What if you SHIFTED AWAY from a “me vs them attitude,” and the thought that the wholesale buyer is a gatekeeper to your success TO ONE where you control your own destiny?
The STORE wants to sell more product.
The DISTRIBUTOR wants to sell more product.
YOU want to sell more product.
We all have the same goals, so the sooner you can stop seeing the wholesale buyer as THE PERSON who is getting in the way of your success, or as someone who you just have to wrangle, or as someone who doesn’t really care about you - the faster you’re able to shift your thinking and show up as the smart, respectful, collaborative brand that you are.
INSTEAD OF COUNTING the number of doors that you’re in and focusing 90% of your energy on landing new accounts,
You start to think MORE STRATEGICALLY about your sales plan, and ask yourself, “How can I increase my velocity in each of these accounts?”
Knowing your target audience and WHY they’re emotionally connected to your brand,
Determining your wholesale channel strategy to show up where they’re already looking for products like yours, and then
Designing and executing a thoughtful, doable, repeatable plan to steadily increase sales once you’re on the shelf.
This is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MODEL than what has traditionally been taught in the grocery industry: typically, brands are advised to get an insider intro to find a copacker that will create your product, manufacture it as cheaply as possible so that you can compete on price, buddy up with a distributor at an expensive tradeshow to get anchor accounts at national retailers, and compete in a race-to-the-bottom on pricing, only to rely on volume of doors and volume of marketing dollars to make pennies on the dollar.
✔️ where YOU know which accounts are going to be your BEST accounts long before you land on the shelf
✔️ where YOU DON’T have to have an endless back and forth with Buyers to get that first purchase order, AND
✔️ where YOU know exactly which marketing levers to pull (and which you can afford to pull in the first place!) at each time of year to see increased sales.
✔️ You finally know whether or not working with a broker or distributor is the right choice for your brand (disclaimer: it might never be!) and how to go into that relationship with eyes wide open, and as an advocate for what YOU need out of the partnership.
“Becoming a Retail Ready student has been the best investment for our business! We learned the value of understanding where we stand in our category, the importance of knowing your target market, and how consistency across the board is how our business will grow. The Retail Ready facebook page is such a gem! It's amazing to know that there are so many people wanting the same thing, so willing to share!
— DOROTHY WILLIAMS, CreA’s Love Butter
“I started my food entrepreneurship journey with a great idea, but I wasn't sure about how to move forward with it. I was insanely lucky to find Retail Ready® at that moment. The course helped me with every detail from product design to calling retailers. Within 2 months of launching Just Date Syrup, I landed Whole Foods global - the tipping point for our growth. Only three years later, we are a multimillion dollar, nationally recognized brand. The Retail Ready® experience was absolutely crucial to the success of Just Date.”
— SYLVIA CHARLES, Just Date Syrup
“Retail Ready® has been a considerable support as I try to help our company grow in new directions. As we release new products and navigate new relationships with distributors and retail stores, it is fantastic to have a resource that provides a sounding board for ideas, feedback on strategy and design, and an incredible amount of information to help address issues as they arise.”
— Tim TATE, Think Coffee
By now, you likely know that I’m all about the tough love and #truthtalk, so I’m not going to sugar coat it for you:
It’s HARD to be an outsider and not know the ins and outs of our industry - what language to use, what gets a buyer to say yes or not, what promotions are effective on the shelf, and how often to run them… all of that IS hard, but it IS also something that you can learn.
Time and time again in my role as a wholesale buyer, I saw brands - really delicious, values-oriented, local, better-for-you brands - fail on the retail shelf simply because they weren’t prepared. Not only were they not prepared, I was seeing less and less diversity on the shelves. It was heartbreaking to see, and it was the reason why I launched Retail Ready® in 2016, just as our industry was starting to catch on that there had to be a different way of doing business - a way that prioritized self-funded, local, women-owned, BIPOC founders, sustainably produced, responsible products.
The packaged food industry has
historically looked like this:
That’s why we’re on a mission to
make it look more like this:
If that’s a mission that you’re behind as well, take a closer look at our Retail Ready® framework, and how we’ve supported over 2,500 brands -
in all different categories and from all different countries - in our program.
Up next : Page 4 (of 5): Our philosophy of sustainably growing brands through wholesale by focusing not only on landing ON the shelf, but ensuring that you can sell OFF the shelf once you’re there
