Not so fast, Bucko! Do you even know what she wants to see? Do you realize that you’ve got one shot at this – and it better be good? Before you were in her stores you could not be discontinued, but once you are in, you can be discontinued …forever!

Everything hinges on the deal, the roll out, and your ability to get around to all of her stores quickly. You must make sure your product got in, is priced right, is visible, and that the clerks and store personnel like you, your representative, and your product. Otherwise they won’t promote it and probably won’t reorder it. This means you fail even with a great product.

When you see her for the first time, you must be prepared.

Pricing. Understand what she wants to “see” on sale. In other words, what percentage of her selling price does she want as profit. Your price to her has to give her that profit. Also understand what she wants to see “on deal” or “on sale.” Find out what kind of “cooperation” (financial support) she wants from you during the introductory special and for how long. Lastly make sure your volume discounts don’t leave any money on the table because she will price your product at the nearest 99 (dollars or cents), and pocket everything above her required percentage. Do the math!

Never reduce your price. Rather, give a temporary price reduction, or she will think you are raising your price when the discount is over. All this gets a whole lot more complicated if you have to go through a distributer or broker. Oh, and one more thing, don’t ever let her see it for less anywhere on line!

Introduction. This is critical to get right. If she buys too much, you may be happy …for a while! But if she doesn’t sell through within a short period of time she will close it out at such a low price that it will haunt you in the marketplace. She must sell through and she must reorder. This means that you or your representative must personally visit every store your product is in on a regular basis to ensure its success. It’s best to have a small test market in nearby outlets that you can visit often to correct sales blocking situations.

Exclusivity. If she represents the first large chain to take your product, she may want exclusivity, preferably long-term, to increase the odds of success. Settle for a reasonable period, being careful not to give her any long-term competitive advantage you will later regret as new chains will want the same deal. Tie all advantages you offer to quantity purchases.

Merchandising Materials. Remember, she wants to know how you are going to move your product in her stores. You must be prepared with allowable signage or video promoting your product. Many buyers will make their decisions on new products based solely on merchandising materials. They know that where the customer, the product, the money, and the decision all come together is at the point of sale. Make sure yours is timely, compelling, and within her size limitations.

Partnership. Think of her as your new, long-term partner. Work with her on the introductory roll out. She knows what works in her stores. Come to an agreement on the price points, price reduction programming, and the scaling of future volume purchases based on the initial success of your product in her stores.

Bottom line: she’s not buying your product so much as she’s giving you an opportunity to sell it in her stores. But hold off celebrating until year two in all her stores! Then you will really have something to celebrate!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Be Ready For That Big Buyer appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

We learned our tough lessons because we were selling to the general public through distributers who then sold to retailers, and we had to do their jobs handling our product.  “What? Shouldn’t they have an interest in making money on a product they bought to sell?” you may ask. Even though we were new and unproven, we expected them to sell our products and get the reorders. We also thought they would put up our sales materials to help them move our products. We found both distributors and retailers to be disinterested and unreliable. Still, we faced discontinuance if our products didn’t sell a certain amount in a certain period of time. We had to do the work required, and we had to do it right!

So here we thought we were in the “wine business.” You know – swirl, sniff, sip, maybe say a few French words, hold your pinkie out, and talk about mid-notes. Forget about it! We were in the same business that anyone selling any consumer packaged goods is in: the distribution management business!

Our success depended on stocking and pricing our own items (where legal), dusting bottles, checking item codes, confirming pricing, staying on top of the retailers’ and distributers’ inventory and reordering our products for them as well. It took years to get them to realize that our product was making them so much money that they had an interest in merchandising it themselves. And a good 10-20% never did pick up the slack.

The big companies know this. You know when you go to a store and ask the “clerk” where something is and he says, “Sorry, I don’t work here!” That person works for a product producer who understands what the real work is. It is merchandising! And their own rep is in that store to merchandise their products for the retailer.

Now let’s say you think the stores will do this work and that the distributers are going to get the reorders when the stores are out of stock. You think someone else is going to be responsible for the distribution process. Or you think your product is so good, priced so right, and recommended by so many that somehow you will avoid this inglorious work all together. Guess what? Your product fails. Period.

Unless you make it a priority with your new and unproven product to demonstrate, for an extended period of time, that it will “sell” (and that means constantly move smoothly through the distribution system), you will get the reputation of being a non-starter or a slow mover.

In the early days we spent most of our time in the stores vigilantly watching the shelves, the back rooms and the warehouses – doing whatever needed to be done to make sales happen. It was not uncommon to see us to working on our hands and knees on dusty linoleum floors! That was the real work! So, stop dreaming and get out there and do what has to be done to be successful!  You can (and must) do it!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post True Entrepreneurs Do What It Takes – No Matter What! appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.