"Ready, Set...Whoa!": Are You Really Ready for Retailers? - Softcover

Carver, Lisa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1420814044 ISBN 13: 9781420814040

Publisher: AuthorHouse, 2005

Synopsis

Whether you're a start-up supplier seeking reality-based retail launch strategies or an established retail vendor wanting to increase your eligibility for new branding, licensing, and distribution opportunities, newmarketbuilders' first book in the Pencil Principle Series: Ready, Set ...Whoa! Are You Really Ready For Retailers? shows you how to get your products in front of major retailers and how to keep them there! Based on years of direct multi-million-dollar major store sales experience and their ongoing conversations with top suppliers and retail buyers, newmarketbuilders' sales and follow-up strategies will help start-ups assess the retail viability of their products while reestablishing best practices for suppliers seeking expansion.

About this title

About the Author

Lisa Carver has managed and implemented business development and marketing initiatives in the private and not-for-profit sectors since 1987. Working with both start-up and mature companies, Lisa has defined strategic growth initiatives for consumer products organizations and licensors and developed key global relationships in Asia, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.

Carol Spieckerman possesses over 20 years of multi-million-dollar sales, management, product launch, licensing, and business development experience. She brings high-volume sales and sales management expertise to newmarketbuilders’ clients and has worked extensively with major retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, food and drug, and better department and specialty stores.

Carol Spieckerman and Lisa Carver founded newmarketbuilders, inc. in 2001 and recently launched a sister firm, Retail Readiness Coach, in 2005. newmarketbuilders is a full service marketing and management consulting firm committed to building relationships and improving productivity within the licensing and retail community. The firm functions as a liaison and advisor to licensors, licensees, and non-licensing supplier companies with a particular focus on mass retail. Retail Readiness Coach focuses on providing information and training resources as well as one-on-one coaching to entrepreneurs, mompreneurs, inventors, and new ventures seeking to launch or expand retail distribution.

The authors are keynote and motivational speakers at leading industry events. Additionally, they publish two retail industry newsletters, the blueprint and Are You Really Ready for Retail. The blueprint, targeted to established consumer products, retail and licensing executives, and Are You Really Ready for Retail providing common sense insights into retail industry trends for those newer to the business.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1: Really?

The New Pencil Paradigm

Power has completely shifted in the last decade from the vendor to the Pencil.

We remember the days when Pencils lined up outside of showroom doors during busy market weeks just to see the latest. In most cases, the appointments were fairly leisurely, personal affairs in which your Pencil would carefully consider your product (over catered breakfast or lunch), ask for your input and recommendations, and if you were really hot, write orders on the spot (or at least drop them by your showroom by the end of market). From there, everyone would go out for cocktails and dinner and do their best to make it through another day of market the following day. Such was the level of trust back then that Carol used to devote the better part of a week to writing orders for several of her department store buyers.

In those days, it was also feasible for a cold call to pay off with an initial appointment. Today, you are more likely to find yourself filling out supplier applications, sending samples in advance, or following other gate-keeping procedures in hopes of obtaining an initial meeting with a Pencil.

Industry trade shows once provided the best opportunity for start-ups to get noticed. Now, major Pencils continue to move their buying calendars back. Traditional trade-show timing is often out of synch with Pencil buying seasons; and retailers no longer rely on trade show attendance to view products (they expect products to be brought to their corporate offices).

The Sophistication Chasm

Over the past decade, major retailers have become a force to be reckoned with, bringing sales volumes, door counts, and licensing program placements that were unimaginable ten years ago. Many start-up suppliers and even some established vendors assume that this just spells more revenue potential with no inherent change in process. Nothing could be further from the truth.

With increased volume has come an exponential increase in sophistication and retailer back-office support (departmental analysts, assistants assigned to focus on smaller segments of business, proprietary vendor-managed systems). Additionally, retail Pencils are outsourcing more functions to their suppliers in order to cut costs. As a result, suppliers are no longer just selling products in they are taking on pieces of their Pencil s administrative responsibilities and co-managing their Pencil s business. The retailers corresponding expectation of sophistication at the vendor level isn t often met and can be difficult for even seasoned vendors to achieve.

Pencil Point # 1

Pencil organizations have become quite complex and selling to major Pencils has never required more skill as a result.

Shrinking Vendor Base

Start-up companies can tend to believe that all they need is the next great idea or "must have" product in order to gain widespread retail distribution. The fact is that it has never been easier for Pencils to source products on their own and they are more determined than ever to shrink their supplier base.

At the same time, our assessment work continues to confirm that retailers are experiencing a great deal of frustration with their existing suppliers. Top retailers are constantly upgrading their skills via corporately-endorsed training programs, yet most vendor companies possess no internal training programs whatsoever. As a result, many suppliers have stagnated or fallen behind as their retailers have become more sophisticated.

In spite of buyer frustration with existing suppliers, Pencils tell us they would still rather empower their existing vendor base (by asking them to expand their reach into new items) or source products directly than continually add marginal, untested suppliers, particularly those providing only one or two items. This is especially true in light of quota phase-outs for WTO nations which make direct-sourcing even more attractive to retailers. This trend has evolved in sharp contrast to the previous practice of doing business with a wide variety of suppliers so as not to keep all one s eggs in one basket. The primary reason for the shift is the need for supply-chain efficiency and volume buying in order to drive prices down.

Pencil Pearl

One buyer recently summed up his thoughts at a "top ten" departmental meeting within a major mass retailer (in which the top ten vendors for that department meet to discuss strategy) this way: "Get big or get out ..." and "If you can t fill a truck now, think about how you can in the future."

Pencil Point # 2

Pencils are committed to doing more business with fewer suppliers (rather than seeking new product resources).

More than ever, suppliers need to offer a compelling "reason to be" (see page 100) and a corresponding "reason to buy" for the Pencil. Moreover, companies must think beyond initial placement and into maintain¬ing their initial advantage by perfecting execution and expanding their offering in order to stay on the radar.

Now that you know the obstacles, let s talk about strategy!

Copyright © 2005 by newmarketbuilders. No commercial use is permitted without explicit written permission from the author. All other rights reserved. Direct all inquiries to team@newmarketbuilders.com. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1420814044
• ISBN 13: 9781420814040
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184