Are you ready to sell your product to retail?

Do you have a product to sell to retail?  If you are a consumer products company, an inventor, an entrepreneur, one of your end goals is to successfully sell your products into and through retail stores – either brick and mortar or online.  Whether your goal is to sell your produce regionally, nationally or globally, you must convince a buyer to stock your product.

Many companies believe that a new product is so great that every retail buyer will want their product.  They may or may not be right.  I have talked with a number of product developers who have a “If we build it, retailers will buy it” attitude.  If your company name is Procter & Gamble, Nike, Apple, or Samsung, you are probably right.  If your brand or company is not number one in your market segment, you may have more challenges and competition to earn your spot on the retail shelf.  Mintel’s Global New Product Database currently adds over 20,000 new products a month, worldwide. Are you ready to compete with these products for retail distribution?

I have participated in many new product pitches, and have seen the sales presentations for many others.  Not all products equally excite a retail buyer.  But, even a great product may not reach the shelf if the sell-in presentation does not provide the needed information to meet the buyer’s needs.  The following checklist should help you prepare for your next new product presentation.

_____ Know your market – Shoppers, consumers and competitors.  Know who buys products in your category and why.  Who are you targeting for your new product?  Who is the end consumer?  Who are your future key competitors?  Is it your own products or competitive brands?  If you have a product ready to launch, all of these should be well known to you by now.  Visit and audit stores to learn the market and retailers.

_____ Know your value proposition – Know what is unique and valuable about your product – to retailers, to their shoppers and to their end consumers.  Why does your product truly belong on their retail shelves?  What should it replace?  What data / insights can you bring to back up that pitch?  You will need your reason for being (value proposition) and several supporting data points to justify it (reasons to believe).

_____ Know your target retailers – First of all, learn whom you need to sell to.  Without their name, it will be difficult to get an appointment. If it is a new buyer to you, can you get a referral from someone you know?  You will need to know the retailer well.  What is important to them in the buying decision?  Learn everything you can before setting up an appointment. Make visits to multiple stores before you pitch a retailer. How do they differentiate themselves in the market?  How do they merchandise your category?  What products do they sell at what price?  How do they promote? Be prepared to talk about how your product will fit in their store.

_____ Show proof – Get quick wins early.  Success can accelerate if you can point to others already buying your product.  Create an early success story with 1-2 retailers.  Bring your story and your numbers to prove your results to others.  Today, data sells new products more than relationships.  Bring research and test market data to help your sales pitch resonate.

_____ Where to sell – Don’t sell your largest target customer first, but do not be afraid to sell to large customers early once you have a solid sales story to tell. 

_____ Bring a brand to sell, not just a product – Buyers and shoppers connect with brands, not just products.  Be prepared to talk about your brand and your plans to build your brand in the future.

_____ Intellectual property – Do not present your product before you have protected your intellectual property.  Have you filed at least a provisional patent? Have you trademarked your brand?  Do not discuss your product or brand before you are protected.

_____ Sell sheet – Your sell sheet is a front and back selling tool that lists everything the buyer needs to know to buy your product from you.  It should include:

·       Brand logo – establish the brand for this product

·       Product photo – a great photo of what your product looks like inside and outside of the package

·       Product specifications – all product dimensions, packaging dimensions, product, package and pallet weight, shipping configuration, boxes per case, cases per pallet.

·       Product availability date – when your product will be available to ship

·       UPC code and case codes – for the retailer to enter into their system

·       Merchandising information / suggestions – use a separate sheet if you are offering pre-packed shippers

·       Information on how to place the order – Are orders placed on your website, through EDI, etc.?

·       Company and contact information – to reach you after the meeting

·       Marketing calendar – show your launch support – this can be on a different sheet if room is needed for the above

_____ Product samples in finished retail packaging – Bring, and be prepared to leave, product samples that are production samples that are ready to sell.  Buyers may express interest in a prototype, but they place orders for finished product that is ready to ship.  This means final packaging and product.  Your commercial production line may not yet be commissioned, but you cannot show one product and ship a retailer something different once they order it.

_____ End-user Endorsements – Test your product with target consumers.  Show the test results and quotes from consumers about what they like about your product.

_____ Cost information – Be prepared with the wholesale cost to the retailer, distributor costs if there is a distributor needed, and the manufacturer’s suggested retail pricing (MSRP)

_____ Website / social media – Have your website ready to share in a sell-in meeting.  Social media can be launched when new products are on the shelf, but be prepared to share your digital marketing plan.

_____ Other marketing support – Reach out to media to see if you can get some early PR support.  If your marketing budget is small, PR may be your best friend.  An in-store pre-packed shipper can also provide a second point of distribution or a way to gain initial trial and sales before getting a permanent spot on shelf.  If you will be supporting the launch with advertising or promotion, bring a marketing calendar to show how you will be supporting the product in market. 

_____ Make sure you are ready for success – Know how much volume you can produce AND finance in the first year.  Many new companies fail from not being able to fulfill early large orders.  Others fail from not having the finances lined up to cover costs while waiting to get paid for early orders.

_____ Attend the key trade shows – If you cannot get in to see all of the key buyers or cannot afford to travel to many retailers, go where the key buyers go.  Do not waste money on trade shows that are not important to your key buyers.  Do your research.  Know which trade shows are important to your category buyers and for new product launches.  Buy a booth and prepare an engaging display to capture the attention of potential buyers.  Be ready to sell.

_____ Listen to feedback – Some buyers may give you good coaching and the opportunity to come back with a revised product if they find your initial product falls short of their needs.  This feedback may open opportunities for a revised product and provide ideas for product improvements to create version 2.0.

In short, do your homework and be prepared before you make the sales appointment.  You often get only one chance to sell a new product into a retailer.  Hopefully this list will help you get ready to sell your product to retail.

This blog was originally posted by GrowthSpring Group on the MENG Blend website.

David Lund is the founder and president of GrowthSpring Group – a unique a strategic growth and marketing innovation firm that works with clients to accelerate success by helping them identify and launch new growth initiatives. www.GrowthSpringGroup.com

What Could Go Wrong? Protect Yourself From Marketing Risk

You have built your marketing plan, started your execution and you are ready to launch.  Your team is excited.  Will you succeed?  The answer to this question may depend on how much time you have spent anticipating and mitigating the potential risk in your marketing plans.

If you are a financial manager, you can diversify a portfolio or hedge currencies to limit your risk exposure.  Does the same thing apply to marketing leadership?  Can you protect yourself from market and marketing risk? Are there steps you can take to help ensure your months of planning and preparation do not go up in smoke?

The need for marketing risk management

If you have worked in marketing for a while, you know that different types of marketing risk are very real.  The best-developed new product, program or plan can come apart for a variety of reasons.  You likely implement a number of different marketing risk management initiatives already, whether you think of them that way or not.

Marketing risk management is anticipating risk and then taking action to remove or reduce that risk in your marketing development and execution.

When does marketing risk occur?

• Marketing planning – risk can enter your marketing plans as you begin to build them.  Different initiatives and strategic choices carry different types and levels of risk. 
• Opportunity assessment – During new program and new product opportunity assessment, marketers evaluate and compare the market opportunity of different strategies and concepts.  Marketers often focus on optimizing awareness, preference, purchase, market share and ROI.  Often the pursuit of sales and profit growth can lead companies to ignore or underestimate risk in selecting projects to pursue.
• Program/Product development – During the development process, the program or product concept that you approved for development may evolve for operational, but not strategic, reasons.  Changes in execution that deviate from a strong concept may limit the impact and performance of your new product or program. 
• Launch – Many marketing programs or new products have been launched only to face an internal budget cut or a change in external market factors.
• Company or product failure – A public relations issue or product problem could damage your reputation. 
• Established products – In any given month, a competitor, a retailer or a change in the economy can limit the attractiveness of your products.  External risk is harder to predict and can have more severe consequences.

Some risk is easier to identify than others.  Some risk is easier to manage than others.  Marketing is subjective.  There is risk in most marketing initiatives.  Sometimes it takes higher risk to achieve higher reward.  You cannot win some races without taking on risk.  Sometimes you want risk to completely go away.  Some times you just want to manage risk and not fully remove it. 

To achieve reward more consistently, being able to identify, evaluate and manage risk can make the difference between a successful company and one that goes out of business.  Having active risk management tools and programs in place can help you move new products and programs to market quicker and with greater success.

What forms does marketing risk take, and how do you protect against them?

Do you have marketing risk management programs already in place?  Here are some examples of marketing risk and corresponding risk management:

Enterprise Risk Management

Marketing risk management should be part of your enterprise risk management efforts.  This is a holistic approach to managing risk in an organization and typically includes assessment and mitigation of risk in areas such as:

·       Strategic – risk inherent in company strategic decisions and their outcomes

·       Operational – risk inherent in internal operations, equipment, labor and management

·       Financial – for example – investments, currency exchange, interest rates

·       Pure risk – for example, hurricanes, earthquake, war

Marketing risk can occur in any of these categories.  Risk in these categories does not often come at the same time, but they are often interconnected in large initiatives.  An operational or strategic failure introduces financial risk.  Companies must manage their risk portfolio to manage multiple risks across multiple programs.

Ensuring that marketing strategies and initiatives are included as part of your company’s enterprise risk management dashboard and program can be one important step to help add visibility and tools for your marketing risk management efforts.

Putting marketing risk management to work

• Marketing planning – As you create your marketing plan, not only identify your objectives, strategies and action plans, but also identify potential roadblocks, hazards or threats (risks) to your plans.  If you identify potential risks during planning, you can make more informed choices and start risk management earlier.
• Opportunity assessment –During your opportunity assessment process, identify both potential risks and rewards.  If you assess your options for both ROI potential and risk, it is possible that programs with lower ROI, but also lower risk, may be better choices.  You may also select a high-risk opportunity due to high potential reward.  Make sure you are considering both risk and ROI in your opportunity assessment.
• Program/Product development – Delivering a high potential product from concept to market can be more challenging when many people are involved in the development process.  Committee decision-making can slow, kill or evolve a strategic project.  A long or complicated development path may allow the team to stray from the original concept. Your ability to keep a new program or new product true to the approved concept during development can reduce risks following launch.
• Launch – There are many variables that introduce risk following a launch.  An aligned leadership team that supports and protects key strategic initiatives from internal risk factors such as budget cuts, lack of sales support, or operational complications can improve results.  Reducing the internal risk of new programs or products gives them a much better chance in market.
• Company or product failure – A solid, ongoing risk management team puts operational checkpoints in place to help prevent their company from having a significant market or public relations issue.  Does your team have both quality management and crisis management programs in place?  If not, it should. 
• Established products – A good way to be prepared for market changes is to continually monitor the market and ensure that both the market team and the operations team are informed of any new potential market risks.  Any new issues of concern can then trigger response planning with the needed team members.

What you can do now?

• Commit to integrating risk management into your marketing planning and program / product management efforts
• Identify who will lead your marketing risk management efforts.  Everyone should play a part, but having someone on your team who is specifically assigned to lead risk management can further protect you.
• Work with your organizations leadership team to integrate marketing into your enterprise risk management program
• Set up time this month to assess and identify potential risks in current and future programs
• Based on this assessment, put together and implement risk management / mitigation plans

Marketing risk management is not a simple issue, but regular and consistent efforts in this area can make a big difference.  As Ben Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

This blog was originally posted by GrowthSpring Group on the MENG Blend website.

David Lund is the founder and president of GrowthSpring Group – a unique a strategic growth and marketing innovation firm that works with clients to accelerate success by helping them identify and launch new market growth initiatives. www.GrowthSpringGroup.com

What kind of elevator do you need for your elevator pitch?

Does your elevator pitch work for you?  Do you need one?  I recently read a blog posted on LinkedIn titled, “I don’t really care about our elevator pitch.”  The author shares he does not care about his pitch, “simply because what matters is issues and opportunities.”

He may have found a way to jump to that conversation, but many have found value in using a simple, but effective pitch to get a conversation going.

You may or may not be pitching your value proposition to a prospective client on an elevator.  For most, probably not.  I do believe, and have repeatedly witnessed, that the ability to clearly and concisely communicate your value proposition can open the door to a meaningful conversation on what you have to offer.  I have also seen the reverse where a poorly articulated value proposition quickly leads to disinterest and a potential missed opportunity.

Elements of an effective pitch

In my experience, a great pitch has three components:

1.    It is short and easy to explain

2.     It shares the unique value or benefit you have to offer

3.    Your benefit engages the listener’s emotions as well as their brain.  It makes them think, “I want that – it will make my world better.”

If your pitch does these three things, you will often get your listener to say, “tell me more.” After all, isn’t that what you want your prospect or a person you are meeting to say?  Your pitch should start a conversation.  A short, meaningful, engaging pitch will do far more to start conversations than a long-winded explanation of everything you have to offer.

What is our company’s pitch? “We help companies grow faster.”  We often hear, “tell me more.”  Then, we have a conversation about their challenges and the value we offer. 

So…what is your elevator pitch? 

Does it fit the three criteria above?  Many do not.  Based on a range of pitches I have heard in the last year, many companies need to work on their pitch – or, at least, they need a special elevator in which to make their pitch. 

See if one of these elevators fits your elevator pitch.  Based on the pitch your company uses today, what type of elevator do you need to deliver it?

Elevator in a tall building – Some people take several minutes to share their pitch.  This requires a long elevator ride in a tall building.  A pitch over 20-30 seconds is likely working against you.  You should be able to deliver your pitch in 1-3 sentences.  My experience is that a great one-sentence pitch will be most effective in prompting someone to respond with “tell me more.”

Many elevators to different floors – This is common with many companies.  Each person at the company makes a slightly different pitch about different aspects of your value proposition.  Some may effectively engage the listener, but as they describe different points of value, your representatives are taking prospects to different destinations.  Your company can be more effective if your entire team is aligned to pitch your company in the same compelling way.

All the elevators look the same as in those other buildings – Your company has an established elevator pitch, but it is so generic prospects cannot tell how you are different from other options.  An example of this would be, “We help you market your products to your customers.”  A generic pitch seldom engages one’s interest or emotions.  Often, the thought or response triggered by pitch like this is, “I already have someone who does that.”

No elevator, take the stairs – This happens when someone has no clear pitch to explain their company.  The listener has to work to learn what the company does. Prospects either ask questions to try and figure out if there is value for them, or they tune out and quickly leave the conversation.  Don’t make prospects become stair climbers, have your pitch prepared for when you meet people.

We have one fantastic high-speed elevator.  This is the best elevator for your pitch.  It is a short ride, it will take you where you want to go, and you are pleased when you get there.  If your pitch quickly engages your listener because you may make their world simpler or better, you likely have a highly effective pitch. 

In the end, the goal of the elevator pitch is to start a conversation, not to start and close a sale in 30 seconds.   Tell enough to engage and communicate your value, but leave your listener wanting to learn more. 

Voltaire once wrote, "The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out."  Don’t be boring.

David Lund is president and founder of GrowthSpring Group, a unique a strategic growth and marketing innovation firm that works with clients to accelerate success by helping them identify and launch new opportunities to profitably grow sales. www.GrowthSpringGroup.com

A Strategic Checklist for Growing Your Business in the New Year

As we approach the holidays, marketers shift their focus to their plans for the New Year.  Have you made a final review of next year’s marketing plan and budget? Have you started your planning for next year?

Every organization has a different planning process and objectives.  At the end of the day, your marketing plan execution is likely tasked with creating demand for your products, building your brand, and driving earnings and new business growth.  A well-thought out plan will help you achieve these results.  To assist in your year-end planning preparation, I am sharing a checklist of key strategic planning steps that can help align and focus your team on achieving your strategic goals.  While you may have already completed all or most of these steps, this list may prompt an opportunity to enhance your current planning and preparation.

Understand your market and your competitive position in the market

_____ Define and assess your market, your competitors and competitive position.  Many companies use a SWOT analysis for this step.  Another method is to use market data to prepare an assessment of recent market performance versus competitors and market share trends among your target customers.

_____ Define your primary and secondary target customer.  Know why they do and do not buy from you.  You cannot effectively plan if you do not understand your customers.  If you do not know your target customers and their motivators, an earlier priority in 2015 should be to conduct research on who they are, what they value, and why they choose you or your competitor’s products or services.

Ensure you are focused on the right goals

____ Define what success looks like in the new year.  It is likely that different members of your team have different objectives and a different idea of what a successful new year should look like.  Hold a discussion with your leadership team to define what success should look like for your organization by the end of next year.

_____ Define, align on and approve your SMART goals.  The term SMART for goal setting has been used for many years.  SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.  It is often good to also consider goals that are challenging and specifically grow your business.  Build on the previously step to “define success” and turn your definition into your SMART goals. When setting goals, make both earnings and new business growth top priorities – you cannot grow your business if your only focus for next year is on cost reduction.

Along with setting your goals with your leadership team, take time to agree on the success metrics and measurement system you will use to track progress to your goals.

Ensure your team is truly aligned to your goals – and with each other

____ Stop to make sure your leadership team is truly aligned to these goals.  If your leaders are not fully aligned on a single vision of success and the same goals for the next year, the odds are they will spend more time on their own priorities than working to achieve the organization’s goals. 

Specifically discuss on how you will respond to risk in growth initiatives.  New growth initiatives will seldom succeed if all are not aligned on risk tolerance and how your team will respond to failure.  Take time to talk to make sure everyone is really on board – resolve concerns if they are not.

Ensure you are working on the right initiatives

____ Identify the strategies that will likely be most effective to achieve your goals.

Select your top 3 strategic initiatives.  These initiatives should tie to the achievement of a company strategic goal.  Focus your strategies on leveraging the purchase drivers of your customers.  Develop strategies for your goals that drive both existing business and new business growth.  Abandon strategies that have not been productive in prior years.

Identify what you will NOT do next year.  If an initiative does not sell more, cut costs and/or tie to a strategic goal, you are likely wasting your time putting it on your to-do list.  This could be the year to stop working on legacy initiatives.  Don’t repeat an initiative just because it is something you have always done.

Ensure you have the right resources to win – and invest them in the right place

_____ Ensure you have enough of the right people and funding to do the job.  Every team wants more resources.  Every team believes they could be more effective with more people and funding.  Realistically assess your resources.  Plan your year to succeed with the resources you have vs. creating a plan that will overtax your team all year.  Do fewer things better.

_____ Put the right people in the right jobs.  If you want to achieve new results, sometimes that means changing who is leading key initiatives.  It can be especially important to put the right team leaders in place leading new growth initiatives.  Align the skills, experience and relationships with the jobs to be done, and then empower your team to lead and achieve.

_____ When possible, budget to task and not to a number.  Identify what your strategic initiatives will cost in order to succeed.  If budget cuts are needed, trim entire initiatives rather than trimming quality and effectiveness of each to keep everything on the project list.

_____ Build your budget using three categories:  strategic initiatives, New venture initiatives, tactical initiatives.

Strategic initiatives are top priority initiatives that grow your existing business and enable you to achieve your strategic goals.  This is a strategic investment in the near-term health, growth and competitiveness of your organization.  These investments should not be cut except in extreme circumstances.

New venture initiatives are investments in entering new markets, launching new products or testing new marketing approaches. These are the strategic initiatives that drive long-term growth of your organization.  It is important to always include funding for testing and development in this area to promote long-term growth opportunities.  These should not be cut if possible, but could be delayed in timing if there is a strong need to reduce spending.

Tactical initiatives are programs or events that have only short term volume impact.  Every budget likely includes some of these.  Often, these can be cut or reduced in cost and not have a material impact in achieving your organization’s goals. This should be the first place to cut costs if spending must be reduced when budgeting or during a mid-year spending cut.

If you allocate your budget across these three categories, you are more likely to focus your resources on the most strategic programs and initiatives and limit investment in areas that have little impact.

_____ Develop budget milestone review process for continued funding of new venture initiatives.  Make success criteria and timing for milestones are realistic to support new business growth.  Review progress at key milestones and do not add significant new investment if key success criteria cannot be met.

Hopefully, your organization is already implementing most of these planning steps.  If not, consider adding new steps to your process.  If needed, an outside advisor can help you boost the effectiveness and impact of your planning process.  With thoughtful planning and great execution, you will have a very prosperous new year.

This blog was originally posted by GrowthSpring Group on the MENG Blog website.

David Lund is the founder and president of GrowthSpring Group – a unique a strategic growth and marketing innovation firm that works with clients to accelerate success by helping them identify and launch new market growth initiatives. www.GrowthSpringGroup.com