Build a promotional calendar that balances retailer requirements with brand margin targets.
Marketing & Sales
Trade Promotion Planning and Retailer Negotiation
Plan trade promotions and negotiate retailer terms using promotion effectiveness analysis, funding models and negotiation tactics that protect margin while meeting volume targets.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Trade promotion spend is often one of the largest line items in a consumer goods budget, yet many account teams plan promotions on habit and negotiate terms without evidence of what previous deals actually returned. This course trains key account managers, trade marketing managers and revenue growth management analysts to plan a promotional calendar, calculate promotion funding and forecast uplift, and negotiate retailer terms from a position of evidence rather than pressure. Participants build promotion effectiveness models that separate baseline sales from uplift, cannibalisation and pull-forward, and use them to challenge weak promotional mechanics before they are agreed. The course covers pack and price architecture for promotions, deal funding structures including off-invoice and back-margin, and negotiation planning against retailer buying tactics. Teaching combines promotion analysis exercises using real sales data patterns, funding calculation workshops and simulated buyer negotiations, so participants leave able to plan a defensible promotional calendar and negotiate it with a retail buyer.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Calculate baseline sales and separate genuine uplift from cannibalisation and pull-forward.
Evaluate promotional mechanics such as price cuts, multibuys and bonus packs for incremental return.
Structure trade funding using off-invoice discounts, back-margin and joint marketing contributions.
Forecast promotional volume and calculate the return on investment before a deal is agreed.
Prepare a negotiation plan that anticipates retailer buying tactics and sets walk-away positions.
Negotiate promotional terms with a retail buyer while protecting agreed margin thresholds.
Who Should Attend
Key account managers negotiating trade terms with grocery and retail buyers.
Trade marketing managers who plan and fund promotional activity by category.
Revenue growth management analysts assessing promotion effectiveness and funding.
Sales directors overseeing trade spend budgets across multiple retail accounts.
Finance business partners who approve trade promotion funding requests.
Category and commercial teams preparing joint business plans with retail partners.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Promotion Planning and Calendar Design
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Building the Promotional Calendar
- Map a promotional calendar across retail accounts while avoiding damaging price overlap.
- Align promotional timing with seasonal demand, new product launches and competitor activity.
- Select promotional mechanics such as price cuts, multibuys and bonus packs by category role.
- Balance promotional frequency against the risk of training shoppers to buy only on deal.
Session 2Pack and Price Architecture for Promotions
- Design promotional pack formats and price points that protect the everyday price architecture.
- Assess when a promotional SKU should differ from the standard retail listing.
- Model the shelf-price impact of a proposed promotion on adjacent products in the range.
- Set minimum promotional depth and duration rules to prevent margin erosion.
02Promotion Effectiveness Analysis
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Baseline Sales and Uplift Measurement
- Calculate baseline sales using pre-promotion trend data to isolate promotional uplift.
- Separate incremental volume from cannibalisation of other pack sizes or variants.
- Identify pull-forward effects that borrow sales from the weeks following a promotion.
- Compare uplift and profitability across different promotional mechanics for the same product.
Session 2Forecasting and Return on Investment
- Forecast promotional volume using historical uplift rates and planned distribution.
- Calculate the return on investment of a proposed promotion including all funding costs.
- Stress-test a promotion forecast against optimistic and conservative uplift assumptions.
- Present a promotion business case that a retail buyer and internal finance will both accept.
03Trade Funding and Deal Structuring
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Trade Funding Mechanisms
- Compare off-invoice discounts, back-margin rebates and lump-sum listing fees as funding routes.
- Structure joint marketing fund contributions against agreed retailer marketing activity.
- Calculate the total cost of a trade deal once all funding lines are combined.
- Identify funding structures that create hidden margin leakage across a full year of deals.
Session 2Deal Structuring and Contract Terms
- Draft trade terms covering volume commitments, payment timing and performance conditions.
- Set conditions that link funding release to agreed distribution, display or ranging commitments.
- Identify contract clauses that expose the business to unbudgeted retrospective claims.
- Reconcile actual trade spend against agreed terms to catch overpayment before year end.
04Retailer Negotiation Strategy and Practice
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Preparing the Negotiation
- Research a retail buyer's likely priorities, targets and negotiation tactics before a meeting.
- Set a negotiation objective, target position and walk-away point before entering a deal.
- Prepare evidence-based responses to common buyer demands for deeper promotional funding.
- Sequence concessions so that any trade-off protects the highest-priority commercial terms.
Session 2Negotiating and Closing the Deal
- Conduct a simulated trade negotiation and defend a funding position under buyer pressure.
- Recognise common retailer negotiation tactics such as anchoring and false deadlines.
- Close a negotiation with a documented agreement covering funding, volume and review terms.
- Plan a post-deal review that checks delivered results against the negotiated commitments.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
Complete your registration
We will contact you within one business day to confirm.
Ready to start?
Reserve your seat and start building the skill.