I've Landed On A Retailer's Shelf, How Often Should I Check In With Them

April 1, 2013

Once you’ve landed on the shelf of a retailer, you should be actively managing your sales based on either a sell-through goal or sales expectations communicated to you by the buyer. And when things are looking good, you let them know and praise them (and consequently, yourself). When things are looking slow, you reach out with a recommendation for how you can help them improve sales. And when you have scheduled some marketing activity that might increase that retailer’s sales of your product, you reach out and give them advanced warning and a recommendation for how they can beef up inventory or re-position product to grab the bulk of those sales.

Other than that, don’t be a nuisance to retail buyers. They are busy, but we know that already. Every piece of communication you send them should add value. In fact, a good rule of thumb is before hitting “send” on an email, review what you’ve written and ask yourself, “What here is newsworthy to a buyer?” or “What here will help them sell more of my product?”. If you can’t answer either question, delete your email and start again.

Lastly, there is no prescribed frequency for checking in with retailers…it is as frequent or infrequent as needed as long as you satisfy the condition of adding value to the buyer.