If you’ve read our blog before, you know we work with thousands of brands who are vying to take over their category. Whether they’re just breaking into a new segment or gearing up to unseat a category leader, we hear one question over and over: “How do I get our products more real estate in the store?”
There’s a reason that question keeps people up at night. Even just a few more facings can be the difference between a shopper saying “I see those guys everywhere, I’ve got to try them!” and “Huh, maybe I’ll check that brand out one day.”
Simply put, if you’ve got a loyal shopper base and a great product, the only thing holding your sales number back is how much of your product retailers are carrying on their shelves.
So how can you upsell your retail partners and convince them to order additional SKUs or give you more facings? We surveyed 300 brands to find out -- here are the top 10 tips they had for upselling retailers.
Bill Juarez: Executive VP, Outlaw Energy
“The key for our team's ability to upsell retailers is based in good record keeping of previous sales attempts as well as the ‘live’ information the system allows them to show to retailers for not only locations within their same banner but competitive retailers on a local, regional and national basis.”
How to Put This Into Action
Provide evidence of your sales efforts in other retail locations, always with the most up-to-date data. Report on metrics relating to specific campaigns, seasonality, geography, or buyer demographic across locations.
Maxime Pouvreau: Founder, Petit Pot
“TPRs and Demos :)”
How to Put This Into Action
Use techniques like temporary price reductions and sampling events to prove that your brand is willing to go the extra mile to win the sale. Keep your promotional materials as neat and visually-appealing as possible -- the devil’s in the details.
J.D. Robinson: National Sales Manager - Grocery, Honey Stinger
“We have successfully upsold retailers by demonstrating how our product lines work in conjunction with each other to create a full nutrition system that helps users energize before activity, sustain through their workout and recover afterwards.”
How to Put This Into Action
Show retailers how your brand’s SKU’s complement each other to encourage multiple purchases during a single shopping trip. Create display materials that inform shoppers why they should buy the entire product line for optimal results/enjoyment. Educate store staff on how your products work together as a complete solution.
Larry Brown: Managing Director, Go Fast Sports
“Being a consultant and sharing the success stories of other like retailers.”
How to Put This Into Action
Show the retailer what your brand can do to drive sales with proof from activities performed at other stores. Give the retailer “insider information” about what’s happening at competitor locations and provide examples of what they can do to win over shoppers (i.e. pricing strategies, display ideas, consumer education, etc.).
In fact, we also spoke with Tom First, co-founder of Nantucket Nectars, who sees the consultative role as a brand’s best asset when negotiating for more space in the store:
“If you offer yourself up as a consultant to the retailer and present information that can help them sell more, your brand has become an invaluable resource to that retailer far beyond your own product’s sales.”
(Watch our entire interview with Tom here!)
Timothy McKeown: President, Mass Probiotics Inc.
“The best way we have upsold a retailer is to ensure ongoing merchandising and promotional support of existing products. If products don’t sell, a manufacturer cannot expect a retailer to add more of their products.”
How to Put This Into Action
Be mindful about what other types of promotional materials already exist in the store when designing your own. Take note of what your competitor brands are using in stores and what the retailer’s competitor locations are doing for merchandising. Don’t let your promotional materials get stale - refresh often as holidays pass and consumer trends change. Need inspiration? Check out these 50 display and promotion ideas!
Jessica Hoskin: Regional Manager, MATI Energy
“Data Data Data! Data has become such an important driver in our business. Having the right analysis of SPINS/IRI data can position your brand so much better than word of mouth. Being able to have something to show retailers not only helped us beat out other national competitors for addition into the sets, but also helps us gain additional facings by eliminating competitors we are outselling with the proven sales data. This can also help by downsizing brands that have multiple facings, so they can add us!”
How to Put This Into Action
The numbers don’t lie, but drawing insights from the data you pull about how your brand is performing across accounts is where the value lies. Does your brand sell more when it’s stocked in a particular category or location in the store? Can you show proof of success based on shelf location? Give retailers tactical examples backed by hard data.
Matt Hoskins: National Sales Director, Stem Ciders
“We ask for additional points of display with volume and offer product discounts to some of our retail buyers for a ‘perfect shelf’, which is five of our brands across in a cooler door, driving the retailer to increase SKU's carried and prime placement which increases pull-through for everyone.”
How to Put This Into Action
Incentivize retailers to carry more of your product by offering volume-based discounts. Get creative with how you classify these - consider discounts based on a certain number of SKUs carried, facings on the shelf, cases ordered, etc.
Tomás García: Sales Manager, Grupo Tema
“If something characterizes the functions at the point of sale and the deal with our customers, it is the monitoring and exhaustive control of our employees. Customers as important as Philips, Sony, YSL, Pepsi, L'Oreal, Pernod Ricard and others continue with us because we always look for ways to streamline and deliver the important reports for our clients in the best possible way.”
How to Put This Into Action
Transparency goes a long way in strengthening retailer relationships. Provide detailed reports about what’s going on at the store level establish trust. Present metrics such as cases sold per week, highest-performing SKUs, success of sampling events, lift seen from promotional displays, etc.
Cam Moretti: Regional Merchandising Manager, Grillo’s Pickles
“Work store to store as its own, instead of market to market. Build relationships at the store level. Offer your services to the retailer if they’re ‘understaffed’ for a task that would benefit both parties. Establish small goals (week to week, month to month).”
How to Put This Into Action
Store-level execution has a huge payoff; know that store managers from the same retail chain might have different expectations at their respective locations. Position yourself as a partner to the retailer who will help keep products moving as quickly as possible by helping with tasks such as reorganizing a shelf.
Julia Kessler: Co-Founder, Nix & Kix
“We are visiting stores and work with the store managers directly.”
How to Put This Into Action
Visit accounts on a regular, consistent basis to establish rapport with the store manager to prove your brand’s dedication to success on the shelf. Have your staff offer to help reset shelves or make recommendations for category layouts that would benefit both parties.
Velocity and execution are just a couple of the recurring themes associated with retail sales. For more tips that you can start employing as soon as possible, check out the advice from one of history’s favorite philosophers.
