Increased productivity from a powerful yet efficient UI
Improved trade spend efficiency, 
Fast and accurate deduction management
Easy budget management
Higher forecast accuracy by incorporating predictive models throughout
Automatic allocations
Best-in-class insights suite 
Agentic AI

When you select a vendor, you want to make sure that vendor is the right partner to help you:

• Establish sound financial practices from transactional TPM into and out of your ERP, maintaining discipline in accruals and financial reporting, down to the GL level - ensuring your numbers tie (and your month-end, quarter-end and year-ends go smoothly!).
• Establishing budgets and allocations - trade funds need to be dispersed to the account and product level, you’ll want a TPM that can allocate budgets and commit funds automatically
• Provide the right guardrails - you’ll want to establish rules and configure accessibility for both internal personnel as well as any broker partners you have. Spending guidelines, pricing parameters and access are all easily configurable in CPGvision,enabling you to be sure your data is secure and your processes are sound.
• Plan with ease - one thing is for sure, if it's not easy for your sales team to plan you won’t be successful. CPGvision has the most intuitive UI, combining powerful sophisticated functionality with ease of use. No swivel seat, CPGvision will calculate promotional volumes and spend, provide a projected ROI as a promotion is planned and enable full functionality across the product hierarchy to include or exclude any products as necessary. Planning shippers? No problem. Distributors and indirects? No problem. Tiered rebates? No problem. Terms and non-promotional spend like EDLP? No problem.
• Provide a high level of configurability without customization - Need to simplify? Nearly every screen inside CPGvision is configurable, you can expose as much or as little information as your team needs and can manage.
• Generate the actionable Insights - this is where CPGvision really shines! Built on tableau-based CRM Analytics you get an amazing suite of out-of-the-box reports and dashboards including full financials, post-event planned vs. actual analytics, forecast reports and snapshots, business health and system health insights. Your team reaps instant value from go-live!
• Build the right technology platform - CPGvision is built on the Salesforce platform. What that means for you is you get a platform that can piggy-back off of Salesforce technology and integrate it into the platform. A great example is Agentic AI. The security layer is built in and rock solid and Salesforce provides a platform where we can immediately begin training agents on specific trade management functionality.
• Continue to deliver new functionality to your organization - here at PSignite we never stand still. We are continuously improving our UI, adding functionality into the basic packages all while developing new capabilities. 

Why PSignite (the company behind CPGvision) is a better long-term partner

As you move out of startup and into the more mature phases of your business you will need to adapt. 

Our expertise spans many decades in three key areas where many of our competitors are lacking:

1. Consumer Goods Industry - as we already discussed at the beginning of this blog, we have experts who have worked for and in consumer goods companies of all sizes. We understand your pain points and challenges at each stage of growth and can help set you up for success. We will work with you on best practice, planning out future needs and on understanding the deep analytics that come with a proper trade management system - including side by side scenario analysis, account P&L management, price management and more.
2. Software - unlike some of our competitors, PSignite is first and foremost a well-oiled, SOC-2 certified, software development company. Don’t leave your important functions in the hands of software amateurs! Our solution has been architected for the future; what does that mean? It is engineered to run large data sets, process models quickly and integrate easily. And best of all, unlike competitors who have acquired disparate solutions, CPGvision is one platform, running from one dataset. Seamless RGM, with capabilities unlocked by simply turning on feature flags. 
3. Implementation - Our agile implementation process is unrivaled. Most of our competitors will require that you work with a third party, leaving you in the middle of a finger-pointing game if something goes wrong. With PSignite, you have one hand to shake (yes, one throat to choke if need be). We will get you up and running efficiently and professionally, working with both our services teams and our business experts to ensure you are working under best practice and the solution meets your needs from day one!

CPGvision is a solution you can grow into

In the section above we mentioned one platform, one harmonized dataset which is controlled by feature flags. What exactly does that mean for you? It means you can “crawl, walk, run, fly” or you can go straight to fly. We create a custom trade and revenue management journey for you. Here is a typical example:

Transactional TPM - may include the following:

• Get basic account planning and deduction management functions up and running
• Integrations - ERP, Demand Planning
• Predictive modeling - base and lift for TPM
• Harmonized sell-through and sell-out data
• Reports - business, account and financial - some examples include: gross-to-net, account P&Ls, plan rollup, post-event analytics including planned vs actual

Turn on advanced features as your business needs grow, this could include:

• Side-by-side account level scenario planning 
• Global scenarios for go-to-market strategy development
• Price elasticity integrated into scenario planning
• Foresight - advanced, interactive forecasting with snapshot capability
• Category analytics - for internal analytics and category management collaboration with retailers
• Agentic AI

Want to learn more? Talk to our experts about how the CPGvision platform fits into your growth plans!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: My company doesn’t use Salesforce, would we have to implement that platform first to use CPGvision?

A: No, if you are not a current Salesforce customer you would get the access you need from purchasing CPGvision licenses. Think of Salesforce as the ios system on your iphone, CPGvision is an App that runs on the operating system.

Q: How can I build a business case for implementing trade promotion management software?

A: You’ll want to demonstrate return on investment in the solution. When we work with clients we focus on the following areas to prove value:

Promotion effectiveness and efficiency

Deduction reconciliation speed and accuracy

Promotion planning 

Forecast accuracy

Productivity (recently including agentic AI).

We have prepared a guide and ROI calculator you will find helpful in this process which can be downloaded here

Q: What ERP systems does CPGvision integrate with?

A: Our solutions integrate with nearly every ERP, as well as data lakes, third party deduction programs like High Radius as well as various other programs in retail execution, demand planning etc.

Q: What type of data will we need to run an effective trade management solution?

A: At a minimum, you will want to integrate your sell-in data, or shipments, along with master data (products, accounts, pricing etc.). Most clients also integrate sell-out, or POS from Circana, Spins, Nielsen or retailer portals, as well as sell-through, or Spin data. Our data science team can model your base and uplift or we can ingest your own models. 

Q: How can I ensure that users will adopt the solution

A: We have some strong recommendations in this area. First, we will help you develop best-practice standard operating procedures (SOPs) Second, we will work with you on a training program as part of a broader change management plan specific to your organization to ensure success!

Contact us today to talk about your pain points, develop a customized journey and get you on your way to long-term trade management success and profitable revenue growth!