Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Sales and Promotions Co-ordinator

🎯 Role Definition

The Sales and Promotions Co-ordinator is responsible for planning, executing and tracking retail and trade promotion initiatives that drive short-term sales growth and support long-term brand objectives. This role partners closely with sales, brand marketing, retail operations and external retail partners to manage promotional calendars, ensure on-shelf availability, produce point-of-sale (POS) assets, measure promotional ROI and optimize promotional mechanics based on performance data. Ideal candidates combine strong project management, analytical skills and real-world retail execution experience.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Sales Assistant / Sales Administrator
Marketing Assistant / Promotions Assistant
Merchandising Coordinator or Retail Operations Assistant

Advancement To:

Senior Sales & Promotions Co-ordinator
Trade Marketing Manager
Promotions & Channel Manager
Brand Manager or Sales Manager

Lateral Moves:

Retail Operations Co-ordinator
Category Assistant / Category Manager (with experience)
E-commerce Promotions Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop and maintain a forward-looking promotional calendar across key channels (instore, e‑commerce, distributor channels), ensuring alignment with brand launches, seasonal events and retailer windows to maximize visibility and incremental sales.
Coordinate end-to-end execution of trade promotions: define mechanics, create sell-in materials, brief brokers and agencies, approve artwork for POS and ensure on-time delivery to stores and distribution centers.
Manage promotion budgets and spend tracking: prepare budget estimates, monitor actuals against plan, reconcile invoices from agencies and third-party vendors, and ensure promotions deliver within approved cost-per-unit targets.
Build and distribute detailed promotional briefs to sales teams and retail partners that include objectives, KPIs, pricing mechanics, eligibility rules and pacing schedules to reduce ambiguity and execution risk.
Track weekly and post-promo performance versus baseline and forecast: calculate volume lift, incremental margin, sell-through rates, and net ROI; produce executive-ready reports and recommendations for future promotional tactics.
Run trade promotion optimization (TPO) activities: analyze historical promotion performance, identify high-impact mechanics, and propose A/B tests or alternative incentives to improve efficiency and ROI.
Liaise with logistics and supply planning to confirm inventory allocation for promotions, coordinate deliveries, and mitigate out-of-stocks or overstocks that erode promotional effectiveness.
Negotiate and manage relationships with third-party suppliers, merchandising teams, POP vendors and agencies to secure favorable lead times and pricing for promotional materials and in-store activations.
Oversee point-of-sale asset production: approve dielines, signage copy, print proofs and packaging inserts; ensure brand compliance and retailer format adherence across different store types.
Collaborate with e-commerce, digital marketing and CRM teams to activate online promotions, couponing, and email/SMS campaigns; ensure promo codes, landing pages and analytics tracking are live and validated.
Support sales teams with training materials and in-market activation instructions; conduct pre-promo alignment calls and store-level readiness checks where applicable.
Implement and maintain trade promotion management (TPM) tools or spreadsheets: input campaigns, set parameters, and validate system calculations to ensure consistency between planned and paid promotions.
Maintain promotion governance and compliance: ensure promotions comply with retailer policies, legal requirements (pricing, claims), and internal trade terms to avoid chargebacks or penalties.
Monitor competitor promotional activity and retail pricing trends to recommend tactical responses and identify white-space opportunities for incremental share gain.
Prepare customer-facing sell-in decks and ROI business cases for major retail partners, combining sales forecast, margin impact and merchandising plans to secure space and compliance.
Coordinate in-store demonstration, sampling and event programs: manage rostering, vendor briefings, compliance checks and post-event performance summaries.
Maintain and update a centralized promotions asset library (creative files, merchandising guidelines, approval records) to speed execution and ensure brand consistency.
Resolve point-of-sale and invoice disputes with retailers and finance teams: gather supporting documentation, escalate when necessary, and follow through to closure.
Create and maintain dashboards and weekly scorecards for sales leadership that highlight promo performance, inventory health and key risks across accounts and territories.
Implement and document standard operating procedures (SOPs) for promotion planning, execution, post-mortem analysis and vendor onboarding to improve consistency and reduce time-to-market.

Secondary Functions

Assist the sales operations team with CRM updates related to active promotions, accounts, and contact records.
Provide ad-hoc sales and promotional performance analysis to support leadership decision-making.
Support field sales and merchandisers with promotional checklists, training guides and corrective action plans for non-compliant stores.
Coordinate with finance to process promotional accruals, rebates and customer claims tied to trade programs.
Participate in cross-functional sprints and planning meetings to align promotional timing with new product launches or seasonal campaigns.
Create succinct post-mortem reports for major promotions, documenting learnings and recommended improvements for future planning.
Attend retailer business reviews and prepare supporting materials that show promotional impact and next-step recommendations.
Help maintain vendor and supplier contracts, ensuring insurance, lead times and SLAs are up to date and documented.
Support small-scale creative updates (copy edits, asset resizing) when required to meet retailer specifications.
Represent the promotions function at trade shows, merchandising audits and consumer events, coordinating logistics and staffing as needed.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, complex formulas) for promo analysis and reconciliation.
Experience with Trade Promotion Management (TPM) systems or dedicated promotions modules (e.g., SAP TPM, APT, Ortec, Promomash) or strong spreadsheet-based TPM processes.
Familiarity with CRM platforms (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics) to manage account-level promotional plans and approvals.
Data visualization and reporting tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker) to build dashboards and promotional scorecards.
Basic SQL or the ability to work with BI teams to extract promotional and POS data for ad-hoc analysis.
POS and retail merchandising knowledge: store planograms, shelf availability, display construction and POP specifications.
Experience working with Nielsen, IRI, SPINS or other syndicated retail data providers to measure market share and promotion effectiveness.
Project management tools and methodologies (Asana, Jira, Trello, MS Project) to manage timelines and cross-functional tasks.
Familiarity with e-commerce promotional mechanics (promo codes, site banners, cart discounts) and tag management for analytics.
Budget management and invoice reconciliation experience, including understanding trade accruals and retailer chargeback processes.
Basic graphic review skills and experience working with Adobe Creative Suite or creative agencies to produce POS assets.

Soft Skills

Exceptional stakeholder management: ability to influence cross-functional teams and external retailers to secure space and compliance.
Strong verbal and written communication: craft clear promotional briefs, executive summaries and sell-in decks.
Analytical mindset with attention to detail: spot anomalies, reconcile complex invoices and translate data into actionable recommendations.
Time management and prioritization: manage concurrent promotions across accounts and channels with competing deadlines.
Problem solving and escalation management: rapidly diagnose execution issues (inventory, scheduling, compliance) and drive remedial actions.
Negotiation skills for vendor rates, delivery windows and retailer terms to maximize promotional ROI.
Adaptability and resilience: respond quickly to last-minute retailer changes, supply issues, or competitive responses.
Team player with collaborative approach across sales, marketing, supply chain and finance.
Customer-centric orientation: understand retailer needs and shopper behaviors to design compelling promotion mechanics.
Continuous improvement mindset: document learnings and optimize repeatable processes to reduce promotional waste.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Retail Management, Economics or a related field (or equivalent work experience).

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree with additional coursework or certification in trade marketing, retail merchandising, data analytics, or project management (e.g., Google Data Analytics, PMI CAPM).

Relevant Fields of Study:

Marketing
Business Administration
Retail Management
Supply Chain / Logistics
Data Analytics / Statistics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years in sales support, promotions coordination, trade marketing, retail merchandising, or related commercial roles.

Preferred:

3+ years executing retail and trade promotions in FMCG/CPG, consumer electronics, or retail environments, with demonstrated experience managing multi-channel promotional calendars, TPM tools or syndicated retail data, and vendor/retailer relationships.