A problem that often arises when an early-stage brand is making the transition from selling direct to consumer to selling into retail, whether via distributors or direct, is compiling the sales collateral necessary to satisfy retailer requirements. In this post, I'm going to dive into some of the sales materials you're definitely going to need to button up before you sell into retail.

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All right, now let's get to it.

The Pricing and Spec Sheet

Your pricing and spec sheet is going to contain as much of the information as would be needed to fill out any new item submission or new item setup form. Typically, a good pricing and spec sheet also lays out some policies for your brand, like:

  • order lead time
  • billing/AP contact
  • ordering and logistics contact
  • FOB location

The meat and potatoes of the pricing and spec sheet, though, is:

  • your internal item ID
  • your product UPC
  • your case UPC
  • any inner case UPC, if applicable
  • the SKU name
  • the size of the product (for example, 16 FL OZ or 5.5 OZ)
  • the unit and case dimensions
  • gross weights
  • your pallet configuration, commonly known as TI/HI
  • your production shelf life
  • your guaranteed shelf life
  • your case cube
  • the pricing details (unit, case, FOB, delivered)

Before compiling your pricing and spec sheet, there are a few important checks first:

  • Are your UPCs registered through GS1 as your own? (This is an absolutely critical step that many brands overlook). 
  • Is your case configuration optimized for retail? For example, if you're selling pints of ice cream, it is standard to have 12 units per case. There are many other considerations across categories, but it's good to gut check with a trusted advisor or fellow founder before settling on your case pack for the retail channel.
  • Have you done a logistics analysis on the cost of shipping your product? (This will inform how you set FOB and deliver pricing)

A quick suggestion: Quote multiple well-regarded carriers from your shipping location to the distribution centers or retail locations they will be shipping to. See what the cost is per:

  • half pallet
  • mixed pallet
  • full pallet per SKU
  • three pallets per SKU
  • half truckload
  • full truckload

Understand that freight pricing normally increases over time, so it's not simply a matter of growth solving cost issues. Also understand that if you think you can get around freight up charges by going FOB with a distributor, the distributor will add freight up charges before they take their margin. You won't have say in those charges, and you'll be on the distributor's schedule to get the product to their DC, not your own. There are occasions when this makes sense, but you should weigh all the factors before going FOB.

The Sell Sheet

The sell sheet is typically a one-page front-and-back PDF that contains marketing language on the front and product details on the back.

The front should be splashy, tell the story of your brand, and include high-conversion attributes called out. If you have a broker presenting on your behalf, particularly to independents with a bunch of different brands at the same time, it's important that the front page of your sell sheet tells the story of your brand in one sentence or less. This earns the right for the buyer to flip it over, where they should find everything that they need to order your product.

On the back, you should include your nutritional panels and scannable UPCs, as well as any more detailed story information that you'd like to get across.

If you're selling through multiple distributors, it's good to have different sell sheets for each distributor that include the distributor's item codes.

The Sales Deck

For the sales deck, I normally recommend ten to twelve slides. There are several slides that are going to remain consistent for every presentation, and then there are a few slides that are going to be customized depending on the retailer that you're talking to. Let's talk about the bedrock slides first.

  1. Obviously, the title slide is self-explanatory.
  2. The company overview, the story, your mission, why you exist. This is where you can convince your buyer why you're a good partner and get them to pay attention to the next slide, which is your products. What are the main benefits? What certifications do they have? Include images so they know that this product looks good and will attract consumers.
  3. The next slide will show the social proof: what other retailers are currently stocking your products.
  4. Who is your customer? This is where you can bring in any marketing data or anything you've learned from selling direct to consumer about your ideal customer profile. It is helpful to do your research and customize this to the ideal customer profile of the retailer. If there is overlap, I'm assuming there's overlap, or else you wouldn't be pitching. You want to show how you stack up against the competition. You're going on shelf in a grocery store. You always have competition. Pretending that you don't have any real competitors means you haven't dug deep enough into what problem you're solving with your product and how the customer is currently solving it. It's okay to be creative on how you stack up with the competition slide, but you've got to have it. Don't leave it to the buyer to try and figure out how your presence in his or her category is going to affect the other brands he's stocking.
  5. If you have good press or good following on social media, or any way to show the buyer that the world knows about you and isn't going to have to count on the store being exceptional in marketing and merchandising you in order to sell one box, this is a good place to put that in.
  6. Your product info, a lot like the back of the sell sheet: just the basics: UPCs, product images, suggested retail price, case pack, key features.

Alright, now let's talk about the slide that you want to customize: the merchandising and promotional support. It's critical that you do your research and understand the policies and the procedures of the retailer you're pitching. You don't want to go into Wegmans and talk about all the promotions you're going to do, for example, because they're an everyday low-priced retailer. You don't want to go into a store with a clean floor policy and talk about your beautiful shippers. That's the basics.

This is where a trusted adviser can help you learn about H-E-B's yellow coupons, Publix's BOGOs, and everything else. Doing this homework and proposing a promotional marketing plan shows that you have prioritized this meeting with this retailer. It's okay to be a noob, but it's not okay to be unprepared. Unprepared vendors run out of stock and cost grocery stores money and cost category managers bonus dollars. Pay specific attention to this slide and customize it every time.

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