Trade Promotion Management software plays a critical role in how consumer goods companies plan, fund and execute their go-to-market strategies. In 2026, the challenge is no longer simply managing promotions. It is ensuring that what is planned centrally is executed effectively in the market and that learnings flow back into future, AI-driven decisions.
This shift is redefining what good Trade Promotion Management looks like and what companies should expect from their TPM platforms.
Why Trade Promotion Management must now connect planning to execution
Historically, Trade Promotion Management has been heavily weighted toward planning and financial control. Promotions were designed, budgeted and approved in central systems, while execution was left to downstream tools, manual processes or local judgement.
In today’s environment, this separation creates risk. Markets move faster, routes to market are more complex and margins leave little room for poorly executed plans. A promotion that is technically approved but inconsistently executed erodes value quickly.
Modern Trade Promotion Management must therefore span the full commercial lifecycle. It needs to connect strategic intent, financial commitment and frontline execution into a single, continuous process. Without this connection, TPM remains backward looking and reactive.
What Trade Promotion Management software needs to deliver in 2026
At its foundation, Trade Promotion Management software must still provide strong control over trade spend. This includes structured planning, accurate accruals, controlled liabilities and consistent post event analysis.
However, these capabilities alone are no longer sufficient. TPM platforms must now support continuous decision making, not just periodic planning cycles. They must be able to reflect what is actually happening in the market and help teams respond accordingly.
This requires systems that are connected, flexible and able to interpret complex commercial scenarios rather than simply store data. The focus shifts from reporting on outcomes to influencing them.
How leading consumer goods companies are evolving TPM
Leading consumer goods organisations are moving away from static trade planning models toward more connected approaches.
Planning still starts centrally, with clear objectives, budgets and constraints. Scenario planning remains essential to understand the impact of different promotional strategies on volume, revenue and margin. What has changed is how these plans are used once they leave the planning phase.
Instead of treating execution as a black box, modern TPM platforms ensure that plans flow directly into execution workflows. Field teams and account managers work from the same source of truth, with visibility into priorities, mechanics and expected outcomes.
As execution unfolds, performance signals are continuously compared to the original plan. Where deviations occur, teams are able to understand what has changed and decide how to respond, rather than waiting for post event reports weeks later.
This closed loop approach is becoming a defining characteristic of high performing trade organisations.
The limitations of TPM without execution intelligence
Trade promotion spending is one of the largest and most complex investments on the P&L. Managing it without visibility into execution creates blind spots, particularly in indirect routes to market where data is delayed or fragmented.
Traditional TPM platforms tend to highlight variances after the fact. While this is useful for learning, it does little to protect value during execution.
To close this gap, TPM platforms increasingly require an intelligence layer that can interpret signals from across the commercial ecosystem and help users understand what matters most in the moment. This is not about more dashboards. It is about better interpretation and guidance.
This is where Vertical AI begins to play a role, not as a replacement for TPM, but as a way to make TPM actionable.
Core business benefits of connected Trade Promotion Management
When planning and execution are connected, financial control improves. Accruals, liabilities and forecasts remain aligned with what is happening in the market, reducing risk and increasing confidence for finance teams.
Productivity also increases. Teams spend less time reconciling data and more time acting on insight. Planning cycles become faster, approvals smoother and execution more focused.
Transparency improves across functions. Sales, finance, trade marketing and revenue growth management operate from a shared view of performance and priorities, reducing friction and misalignment.
Most importantly, organisations gain agility. Instead of reacting to outcomes after the event, they are able to adjust in flight, protecting margins and improving results.
What to look for in Trade Promotion Management software today
In 2026, Trade Promotion Management software should provide more than robust planning and reporting. It should support decision making throughout the promotion lifecycle.
This includes integrated account planning, budgeting and forecasting that flows directly into execution. It includes scenario planning that reflects real world constraints. It includes deduction and settlement processes that remain connected to promotional activity.
Increasingly, it also includes an embedded intelligence layer that helps teams interpret complex situations and decide what to do next, rather than leaving that burden entirely on users.
Moving from legacy to connected TPM
Many organisations are still constrained by spreadsheet driven processes that limit visibility and slow decision making. Moving to a connected TPM platform requires a shift in mindset as well as technology.
Successful transitions are characterised by strong sponsorship, clear articulation of benefits and a focus on adoption. Teams need to see immediate value, particularly in how plans connect to execution. Platforms that embed intelligence from day one help accelerate this transition by reducing manual effort and supporting users as they adapt to new ways of working.
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How Aforza supports connected Trade Promotion Management
Aforza provides a Trade Promotion Management solution built on the Salesforce and Google Cloud platforms, designed to connect trade planning, execution and financial control in a single, unified environment. Rather than treating TPM as a series of disconnected modules, Aforza is designed around the full commercial lifecycle, ensuring that decisions made during planning remain visible and actionable through execution and financial reconciliation.
A key differentiator is Aforza’s modern TPM designer experience, built to support both traditional and modern trade models. The user experience is purpose built for commercial teams, balancing the depth required for complex trade structures with the simplicity needed for day to day use.
Promotions, budgets and account plans are designed visually, making it easier to understand mechanics, timing and financial impact without navigating multiple screens or tools. This reduces friction during planning and increases confidence in the numbers before execution begins.
Once plans are in motion, Aforza provides real time impact analysis across volume, revenue and margin. Rather than waiting for post event reports, teams can see how performance is tracking against plan as data becomes available. This allows issues to be identified earlier and corrective action taken while there is still time to protect value. The ability to assess impact in flight is critical to connecting planning intent with execution reality.
Underpinning this is Aforza’s disaggregation capability, which allows trade plans and financial commitments to be broken down across products, customers, time periods and routes to market. This level of granularity ensures that accruals, liabilities and performance metrics remain accurate and explainable at every level of the business. It also enables consistent P&L management at account and customer level, supporting more informed commercial conversations and stronger alignment between sales and finance.
Financial control is further strengthened through integrated accrual management and claims and deductions processing. Aforza links promotional activity directly to financial commitments, automatically managing accruals and spreading liability across the appropriate dimensions. Claims and deductions are handled within the same platform, maintaining a clear audit trail from promotion planning through to settlement. This reduces manual effort, speeds up resolution and improves financial confidence.
Across each of these areas, Ava, Aforza’s Vertical AI, acts as an enabling intelligence layer rather than a separate tool. Ava supports planning by helping teams interpret historical performance, identify inconsistencies and understand the likely implications of different trade scenarios. During execution, Ava continuously evaluates real world signals against planned outcomes, helping users prioritise actions and focus on what will have the greatest impact.
In financial processes, Ava supports more consistent and informed decisions by highlighting risks in accruals, identifying anomalies in performance and helping teams understand the drivers behind variances. In claims and deductions, Ava assists by surfacing patterns, prioritising exceptions and supporting faster, more accurate resolution.
By applying the same intelligence consistently across planning, execution and financial control, Ava helps ensure that decisions are coherent, explainable and aligned with overall commercial objectives. This integrated approach means that trade plans are not only well designed but actively supported throughout their lifecycle, with intelligence applied where it adds the most value.
Improving Trade Promotion ROI in practice
Improving trade promotion ROI requires more than better plans. It requires continuous alignment between intent, execution and learning.
Connected Trade Promotion Management makes this possible by ensuring that every promotion is informed by what has happened before and responsive to what is happening now.
By combining a modern TPM foundation with an embedded Vertical AI layer, Aforza supports consumer goods companies in reducing operational waste, improving execution quality and protecting margins, without adding complexity or overhead.
Driving Profitable Promotions at Speed with Ava
In this webinar, you’ll see how Ava transforms the full TPM flow across volume planning, funds management, promotion setup, accruals and deductions. Ava reduces admin, surfaces insights and guides smarter decisions every step of the way.