14. Stack it! It is great to get your product on the retail shelf, but getting it stacked on the floor is infinitely more valuable. When your product or brand is new, there is no better way to announce its arrival than a colorful floor display. Floor displays are at the option of the retailer, but retailers are more likely to grant you the coveted floor space if they believe they can move your product quickly. This may require special pricing, local promotion, merchandising assistance, special signage, and months of preparation and scheduling. Retailers want to floor display products that have a demonstrated record of brisk sales, a real Catch 22 for new producers with no track record. However, a strategic plan that starts small and demonstrates brisk sales with adjacent retailers will give you and your product credibility.

15. Reorders are more important than orders! Without the reorder, all your work to get your product to the retailer is lost. This is why eternal vigilance at the retail level is essential. There are many reasons why retailers don’t reorder besides the obvious, “The price was too high,” or “The quality was too low.” Here are some examples:

• Your product sold out and the retailer forgot to reorder because he was not used to reordering it.
• The retailer’s distributer that supplies your product did not deliver.
• The distributer delivered the wrong product.
• The distributer’s sales person loaded the retailer up last month with products that have yet to sell and now the retailer doesn’t want to order anything from that sales person, including your product.
• Your product is still in the back room and never made it to the shelf.
• The invoice was wrong and the price was wrong.
• Your distributer’s sales person simply did not ask for a reorder.
• Your products UPC number was incorrectly entered at the back door and was refused.
• Your product UPC number was incorrectly entered on the scanner at the check out.
• Your product’s shelf reorder ticket was lost or removed.
• None of your Point of Sale signage was up.

If you don’t have your own representative in that city, visiting that store on a regular basis, your product could be easily discontinued for any of the reasons above, and more. And everyone will tell you, “It just didn’t sell”.

There are many more distribution factors to consider before launching any product. The most successful products treat distribution as more important than the product itself.

In most chain stores, you get only one chance…forever!  The good news is that your product can’t be discontinued if it isn’t there yet. Do your research. Start small and slow.

There are warehouses full of great products that never made it to the shelf. There are shelves full of many products that are less than great … but they have great distribution. Customers buy what’s there, and they can’t buy what isn’t.

Your product is only new once. So take the time to build the distribution requirements into your product and your budget. Hit a home run at your first and only time at bat!

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 Distribution: The Distance between a Great Product and a Sale – Part 4 appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

When the producers of any product first go into business, they tend to think they are in the production business. In fact, if they are to succeed, they are in the Distribution Management business. Distribution Management trumps production because without it, your product may never make it to the shelf – no matter how good your product is.

With a good understanding and implementation of distribution management, you will likely get your product to the retail store, but your job is not over yet. Here are some further considerations all producers should examine even before they go into full scale production:

11. Consider a test market of your product and your management of the distribution channel. This will show you not only if it will sell or not, but more importantly, what is required to get it to the retail shelf and keep it there. Choose a small, nearby geographic area, which is easier for you to manage. That way, adjustments to your product, pricing, and merchandising can happen quickly and with less cost. Understand everything you have to do before you go national (or even statewide).

12. Go Backwards. Even though you think you know what it costs to produce your product, do the math again. Start from the retail shelf and go backwards. Discover what price the consumer will pay for like items so you’ll be in the ballpark. Continue to work backward. What does the retailer have to make? What does the wholesaler have to make? What do you have to charge for your product to achieve the retail price your customer will pay? Remember to include all taxes, freight, sales commissions, and other cost-to-sell expenses. Now factor in all the “push” discounts that make displays possible and encourage retailers to promote and advertise your product. Now you can calculate how your product must be priced to be competitive on the shelf.

13. Get local customers. The ultimate form of customer service is to create “pull” by actually bringing customers to your retailer to buy your product. Especially when your brand is new and unknown, it is critical to go out and get customers for your product. Consider promotions in the immediate draw area of the retail store that carries your product. This can be done by advertising or worthy-cause marketing. Retailers are quick to discontinue products that don’t move in the first 30 to 60 days.

Your products’ pricing, “push” discounting, and local “pull” demand are major factors in the distribution channel. Know how the realities of the distribution system affect your product’s design, pricing, and budget before you send it out into the marketplace. Understand these critical issues before you fill a warehouse with great products that don’t have a chance to get to the shelf, or worse, wind up getting sold at clearance prices.

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 Distribution: The Distance between a Great Product and a Sale – Part 3 appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.