For businesses that sell directly to consumers, marketing is an exercise of building your audience, getting your brand out there, and having some control over nudging your target market into your sales pipeline. When you market to retailers or wholesalers, it adds a new dimension to your marketing process. There are special considerations to take into account with this market, so let’s talk about tips for B2B marketing to retailers and wholesalers.
- Differentiating the markets of retailers and wholesalers. First, not all accounts under these headings are created equal, so let’s set up some considerations that could impact your marketing strategy. If you are selling to a retailer, the size of their “store” – let’s determine this by number of SKUs and understand that e-commerce may factor in here – may dictate more of their business needs, the amount of autonomy the management team has versus how much corporate procedure they must follow, etc. The main factor to remember is that they are stocking their shelves with the hopes that the end user will buy the product. If you are selling to a wholesaler, on the other hand, your product is going to another business, and they may not be putting this product out for retail sales. If you are selling a bulk quantity of blueberries to a bakery, for example, the bakery isn’t trying to get customers to buy the blueberries. The bakery is going to use the blueberries as an ingredient, turn it into something tasty, and try to get customers to buy that new food item. Even in these two examples, you begin to see that you need to speak to these buyers differently. Understand their needs and their goals to make sure you are pitching from the correct angle.
- The logistics and the marketing tie together in your pitch. Selling to retailers or wholesalers is a complicated blend of logistics and marketing to the right audience. The operational choices you make could well be part of your marketing pitch or at the very least dictate the type of companies you should approach with your pitch. Let’s say you reach out to a market and get connected with the person who buys product. You give them your sell sheet, line sheet, or whatever the tool is called in your industry to give them an overview of your product/brand, quantities available, SKUs, and other pertinent information that will help them see if it is a good bet for them. Understanding whether your product fits into their business model will matter to someone buying product for a retailer. It should matter to you, too, if you want to have a profitable business!
- Be ready with samples. Retailers will want to know what they are getting and be sure that they are stocking their shelves with a product that is likely to move. For many types of products (not all, but many), this makes it logical to have sample packs/sizes available for them to try or a model for them to see what they are getting. Think about how you present your brand with the samples. Making it look professional goes a long way both in their perception of your product and your confidence in pitching it.
- Retailers want the product to be sold. What does this mean? If you were a retailer, and you were thinking of trying out a new product, wouldn’t it be nice for you to know that there is already community interest around that brand? As a marketer, you may think you are getting out of the Business to Consumer marketing game by selling to retailers, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you can show the strength of your B2C marketing, the community you are building around your brand – if you can wow them with a sizeable subscriber list, membership group, social media following, or any other stat that shows the interest around your product – you would be a much safer bet for this retailer. Could a market be willing to put some marketing attention to your product? Maybe, but let’s say that market has 15,000 SKUs on the shelves. How much time and attention can they afford to put to each of them to sell the products? Don’t neglect your marketing plan to build your B2C community, even if you aren’t a retailer of your own product.
- Wholesalers are focusing on the bottom line. Sure, they may want to make sure that they choose suppliers with an alignment in values or other intangibles. Some of these intangibles may be a meaningful point of differentiation between two similar products. But, if a wholesaler is not worried about selling your product to consumers directly, that likely means your product is part of their process or production. Your sales pitch ideally will come from a place of how your product fits into their operations and their business model.
All of this is written from the standpoint of selling directly from your business to the retailer or wholesaler. In fact, distributors, brokers, or other middlemen are often part of the chain. In some industries, they are an obligatory part of the process. In other industries, they are a nice to have…if it works with your business model and price points. As a business owner or marketer trying to get your product out there, it is worth remembering that these distributors generally deal with a smaller number of SKUs, may be much more specialized in their knowledge and their portfolio, and that finding the right portfolio fit is crucial.
There is a great deal to say on the specifics of selling to retailers and wholesalers. The goal for this Marketing Tip of the Week is to give you a wider view of considerations so you better understand the landscape you are heading into with this audience and what you can do to be more successful.
Before I close, I want to reiterate that selling to retailers or wholesalers adds a layer of operational complexity to your business in areas such as price points, labeling, legality, inventory and storage, and other such factors. If you aren’t sure where to begin, I recommend connecting with a mentor who can guide you through the process as a whole. Looking for recommendations? Here are some places you might start!