Your sales people need to be in the stores

For most consumer-packaged goods, the majority of sales happen in the store. Certainly, some brands are being built with online sales but most food and beverage products depend on the retail volume to scale the business. If you are selling your products in retail, your sales people need to get out there and visit stores. This is not meant to be a Friday afternoon drive by. These are store visits with a purpose and some accountability to bring back valuable information you can use to grow your business and improve relationships with your customers.

One very important role for your sales team is to be a link between your business and your customer. This is not limited to doing a pitch to make sure they understand all of the great things about your product. This part of their job includes being in stores to see what is happening with your product but also with your customer and your category. You cannot operate a successful food and beverage business from your own facility. You and your people need to get out into the stores.

Store visits with a purpose

You and your sales team should schedule store visits and have a plan for what you want to accomplish. We always want to remind you that the relationship with your customers is not just about whether they want your product. That is part of it but there is more to a good sales team than convincing someone to put your product on the shelf. Your sales people need to understand your customer and figure out what that looks like within your business.

An example is the overall positioning of their stores. When sales people spend time in stores they should stop at the front door to take in the messages the retailer is sending to consumers when they walk in the door. This is your customer’s first chance to make a first impression. Is the message about quality, price, local products, loyalty or some other point of differentiation. Part of your job as a good supplier is to support this positioning and figure out how to be a part of it. If the message is all about price that does not mean you need to lower your selling price and be on the front page of every ad. It does mean you need to participate in the pricing programs they offer and figure out how to reinforce this in your own consumer marketing.

Every store visit should include taking note of the overall store positioning. It does change and your sales people need to be aware of it.

Walk the store before you go to your category

We know the first place any producer or processor wants to go is to see their product. We get it. To make your store visits productive it is better to leave this for a few more minutes. When your sales people walk the store, they should be looking for opportunities. Watch a few brands to see how they are promoting their products, and which trade spend tactics they are pursuing.

They should also be looking for your competitors and other items in your category. There could be opportunities for off shelf displays or over and above merchandising you are missing out on. These might be opportunities you declined so it is always good to see what the execution is like and if it should be included in your plans in the future.

Most of what they will see in the store is planned, sometimes months in advance. They should always be thinking, ‘is this something that would be right for our business?’  When your sales people visit multiple stores, they will start to see what is consistent and planned, probably from the office. They will also start to see where stores take some initiative and where you can get some extra displays or focus in some stores. Make note of this for your distributor and/or sales reps.

Spend time in your category

Once they have walked the store and found some opportunities for the future, it is time to see what is happening in your category. They should try to be objective and look at the entire category. Take note of any new initiatives your competitors are doing. You cannot do everything, but it is always good to see where other brands are choosing to invest.

Take not of any price changes and promotion activity. If possible, your sales people should track this so they can compare what your competitors are spending.

Now it is time to focus on your items. In stock position, pricing, signage for promotion programs and over and above displays are all good things to check. If there are issues with any of these your sales people need to find someone in the store they can talk to. One of the biggest benefits of store visits is to ensure when your people leave your products are as good as they can be. If there is an issue with in stock position this is usually a symptom of a bigger problem. Your sales people need to figure out what is happening. This could be a re-order number that is wrong, it could be a distributor issue or other problem. The value of spending time in the stores is to see the good and bad and fix the bad. The solution is not to assume someone just did not get stock to the shelf. They need to figure it out and get the problem resolved.

Talk to store staff

One great benefit of visiting stores is to talk to the staff. They are there every week and they know what is happening. Over time your sales people should develop a relationship with a few people in the stores who will be great sources of information. They can tell you how your product performs and if you have issues with packaging or communicating your value proposition. They can also give you some indication of how your product performs compared to the competition. You have to respect they work for your customer but often they are willing and able to share some valuable information.

Store visits should be part of your sales team’s job. Encourage them to use our SKUFood store visit checklist. We find when you visit stores, they all blend together. Our checklist enables them to make some notes and track the findings in each store. You can get a copy of the store visit checklist here: