Meeting with a retail buyer is a significant opportunity for any business looking to expand its reach and grow its brand. Whether you're a seasoned vendor or just starting out, proper preparation is essential to make a positive impression and optimise your chances of securing a listing.

Guest post by Richard Horwell is the owner of Brand Relations

Wholesalers and retailers 

The main route to market for new brands is through wholesalers; selling direct to stores is almost impossible. But do not rush to contact the most obvious large wholesaler without checking if the wholesaler supplies your target retailers – you would be surprised how frequently this mistake is made.
 
Once you’ve sourced the wholesalers your targeted retailers buy from, you must now convince the wholesaler to give you a listing and, inevitably, pay their listing / marketing fees. So be very aware that stocking at wholesalers isn’t cheap. You will be asked to spend a minimum £2,000 listing fee per wholesaler, before your product is even advertised in their catalogues and that doesn’t include the additional marketing which involves YOU providing the banners, e-flyers and any other materials for them. 

A quick look around a grocery shop and you’ll find more high-protein products on the shelves than you can shake, well, a protein shaker at! Protein flapjacks, protein cereal, protein ice cream and protein chocolate bars abound and they don’t come cheap; a protein-enriched Snickers bar sells for around £2 compared to the standard, 70 pence bar.

The most dangerous phrase in the English language is “We’ve always done it this way”, renowned computer scientist Grace Hopper famously said. Over the last year as planes were grounded, key retail trade shows cancelled, and face to face meetings replaced by boxes on a screen, these words have proved harshly pertinent to the retail industry, with many FMCG suppliers left scratching their heads as to the best way to get in front of buyers.

If you’ve had to close your shop doors under more restrictions, no doubt that now oft-repeated phrase “non-essential retail” really stings, because the business you’ve built up from scratch using your savings and put blood, sweat and tears into, isn’t “non-essential” to you and those around you. Of course, we all recognise the importance of protecting public health, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a really challenging time the retail sector and restrictions on retail across the various parts of the UK and more widely across Europe, undoubtedly have the potential to inflict further damage to the sector at the busiest time of the year for the industry.

If your business isn’t on Instagram these days, you’d better start today. If you sell any kind of product, if you own a shop or if you want people to recognize your brand, it’s time to get an account on the ‘Gram’. The social network is too popular to ignore. It’s in the hands of your buyers – via their phones – wherever they go.

Nobody wants to feel like they’re paying over the odds for things, not least a retailer who’s looking to turn a profit on the product they’re buying. As the seller, of course you want to build relationships with retailers and make a bit of money yourself so, does that mean you should offer your product at the lowest possible cost price to make sure that you get the sale?
 
Well, it depends how you want your brand and product to be positioned: do you want to be the Lamborghini or the Lada of your market or, somewhere in the middle? If you’re happy to be the Lada (now largely extinct in the UK, as a side note) you’ll probably concentrate on making sure that your parts, production and packaging along with other business costs are kept to a minimum, to keep your landed costs as low as you feasibly can.

If your trade show is cancelled, don’t despair. I understand it’s a big part of your marketing plans but keep in mind that attending a trade show isn’t the only thing you can do to market your business. You have other tools for networking and marketing at your disposal.

As much as the Product Guru gang enjoys office chats and sharing ideas over coffee (and sometimes, ok, always cake), we’re working from home at the moment. Because our platform is cloud-based, it’s something we’re used to doing so we thought it could be useful to share some of our tips for working from home, if it’s not the norm for you. Here’s what a few members of the team had to say:

When you’re running your own company, it can be a challenge to keep on top of everything. Time and resources can be stretched but you know you need to market your business to help it succeed. The goods news? You’re probably already marketing and you haven’t even realised.

Here’s the marketing textbook bit (stick with me, folks)… The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as “the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably”. So, congratulations! You’re already instinctively marketing if you’re improving and developing products, getting to know your customers and figuring out what’s important to them and, trying to meet their expectations.