These past few months I have been working with clients in Canada, Australia and New Zealand – all really exciting and different projects.
Apart from it being a challenge to remember who is in what time zone and to arrange zoom meetings appropriately (!) – it is no different to working with clients in the UK. Food and drink producers looking to scale up all over the world are all wanting to know the same things – which is mainly: “How can I get more listings?” or “How can I sell more?” People have often got 1 or 2 listings – maybe by networking, hard work and persistence or with an introduction; but that’s when they often get stuck – how do they grow from there? I thought it would therefore be useful to share my top 10 tips on how to get more listings. So in no particular order:
- Have a sales plan! Make it targeted and measurable and stick it somewhere where you will see it every day! (Incentives for achieving targets are always a good idea!)
- Make sure you know who your target stockists are and understand them and why they would want to list your food or drink product
- Do your research and find out the name of the buyers before you approach the stockist
- Think creatively about how you can approach and reapproach buyers so that you get noticed but don’t annoy them!
- Create a winning retail pitch – containing all the info a buyer wants and needs to hear about your food or drink brand to convince them to list your product – but in a succinct and easy to read format
- Make your intro compelling – be one of the few emails that buyers open and read
- Ensure you are retail ready (eg stock available, right accreditation in place etc) – if the buyer shows interest in your food or drink product you want to be ready to seize the opportunity!
- Be able to show that there is real interest in your product from consumers – e.g. a large social following, testimonials, sales success form other outlets
- Have a marketing plan! Whatever that looks like and whatever size your budget, make sure you support your product with marketing activities – be that social, PR, sampling…and if your budget is small -that’s when you need to get really creative! People need to know about your food or drink product.
- Be persistence and don’t expect miracles overnight. It takes time to build a food or drink business and gain listings.
If I can help with any of the above or you just want to have a chat about any sales or listing issues do drop me a line and we can arrange a FREE 30 min discovery call .