Master Essential Skills & Topics for Retail and CPG

Learn why your category reviews might be too limited and what you can do about it.

Before you can create an effective CatMan approach and deliver compelling business results, you first need to master the fundamentals. Through a comprehensive understanding of category management, how it works, and why it's important for your business, you'll be able to expertly utilize data, insights, and analytics to uncover new opportunities and create a strong CatMan approach to successfully meet your immediate and bigger-picture goals. This virtual classroom training will provide you with a thorough understanding of CatMan foundations, the key steps of the CatMan process, and how to integrate an effective CatMan approach to your business.

The category management process has changed to reflect more complex data, increasingly complicated technologies, more sophisticated Shoppers, and an evolving retail Omni-Channel. And, as the industry continues to rapidly evolve and present new challenges, your strategic CatMan approach must adapt to meet the needs of the new Shopper and Omni-Channel. This virtual classroom training will dive into the most important changes to the category management process, the implications they have for your team and for navigating your business into the future, and will provide your team with the skills necessary to implement an effective CatMan strategy to keep up with this ever-changing industry.

Despite all the new data sources available in today’s world, many of us still find ourselves in “low data” scenarios, whether it’s in an entire industry, a region, or a category. The good news is that limited data doesn’t mean you can’t do category management — it just means that you have to get more creative and rely more on ad hoc research (like consumer focus groups and insight studies), audit data (like shelf space and number of flyers) and even supplier shipment data (for market information).  This virtual classroom training will give your team the skills to create an effective category management approach in a limited data environment. You'll gain meaningful insights into maximizing data, learn to optimize creative data sources, and better understand the type of collaboration and trust needed between Retailers and Manufacturers. 

Virtual meetings are now essential for CPG and retail organizations to maintain productivity and continuity during the pandemic. They can make it easy to align teams, keep employees engaged, and collaborate with clients and vendors. But even if virtual meetings have been part of your work routine for a while, you may still fall victim to virtual meeting faux pas or even worse — bored, distracted, or confused attendees causing a lack of real progress. This virtual classroom training will provide best practices and approaches to keep your team’s virtual meetings productive, impactful and interactive.

With more complex data available, along with the sheer amount of data right at our fingertips, identifying what's relevant and important versus what isn't becomes more of a challenge. To effectively analyze and derive compelling insights from massive amounts of data you'll need to expertly distinguish between facts and insights and sift through the noise to recognize data points relevant to your specific business situation. This virtual classroom training will provide your team with the tools and skills to make more fact-based strategic insights to help grow your business and partnerships, create new solutions, and uncover new opportunities for your business.

Project missteps and misunderstandings often arise when there's a lack of effective collaboration between partners. Without a framework in place to foster collaboration, you often end up with different goals and expectations, resulting in wasted time, energy, and resources.  This virtual classroom training will provide you with the key skills to enable successful collaboration between both internal and external partners. Through a comprehensive understanding of joint business planning, you'll be able to implement JBP strategies to solve your customers' key business issues, navigate expectations and next steps, and become more effective consultative category professionals.   

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. 

While we spend a great deal of time analyzing data and drawing insights, rarely do we put the same time, energy, and consideration into building the presentation — from visuals to flow to story. By building a sleeker and more compelling presentation, you're more likely to get people to say "yes" to your ideas. This virtual classroom training will help you prepare and develop captivating presentations by pinpointing where you can improve storytelling, how to better translate your ideas into visuals, and increase engagement with your audience.

As our data-driven world evolves in retail and CPG, so does the need for us to hone our skills. Communicating data insights effectively can be a challenge, and key information often gets lost in the overwhelming noise of numbers and statistics. That's why, by integrating data visualization strategies, you can control the chaos and easily see and understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data. This virtual classroom training will show you how to implement visual elements into your data-driven presentations, enabling you to tell a clear and informative story. With data visualization techniques, you'll ensure your team and clients always walk away with a comprehensive understanding of your data analysis and insights.

Presentation skills continue to be an area that we can all improve on. With only a short amount of time to communicate goals and urge your team or clients to action, creating a captivating and clear presentation is crucial. This virtual classroom training will provide you and your team with the skills and tools to craft better presentations through storyboarding that clearly define goals, draw insights, and identify opportunities for both your team and clients.

The CatMan Master’s Series is a set of 12 webinars with accurate information about CatMan 2.0™ that will impact your day-to-day and future role using this updated, advanced category management process. Both Retail and Manufacturing organizations need to learn what Catman 2.0 is so they can stay relevant and compete. Get yourself or your team ready with topic-based recorded training webinars that will help you apply Catman 2.0 principles through examples, strategies, and tips. Who should participate? Category management practitioners, analysts, sales, marketing and other roles who want to move to more advanced knowledge based on specific topics (or all topics). Buy CatMan Master’s Training for Advanced Practitioners ($599) from CMKG.org.    

This comprehensive set of foundational courses is designed to give a solid grounding in the category management process, basic assessment and category tactics. Who should take this course? Individuals looking for a basic understanding of Category Management - including the process and how it works - and/or who are looking to achieve CMA designation at the CPCA level. Buy Foundational / CPCA Category Management Training Program ($1,009) or Certification Package ($1,199) from CMKG.org.

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 online courses that will give you the skills to function at an intermediate level in your role in retail / CPG / FMCG. Who should take this course? Those looking for an intermediate understanding of Category Management - including deep-dive analytics and tactics - and/or who are looking to achieve CMA designation at the CPCM level. Buy Intermediate / CPCM Category Management Training Program ($999) or Certification Package ($1,099) from CMKG.ORG

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 CatMan 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

This advanced training program is designed to build your skills in areas like Shopper and product supply. It includes a set of online courses that will give you the skills to function at an advanced level in your role in retail / CPG / FMCG. Who should take this course? Those looking for an advanced understanding of Category Management - including the process and how it works - and/or who are looking to achieve CMA designation at the CPSA level. Buy Advanced / CPSA Category Management Training Program ($499) from CMKG.ORG  

Virtual sales meetings are already a fact of life, but too many businesses are still relying on the in-person experience, which creates friction rather than deals. Virtual sales meetings require new skills, specific kinds of prep, rapport-building strategies, facilitation best practices, and tools. This 2-hour virtual classroom training will build your team’s abilities and confidence in a newly virtual world by addressing the critical factors to avoid undesirable results in your upcoming virtual sales meetings.