Are Food Distributors & Brokers Screwing Up Your Selling Story?

Help Food Distributors and Brokers Share Your Selling Story (Correctly).

You’ve created a killer pitch deck and selling story. You’ve researched the retailer’s plan-o-gram (POG), the trends, and competitive homework. You’ve finally had a meeting with a retail food buyer – and it went well.

That’s how the journey starts. But sooner or later on your journey to conquer the retail food shelves of the world, some buyer is going to want to schedule a meeting you can’t physically attend. Then you have to rely on your partners – distributor or brokers to take the meeting and make the pitch.

So if you follow our philosophy, you think of your selling story as a compelling (but friendly) argument to persuade a retail food buyer to place your product on the shelf. If this is the case, you are not going to want your distributor, sales reps, or broker to “wing it.”

Coach Your Story

What if you had only 15 minutes with a buyer? How would you summarize the main plot points of your selling story? Go through that same process with your food distributor, sales reps, or broker. Prep them for the meeting by sharing your playbook. Here’s an example:

  • How your product addresses key items (fresh ingredients, a local company, package shape, flavors, etc.) missing in the buyer’s POG = helps the buyer sell more
  • How your packaging and price point(s) support a segment the consumer is looking for = helps the buyer sell more
  • How your marketing program (social, demos, grassroots, coupons, etc.) drive consumers (and you’re fan base) to the retailer = helps the buyer sell more

You get the idea.

What are the next steps?

That’s not a sub-heading. That’s the main thing you want to have your food distributor, sales reps, or broker ask at the end of the meeting so you know what to do with your follow-up.

Singing From the Same Hymnal

There is a term we use around the office to quickly communicate why it is essential to invest in writing things like selling stories for our clients.  We do this so your leadership team and all your stakeholders are collectively saying the same thing in meetings. You are all singing from the same hymnal. To take it one step further (and stay in-theme), if you’ve invested in a selling story that works, it’s as good as gospel. It’s best to help your food distributors, sales reps, and brokers correctly share your selling story.

Happy selling!

Patrick Nycz
Founding President
NewPoint

 

 

OCT 2, 2018 | West Lafayette, Indiana