“How do I sell my products into the UK retail market?” – This fundamental question is the next step for many inventors. As innovators you have recognised that there is a problem to be solved, researched the market and created the product to solve the problem at a cost which relative to the size of the problem. Now what?

GOLDEN RULE#1 You do not have to have a real product to show the retail buyers. A concept sell or prototype is sufficient, saving you time effort and money before any sales are generated.

UK retailers get hundreds and hundreds of calls every day, it annoys them when you call although they are tasked with seeking out the next big thing and keep their ear to the ground, phone calls are annoying.

Think about this 5 point plan when approaching a new retail sales campaign

1. Find the right contact
2. Create a compelling proposition
3. Target a specific retailer with a specific pitch
4. Understand Retail is detail
5. Keep the product on shelf

1 Find the right contact

You understand your product and know what it does but how will the customer? If you are selling a soft drink to compete with bottled water then you don’t want to stick the product on the yoghurt shelf, you want your product displayed next to similar products so that the customer can easily find, compare and chose your product when it launches on shelf. Go into the supermarkets and have a root around, find the optimum place where you think your product should be located and see what similar products there are available. If possible ask for the category manager (just ask the nearest store colleague to pint you in the right direction) and see what is the slowest selling product on the aisle then you will have a product to replace. Buyers do not simply put in new products, most have a ranging cycle of 4 to 6 months when they see what is selling well and what is not selling quite so well. If you can get to the buyer for your chosen category and suggest what product you might replace then you have done some of the work for them (more of this later).

Find the category which best suits your product, find the section and actual place where you would like the product to sit then call up the head office and ask for the buyers name, email and telephone number whilst you are at it ask for the assistant buyers details as well.

2 Create a compelling proposition

The proposition needs to be detailed and precise. You will have to have at the ready, on the spot knowledge of the following finger tip facts:

• ROS: Likely Rate of sale – how many units you expect to sell per store and per week
• RSP: Recommended Sale Price – the price point to be be displayed to the consumer
• Shelf life – the life of the product and how long it can sit unsold before it must be thrown away
• Buy in price – the price at which the buyer will be buying from you
• POR : Profit on return – The profit the buyer will expect to make on every unit sale

Be prepared, put in the groundwork and effort early and show the buyer that you ar a reliable person to do business with. Dificult suppliers take up the buyers time. Make sure that they understand that you are working for them.

3 Target a specific retailer with a specific pitch

Chose a single retailer and tailor your proposition to them. Your innovation may be ground breaking and backed up with research documentation and one to one target market video interviews but if you cannot make it seem real for the buyer then you may have lost the game. One trick is to get a designer to knock up some sketch boards showing where on the aisle they will sit. If the designer doing the job correctly then s/he will visit the right store and sketch up the current category as it is represented today but with your product in the right place.

Make the calls and understand the way in which a supplier works. Look through the sometimes complicated Listing Forms (sometimes known as New Line Forms NLF]) and understand the terminology they use then use the same terminology in your pitch to show you understand.

Create a marketing a forecast plan to show where and when effects are likely to increase or decrease demand. I cant stress enough that you need to ve realistic, too many innovators think that their products will have a 1000 unit rate of sale. Nonsense. Find out what the average rate of sale for the location of your product ad work to maintain or slightly increase the overall category profitability for the buyer. S/he is tasked with growing their part of the business, so help them to achieve this.

Make the product believable, help the buyer visualise the proposition with graphics. Do everything to make it real.

4 Retail is detail

Retailers run their business through numbers and very data hungry questions. How many of these products can I sell at what margin to whom and when. When is the order trigger point and how many days before guaranteed delivery will I have to wait before replenishment.  Just re-visiting a New Line Form should indicate the complexity which retailers ask you to aspire to when dealing with them. You need to become a spreadsheet expert.

Ensure that all details are check and double checked. Every decimal point is in the correct place and you are 100% certain that the process works before you even get the product on shelf.

If anything does go wrong then you will need to quickly make the necessary changes to ensure that your own margin is not wiped out.

5 Keep the product on Shelf

Once the listing is agreed and the first production of your innovation is run and delivered into the retailer you have start working hard. Getting the product in was the easy bit, believe me!

During the listing process you MUST make sure that you have been given access to the online data and reporting tools supplied by all the major retailers. Its in their interests to give you the numbers to ensure that you have the information to correct any issues.

The retailers are generally very good at getting your product to the right store on the right date and the right shelf with the right price. Don’t take this for granted. Visit 20 stores and check that everything has been merchandised correctly, the right price is showing and its on the position you expected it to be. If anything is different than expected then let the buyer know early as you could be losing sales.

Create a series of excel reports showing the following stats

1. Weekly sales by unit
2. Weekly sales by Variant (if you have more than one variety of product listed)
3. Total Sales to date
4. Retailer Margin
5. Supplier margin
6. Total Weekly sales profile (to show on which day your product sells best and worst)
7. Sales Forecast based on weather, external events, politics, marketing etc
8. Cumulative forecast of weekly sales
9. Likely retailer reorder dates and quantities

Its one thing getting your product in front of the buyer then in front of the consumer. You have to keep the product on shelf to grow the business and the brand reputation.

Summary

Retail is an ever changing industry with technology and innovation making daily changes to the complex processes involved. The retailers like and innovator, someone who has courage, conviction and proof that their product is the next best thing. You believe in the product now be a retail professional and prove to the buyers that they need to list your product.

Good Luck

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