Getting access to retail buyers – the easy way!

Many brand owners have a brand ready to sell, but don’t have a network that gives them access to retail buyers and countries like the USA where geographic distances are large, the cost of travel to present across the country can be very significant and highly dispiriting especially when initial buyer meetings can be as little as 30 mins.

Wouldn’t it be great if lots of retailers just came to you…

…each in the mindset to listen to what you have to say who are the specific buyers for your type of product. Too good to be true, right? Well, actually no. Not for people in markets like the USA.

The ECRM (Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing℠), holds events throughout the year for a number of categories that are well attended by 50+ retailers, e-tailers and distributors all there to look for new differentiated brands. Brand owners pay for a brand room (usually a converted bedroom in a conference center hotel) which you can cover in marketing material, samples and presentation material. You typically get 20min meetings with buyers back to back for 3 days so it’s intensive but great access to the right people, as well as the ability to network with competitors and buyers alike in a social way in the evenings broadening your category knowledge and gaining valuable insights into what buyers are looking for in this purchasing cycle.

Running this kind of event presentation effectively requires work upfront on materials, lots of samples, practice on your elevator pitch so that you can get to understand the buyers needs early in the conversation and getting buyers to test products while listening to your presentation. After the event, all actions are captured on the ECRM system as well as all of the buyers contact details.

Good sales agents are familiar with the operation of the ECRM and can be highly effective at these events on your behalf, although it is often an advantage if the brand owner can also attend to bring the brand story to life and to gain some experience of dealing with buyers.

Check out the event schedule for the dates covering your brands category.

If you’d like a chat about getting access to retail buyers and our experience of ECRM’s and if such an event is right for your brand then do get in touch