Episode Transcript
Nina Huchthausen (00:29.72)
Hello everybody and welcome to the Makers Business Tribe podcast. In today's episode, I would like to get super tactical and walk you through the key steps you need to take once a retailer said, yes, I want to stock your product so that you are not just...
sending them a box of your muesli, your skincare, your candidates or whatever that is and hope for the best, but actually setting them and yourself as a team up for success, for long -term sales success because
What are the chances that if you're just giving them your product and check in in three months time that they're like, yep, products selling like hotcakes, amazing. Let me place a reorder versus, look, you know, yeah, I got your product, but, you know, not much happened. I would say the latter is much more likely if we leave a stockist
to their own devices. Because, would we do that with an internal staff member, with a sales team member who just came on board, who's just getting on the surface level really excited about your product? Would we give them absolutely no support, education, understanding whatsoever and hope that they can do an excellent sales job? No. We probably would sit down with them.
quite in depth and support them from a few different angles. But not many people think about that because the biggest and the biggest hurdle and the hardest hurdle at the start, of course, is to get the stock as to say yes. And oftentimes we have in our minds, well, they are the experts, they are retail experts. They should know how to position the product. They should know how to sell it. They should know if they need to run a discount, how to do all of that stuff.
Nina Huchthausen (02:44.952)
But my friends, the trouble is the silly shirts, you know, because that's an assumption and it might be the case for a few, but it might not be the case for all. So if you want to set yourself up for not just making one sale to a stockist, but many, many, for the future to come, then here is what else you need to do apart from sending over the product. Okay.
So let's talk this through. Let's talk this through. So I invite you to have a pen and paper ready. And I will also link this checklist into the show notes so that you can download it because it is so, so handy and so, so critical and important. Okay. So first thing, once it's stuck, say, yes, Nina, I want your sunscreen. And like, awesome. Okay. Let's have a look at.
position and display, because I want to make sure that this product sells like hotcakes. So the first and most important thing is that the product gets seen, gets seen by your customers. Yeah. And they don't need to search for it. So position and display, let's find some shelves places, eye height, and in a high traffic area, point number one. In a high traffic area where your customer can actually see it,
versus being just in the furthest corner of the store, stocked away with maybe some other sunscreens. Yeah, that's nice, but this is new. I want people to see it. I want people to try it. I want people to test it out. So we need to really put it into where they walk past. At the same time, we need to make sure that people actually can stop at that position. Yeah, so very important.
Second thing, when we're looking at positioning and display, you want to ask, can the customer spend some time with the product right then and there, or do they have to move on? Because there's some spots on the store, and you might have noticed that there's so much traffic that people always push past because they need to get through to land at some place. You don't want to be stopped there either because then people can't pick it up and test it. Yeah.
Nina Huchthausen (05:12.494)
especially if have something that is testable or tasteable, you want to make it test or tasteable or touchable, yeah, for people to experience it. That's why the, where you position it should be just right where people can do that and see it and experience it, okay? And then have a think about, well, could we get a second shelf position, maybe at the end of aisles, storefront?
in the window, at the checkout for the first four weeks to get more exposure. Yeah. And it might also be closer to staff members. So when the staff member is being asked about sunscreen, the first thing that they should talk about is my sunscreen, right? So can we position close to the staff, to where the staff is, so that they have a top of mind too?
This point number one position display. Second thing that you want to make sure when you first ship your product is the staff training. Because look, my friends, the staff is an extension of your sales team. They they are the ones that will be recommending your product. They are the ones that will when someone come walks in says, do you have something that doesn't sting in my eyes that you're like, yes,
Nina's sunscreen just came in hot off the press. It's freaking amazing. It has calming calendula in it. It is eczema friendly. It is vegan. It is reef safe. is bang, bang, bang, bang. All the different benefits. You want the staff to rave about your product in short. But how do we do that? Well, first thing is we need to provide them with some training, some education about the product.
We need them to test it and to try it. And we most importantly need to be able to get them get all their questions answered so that when anyone walks into the store and picks up Nina sunscreen that they feel confident talking about it, that they're like, yes, Nina came in last week. She did this amazing training. I can tell I can I can say anything and I can answer any and every question.
Nina Huchthausen (07:38.496)
about this product versus, look, I haven't tried it. I don't know. I don't know. This came in last week.
I mean, it looks good. You don't want any salesperson to say that. Yeah. So invitation, take a step back and have a look at what is your staff training look like today? Do you have something to read to listen to? Do you have a show and tell? you do you have some type of video in which people can see how it's being used? Let's say you're selling chai. Do you have a video in which
People can see how to brew the chai so they can explain to their customers how to make it at home. Do you maybe even have a little staff cheat sheet card that helps them to pitch the product even better and remember the ins and outs of your product, especially if it needs a little bit of explanation. But most importantly, knowing the differences, right? We always do that. We go into a store and say, hey, what's the difference between this and that product?
You want the staff to know that because if there's a new product and I have no trust in it and I ask the staff and they can't tell me which product would I most likely buy, the one that I know or the one that I don't know. So point number two, make sure the staff training is on point. Then point number three, customer education. Because
If I come into store and want to find out about the different sunscreens and the staff's busy, is there a way that I can educate myself? Can I read something? Do you have a poster, a flyer, a pamphlet that talks me through the key differences between this product, why this product, what it does, how it works, and how it can help me feel better and live a better life and solve my problems?
Nina Huchthausen (09:41.784)
That's what we want to give to our customers, to our prospects. And in addition to that, to the education, enable them to try it. Enable them to try it because for most products, once we have it in our hands and our mouth, we can smell it, taste it, experience it with our senses, we are solved. OK? Which is point number two, opportunity to test the product.
Now, some products, one tester might not cut it because maybe you're selling a supplement and it takes time. is there a way that maybe we can get some of the staff members to try it for a period so they can see some of the results so that they can talk about the possibility of the product? Is there a way to give a
to give out a two week trial pack or to sell a two week trial pack for people to really experience the product.
Nina Huchthausen (10:57.614)
And we're really creative with this for people to be able to experience the product and to be able to talk about it will go such a long way. And of course, ideally have some samples in stores or some some tasters or something for people to take home. A great thing that can work wonders is.
If you have a sample and you give, rather than just having it in store for free, give it to the store owner and ask them to gift it to anyone who buys a comparable product, gift it to them for free and ask them for feedback.
is a really great way to introduce your product to someone who say it's protein powder, who already buys protein powder, but a different one.
Nina Huchthausen (00:20.024)
And then the next point.
And the second last question I would like you to ask your retailer is to get an understanding, hey, how much product do you sell within my category? So in my case, it would be sunscreen. On average, what is right now the average sales? And with that question,
It can really help you get a better understanding. Okay, so what does good look like? Because ultimately this stock is not every stockist. How are they making a decision as to whether this product is selling or not selling, whether they're going to place a reorder or whether they're going to discontinue. It depends on whether this product falls into some type of
expectation or outside of that expectation and by you asking, hey, so just in general, how much sunscreen are you selling in the month of September on average? they're like, you know, like I think a good month would be about five sunscreens a day. Okay, awesome. So
And could we then maybe establish because of course my product is new and I want it to be successful in this store and establish a goal, a bit of a sales goal that you may or may not might not have because you have three different sunscreen brands here in store. And if you're selling, you're selling about you good looks like five a day. That means.
Nina Huchthausen (02:10.318)
We should sell probably at least one sunscreen of mine a day. Is that fair? Yeah, that's fair. That's that's totally my expectation Okay, dear stock is if that's your expectation. Well, then let me write that down and And let us write that down because all of the things that we've just spoken about the position and the staff training
and the testing and also the customer education, all of those things, we need the retailers help to execute on that. Yeah, you can provide the samples, you can provide the testers, you can provide the staff education, the customer cards, but if they don't put that out, and if they don't choose to put that product into the position that you're suggesting,
Not much that you can do unless you are there every single day checking on them and hassling about them. But as soon as you remind them, hey, how much do you want to sell? And if they're saying, want to sell at least one bottle a day, then you can use that as your anchor point to say, OK, that's awesome. Well, then the staff training that I'm going to send to you, the positioning that we've discussed, the samples I'm going to send to you, that will be
paramount for you to get out. It will be paramount for you to train your staff. It will be paramount for us to maybe even organize to do an in -store demo so that the sale can occur. Yeah? Because without, customers buy what they know. Unless your product is cheap as chips. Yeah? And
They're like, my gosh, I'm after a bargain. They stick to what they know. So we need to change that. And we change that through staff education so that the staff can actually put your product forward for customers to be able to try it through ample samples and for customers to see it and experience it through the positioning, through the proper positioning or secondary positioning in store, as well as customer education cards, posters, files, and so forth.
Nina Huchthausen (04:34.307)
Yeah. So establishing a goal with your stockist and then reminding them the reason why you are suggesting the staff training and all of those other things is to achieve that goal can go a really long way. And when you then start following up and checking in to see how sales is going and how that one bottle per day is going, then you can also sense check and see,
just want to check we've done the staff training, just wants to check we've done the positioning, we've done all these things. They might be like, you know, I haven't been able to move the product yet to that position that we agreed. Well, should we do that so that we can reach the goal that we've agreed? Because what happens once they reach that goal? No reason to not reorder. The opposite. They will be loving you and celebrating you for it. And at the same time, you will have
plenty to check in about to make sure that the product is selling and you're not just stuck with that question. So do you want to have a reorder? But you can actually ask them, Hey, I just wanted to check in that staff training. What's that simple and easy or do you need anything else? Like, because of course you've developed it with a certain staff in mind, but maybe they need something different. Maybe they need you to come in. Maybe they need a YouTube video.
Yeah. But you have that as a topic to talk about. You have the shelf positioning as a topic to talk about. You have the goal as a topic to talk about. You have the samples and the customer feedback to talk about. And all of those conversations are highly valuable for your stockers. And I'm sure they will want to talk about it if they really want to achieve that goal that they stated. So super critical. And then the last thing that you could be talking about
with your stock is is well based on that goal on that sales goal. Do we want to see if there's an opportunity to do some some bundling? Yeah, because I know that my sunscreen goes really well with your thongs over there. Yeah, and I'm super happy for you to do some type of discount or I give you an extra margin to support you with this to
Nina Huchthausen (07:02.03)
do a bundle of sunscreen. If you buy a pair of thongs, you get $5 off this sunscreen. And we could do that as a bit of a kickoff promotion for the next 14 days to see how that goes. If it's absolute crazy season for thongs, of course, you want to pick a product that is already selling like hotcakes that you can sort of piggyback on.
And that can be a really great way to bundle your product with somebody else's. And it can be as easy as for the retailer to have a sign at the checkout to remind them, hey, do you want some sunscreen with that? Hey, do you want to have some something something? And the sunscreen in itself could just be an offer that could be offered with anything or with particular products. Or the sunscreen could help.
to eventually for the stockist to sell another product. Have a talk to him about, to them about a way of bundling your product and tying it to something else that is already selling like hotcakes and see what that would like. Or you could also just do a special intro offer. Intro deal to the sunscreen for the next 14 days, you will get.
There's a $15 intro special, a 15 % off intro special, or whatever that is. Back to school, back to school deal. Fill your sports bag and your lunch bag with your sunscreen. I'm going crazy. But.
anything that you feel like cool, what could be a really enticing, no brainer offer for customers to make that first purchase, to make that first purchase for them to try it out and to really experience the magic of your product. So that could be you just brainstorming with them in store, or you could even just have a browse around in in the store and see, okay, which products would go
Nina Huchthausen (09:20.268)
well, really well with yours and could kind of act as a as a magnet. Because especially if your product is a bit of an accessory, it could be bundled with the main product that this product is an accessory of. So many ways that we could go about bundling that's probably right for another episode. But here we have them. I think I talked you through
The position display, the staff training, the customer education, the samples.
Nina Huchthausen (10:01.26)
the defining a goal by asking them how much product do they sell within their category as well as the bundle and offer. So those are my top six steps to take once a stock is says yes to your product so that you're setting them and yourself up for way more success.
than if you just handed over your product and hope for the best. Yeah. Because these are the things that they should be thinking about. But do they? If they have another thousand products in store to take care of and customers to service and staff to look after, do they? Maybe not. So let's work together as a team and think these steps through from the start. Because if
product isn't selling and I've done a separate episode on this. These are the things again that you want to look at an address to help them get these products. So like hotcakes and you will, you will my friend, if you have chosen, that's probably the last thing I want to let you, leave you love you and leave you with as long as you have chosen a store where your favorite humans, your customers hang out.
If you apply these steps, your product will sell. Unless it's completely not the season. Yeah. Then it might be a little bit slower. Say with my sunscreen, if it's just like three rainy months nonstop, not many people apply sunscreen when it's just raining. But as soon as that sun comes back out and you have applied this, your favorite humans hang out in that store, you will sell your product like hotcakes.
OK, so invitation for you to go that extra mile, download the cheat sheet that I just mentioned and apply it every time you set up with the stockist and you're going to win it. You're going to win it. Bye, my friends. Have an awesome week. Make sure you like share this episode with everybody that you think would like it to. Bye.
