Episode Transcript
Nina Huchthausen (00:03.042)
All right, welcome everybody to the Make His Business Tribe podcast. My name is Nina, I'm the founder of the Makers Business Tribe. And as you may or may not know, but the big reason why I founded is because we wanna leave the planet a better place. Everybody who is involved, the tribe members, the partners, the strategists, that's our big mission, right? And that's why our key focus is on health conscious products.
and help them get into retail because we know the more choice we can create, the easier it is for every single person to make a better choice for themselves, for the planet, for the people, for whatever they might care about, for their health, for their mind, you know, you name it. And, you know, we focus on retail because we not just because I'm not
personally not a fan of online shopping because I have decision -making paralysis. But there are a bunch of other reasons as to why we love retail. Now, before I go into that, the key, the topic that my colleague Hayleah and founder of Hey Hayleah is also on this podcast. Hi, Hayley. Now, the topic that you and I want to talk about and I hope it doesn't get any more long -winded because you might lose me here, is, look, what does it take? What does it take to get product into retail? And what does it take to keep it there? Because we hear this a lot. I want to get my, I want to see my product in all the shelves of all the providers across Australia. That's an awesome goal. But.
Do you understand that there is, there are jobs to be done, there's work involved, there's energy to be expended? And, and do you like it? Do you like doing that job? not just getting them into those stores, but keeping them in those stores? Exactly, exactly. Because it's not just overnight success and magically all the products are there. That rarely ever happens, you know? In fact, I don't know many brands that would say, I won't
Nina Huchthausen (02:28.054)
on a Tuesday and was a million on my product. I opened up my inbox and there was a million emails asking me to stock my product. Yeah. No, so that's not in this episode. We want to talk. We want it. We want to do some real talk on the job that not many people see, but all these brands that are highly successful in retail, they do this every day and
If anyone listens who's been doing it, kudos to you because there's a lot of work involved. Okay, my friends? So if you're curious on what it takes, then stay on. If you're like, don't care about it, well, then this is not an episode for you. Cool? All right, so let me set the scene because I just want to share first retail for you.
What is the opportunity there, really? So first thing is when we create a product, there are two big hurdles that we need to overcome. And the first big hurdle, we need to create a unique product that people love. So we need to create uniqueness and desirability. We need to create scalability.
of that product because if everybody loves it but you can't scale it, there's no point. And you need to have a way to make it profitable. So we need to create profitability of some sort. Because if people are loving it, you can scale it, but it costs you more than people pay for. No points. And go on any further, yeah? Unless you're a billionaire and you don't care and just handing your money away. So those are like the, that's the first big hurdle.
We need to create uniqueness, need to create lovability and scalability, and we need to be able to monetize it and profit from it. But let's say you take those boxes. Next big hurdle is you need to get the freaking product out. But to get it out, for people to just buying it like hotcakes, we need people to like it. And we need to, well, first of all, need people to become aware of it.
Nina Huchthausen (04:53.048)
We need people to like it and to build enough trust to say yes to the product and give it a go. Yeah. Regardless of the channel, those are the economics behind product business. are two big hurdles. is like roughest thing is you can take it. But no matter what product you do have, these are two big things you need to overcome. So if you've overcome the first hurdle, yeah, and you're like, cool, I have a product that people love, I can scale and I can make money from.
You get two big choices, two big options, if you will, to create no like and trust. So option number one or channel number one to then kind of get it out is online. Yeah. So using the internet, emails, social media, whatnot, the non -physical world as a channel to send your physical product from A to B. Or you go brick and mortar offline.
And you can call that retail, can call that via stockists, you can call that via resellers. But people will take the power, put it into a physical space and offer it to other people. Yeah. Those are two, two channel options you have. So, but how do you decide which one first, which one second? So when it comes to online, yeah, few things that we need to understand.
There's a lot of tech involved and there's a lot of data involved and there's a lot of, a lot of things that you need to master, right? Not just banger branding of the product and the product itself, but your website needs to be damn good. If you just get a website build and you have no understanding on how this works, you got a website and it won't do shit. Yeah. Yeah. Because somebody is going to build it for you without SEO in mind. They don't know what a customer funnel is.
It's not considered just dumped in there and here's your website, give me your money. Chances of real laws can sell. So you need to educate yourself. You need to learn it. You need to master it. Your website, which is that non -physical house to house your product. But then you need to build out your email funnel. You need to build out your database so that you can send emails to. You need to build out your social media presence.
Nina Huchthausen (07:16.557)
So you need to become a social media expert, email marketing expert, website expert. many hats. There's a lot of things that you need to learn first, then you need to master it. And after, only after that, money will come in. So it's a long game, but the opportunity is one. Yeah. 30, 40 K easily. Yeah. get everything set up and running and it's a longer runway.
unless you are really good at that tech and you've done it before. runway, fairly big entry point, but over time, if you keep going, revenue opportunity and selling overseas much easier and there can be a lot of money in it. That's for certain. Now with retail, why a lot of people reach out to us and want to try that first, there a few reasons. There's little tech required. Yeah.
The only tech that we consistently implement is your pipeline management tool. So that you managing who you're talking to, who you have in your stock list, and have a really simple and easy way to stay connected with them, communicate with them, place orders, fulfill orders, all of that stuff. But then really all you need is a really unique and compelling pitch and positioning as well as offer. Yeah.
You need to package that into an awesome wholesale catalog, some staff education, customer education, point of sales material, and then you need to learn how to pitch it. Yeah. Yeah. need find the stores that you want to get your product into and have those sales conversations. And provided the stores are aligned with your brand and your customer shops there, it's fairly easy to get in. So the power of retail is.
shorter time to enter, way less to do, less costly, less techy. And the things that you need to practice and master are also a lot smaller, meaning your speed to cash is faster. Yeah. Yeah. And the other powerful thing is if you start with retail, stockists are not just going to order once, provided you do the work, which is what we're talking about today. Absolutely. But the opportunity
Nina Huchthausen (09:40.173)
regardless as to whether your product is one that I only need once in my life or every 30 days. Yeah. stockist doesn't care about it because the stockist has a lot of customers. So if Hayley was my stockist and she's selling it to a hundred thousand other people, cool. I only deal with Hayley and I know as long as she's selling, I'm selling. Exactly. Right. So however, the drawback is that
If you do retail in Australia, the market is capped by the number of stockists that serve your customers. And then if you go overseas, that is a whole different kettle of fish. Every single country, it works differently. And you can't just also just keep traveling over there unless you do have the time and the funds to do that.
But online is much better to go global with or easier. But key opportunities, if you are not super tech savvy and you're not a digital marketing expert and you don't have a two year runway to go retail first, set yourself up well and use the cash that is coming in to then pay experts to open up an online channel for you.
If you do the work, which I'm going to share with you in a moment, if you keep doing that, the shelf space that you occupy is your marketing because more Haley and I will see it when we go about our day and shop. Absolutely. We will remember and look you up online. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's powerful. So this was my long winded intro on
online versus offline. But you know, we're the retail, the retail experts. That's what we're now going to go into. What does it take if you are the type of person like I don't have endless cash, not a tech guru, and I actually enjoy working with people. Enjoy going in stores. I want to see my products there. And I want to put it into the physical space. So over to you, Haley. Please, can you start walking us through
Nina Huchthausen (12:03.502)
step by step, what is the job? And I want you to imagine, yeah, I'm like a high school student and I'm like, okay, cool. Hailey, tell me, should I be doing this job? What am I in for? So I guess the key aspects of the role, when you're looking at all the jobs that this role entails, is you need to be super strategic and planned.
So you need to be super organized and you need to be really on the ball on your products why. And you want to be, you need to know all about your pitch and where your product's positioned. And so I guess having those key things that overshadow this role gives you the best opportunity to succeed. So let's talk about
the how to be organized and what organization brings to the role of this sales role. So if you're just sending random communications to every random person you see and he's stored trying to hit as many as possible without being strategic about your planning and who you're talking to, you are going to have to speak to so many people before someone goes,
yeah? I'll look at the look book. Sure. But if you are more targeted and organised on your clientele and where they shop and directly contact those people, you're going to use speaking to the people that know a bit more about your product and they understand your language and they're selling to the people that you want to sell to. And so if you're just looking at an area and going,
I'm going to talk to everyone in that area until someone says yes. You may only need to have three conversations if you're more targeted about it rather than a hundred conversations where people are still trying to understand why you're even talking to them. Which means really research, you need to like it. absolutely. And you need to be very, use that time in research
Nina Huchthausen (14:31.487)
and be very thorough with it. Because if you're not thorough with it and you're just using Google Maps to map out an area and ring all the retail stores in that area, you're going to spend so much time or not even spend time, waste time talking to these people that don't care about what you're selling. Whereas if you're looking up and more targeted with where your clientele
shops. So knowing a lot about your clientele and who you're looking for and where they shop and getting that information and then being really targeted to that category of shop and even then looking at shops individually on what they stock currently and then being able to use that in your pitch and being able to bring that out and going my product sits really well.
against this product, this product and this product that you already sell. So there's some upsell ideas already in the pitch for them and reasons why your product's gonna work with them because those three products that they already stock work, so this, product works well with those products. Whereas if they can't see that their store gives the appropriate
space for your product. If they can't visualize it and see why you're pitching it to them, they're going to be so caught up in their head on why are you even talking to me about this, that they're not even listening to your pitch and what the product is. So taking that time and working out what else do they stock? What's happening for them as a business at the moment? Have they recently sold the business to a new owner? What's the sort of
What does that look like? Maybe they're taking a break for a month or so. There's no point pitching to them at the moment. Working that out down the track. being super direct with your and taking your time with the research and just pacing yourself with it. think people rush that process and don't really put a lot of time and effort into it. They're too busy trying to collate this random list of contact details when
Nina Huchthausen (16:55.937)
your research should be, you're looking at why you're pitching to these people. And if you can't tell yourself or explain to yourself why you're pitching to this shop, you shouldn't be pitching there. Because you're trying to convince them that your product is the best that they should be. So the first job really is the research part. And I'm kind of like seeing it research. It's really, it's
It's sort of, it's almost like this, this hunter mindset, right? And because, and you hear that a lot in sales, but what rings true for me with that mindset is, well, number one, that you have a goal in mind because you want to get your product into store. Yeah. But number two, you're not just like, please, please take my product, you know, shotgun approach.
So throw shit against the wall and see what sticks. But you are actually, it's for me, and excuse me if someone doesn't like guns. I don't like it either. But this to me, like a sniper mindset comes to my mind. It's someone who's like, okay, I'm willing to sit here and wait. And I analyze and see. And I look at not just the store. And as you said, the who shops there.
and looking at the range and how my product fits in there, but also seeing, well, I see competitive on comparable gains in there, but then being able to articulate how's my product unique and different to them, because it should be. Yeah. If there is no differentiating factor, why did you develop it? That wouldn't make sense. Then the least differentiating factor should be the price, you know, otherwise it's that that will be weird. So.
But not everybody takes the time who has done the analysis. Yeah. Right? Because we tend to be so focused on us. But when it comes to getting your product into retail, you need to understand the environment. You really understand your environment and carve out your niche and your environment. But the other really, really important thing is also your customer.
Nina Huchthausen (19:22.389)
And it shouldn't be, and a lot of people get this wrong. Who are like, when we asked them, who, who did you design this product for? And they're like, no idea. But let me have a look at my database and I can tell you who subscribed or I can tell you bought from me. Yeah. That's not what you need to study. You need to, like what you need to really understand and.
and design your brand in response to and align with is who's the product for, who's it designed for? Hopefully your brand has taken that direction and hasn't just been put together on Canva. Because if it is, it's a big hurdle to get your product into retail. Because you can't clearly articulate, I built it for this person and not for that person. position it in an industry that might be saturated because
You're not going to get a hell yes just by ringing them and go, hey, I do this. You're going to have to convince them about why you did that and your purpose and why the person who's designed for shops at their store. Exactly. when you look at your, if you're really geeking out on your customer and you get really stubborn, because this is the mindset bit. Yeah. If you start getting really stubborn about the persona,
that you've created, then you can talk with conviction. And you can tell me, can pitch to me, independent source, why your product belongs to Bob's store. Because you can describe your people, and you can show to me that your people shop there. And your people shop and have the same price expectation as to what you have to offer, which is very important because Nina shopped at Audi, and Nina also shops at
Kookei, sorry. Just bringing out two different ones. My price expectation when I go to Audi Middle Isle and buy a sports top, it should be $9 .95. I do not pay a cent more. I wait until they discount it, okay? I'm very sensitive. They go to Kookei, I'm happy to pay $100 for a top. Why? I don't know. Makes no sense. Yeah? The positioning. It's the perception that they've created, of course. Yeah. So.
Nina Huchthausen (21:43.937)
You need to get those things right. And that you only will get it right through studying and analyzing and refining. And having that refinement will make your research easier because you'll be able to identify stores that align with your branding and your ethics and what you stand for and your purpose. Those stores will stand out to you.
Exactly. And when you have the conversation, even if it's an off the cuff conversation, if you can speak about your story and your why from the heart, they'll easily say me too, because it is true. Yeah. And generally people that are creating brands that align are very similar types of people. So the people align. So it's easier to have these conversations because you...
At the end of the day, if a store aligns with your brand, you can have similar conversations with them. Yeah. And you will also feel like you're my people. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. You know, absolutely. And it's important because a brand is an energetic being. you hopefully it's very aligned with you. I think it's important to note too that you need stores to be aligned with your brand and your ethics.
rather than just any store that approaches you. Because your products aren't going to sell well for them, even if they've just asked you to stock your product. The stock isn't going to sell well from them if they don't align with your brand. And it gives no contextual benefit to your brand. if, your people, basically this because your people aren't going to
go there, they don't hang out at those shops. So you really need to have a look and make sure that wherever you're being stopped and wherever you're approaching aligns really well with your brand. So I think this research stage is super, super important. And it means that your outreach stage is a lot more strategic and focused.
Nina Huchthausen (24:07.317)
rather than just getting a list of random phone numbers and a list of random email addresses and doing a bulk outreach and then getting nothing back and going, no one cares about my brand. Exactly. And the research and this also I want to make clear is a constant. Because we hear this also, can I not just buy a bunch of lists and then call people? Yes, you can. But you need to do the research after you've bought the list to see, it make sense? Because if you
spend your whole day calling misaligned people, all of us visiting them. You just wasted your whole day and you created this false sense of, I'm busy. have this, all these people to call. Yeah. Yeah. I've a thousand people, if they don't buy your stuff. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and it's working smarter, not harder. Yeah. So that's the first question to really ask yourself. Are you
team to do the research. Yeah. Are you okay to take the steps that are required so that you can find those key stores that you're like, this will be easy. And being honest about that research too. Does your brand really align? Is it suited to that store? Not just because it's a pretty store. Yeah. honest about that. Awesome.
So that's the research part. Now what's like another big job as part of getting your product into retail? Cold outreach. And when I say cold outreach, I don't mean writing one pitch email and sending the same email to the list of people that you've collated and then waiting for them to talk to you back. That's not what I mean. It's one approach. It's not the most successful approach you'll ever see.
But if I'm talking being comfortable in talking to strangers and talking to these strangers like they are your friends.
Nina Huchthausen (26:11.999)
and not just blurting out this script, having a script that you follow in a conversation, not just getting on the phone and blurting out this amount of information and then realising you're talking to the sales assistant, not the owner. Pace yourself, getting comfortable in the uncomfortable of talking to strangers. And I feel like that is something that people find very confronting.
very hard to do and can be quite clumsy at it if they are not practiced at it and rehearsed and comfortable with it. Because it is such an easy thing to think you're doing a good job or go, it's just a phone conversation. You just make small talk. It is a phone conversation. You do make a bit of small talk. But if your whole conversation is small talk.
you're going to be talking about your dog and the weather for 20 minutes before they even they are confused in why you're calling and talking to them. If even someone talks to you for 20 minutes, if you have to. But yeah, it's like, come. So there two things in this statement, right? Comfortable talking to strangers, because after you've your research, you're like, cool, OK.
I don't know this person, I'm gonna, I'm now on the mission to make them my best friend. Absolutely. Two things is like best friend, but also business partner. Yeah. There's, are two things and they have to go hand in glove because most people don't just want to cut and dry do business, but want to build connection because that's why we are in the physical world. We like, we actually like human interaction. If
If you are having a retail store and you don't like human interactions, very few stores survive nowadays. If you've done your research well, this person should be easy to connect to. Because they've built a business with the same ethics or the same sort of outreach or the look of their brand as to your brand. So you can speak towards that. Exactly.
Nina Huchthausen (28:35.272)
Important though is that you do know what are you going to say and when are you going to say it to guide a complete stranger to not caring about your product to saying yes to it. Because again, we've seen that so many times as Haley was saying, you know, the person who just loves to talk about, they like to make friends. Yeah. Yeah. But they don't want to. no idea how they turn that into business. So then you
Do you talk friends like whether and a lot of conversation? No business. So you need to have both. Absolutely. Open your repertoire and you need to build the both and you need to practice, practice, practice the dance. So the key job of like. There's a comfortable talking to strangers, but also this willingness to practice and master. Yeah. Yeah.
to practice and master and be, I would call it, stay humble. Yeah, absolutely. And being able to think on your feet and pivot and not being flawed when they say their first no or objection. Because if you're put off by the first negative comment that they come to you with, then
you're going to slip up and you're not going to know what to say and it's going to throw you out of this conversation that you're having. like the thing is, no, and it's normal. Like I like we're working through like, like, like another objection handling training. And I was like, look, like the principle is really simple, because if anyone was to approach us out of the blue,
and would just ask me straight up, do you want to buy it? What were you saying? No. Yeah. And I would have a hundred reasons probably why I wouldn't buy it. I haven't tried it. I haven't tasted it. I don't know the price and blah, blah, blah, blah. So when we're a conversation with someone, we're just in the business of removing these hundred objections and reducing it down to zero. Yeah. But we as human beings, we always got questions that we didn't even think about they could ask for. Absolutely.
Nina Huchthausen (30:54.624)
We don't know what's going on in people's minds. So there will be questions left. So you need to have a script, but not be so tied to that script that anything out of the box throws you completely. Yeah. And be cool with expecting questions, expecting concerns, expecting curiosity, because that's normal. Like,
Absolutely. And if you're not getting that curiosity and questions, more often than not, it's because they don't care. So you want them to be curious and asking questions about your product, because that just gives you an opportunity to speak about how great your product is and about the key selling points of your product. If they're not asking questions and sort of wanting more about your product, it's a little bit harder to
If they're not asked what are the key selling points or what's the best thing about your product and you're just telling them without any introduction, it's really a hard one -sided conversation. You want that intrigue and that conversation rather than just a one -sided spiel. Yeah. So this almost goes into another characteristic, right?
being organized and wanting to do the research, meaning taking it fairly slow. Yeah. And then be targeted. But being comfortable talking to strangers, I see it also as being comfortable to dance with a stranger. Yeah. Because you're not just it's not just a ping pong, ping pong, but you're moving and shifting. Yeah. The person you don't know where it's going to go. But the beautiful thing is that not many people remember.
We are not talking to someone who lives with we're not talking to me, Nina in my house and knocking on the door. That's that's the next level selling. we're talking to people that are in business of selling. Yeah, are in business of buying. Yeah. So as much as we might think, my gosh, they might not care. And who am I to talk to them? It's like, at the end of the day, these guys would be nothing without products. And they always need new products. They need to.
Nina Huchthausen (33:17.238)
continuously shift and change their range to stay relevant, to keep up with the trends, to make sure that they have to offer what their customers are looking for. So for those who are like, you know, I'm not sure. Look at the end of the day, these guys are in business to do business with you. But you got to dance with them so they can see you are a partner that they want to do business with and your products aligns with their store. It'll beautify their store.
you'll give them an edge and it'll help them to serve their customers even more. You need to warm them up rather than just direct sell to them and be comfortable in that flow because it's also another thing of being so comfortable in the cold outreach in the first initial conversation. It's a whole other thing to be comfortable in following that up when it hasn't been a direct yes straight away.
or following up once you've given them some space to think and look at the product, being comfortable in having a second conversation and coming back to them. Because I know the first thing that people say when I say, need to follow that, what happened when you were following them up? And they say, didn't know. I don't know. I didn't follow up. I felt like I was annoying them. You're not annoying them. Ask what they thought after they'd had a second to think.
leave it with them, give them a tasting, ask for feedback. Exactly, because at the end of the day they're in business of buying and selling. Yeah. It would be ludicrous. What store would say, I don't want to talk to any of the salespeople, they annoy me. The shelves would be empty and not done. Absolutely. So, but I think it's one of those things that you can be super confident doing the approach, but then doing a follow up is a really, you can look at it and go,
I'm sure if they were interested, they'd come back to me. No, these people, this is the one thing on your mind is getting into this store. This is the 500th thing on their to -do list. Make yourself the top of their to -do list by following up. Bring it to the surface for them. Bring them out of their own head and their own business for a second to look at something like yours. You know, because
Nina Huchthausen (35:44.756)
A lot of the time, it's really easy to think that silence is a no, and I'm not interested, or I don't want it, or I'm just going to ignore it until it goes away. And a lot of the time, it's not. It's just that they haven't had their head space for a second to revisit it. having that mindset of that. And I was about to say that because if you
If we keep the mindset of, don't want to annoy them, you will say that every single time. if you're putting yourselves into the shoes of a stockist for a moment, 90 % of the time, are unpacking product or talking to customers or selling to customers. They're busy people. So sitting down and deciding on a new product and how much they want to order and where that's going to go and all these questions.
that takes brain capacity and time and space. And not very often people have that space. But if you can make it easier for them by you giving them a call and say, Bob, so those five and five bottles that you wanted, 2 .99, is that cool? Should I put it through after you had a thought? I'd appreciate that. Because if I had the conversation and that's what I wanted to decide on, and you call me and ask me, hey, is that now what you want?
Probably. They could have been looking to do that, make that same order. They just haven't gotten around to write the email to you to place the order. You've just taken essentially a job off their plate. They don't have to do that anymore. You've rung them, confirmed it, and they've got ordered on the way to them. Exactly, because stockists are in the business of ordering and selling products. It's understanding that you're not annoying them.
helping them by providing this really great product for them and just understanding that they're super busy. So do whatever you can to help them. And that could even be looking at your offering and putting things into starter packs that merchandise really well for them. Make the decision making easy.
Nina Huchthausen (38:05.556)
and then showcase that in your pitch because there's no point making decision making easy and then complicating the pitch. is like another thing that you that you really want to sort of love and that is stepping into their shoes. Yeah. Because when it comes to then fostering and growing those relationships, the more you want to, the more you actually want to be in service of a stockist who is, by the way,
extension of you, an extension of your brand, an extension of your sales team to help you get the product out. The more you want them on your team and you have in your mind, hey, these are my people. How can I support them and how can I stay connected with them? The easiest is going to be for you. Exactly. But you need to have the want.
You need to have the want to see them that way and not just thank you, place an order, goodbye. absolutely. This is a journey that it's the beginning of a journey with them, not just a pitch, sale, done, thank you. It's a beginning of a relationship. Yeah.
And the relationship can like, because the thing is really right. And that's why I love to look at like, what a yearly order value can be. So that you can really see what's that one relationship, what could that be worth to my business? Yeah. Because you know, if depending on your product value, let's say, like the stock is, some of our clients who pays two, three grand orders every month. Yeah, that's huge. Absolutely.
But you cannot achieve that online. Yes, on one customer. Without having spent so much money on the ad spend or the social media outreach or on one single customer. mean, yeah, like, like who would buy 20 of your toothpaste? Yeah, you know, like as a single person, that's it. You know, that would be on. doesn't happen. So
Nina Huchthausen (40:25.212)
and the way you want to look after those people but also you want your mental appetite for it. Yeah. Have to be different. You need to be proactive in helping them sell your product. whether that's through education or marketing or collaboration, your job doesn't stop when the money hits your account. The cool thing is and that's what I appreciate about Georgie so much like first thing when she was saying when she
join our team was like, I felt like I had friends all across the country. Wherever I would go, because she used to be the main sales rep for Mindful Foods, that she was like, everybody knew me, everybody loved me, good conversations, and I would just go in to just keep, keep, keep fostering that relationship. Yeah, that's really cool. But you have to be the type of person who wants that. This is like, if you're like, I don't want to talk to people.
the retail, you know, is the tough. Or if it makes you nervous and you're not wanting to improve that, then maybe it's not the role for you. And that's what I think what I meant by the word humble is because there's so much to learn and you just, because you can come up with all sorts of ways of describing your product, but if it doesn't resonate to the stockist,
It's not the right way. ultimately, the more you want to understand them, study them, and hear what they say and respond to that. And listen to them and... The easier is going to be. Cool. let's say, so now we actually sold some product. Woohoo! Now what? What am I going to do next? Now, I guess you want to set yourself up.
for success with this stockist by having a really good onboarding procedure and also a structure to what their customer journey is going to look like. So then you can put habits in place that makes sure that they're not slipping through the cracks of this communication. Because otherwise this relationship will become a, I should reach out to them. I wonder what's going on with them. I really could have done that. And whereas,
Nina Huchthausen (42:53.514)
without this structure and knowing what the next communication, it's like a ball that you're kicking down the street constantly. You don't have to be all on top of it, but there should be always a next communication and a next time you're speaking to them. It's an ongoing conversation that you're having with them, rather than just, we got to the order and that's it. So having an idea of the process and the communication timeline is
vital to continue this relationship ongoing because we're not looking for just the one first order. We're looking for repeat orders and this to be an ongoing relationship that you're building as a win -win. Yeah, because at the end of the day, like you want the store to not just be excited about this new brand, but the store also build a trusted connection to you. Yeah.
Any week somebody else can walk in with something else new, something else new that might be even better pitched or more unique or something, something. But you want the store to stick to you and say, this is a good brand. But when they mean by this is a good brand, there is more to just the product. There's also the people behind it that appreciate me, that make me feel seen and understood.
Yeah, absolutely. And you don't want this excitement about your brand just to be from the initial first order. You want them to love the brand throughout this relationship and work together with you throughout rather than, I mean, we've all had that first order. Everyone's all excited and buzzing about it. And then we do some marketing together. And then three weeks down the track, we've all forgotten about each other. You know, if you don't have this,
procedure or this outline of this customer journey looks like, it's really easy to get lost in the excitement of the first bit and not know where to go. And then six months down the track, go, never really got a repeat order from them. I wonder what happened. People even go so far as they don't know how that first order sold for that stockist.
Nina Huchthausen (45:13.996)
And I think that's where really the mindset of like, can't just be someone who just like wants to chase. And be like, OK, I've won because they said yes, and that's it. But you actually want, you want to be in business of building long term partnerships. when you do, you will also sleep better at night because you're like, I trust those reorders will come in because I've been doing
the work for it. I've been showing my worth and that my brand makes their life easy, that I'm here for them, that, you know, that I understand when sales doesn't go so well and I give them another two weeks to pay. But in exchange for that, they're there for me too. And they're actually promoting my product. They're educating their staff. And they want me to succeed too.
And that's a really important mindset, meaning you need to ultimately care about people and want to build relationships and create the continuum of that relationship without it falling away. it means that you're not just working together on promotions and sales and doing all that together. You're also working on troubleshooting.
experiences together. So if the product isn't selling together for them, looking at why it's not selling and really looking at what ways you can work together to get it to sell. Work together on those issues and those hurdles rather than being all defensive about it because that's what will strengthen that relationship and that alliance that they have with your brand. Yeah, yeah, because at the end of the day,
your product didn't just sell itself into the stockist without any work. So for them to sell it to a customer also requires work. Yeah. it requires testing and requires listening to the consumer. And it mean a repositioning of the product in different shelf space. An example would be like with one of our clients, just use like pulling his hair out because he was like, man, this, this, this,
Nina Huchthausen (47:39.052)
biggest supermarket store just keeps putting my overnight oats, which is a meal next to the $2 yogurt. Yeah, it's not a meal. But the overnight oats are $8. And he was like, that's why it's not selling. Yeah. So we had to have some really stern conversations to be like, look, like, we both need to listen to the customer here. Yeah. Because the customer needs to
They're not paying $8 if they think it's a yogurt and this product isn't a yogurt. Yeah. That's why it's not selling. It's positioning. it. Let's test and put it into the ready meal section and position it as a meal. It keeps people full. That's what it's designed. Just because it look, because the packaging looks like a yogurt. And I think that's where, not going to name names has opportunity, but you realize that.
through going through this journey together. But being able to advocate where your product sits that goes into the research in your pitch and being so strong on where that sells. Yeah exactly because that was the next thing that we were like look actually S now you're taking that knowledge because you know that and he was saying look for more independent grocers
They get it when I say to them easily, you know, this is a meal replacement, not meal replacement, a meal. They put it there for me. But the larger stores, because they have their procedures, they don't. Well, but then that can give rise for you to think about, OK, if I want to go into more larger stores, I probably need to have some stipulations in there. If we want to do this together. yeah, we have to put it there, because otherwise it's a waste of my time, waste of your time. Yeah, you know. And.
And that's super important that you want to keep being at it, but strategically and systematically. Yeah. Yeah. And have an approach. So like really, honestly, when I was just thinking about it, think a key characteristic we haven't mentioned is you need to be a procedures person. Yeah. You need to like strategy, research.
Nina Huchthausen (49:58.582)
procedures and following it and knowing and trusting the process and probably all the tools that you're using. Yeah. And you together with a bit of dancing. That's what's going to get you there. Yeah. I don't think if you're a person who likes to wing stuff. No. It's going to get any way. need to be strategic, planned and planned and consistent with these processes that you're putting in place.
Because at the end of the day, you've got to have this consistency will be what starts off that trust journey with this stockist. Because if you look like you're all over the place and you come off that way in random, thinking to yourself, I like the product, but it all seems a bit, I don't know. Whereas you're calculated in your approach.
and able to articulate your consistency and why you're doing something, that seems so much more focused and direct in a pitch than a, was walking past and you look like a really good store and I've got a sample in my back pocket and I thought you could try it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Consistency. And I think also like
your standards, holding up to your standards, so that, that stock is can see, like the person that I'm dealing with, my gosh, top notch, you know? Like, always polite. They get back to me within a day. They really good and detailed answers. Their support really helps me. Yeah. Versus sporadic and unorganized. Yeah. Yeah. But you'll only be able to achieve that.
If you are structured and organized and have set up your technologies or your tools in a way so they can serve you, they don't need to be fancy. They don't need to be complicated. Good thing is we don't need to do big social media marketing campaigns and big email campaigns and funnels. You don't need any of that. And just outline also, I think, being able to articulate what they can expect from you and then living up to what you say that you're going to do.
Nina Huchthausen (52:22.58)
Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think it's whether you can't get back to people in a day in an email, having a automated response that says, thank you for your email, I've received it, you'll get a response in the next day or two, and then making sure you're meeting that deadline. It's a reassurance consistency that builds trust. That's what they need to continue with you. Yeah. Powerful. Yeah. The last thing also is to make sure
that you see them as a real asset to your business. And when you do that, that you let customers know, go there and buy my product versus my website. Hey, Bob has 20 % off. I would go there, you know, and could even be promoting it. It could be a different product. But get making sure that your people go to where you have your product and using them.
in your marketing efforts and help, help them out. Yeah, help them make sales with other products. Doesn't matter. that, that will come back to you in a long way. And that also, of course, requires to not just thank you, but them. exactly. can I do for them? So I guess that's a, yeah, there were, there were quite a few points.
and that we covered. I would say, we, I would, in my mind, you guys are the judge, we have described the role with the key points. And that really means you gotta need to, you gotta need to want to build long -term partnerships with people. Yeah. And, and being able to dance with them, but also really wanting to understand them, understand your audience.
Be diligent, not just with your research, but your communication, your follow ups, and be consistent and live up to your standards. If that's you, bang on. Go into retail because you feel really sad and lonely if you operate online because you will get very little feedback and very little of that interaction.
Nina Huchthausen (54:50.294)
from human to human where people appreciate each other. Yeah. Yeah. And kind of go a bit of thick and thin together and share a bit of a joint story together. Yeah. Don't do that. You can make up all sorts of stories online. know, people believe you, they don't see anything else. But you know, you could be deeply depressed and nobody would know. If you work with a bunch of stalkers, they would look after you. Yeah. You've created a community for yourself. Yeah.
community for yourself, community for your products. And at the end of the day, the more you get your products onto shelves, the more people will see it. They would talk about it. They would try it then and there. They would tell their friends. And then that'll help you drive your online sales. It'll do it because that's how society now works. like, I don't even know how many times I was standing in store and kind of like, take a photo. I'm going to look this up online. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. What is this product about? But I would never.
just look up the product online if I hadn't seen it there. Yeah, look it up online. I was like, this sounds interesting. Must go back, try it. Yeah. Yeah. We've done this a thousand times. And as long as we do not undercut our stock is which was also be going against the whole philosophy of looking after them. Yeah. Make your prices higher or the same. You'll you'll you'll people will buy in. Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for your time, Halle. This was a great conversation. No worries. I hope it was wholesome, eye -opening for everybody, not too scary. Yeah. And I think at the end of the day, it's a big crossroad to stand at when you want to get your product to the masses and you want to make that choice wisely. Yeah. Because there's nothing worse than just like,
Dabbling your toes and nothing happens. Yeah, you've to be proactive about it Yeah, and you want to be all in so yeah has to be a hell. Yes retail. Yeah. Yeah, not just dibble -dabble because Nobody wins with dibble -dabble. No, yeah And so Yeah, make that choice wisely if after now listening to it. You're like, this is not for me
Nina Huchthausen (57:18.038)
then you know, and I think it's really good. Then don't hire someone to do it, but be honest about yourself because it's a big decision for you, your business and probably your livelihood. absolutely. Awesome. But thank you so much for your time, Hayley. Have a great evening. Love you.
