Sarah Tyler

Implementing Trade Promotion Intelligence in automotive organizations demands more than deploying analytics software—it requires rethinking how vehicle systems integration, supply chain management for electronics sourcing, dealer networks, and customer data converge to drive commercial outcomes. After guiding three major OEM implementations and consulting on a dozen more, I've distilled the critical success factors into a comprehensive checklist that addresses both technical infrastructure and organizational readiness. This isn't a theoretical framework; it's a battle-tested roadmap drawn from real implementations where success meant measurably improving promotional ROI, and failure meant burning budget on ineffective incentives while competitors captured market share. The automotive industry faces unique challenges in promotional intelligence that don't exist in traditional retail. Our products are high-consideration purchases with long sales cycles, complex dealer net...

When I first encountered the promise of artificial intelligence in trade promotion planning, I was skeptical. After fifteen years managing category strategies and trade spend for a major CPG portfolio, I'd seen plenty of technology platforms over-promise and under-deliver. Yet the persistent challenge remained: our trade promotion budgets consumed 20-25% of gross revenue, and we could confidently attribute positive ROI to less than half of our promotional investments. The margin pressure from private labels, coupled with retailers demanding more sophisticated activation strategies, meant we couldn't continue managing promotions with spreadsheets and gut instinct. What followed was a three-year journey implementing AI-powered promotion optimization that fundamentally changed how our organization approaches trade spending—and taught me lessons I wish I'd known from day one. The turning point came during a particularly brutal quarterly review when our VP of Sales demanded to k...