5 Things Buyers Need To Hear to Say Yes

Jordan Buckner: [00:00:00] As a CPG brand, so much of your time and effort selling into retail is going to be getting the attention of buyers, but then selling them on your product once you actually get that meeting. But there's a lot to digest in between there in terms of how to make an effective sales pitch and actually get your product on the shelf.

Of course, there's all the complications of selling off the shelf after that, but we're going to stick with the beginning part for right now. So for this conversation, I've invited on James Pippin, who is the founder of GoodNowFoods. He's worked at a sales agency, has a whole team behind him, pitching with, to retailers like Whole Foods and Sprouts and many others and getting products landed on the shelf.

James, welcome. 

James Pippin: Thank you. Yeah, I'm glad to be here. it's a great opportunity. I appreciate it. 

Jordan Buckner: Of course. So you are basically having these meetings, conversations, and pitches all every day. So it's probably secondhand to you. But let's start at the beginning what are some of the key things, especially right now that will get the attention , of buyers and thinking like grocery [00:01:00] retail buyers and like, how do you even stand out these days?

James Pippin: That's a great question. And I think this is like foundational sales one on one in some ways, but it's important to get the basics right. So that you can profit from that. I think first and foremost. You know, good email etiquette right now. Most buyers are using email as a tool for initial introductions.

They use it to screen lots and lots of brands. So figuring out how to have an email and a sell sheet that convey your message quickly. You don't necessarily want to write a novel in this. You want to hit your key points in that email so that it's digestible. It's easy to understand exactly what.

The innovation and attributes of your product are that are going to be meaningful to that retailer. And then secondly, attaching a sell sheet. There's some basics to this, you know, you probably don't want it to be more than two megabytes, like , skip the 20 megabyte cell sheets, because those are going to get caught in the spam filters.

Two pages is enough. Now, I usually recommend first page a bit of the story of the product. You want [00:02:00] to capture those high level points about it. Maybe some distribution that you're in, if that's meaningful to the retailer. And then the second page you want specs, you want your ingredients to show up.

You want clear pictures of all of your products. You want to show the case pack size. You want to have all of that in kind of a one, two punch of like. This is who we are. And then these are our products, because the first thing a lot of buyers are going to do is they're going to flip to that. They're going to scroll through, see what's in there and they're going to take 30 seconds to do it.

You know, they're going to read your email. They're going to pop open your cell sheet and they're going to decide pretty quickly if they want to engage with you further. So I think first and foremost, it's that good quality email. Polite, respectful, get to the point quickly, hit your high points, have a good sell sheet attached.

And then finally, you know, a lot of people just forget to ask for what they want. So do you want to send samples? Do you want to schedule a meeting? Do you want to let the buyer know that you're planning to submit? In their category review process in two months. And you wanted to offer this information up a little bit ahead of time in case they had any initial questions.

So ask for what [00:03:00] you want literally write a question at the end that says, do you have time sometime in the next several weeks to have a short meeting with me and review my products? Could I send you some samples for you to take a closer look at? Would you be interested in giving them a try? I like asking the question.

Would you be interested in giving them a try? Because giving something a try sounds very easy to do. It's not, it's not like a power close where you're like, I want to sell you my stuff. It's more just like. Is this something that you might be interested in trying out? That's a much easier question to answer for the buyers.

so , keep it simple. Ask them a question at the end and then always offer to go according to their schedule. Buyers are busy, busy people. So if they give you a time, you know, move heaven and earth to meet it. I've driven hours and hours and traveled hours and hours for a 30 minute meeting with a key buyer that was the time that they were going to give me.

Jordan Buckner: Oh, very crucial things. Couple of things to dive into. When you say hitting your key points, what are like the two or three bullet points that you should be including in that email that you [00:04:00] found has a higher success rate of getting attention? Is it like velocity numbers? Is it winning awards?

Is it like what the founder sees as uniqueness of a product? 

James Pippin: Yeah, good questions. And I think it probably the top things you can do. If you're reaching out to local accounts or even regional accounts, highlight that you're local. That's number one, going to put you light years ahead of lots of other products.

Secondly, if you have distribution and a distributor that, you know, that retailer uses. At that as well, you know, so your bullet points are, Hey, we're a woman owned local brand to the upper Midwest. We're active in Kehi or fortune fish or unifier, whoever it is. The retailer is using, and I was hoping to send you some samples of my new line of crackers that are made with organic hemp and organic quinoa.

And so certainly attributes are going to be big local factor distribution that you're in. Velocity is going to be good to know, but I almost might save that for like, for [00:05:00] the next meeting. Like when you're diving in it's not a bad thing to bring up, but I think the The local factor, number one number two, and maybe the last thing is if you are offering something special from a promotional standpoint, like if this is, if you're a local brand and you're willing to like, Do a demo in every Heinen's store or in every, you know, festival food store or something like that because you're a local person.

Definitely bring that sort of thing up cause that's going to show your interest in supporting that store specifically. 

Jordan Buckner: On the sell sheet side, are buyers still expecting like simple PDF sell sheet, you know, quality, but not over designed or are they looking at like. Well, webpages, or these sit in like your range me page.

James Pippin: Oh, they're going to pop open your webpage. That's probably the first thing they're going to do if they're interested to dive in more. So definitely make sure that your pricing on your webpage is at or above what you're listing your SRP to be. You don't want the retailer to immediately think, Oh, you're going to be undercutting me on your own webpage.

that's a big no, no. But but yeah, I think a simple, I think a PDF, you know, I think it's The sell [00:06:00] sheet that's your door knocker, right? Like that's what you use to get the meeting. So it's almost, you know, you want to hit like, what's really important, like, do you have great attributes?

Do you have great innovation? You want to show pictures of your product. You definitely want to have your ingredients. You definitely want to have a scannable barcode of each item on your sell sheet, probably the second page. But other than that, yeah, I think two page PDF keep it simple so that the buyer can look at it and make a decision if they want to meet with you.

Jordan Buckner: I think you mentioned this earlier when you're talking about like the product as attributes, probably one of the biggest things to highlight is like what your product is and like the one key differentiator 

James Pippin: that like makes it different, right? Like a lot of people are like, Hey, we're like this.

Organic, but you know, regenerative this, but also does this and we have adaptogens and there's this other like three things in there. I think it gets really confusing, right? Like just get to the point. So they're telling their coworkers, I went about this probably like, Hey, I got this email that's a, you know, gluten free craft beer that's made from upcycle grains.

Okay. Like it's still innovative. You get that across, but it's easy to [00:07:00] understand and easy to repeat. 

Yeah. Yeah. it's a lot like knowing yourself as a person, you know, how people say that to know yourself is like the greatest gift because then you really understand who you are and how you are uniquely you, but your products are the same way.

And there's going to be things about your products that are maybe true that are really similar to lots of other things. So you really have to understand what is different. Why is your product something that the retailer literally has to take something else off the shelf that's currently selling and making the money and put yours on, and what is that reason?

It could be simple. It could be a package size difference. It could be a flavor difference. It could be a more on trend set of ingredients. It could be that you're local. It could be that you have better supply chain. It could be. Any number of things, but it's really important that you understand very much what your true differentiators are.

And I see this a lot with products that are innovative. Sometimes if you are straddling categories, you really need to tell the buyer. [00:08:00] Which category your product goes in and why. So it's often the case that people want their shelf stable beverage to be sold in the cold case, right? Because it moves so much more, but a lot of buyers are not going to want to put you in the cold case when they're competing against products that are perishable.

Maybe they have a rule against that. But you have to make that case there as to not just that it sells more in the cold case, but our product is designed for the grab and go consumer as a supplement to their hot bar lunch for these reasons. And that's why it sells in the cold case. 

Jordan Buckner: So you're sending samples do you recommend like sending a special box that has a unique experience for retailers or is it okay just to like ship them a box from your Amazon warehouse that's kind of generic? 

James Pippin: That's a good question. I think it certainly , with key buyers and key accounts doesn't hurt to go a little extra.

And I do think still the handwritten part in there with a couple sentences on it still makes an impact with people. I think a nice presentation is nice. It sets you apart. It shows that you've taken some extra time [00:09:00] to, you know, , I've gotten Plant based burgers shipped to me, literally duct tape to an ice pack.

And it, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't look good. Right. So, you know, this is the first impression of your product. I definitely with key buyers , would do your best , at making the. Packaging appropriate for getting that product. They're looking nice because also the other side to this too, is the retailers, you know, maybe they want to work with you direct, right?

Maybe that's an option. So if you're showing them how you're going to take care of the product, getting there so that they don't have lots of hassles and returns and breakage and, and all this stuff, maybe , that becomes an option too. 

Jordan Buckner: Yeah. That's probably. You know, and given, but important to say, if you're shipping anything that's damageable, frozen, refrigerated glass, like do make sure you strike that balance of like, well packaged.

So it gets there probably without feeling like it's excessive packaging where they're like away half the box , and really making sure that they're rising good condition. Otherwise there'll be probably concerned. It just won't try it if they don't trust it. 

James Pippin: Yeah, these are simple things, but make sure you put [00:10:00] attention to on the outside of the box.

Make sure that it's going to the buyer. If it's perishable, make sure it says perishable, please refrigerate immediately on the outside. You know, so many samples , get set aside, but you know, , these large, you know, buyers who are receiving lots of submissions, they're getting lots of samples.

So they, they could be getting. 20 or 30 boxes in a day of products. So you have to make sure that that stuff's done properly. So that your samples are treated properly. 

 So then let's say the buyer says like, yep, I'm ready, you know, game four meeting. Are you seeing meetings happen virtually over a zoom still these days, or buyers asking for in person meetings?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the, you know, Josh at last since we've talked about it before, he loves the zoom platform and I, and I get it like it's so, so much more efficient, you can, you can meet more people we can pull up cell sheets, we can show them, we can find information more quickly. So we definitely see a lot of zoom meetings that said in person meetings still happen quite a lot.

I think , the trade shows are quickly becoming [00:11:00] a regular thing. But even. You know, even ad hoc, regular local meetings are still happening. I mean, we just booked with nugget earlier today and, you know, Beth on our team is a couple of blocks away. So she's going to go over and meet with them and sit down in person and that's still nice when the retailer likes to do that.

Jordan Buckner: I know one thing, right, which is probably the reality is still is like face to face interaction helps you build a relationship faster than because, you know, imagine all the zoom calls that you've been on, like you might forget exactly when or what you talked about. But if you're actually there in person is a more visceral.

Relationship that you can build it's still important. 

James Pippin: It's true. And, and either way, you know, make sure to take notes, you know, like that's kind of a basic thing to you, but you want to take notes because you're going to want to follow up afterwards, that's the meeting is just one part of the equation.

Jordan Buckner: Now, during that meeting, what's the best outline typically to follow? Are you giving a presentation? Are you just talking about , the product with like some images? Kind of, how do you plan for that meeting? 

James Pippin: I think the best thing to do is always as much [00:12:00] as possible to start your meetings with a couple questions.

You know, ask , the buyer some things first. Have you heard of my brand before? How does the cracker set do for you? Is it growing in your store? Is it shrinking? What sorts of things are you hearing customers ask for? So that does a couple of things. First of all, it's just polite, you know, it's just a natural way to like show someone that you're interested in them and what their life is like, right?

So it sets a nice tone. And then secondly, you figure out what the buyer wants to buy. Like, are they interested in. Expanding this set. And so they're looking for additional products and innovation to grow it because the whole category is growing. Are they looking to shrink the set? Are they only looking to have local products, you know, fermented foods and veggies is a good example where regionally fermented veggies are very, very popular.

Same thing with eggs, same thing with lots of categories. So you get the buyer talking about what are they looking for in products in your category? And that's kind of sets the stage for you to figure out how to sell and [00:13:00] position you.. 

Jordan Buckner: And then do you recommend having like a design presentation where you're like walking through 10 slides?

James Pippin: I think so. I think that's still the, it's a nice structure. For those meetings. I mean, if you have 30 minutes with a buyer, you know, I would say, talk with them first, you know, for five or even 10 minutes. And. Then, you know, keep your presentation portion of it relatively short. I mean, it's hard to do, but five or 10 minutes at most.

And the buyer is going to tell you where they're interested. they're going to ask questions. They're going to stop you on, if you go to promotional support and you're not offering enough for that retailer to be interested, they're going to say, , are you interested to, you know, usually we see better success with our digital programs.

Would you be open to doing that? How do you feel about demos? We do a lot of demos here. But I like the idea of a presentation, as long as it's tailored as much as possible to the retailer. So if you can go ahead of time, you could figure out what products they have on shelf. What the price points are.

You can come in with that presentation and say, here's where my products I think could fit on your shelf. I think we could probably [00:14:00] offer an alternative price point to this brand here. This brand down over here, I've heard nationally isn't performing so well. That could be an opt out. How is it performing for you on shelves?

Maybe that's something that we could, you know, our average velocity is, is typically nearly double , what I understand there's to be, that could be an option for you to slot in if you're interested. So if you're talking about their products specifically and their store, I think that's an awesome thing to have as part of a presentation pitch deck.

Jordan Buckner: I'm actually kind of curious, right? Because yeah. There's that level of being like going into their store, even like taking a picture of their set. So you know exactly what's on there. Have you found that comes off as like, Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're like telling me what's not working on my shelf.

Like, do they get defensive? Or is there a way to do it where you're not like bashing on their store or their brands? This probably isn't selling. They're like, you're assaulting me, but I'm not making it sells. 

James Pippin: Well, if there's something on the bottom shelf, And that's fully stocked. And you know, you can make assumptions about that and if everything else is picked through.

[00:15:00] And I think the other side to this is it shows the buyer that you're going into their stores. So I think that, I don't think you necessarily have to come in and tell them everything they're doing wrong. But like, if you just say, you know, I was in your store on fourth street, and then I also went to the location in West Seattle and And I noticed in both of those stores that, you know, a lot of your products seem to be selling really well, but the couple of brands were maybe.

A little slower. I know for a fact that , our brand typically does two or three X, the velocity of those brands and the stores , that we're active in. So I don't, I don't know if that's of interest to you, but you can like, you can have that conversation in a way that showing that you're caring about their time enough to come prepared to the meeting and offer suggestions and offer ideas and say, I could be completely.

Completely wrong about this. But I've noticed in other retailers, we tend to outperform this brand and this brand. You know, I don't know what you're seeing, if they're performing well , in your stores, because if you do that First of all, every time that I've ever done that, almost every time I've ever done that, the buyer will immediately come back and say, Oh, which stores did you go into?

And they'll actually quiz me [00:16:00] about , what I saw. First of all, I think to make sure that I'm not lying about it, but second of all, like to get that feedback, because they want to hear what, you know that that would be useful for them. 

Jordan Buckner: And then the most important part, right? Can you expect to get a yes from the buyer during that meeting?

Should you expect it to take longer time? And if so, what are the things that you can do to increase your likelihood for them to say yes, or give a timeline for going in store or getting 

feedback? 

James Pippin: Or yeah, totally. It really depends on the buyer. You know, I know that I remember Noah at PCC telling me that he's only ever approved like a small handful of brands in the medium, right?

And that's just, that's, that's how he likes to think about it afterwards. That's great. And there are other buyers that will give you an answer. Right on the spot. And they'll say, okay, if you commit to doing these promotional programs, go ahead and send in a new item form and we'll look to work with XYZ distributor to have it on shelf in in November, right?

So , you'll come across both and that's okay to ask too. [00:17:00] You can say, what is your process , for making decisions about this category look like? Is there anything that I haven't shared today that would help you Make favorable decision around our brand. What aspects of our brand do you think would work in your store?

Is this something that you would like to give a try next reset? I'd be willing to do. Demos and promotions and, you know, whatever, whatever that you're willing to do, but I think the, I think the biggest things toward getting a buyer to a yes for your product, you have to really solve.

You have to figure out distribution. You have to figure out how are you going to get consumers to buy the product after it's on shelf, because at the end of the day, that's the true measure that they're looking at and you should be looking at, and you have to have an answer for that.

And I think that the other thing that you can really think about to getting the buyer to say yes, is the Attributes and the product market fit. So if you're pitching a plastic product into PCC, it's going to be a challenge because they don't, their consumers don't like plastic.

So you have to have that understanding of what types of products fit in their [00:18:00] store. Why does your product fit within that? How are consumers going to find it, trial it and keep buying it. And you know, then how is the logistics of it going to go? Distribution is a big part of the equation. And if you have those answered, you've kind of removed a lot of the barriers for a buyer to make a decision in your favor.

, and then it's just down to what else is out there and how your product compares. 

Jordan Buckner: No, I think that's awesome because essentially what you're saying is like, you want to reduce the risk as low as possible for that buyer to bring your product on the shelf, especially if you're a new item without a proven track record, right?

Like you want to in their mind, they have all these concerns and you want to address as many of the concerns and have a clear and confident plan at least of what you're going to try, right? Like you're never going to know how it's actually going to perform in their store, but at least if you have a solid plan, then you're, yeah other people. 

James Pippin: Yeah. That's right. And this is a personal business, right? , it's good to be somebody that they enjoy talking to, you know, , be polite, be friendly, be say, look, I totally understand where you're coming from, you're reviewing all these different [00:19:00] items all the time. And I just want to make this really simple for you.

I'm local. I'm going to do a ton of demos. My product. Sells really well. I'm in distribution. Usually you're going to have, if these things are all lining up, you're going to be getting nods from the buyer throughout, they're going to be getting kind of excited because it's hard for them also to find things that work.

Around all these things , to bring on new products. So you'll definitely feel it if they're excited 

Jordan Buckner: and if you can sense that it's a maybe like a no or not right now from them are there questions that you ask to get like additional feedback or information that you can kind of sense it's not going your way?

James Pippin: Yeah, I would always let them make that call you know, you can ask things like, how would you see our product fitting in your store? And if they're like, well, you know, we have a lot of crackers right now. It's a pretty tight set. You know, our consumers don't usually like to spend more than 4.

99 on products like this. So this might be kind of out of the price point, you know, , if you're listening, they're going to. Most buyers are going to give you some. Direction [00:20:00] same time, like a lot of the time buyers don't want to say no, because what if you're the next big thing and they're the one who said no to you, you know?

So it can be something where there's a little dance of like, Oh, I just don't know, you know, right now our set is pretty crowded and they might be thinking your price point is too high, but then what happens when three months later, you're the next big thing. Everybody else has your brand and they don't, and they don't want to look dumb.

I mean, it's a challenge for them too, but I would definitely look at what their visual cues and what their auditory cues are giving you. And then maybe into it from that and just say, do you think a price point of eight 99 would sell well on your shelf?

I mean, we're selling well in other stores and if they're saying, ah, it's just, That's a little high for our store. I mean, you're kind of getting your feedback right there. 

Jordan Buckner: I love that. And then the last step is probably following up to make sure that you get on the shelf because sometimes that can take weeks to months to years in situations.

Is there any key things there? [00:21:00] I'm guessing probably like asking them like the best ways to follow up. 

James Pippin: I think that it's important that you know each retailer's process and if you don't and if you're having a meeting with them, they're going to tell you. What they want from you. So if they want a new item form, they're going to tell you, To fill it out, they're going to give you promotional forms.

I think this is where sometimes it's helpful to have some kind of a sales partner around you, where you can ask, or a group of advisors or people who you can ask, Hey, what do I need to do with this account from a follow up standpoint? What is their process like? Cause anymore, a lot of these stores have.

Their own custom process, their own custom forms, , they have idiosyncrasies about them. You're supposed to fill this out a certain way. You're supposed to register on their portal a certain way at a certain time, submit the paperwork a certain way. So that followup is, can be just as important as the media itself probably is just as important as the media itself, because you won't actually get into their system and out on shelf if you're not following their process.

So it's important to ask if you don't know. Find resources around you that [00:22:00] do know if you don't know, and, and then follow that. On time. You know, we see products get delayed or not launched at , all the time. if stuff isn't done correctly from a paperwork , and post meeting follow up stand.

Jordan Buckner: James, thanks so much for being on today. This is extremely valuable. And our listeners, if you're going to come away with this, I mean some really clear steps on what to do to get that buyer to say yes. Definitely like try, I always tell founders like try pitching and getting in touch with buyers yourself.

If you need help, if you need an extra pair of hands. James and his team is here to help. They're pitching to these key retailers every week. And so definitely if you're probably a good fit, have the opportunity to work with him and his team to get your product into more key retailers. 

James Pippin: That's right. Yeah. , we're always happy to help. , and that goes You know, just on an ad hoc basis, too. I'm always happy to answer a question or two if I can, or if we can be helpful in some way. And of course our team is here to support if you're looking for bigger support , for your business.

Jordan Buckner: I'm also going to share in the show notes as well, a link to the harvest hub, which is a new [00:23:00] resource. James has 10 team put together that helps you not only identify buyers at retailers across the country, but also see their. Category review schedules and information about how to actually pitch and get into the store.

That way you can be confident that you are reaching out to the correct buyer. And it's great because it's updated from James and his team. So they are actively using this and updating it with the most recent contacts because they're making these calls every day. 

James Pippin: Yeah, that's right. It's a great resource if you want to work on building your brand on your own or with support.

And we're also pleased to have it largely also now at this point supported by community contributors who are sharing information from the field on their own experiences. So giving us you know, new buyers when they change around or information about an account that they know really well that, you know, maybe, maybe we don't know as well as they do.

So that's, it's a great resource , and appreciate you mentioning that. 

Jordan Buckner: Of course. And you'll find all that information in the show notes. All right, James, we'll talk soon, but thanks so much for being on. 

James Pippin: Thanks for having me. It's great.