Resources
No jargon, no BS, no MBA required. We explain in plain language what really matters, so you can grow your brand with clarity, and confidence.
Fred Schroeder's Off-Invoice Allowance and MCB Math: What Your Trade Dollars Really Do
One case, $12.69 in trade spend. Only $4.16 of it actually reached the retailer. The other $8.53 stayed with the distributor. A 10% chargeback gets billed against a wholesale price 40% higher than yours, so that "10%" really costs 14% of your case rate. Off-invoice allowances are worse: distributors stock up at the discount, and maybe 10 cents of every discounted dollar ever touches the shelf.
Why Your Signed Contract Doesn't Match Your Trade Plan (and What to Do About It)
A 10% MCB on a $40 case should cost $4.00. Distributors calculate it against their own wholesale price instead, usually 35-40% higher than what you actually charged, so that same $4.00 can arrive billed at $5.60. On our webinar with Fred Schroeder, who spent his career on the other side of this at P&G and Coca-Cola, he put a number on how often contracts and trade plans disagree: probably close to two-thirds of promotions.