Master Essential Skills & Topics for Retail and CPG

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Sue Nicholls, Founder & President CMKG

Embracing the Joy of Learning and Teaching. Hi there! I'm deeply passionate about training and learning. Since the pioneering days of category management at P&G in the '80s, I've been fortunate to embark on a journey of teaching and inspiring others. My career has been a delightful tapestry woven with long-term collaborations with major retailers and CPG executives, contributing to industry standards, and sharing insights at numerous conferences. I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to shape minds as an Adjunct Professor in Marketing, focusing on consumer behavior.

150 Hours of Knowledge and Countless Moments of Insight. Creating over 150 hours of online curriculum and leading hundreds of instructor-led sessions has been an enriching experience. I've had the honor of collaborating with diverse professionals across the globe, adapting to an ever-evolving industry. The goal? To forecast the future and equip our learners with the skills to thrive and stay relevant.

Learning: A Collective Adventure. I believe learning is a dynamic journey that encompasses individuals, teams, organizations, and yes, even us training professionals. It's not about rigid methods but nurturing a continuous, evolving process. My aim through this blog and other platforms is to share my wealth of experience and encourage open, ongoing dialogues. Together, we can enhance any team's ability to implement effective business strategies and realize their strategic goals. Let's embark on this learning adventure together, growing and evolving with every shared experience! Happy learning!

Recent Posts

Presentation Skills for Fact-Based Selling and Influence


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Storytelling & Presentation Skills
Overview: Strengthen how teams communicate insights and recommendations through more structured, fact-based, and engaging presentations. This topic helps participants improve how they present ideas, sell recommendations, and influence internal or external audiences.

Building Stronger Category Stories


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Storytelling & Presentation Skills
Overview: Help teams turn analysis into a clearer, more compelling category story that connects shopper insight, business opportunity, and recommended action. This topic helps participants strengthen how they frame, organize, and communicate category thinking in ways that are more relevant and persuasive.

Promotion & In-Store Execution


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Category Levers
Overview: Help teams strengthen how they evaluate promotions and in-store tactics by connecting promotional strategy, analytics, execution, and business results. This topic is designed to build stronger understanding of promotion vehicles, baseline versus incremental sales, break-even thinking, and how in-store activation supports category performance and shopper response.

Pricing, Margin & Value Perception


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Category Levers
Overview: Build stronger understanding of pricing fundamentals, margin implications, price ladders, and shopper value perception in a competitive retail environment. This topic helps teams evaluate pricing decisions more strategically while balancing business realities and shopper expectations.

Space & Shelf Decisions in an Omni-Channel World


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Category Levers
Overview: Explore how shelf layout, decision trees, shopper navigation, and physical constraints influence category performance — while also considering the growing role of digital shelves and omni-channel shopper expectations. This topic helps teams make stronger space and shelf decisions in a more connected retail environment.

Retail & CPG Data Sources in a Modern Environment


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Data + Analytics
Overview: Strengthen understanding of the different types of data available in retail and CPG, including POS, syndicated data, panel data, shipment data, eCommerce data, and internal reporting. This topic helps teams better understand what each source can and cannot answer, and how to use data more intentionally in a modern business environment.

Creating Compelling Sales Stories

As our data-driven world evolves in retail and CPG, so does the need for us to hone our presentation skills. These skills include everything from understanding PowerPoint to developing a storyboard with a well-defined purpose and incorporating this storyboard into a succinct and impactful presentation with clear logic and flow. This 2-day, instructor-led classroom training starts by teaching participants how to develop a plan for their presentation before jumping into PowerPoint, enabling them to create a clear and informative story. In day 2 we take our storyboard to PowerPoint, learning data visualization techniques and getting the logic and flow right. The entire session is driven by a real business scenario identified by the client. This session can be combined with other training topics and/or combined with online pre-work for even more content. Optimum class size: 10-15 participants Length of session: 120 minutes Cost: Starts at $8,000 USD (includes customized workshops) per session

Transforming Your Presentation: Elevating Slides with Advanced Data Visualization

Overview: In today's dynamic world of retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG), refining skills to navigate a data-driven landscape is paramount. This course focuses on the effective communication of data insights, addressing the challenge of information getting lost in the complexity of numbers and statistics. Participants will explore data visualization strategies for both data and non-data contexts, empowering them to discern trends, outliers, and patterns.

Shopper-Centered Category Thinking


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Strategic Category Management
Overview: Help teams strengthen their understanding of the shopper and how shopper needs, missions, and behaviors should shape category decisions. This session reinforces the importance of building category strategies and recommendations around shoppers rather than products alone.

Category Management Training Program, Level 3 CPSA

This advanced training program is designed to build skills in areas like shopper and product supply. It includes a set of on-demand courses that gives participants the skills to function at an advanced level in their role in retail / CPG / FMCG. This program meets all learning requirements for the CPSA designation. Who should take this course? For those looking for an advanced understanding of Category Management - and/or who is looking to achieve CMA designation at the CPSA level. Program Details Approximately 20 hours course time Prerequisite: Intermediate category management understanding and/or CPCM Designation (if you are looking for CMA certification). Note that the CPSA level does not include exam preparation materials as certification is by an essay-based exam that also considers the candidate's experience. Buy Advanced / CPSA Category Management Training Program ($499) from CMKG.ORG

Category Management Training Program, Levels 1-2 CPCA-CPCM

This category management training program spans the foundations of Category Management from the foundational to the intermediate level with a focus on in-depth data and analysis. It's a great program if you have a limited background or need a refresher in the foundations, if you want a good general knowledge of category management data and analytics, or if you are seeking certification at the Certified Professional Category Manager (CPCM) level with the Category Management Association (CMA). Buy Foundational / CPCA + Intermediate / CPCM Category Management Training Program ($1,549) or Certification Package ($1,699) from CMKG.ORG

Category Management Training Program, Level 2 CPCM

This training program is designed to build category management skills at an intermediate level, including in-depth data and analytics across key data sources and the category tactics. It includes a set of on-demand courses that will give participants skills to function at an intermediate level in their category management or sales role in retail / CPG / FMCG. This program meets all learning requirements for the Certified Professional Category Manager (CPCM) designation with the CMA for those who are interested. Who should take this course? Retail, category management, sales and shopper teams looking for an intermediate understanding of Category Management and/or who is looking to achieve CPCM certification. Program Details Approximately 30-35 hours course time Prerequisite: Foundational / CPCA Buy Intermediate / CPCM Category Management Training Program ($999) or Certification Package ($1,099) from CMKG.ORG

Category Management Training Program, Level 1 CPCA

This set of foundational courses gives a solid grounding in the category management process, analytics and presentation skills. This program meets all learning requirements for the designation of Certified Professional Category Analyst (CPCA) designation for those who are interested in certification. Who should take this course? Retail, category management, sales and shopper teams looking for an intermediate understanding of Category Management and/or who is looking to achieve CPCA certification. Program Details Approx. 30-35 hours course time No prerequisites Available in Spanish

Assortment Decisions That Support Strategy


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Category Levers
Overview: Help teams strengthen their approach to assortment by connecting strategy, shopper needs, process, analytics, productivity, and category structure to better keep/add/delete decisions. This topic helps make assortment thinking more disciplined, practical, and aligned to business priorities.

New Analytics in Retail and CPG


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Analytics Work Data and Insights Instructor-Led Course New & Relevant
The sheer amount of data available today can be daunting. But it’s availability also provides an opportunity to redefine our measurables, improve our decision making and better analyze shoppers, assortments, channels and more. In this training session, participants will learn to analyze “year ago” data in the most effective ways to make the best decisions moving forward, create a new definition of “market” and describe how to capture data from different sources, and describe new ways to complete assortment analytics in the omni-channel world.

Shopper Insights Training Program, Levels 1–3

This set of courses builds important strategic foundations that help participants better understand the Shopper focus in category management, retail, shopper insights, and shopper marketing. Who should take this course? Individuals and teams looking for a more strategic approach within shopper insights. Program Details Approx. 30 hours course time No prerequisites Includes access to Annual Learning Subscription, including 25+ recorded Virtual Training sessions, and CMKG-exclusive resources.

Shopper Insights Training Program, Level 3

This set of courses builds important strategic foundations that help participants better understand the Shopper focus in category management, retail, shopper insights, and shopper marketing. Who should take this course? Individuals and teams looking for a more strategic approach within shopper insights. Program Details Approx. 10 hours course time No prerequisites Includes access to Annual Learning Subscription, including 25+ recorded Virtual Training sessions, and CMKG-exclusive resources.

Shopper Insights Training Program, Level 2

This set of courses builds important strategic foundations that help participants better understand the Shopper focus in category management, retail, shopper insights, and shopper marketing. Who should take this course? Individuals and teams looking for a more strategic approach within shopper insights. Program Details Approx. 10 hours course time No prerequisites Includes access to Annual Learning Subscription, including 25+ recorded Virtual Training sessions, and CMKG-exclusive resources.

Shopper Insights Training Program, Level 1

This set of courses builds important strategic foundations that help participants better understand the Shopper focus in category management, retail, shopper insights, and shopper marketing. Who should take this course? Individuals and teams looking for a more strategic approach within shopper insights. Program Details Approx. 10 hours course time No prerequisites Includes access to Annual Learning Subscription, including 25+ recorded Virtual Training sessions, and CMKG-exclusive resources.

Proficiency In Excel

This accredited program builds your Excel skills, no matter where you are in your learning process to help you become more proficient in developing and analyzing Excel spreadsheets using category management data. Your program is broken into different mini-modules that start with the basics, followed by intermediate and advanced topics. Each mini module includes a how-to video, followed by a workshop where you will complete examples that were taught in the video. Proficiency In Excel ($149) from CMKG.ORG

30-Day Learning Subscription Trial

The 30-Day Learning Subscription Trial includes lets you test out CMKG’s Annual Learning Subscription. The 30-Day Learning Subscription Trial includes access to CMKG’s Virtual Training Library (29+ courses), plus resources, tools, and microlearning. Explore category management, sales, shopper, space management and more while trying out CMKG’s approach to continuous learning! This low risk option is perfect for those just entering the industry in a retailer or supplier organization.

Sales Training Program

eLearning training program designed to build a more diversified skillset need to grow beyond a traditional sales approach. Learn new skills in critical areas of Retail Understanding, Data & Analytics, Presentations & Storytelling, and Staying Relevant. Create a path for greater business success by learning to develop better solutions and presentations for your retail customers. Learn more about Sales Training & Assessment Solutions.

Refreshing Your Shopper Insights

Many of us were struggling with Shopper understanding prior to the pandemic, but now everything has changed. The Shopper’s behaviors have changed both in brick & mortar and online across different demographic groups, and new trends have emerged. As a result, we also need to press the “reset” button and do a deep dive into understanding the new and evolving Shopper. This course helps guide learners through some of the changes necessary for improved Shopper understanding.

Annual Learning Subscription


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: On-Demand Learning Learning Subscription Individual Solutions
Future-proof your career by keeping current and upgrade your skills the easy way — with CMKG’s Annual Learning Subscription! The Annual Learning Subscription includes 12-month access to CMKG’s Virtual Training Library (29+ courses), plus resources, tools, and microlearning. Subscribers get so much from us without breaking their budgets. Subscription learning is the perfect way to build skills over time, stay current with the industry, continue to grow your career in our ever-changing industry — whether your part of a retailer or supplier organization.

Upheaval in Retail Product Supply Chains and its Impact


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Featured Webinar Instructor-Led Course New & Relevant
eCommerce is impacting tactics in-store and online. To keep up with consumer needs in both, retailers require a clear understanding of how products move from warehouses to consumers. The retail supply chain is now more complex than ever due to changing retail assortments, shifting space requirements, effects on cost and new automation tech. Retailers are changing, including making monumental supply chain shifts, rationalizing assortment lineups and changing planograms, re-examining their pricing strategies and promotional activity as stores become distribution centers for in-store pickup, and prioritizing digital platforms as they move to an omni-channel approach. Participants learn about the changes, challenges, and solutions surrounding the retail product supply chain to help retailers and suppliers make better recommendations and decisions. This course is relevant to and important for anyone who works in the retail industry, sells or supplies to retailers, and/or who wants a broad understanding of retail.

Innovative Responses to the Pandemic


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Instructor-Led Course
This course walks learners through what’s changed for the shopper along their journey because of the ongoing pandemic, and how retailers and suppliers are responding and need to respond in the future to this changing path.

Understanding Retailer Strategy and Category Management 1

This accredited program develops proficiency in the foundations of category management, including the process and strategy, from a retailer perspective. Understanding the foundations of category management is critical to anyone who touches retail. Without the big picture perspective, it’s difficult to understand the role that you play within it and how to create the best solutions. Buy Understanding Retailer Strategy and Category Management 1 ($297) from CMKG.ORG

Understanding Retailer Strategy and Category Management 2

This accredited program builds proficiency in the category management process at a deep level, including category definition, roles, strategies, and implementation of the plan. By moving into more depth about the category management process, you will learn to effectively set up your categories for success through these more detailed foundations in category management. Buy Understanding Retailer Strategy and Category Management 2 ($369) from CMKG.ORG

Advanced Retailer Understanding

This accredited skill development training program builds proficiency in understanding Retailer's business goals and objectives. Understanding a Retailer’s income statement, product supply measures, and the product supply chain will give you new perspective that you can apply to future decisions and recommendations that you make. Buy Advanced Retailer Understanding ($198) from CMKG.ORG

Proficiency in Understanding and Using Data 1

Learn about how to use key category management data sources (including panel data, interaction data, retail POS data, scanned sales data), so that you will be confident when using these important data sources in your own work. Buy Proficiency in Understanding and Using Data 1 ($198) from CMKG.ORG

Proficiency in Understanding and Using Data 2

Learn about the key category management data sources (including retail scanned sales, syndicated, consumer panel, shipment, big data) from a topline perspective, so that you can be confident when using any data sources in your work. Buy Proficiency in Understanding and Using Data 2 ($198) from CMKG.ORG

Category and Business Insights 1

Learning how to turn data into insights and insights into action can be done in simple yet powerful ways — a truly important skill for sales, marketing, and category management professionals. Buy Category and Business Insights 1 ($198) from CMKG.ORG

Category and Business Insights 2

Complete health checks on your categories/brands are truly necessary to understand the big picture perspective of overall performance. This includes an in-depth understanding of consumer trends, the economy, competitive environment, and each tactic. A deep understanding will highlight strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your categories or brands that may not be apparent from a topline look at the data. Buy Category and Business Insights 2 ($198) from CMKG.ORG

Assortment & Space Management Skills

This program builds your skills to help you make better recommendations or decisions that affect product assortment and the retailer's shelf through a better understanding of each of these tactics. Do you ever think how the decisions or recommendations that you make affect product assortment or space management for the retailer (like innovation, product lineup changes, promotion, display)? Learn how to make more strategic decisions or recommendations by better understanding these two important tactics. Buy Assortment & Space Management Skills ($297) from CMKG.ORG

Building Pricing and Promotion Skills

Pricing and promotion are important tactics that have a significant impact on volume and profit in a category. In order to make the best recommendations or decisions for pricing and promotion, you need to understand strategy, data and analytics associated with each of them, ultimately driving volume and profit. The skills you develop in this program will result in more fact-based pricing and promotion decisions (and potential increased sales and profit) that align to overall Retailer strategies. Buy Building Pricing and Promotion Skills ($198) from CMKG.ORG

Consumer and Shopper Analytics and Insights

This program builds your skills in the area of shopper understanding, with a focus on the retailer's shopper and approaches to market to their shopper. Understanding the Shopper is a priority for most Retailers and Suppliers. By building these skills, you will learn to consider different approaches to understand and reach the Shopper, ultimately creating more effective solutions that result in Shopper satisfaction. Buy Consumer and Shopper Analytics and Insights ($396) from CMKG.ORG

Selling Skills 1: Developing Fact-Based Powerpoint & Presentation Skills

Build proficiency in developing compelling PowerPoint presentations using a fact-based approach with logic and flow. Learn how to take the analytic work you've completed and turn it into a fact-based presentation that looks good, is relevant for your audience, has logic & flow and tells a story. This is where art and science meet. Buy Selling Skills 1: Developing Fact-Based Powerpoint & Presentation Skills ($198) from CMKG.ORG

Selling Skills 2: Strategic Selling and Collaborative Business Planning Skills

This program helps you to increase proficiency in strategic selling and collaborative business planning / joint business planning. Once you’ve mastered creating effective, fact-based presentations, it’s time to move into strategic selling and then collaborative business planning. This is the highest level of strategic selling that requires a partnership between the Retailer and the Vendor or Manufacturer partner. Buy Selling Skills 2: Strategic Selling and Collaborative Business Planning Skills ($297) from CMKG.ORG

Creating Category Reviews to Reflect the Omni-Channel

In today’s world, both retailers and manufacturers must gain a deep understanding of shopper needs and behaviors to better inform their marketing activity. Category reviews focused on a single channel are no longer sufficient to meet changing Consumer and Shopper needs, and this requires organizations to move beyond traditional data sources into some new and exciting territory. In this course learners will see examples of new data, measures and insights that are available for a deeper Shopper understanding and how they affect the category review process.

Modern Retail & Category Management Foundations


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Strategic Category Management
Overview: Build a stronger foundation in modern retail and category management by helping teams understand how category management supports better decisions, stronger alignment, and more practical action in today’s retail environment. This topic is especially helpful for onboarding, foundational capability building, or creating a common language across functions.

Analytic Foundations: Calculations, Interpretation, Insight Development


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Data + Analytics
Overview: Help teams build stronger analytical confidence by improving how they calculate key measures, interpret results, read reports, and draw more meaningful insights. This topic is designed to strengthen foundational analytics capability so participants can move beyond reporting numbers to understanding what the numbers are saying and why they matter.

Developing a Category Review


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Data + Analytics
Overview: Help teams build stronger category reviews by using multiple data sources, aligning analysis to company and category strategic priorities, and identifying the top opportunities or priorities that should shape action. This topic is designed to make category reviews more strategic, more connected, and more useful for decision-making.

Collaboration and Joint Business Planning

Project missteps and misunderstandings often arise when there's a lack of effective collaboration between partners. Without a framework in place to foster collaboration, individuals often end up with different goals and expectations, resulting in wasted time, energy, and resources. This virtual classroom training provides learners with the key skills to enable successful collaboration between both internal and external partners. Through a comprehensive understanding of joint business planning, participants are able to implement JBP strategies to solve their customers' key business issues, navigate expectations and next steps, and become more effective consultative category professionals. This session can be combined with other training topics to create a virtual training series over days, weeks or months. Optimum class size: 10-15 participants Length of session: 120 minutes Cost: Starts at $2,500 USD (includes customized workshops) per session

Category Management in eCommerce and the Omni-Channel

As more industries move their sales and business online, cultivating skills to successfully navigate the eCommerce space is now more important than ever. Luckily, with the right tools and training you can easily open up opportunities in the online sphere and adapt brick and mortar category management strategies for the eCommerce space. This virtual classroom training explores the new eCommerce landscape, the challenges you'll face, and how to extend category management strategies beyond brick and mortar to ensure your success and increased Shopper satisfaction. category management in ecommerce and the omni-channel This session can be combined with other training topics to create a virtual training series over days, weeks or months. Optimum class size: 10-15 participants Length of session: 120 minutes Cost: Starts at $2,500 USD (includes customized workshops) per session

Developing Great Stories for Engaging Presentations

Overview: While data analysis and insights are paramount, crafting an equally impactful presentation often takes a backseat. This virtual classroom training addresses this gap, guiding learners in developing sleeker and more compelling presentations. Participants will gain insights into enhancing storytelling, translating ideas into visuals, and boosting audience engagement for increased success in getting their ideas accepted.

Developing a Category Plan


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Storytelling & Presentation Skills
Overview: Bring strategy, insights, and category levers together to help teams build stronger category plans that are more practical, focused, and actionable. This topic helps participants connect what they know to the kinds of plans and recommendations the business actually needs.

Nail your next virtual meeting


*Training Topics, Format, or Audience: Virtual Meeting Skills Instructor-Led Course
Virtual meetings are essential for CPG and retail organizations to maintain productivity and continuity during the pandemic, and most likely after it too. They can make it easy to align teams, keep employees engaged, and collaborate with clients and vendors. Even if virtual meetings have been part of someone’s work routine for a while, they may still fall victim to virtual meeting faux pas or even worse — bored, distracted, or confused attendees causing a lack of real progress. This course gives the best practices to keep a team’s virtual meetings productive, impactful and interactive.

Category Management Training Program, Level 4 Master’s

The Category Management Master's Series is a set of 12 virtual courses (recorded) with information about CatMan 2.0™ that will impact individuals’ day-to-day and futures role using an updated, advanced category management process. Get yourself or your team ready with topic-based recorded virtual courses that help learners apply new & refreshed Catman 2.0 principles through examples, strategies and tips. Who should take this program? Category management practitioners, analysts, sales, marketing and other roles who want to move to more advanced. What will I learn? How each topic is, or will be, affected by changes in the industry, Shopper, and CatMan 2.0. How to incorporate the most relevant topics into participants existing category management framework. How to apply new concepts in day-to-day work. How to speak to one’s manager, peers, and customers about the changing dynamics across different topics with clarity and understanding. How to determine which topics are the biggest priorities and opportunities for learners and their role.

Category Management Training Program, All Courses

This category management training program gives you access to all of our accredited and non-accredited category management courses at the Foundational, Intermediate and Advanced levels, plus an additional 6 non-accredited courses. Learn everything you possibly can about category management in this expanded set of accredited and non-accredited courses. If you are serious about category management and want to become proficient at all levels, this program is ideal for you, and gives you the best bang for your buck. An "all course access" gives you access to 34 courses (29 accredited and 5 non-accredited), with two years access to the full program in our Online Training & Resource Center. Buy All Course Category Management Training Program ($2,149) from CMKG.ORG

Collaborative Business Planning

Course Overview This course gives participants the skills to enable effective collaboration between partners, as well as teaches them how partnerships provide a structure to organize, plan and implement mutually beneficial ideas. It also walks through joint business planning in detail, identifying a framework from which joint business planning should be completed. Participants develop key skills to help them become more consultative category professionals and enables them to become more effective with their efforts to solve customer’s key business issues. Approximately 2 hours course time
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