How to Get Your Product in Stores – 5 Reasons to Sell To Retail Chain Stores!
Do you have a product perfect for retail chain stores such as Walmart, Home Depot, Macys, Kroger Grocery Store, CVS, etc? If so, watch this short training video on the subject of why you should sell to retail chain stores.
Karen Waksman, Founder of Retail MBA, explains the 5 Reasons to Sell to Chain Stores if you have a great consumer product and want to know how to get your product in stores today. No Experience Required!
Wishing you the best day ever.
Karen Waksman, RetailMBA.com
P.S. Want to learn more? Sign up for a free webinar here: https://www.retailmba.com/free!
(Transcripts for this Video Listed Below!)
Hey everyone. This is Karen Waksman, Founder of Retail MBA, and today I want to talk about the five reasons you want to sell your product into a retail chains. How to Get Your Product into Stores. The reason I decided to create this particular training segment is because I’ve taught tens of thousands of product companies across the globe over the last yet eight years on how to get products in the stores, and sometimes people are kind of stuck in deciding whether or not they want to sell to retail chains and so forth. So I want to give you five reasons to consider going after them. I obviously have a bias because I do this as a business, helping people get into stores, but I want to explain it to you so you can see why I believe and I do this for a living. Let’s talk about the five reasons you want to sell your products to big box retail chains.
Reason number one, they are hungry, hungry for new products at chain stores. One of the main reasons people don’t even consider going after chain stores is because they believe that these buyers, these chain stores are not looking for new products, that it’s super-complicated and it’s difficult, and they’re not even going to pay attention to my product. I’m here to tell you it’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s not true. They want to know about you. They really, really want to know about you. Let me explain that.
I do live events. I partner up with the world’s largest retailers like Walmart, CVS, and so forth. I know buyers really, really well. My dearest friends are buyers. For years all they ever say to me is, “Karen, we have a hunger, an insatiable need for new products. We’re always looking for that next new product because our customers have changed.” Today more than ever they want that next new and interesting product, that next product they can put in stores, so they’re constantly have to kind of changing up products in stores and so forth, just to make sure that that product converts, the product sells. Yes, they have a lot of established brands, but they’re always looking for new stuff. So please don’t not go after chain stores because you believe they’re not looking for you. I know for a fact that they’re scouring the web, they’re looking everywhere. Go after chain stores. That’s something to consider.
Now the next reason why you want to sell to chain stores is because one order can 10x or even 100x your business. Basically what that means is you can make millions of dollars just from one retail chain. I have clients who get weekly chain store orders from majors. I mean it’s like once they set up the account and the product’s selling, they just get reorders constantly all the time. Now it doesn’t always happen, but a lot of times it can be tremendous. I know people who sell to two different retail chains, and they are blowing up their business and they make millions of dollars just on that one strategy. [inaudible 00:02:28] a couple of counts. I mean it can be huge for your business. So please don’t ignore chain stores because they can explode your business exponentially and help you in any way that you’re working with your business. I mean if you have distribution strategies selling on Amazon and all sorts of things, this is just another great way to generate revenue.
All right, another reason you want to sell to chain stores is because it can explode your valuation for your company. What does that mean? If you ever want to sell your company one day you really got to think about this now, you understand? Basically I talked to one of my dear friends who is a merger and acquisition expert. He sells companies for a living. He was talking to me about the fact that an Amazon business, someone who sells a physical product and is already doing well, if they wanted to go out and sell their company today, obviously this varies and don’t quote me on this, but this is what I’ve been consistently hearing, is that you probably would make two to three times, whatever it is that your revenue is. So whatever it is that you are currently generating a revenue, when you sell the company you’ll sell it for two to three times that, if that makes sense. Essentially the valuation of your company is based on revenue and so forth and other things, and so typically it’s two to three points basically on average when you sell your company.
Now I was told that if you add on a few major retail accounts, you typically can increase that more like four to six points. I’ve heard even seven points. Basically your valuation of your company can increase tremendously. You can sell your company for way more money. I mean bottom line that’s what it really means, that a few chain store accounts will be huge for your business in the long run in terms of selling your company.
It makes sense. At the end of the day let’s think logically. You have all of your products being sold in one way on Amazon or something like that. That’s okay and that’s great, but what if Amazon changes their model? What if something happens and your business goes away? An investor is looking at that. If you put your business and add distribution strategies in other categories like retail and so forth, you now look like more established brand, more established business. They’re much more comfortable with buying your company because they know that you’re definitely more established and so forth. If you ever want to sell your company and also just to increase the value of your company, retail accounts can really help you. That alone should be the reason why you should build out your business.
Another reason you should sell to chain stores is because when you open up a retail account it can explode in terms of other opportunities. So many awesomely strange things have happened to my customers once they opened up that initial retail account. First of all, chain store buyers shop at each other stores because they’re looking at their competition, they’re looking at what’s going on and what they’re buying and so forth. They don’t want to miss out in that next new product, so they’re always looking at their different stores. The target buyer is always looking at Walmart. The Walmart buyer’s looking at this. The Macy’s buyer is looking there. They’re always looking to see what’s going on, which products they’re putting in the stores. They’re competitors.
It has happened many times for my clients where you’ll actually get a phone call from a buyer at another chain store because they saw your product in the store. Now it doesn’t always happen, but it has happened and it’s possible because once a buyer sees that the product’s in another store, you seem much more intriguing to them, it’s less of a risk, they believe that your product’s making money and so forth. Now if your product’s doing great, you’ll get even more calls. Now it’s also great because when you’re reaching out to retail chains about your product, you definitely want to let them know about the products that you’re currently selling at retailers and so forth. It really does help you grow your business.
Another thing that’s happened to my clients, they’ve gotten on Shark Tank, which is a TV show, because of the fact that they’ve had some successes. I’ve had clients who got on the TV show The Profit, all sorts of different things, The Today Show, all these reasons because they showed some success with their product, and also all the top reps and all the top distributors suddenly call you. Like if you have a product and you try to reach out to a distributor, they don’t always answer the phone. A lot of you guys have experienced that. I mean they’re kind of ignoring you until you start succeeding, which is very annoying.
The reason I teach this step is to help you guys move things along, help you open up a few accounts, and the top reps, the top distributors work for you and so forth, like the best ones, the ones that’ll make you tons of money, those are the ones what we like. Anyway, so that’s another reason why you want to sell to chain stores, is because these opportunities explode. Trust me. A distributor sees your product in the chain stores, all of a sudden you’re interesting for them because they don’t have to do as much work. You did all the heavy lifting. You got the product in the stores, started moving and so forth. So it’s very interesting to these top reps and distributors.
The final reason why you want to sell to chain stores is because you can sell more and new products. What does that mean? Well, let’s just say you got into a chain store and your product was selling. The buyer’s going to love you. Why? Because you’re making them money. Because their job is to buy. They’re purchasing agents. They’re looking for things that sell. Their job is to find things that convert for their retailer. They have a day job. That’s very important to them. You bring them a product that converts, which doesn’t always happen, they love you, they’re still paying attention to you. All of a sudden they’re like, “What else can I buy from you?”
It happens a lot. I’ve seen clients who got one product into that retailer and then all of a sudden the buyer’s like, “What else do you have for me,” and then they just keep funneling products through and stuff because they have that relationship, they have that trust, they believe that you’re going to bring them products that sell and all the sudden you start making way more money with different products. I have customers who got one product at a chain store and then they got another one and another one, and it grows that way.
Here’s the coolest part. Say you don’t have another product to sell. What you can do is think about future product options and eventually create those because you’ll be making money, or you can maybe bring in other people’s products and start selling those products because you have these relationships. There’s so many opportunities here with retail chains. Don’t be afraid of retailers at major retailers, please, because there’s so much opportunity here. I’ve seen people with zero sales experience, zero buyer relationships, zero patents get their product to the world’s largest retailers. I’ve done this long enough to see that it really doesn’t have to do anything with that. It has to do with some skill sets, some knowledge, some data, and then some execution. If you’re willing to do that stuff, you definitely need to go after chain stores because it could be a magical opportunity for you in your business.
Anyways, I hope that provided value for you, and I hope you got excited about the possibility of selling in chain stores. I am here to inspire millions of people to improve their lives through my content, through my education, through any means necessary in my lifetime. So by you hearing this and you be excited about this, you’re allowing me to experience my purpose. I appreciate you for that. Thank you so much, Karen Waksman, Retail MBA, and I hope to support you with my programs and services and my live events. Thanks so much.
If you like this training, you will love these!
- How to Get Your Product into Stores: https://www.retailmba.com/how-to-get-your-product-into-stores
- Macy’s Vendor – https://www.retailmba.com/macys-vendor-how-to-sell-to-macys-and-become-a-macys-vendor
- Why More Amazon Sellers Are Turning to Retail Chains: https://www.retailmba.com/why-more-amazon-sellers-are-turning-to-retail
If you want to know how to get your products in stores, Click Here
