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Blog · Wallet share and penetration · FMCG and CPG brands

Ten questions a CPG commercial director asks, and the table that answers each

The ten questions a consumer goods commercial director puts to the sales and trade marketing teams, where are the distribution voids, which stores stopped selling a SKU on a Tuesday, which promotions moved volume and which moved it forward, which retailers are building inventory in the channel, which chargebacks are disputable, what is range penetration by channel, which accounts are under the range norm, what is the weekly gap list per store, what did trade spend buy per net unit, and what changed, each with the table from the sell-out, shipment and deduction files, and the answer to send back.

By CoviragePublished 16 September 20263 min read
The short answerA CPG commercial director's questions are about stores, SKUs and retailers, and each has a table from the sell-out files, the shipment ledger, the promotion calendar and the deduction file: distribution voids by store and SKU; inferred out-of-stocks from zero-sales runs; net promo lift per account against its own baseline; sell-in against sell-out with weeks of cover; chargebacks split into valid, disputable and unmatched; range penetration by channel; accounts below the range norm; the Monday brief per store; cost per net unit of trade spend; and the movements page. Sell-out per store sums to the retailer's total per SKU, and the answer to send back is a shipment figure read as a sales result.

A CPG commercial director asks how the quarter went and hears shipments. The sell-out files, the shipment ledger, the promotion calendar and the deduction file hold what the shoppers bought, what the channel holds, what the promotions added and what the retailers charged back. This guide is the ten questions, the tables, and the answer to send back.

The ten

# The question The table Identity Send back
1 Which retailers are building inventory? Sell-in vs sell-out; weeks of cover; trend Implied inventory ≥ 0 Shipments as sales
2 Where are the distribution voids? Stores not stocking SKUs their peers stock; value at norm Sell-out sums per retailer Distribution percentage
3 Which stores ran out on a Tuesday? Inferred out-of-stocks from zero runs at the SKU's own rate Missing files not zero runs Retailer's inventory system
4 Which promotions moved volume, and which moved it forward? Net lift per account: gross lift less dip, cost per net unit Sell-out sums per week Shipments during the promo
5 Which chargebacks are disputable? Deductions by retailer and reason, split three ways, cost per case Deductions = three states Deductions as cost of business
6 What is range penetration by channel? SKUs listed vs the channel's norm range SKUs sum to the list One SKU list for all channels
7 Which accounts are under the range norm? Range gap per store, valued Same as 6 Total distribution
8 What is the Monday brief per store? Range gaps and voids per rep per store, ranked Same as 2 A national SKU list
9 What did trade spend buy? Cost per net unit by account and mechanic Same as 4 Trade spend by retailer
10 What changed? The movements page Every line cites Narrative

A worked exchange

Commercial director: Was it a good quarter at retailer 2207? Response: Sell-in $48,000 units of K-104 against 31,000 sold through; eleven weeks of cover against five normally. Seventeen thousand units of this quarter's revenue are next quarter's shortfall. Table 1. Commercial director: What about the promotion there? Response: Gross lift 14,100, dip 12,900, net 1,200 units at $28 a unit of trade spend. It moved volume forward. At retailer 9034 the same mechanic netted 3,100 at $2.58. Tables 4 and 9. Commercial director: And the chargebacks? Response: $610,000 from 2207, 41 percent disputable against our proof of delivery, never disputed. Table 5.

Three tables, one retailer, three conversations.

Where it goes wrong

Shipments as sales. The loading booked as growth.

Promo measured on sell-in. The dip never seen.

Chargebacks written off. Forty percent disputable, undisputed.

One SKU list for all channels. Voids everywhere and nowhere.

Every week, ten tables

Covirage produces the ten tables from the sell-out files, the shipment ledger, the promotion calendar and the deduction file, with coverage stated. The CPG brands page describes the setup, and the sell-in versus sell-out guide covers the first table.

Questions people ask

Which question first?

Sell-in against sell-out, because a strong shipment quarter with rising channel inventory is next quarter's shortfall already booked, and the commercial director should know it before the CFO does. Weeks of cover per retailer per SKU is the first table.

Do these need retailer sell-out data?

Voids, out-of-stocks, promo lift and weeks of cover do; they are the sell-out files by store and SKU. Chargebacks come from the deduction file joined to shipments; range penetration from the account master and the shipment ledger. Coverage of the sell-out data is stated on every table.

What is the identity?

Sell-out per store sums to the retailer's total per SKU per period; implied channel inventory never goes negative beyond tolerance; deductions equal valid plus disputable plus unmatched; remittance plus deductions equals invoiced. A table computed on a period where a store's file is missing is marked, not silently filled.

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