Best of 2025: Sales & Category Insights You May Find Helpful as You Plan for 2026
To kick off the year, we pulled together the articles that resonated most with Sales + Cat Man leaders in 2025. If building better selling stories is on your 2026 list, you’ll find practical frameworks here for top-to-tops, new item launches, and more. Scan it, bookmark it, steal what you need, and jump to what’s most relevant as you map out the year.
How to Create a Killer Story for Your Top to Top Meetings
A lot of CPG teams tell us their top-to-tops turn into product pitches. This article shares a simple framework (SCQA) to build a real retailer story: start with the category or shopper problem, then land your strategy as the solution. We also show how one CPG team used this approach to unlock a $10M+ joint business plan.
Build a Presentation Toolkit to Save Time and Influence Retailers Better
If your Sales and Cat Man teams don’t have strong presentation tools, they are working harder than they need to. This article shows how to build a Presentation Time-Saver Toolkit that elevates storytelling and frees up time for higher-value work.
Creating a Selling Story for your new CPG product? Try this.
This builds on the same SCQA framework we shared for Top-to-Top meetings, but with a specific use case: selling-in a new product. Winning shelf space takes more than a product pitch. This piece shares a practical formula to start with the category opportunity, frame the shopper or retailer challenge, then position your product as the solution, so you end up with a clear, repeatable launch story.
Lessons from a Ferrero Leader on Shaping the Future of Category Management
As you plan your retailer strategies for 2026, this one’s worth a read if you want a mindset shift. Bala Gurumoorthy (VP, Category Management, Ferrero) shares where CatMan is heading, from reporting the news to shaping it. We cover 3 of his ideas: act like the captain even when you’re not, solve retailer problems before pitching products, and lead with the triple win.
Build Your Cat Man Capability’s Vision
Are you due to build a vision for your Category Management capability? Could 2026 be the year you finally put it on paper? 🙂
We share a simple framework (as a presentation outline) to help you get started. Once it’s drafted, share it with your leadership and team so everyone’s aligned and rowing in the same direction. That alignment is where the impact compounds.
Is Your Broker Sales Toolkit Up to the Task?
We often hear from Category and Sales leaders that their broker toolkits haven’t kept pace with what retail buyers expect today. We break down what a modern Broker Selling Toolkit should include, from category-focused selling stories and retailer-specific strategies to performance metrics that keep brokers aligned with your priorities across different selling situations.
Learn More About OUTKREATE's Sales, CatMan & Insights Solutions
OUTKREATE developes retailer-facing presentations for top CPG Cat Man & Insights teams, equipping them for success — be it Top to Tops, Innovation Selling Stories, Line Reviews & JBPs, and more.
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