Pitch Your Product By Phone

To get your new product into a major retail store, you can't merely send a fax or a product brochure. You must also "pitch" your product through phone calls to select retail buyers. As difficult as it may seem, "pitching" your product in this way is necessary to getting an appointment if you are unable to spend a lot of money with a broker or attending a trade show.

If you want to personalize your product, you should get on the phone and call the retail buyer and give them a brief story about your product and ask them if you can send them a sample of your product

After you have sent samples to the retail buyer, wait about a week before you follow up and see what they think of your product. You do not have to start the conversation with " I was just calling to see if your received my product sample". You should start the conversation and ask what they think about your product.

You want to start the call with confidence and assume that the buyer has seen and evaluated your product because it is a great product.

Making calls to retail buyers may seem like a very daunting task because you do not want them to reject you or your product. You do not have time to fear the unknown because you have a great product and the buyer will be excited that you called with your product.

Here are some tips to making your initial call to the buyer:

1. Call and ask for the right person: If you are unsure of who you need to speak with, call the receptionist and tell them about your product and ask them who is the right buyer you should be speaking with. There may be times when the company you are trying to approach has a system for new vendors and that might require you to send in your information via mail.

2. Be prepared to speak with the buyer: If you happen to get the gatekeeper to transfer you to the appropriate buyer, you need to make sure you are prepared to give a brief story of why you are calling. The buyer is very busy and you do not want to seem like a waste of time because you are unprepared to speak to them.

3. Gain the buyers attention: When you speak to the buyer, you immediately want to say something that will capture their attention. You want the buyer asking you questions about your product because they are interested in knowing more about your unique product. You need to say something that will make the buyer curious. You do not want to tell the buyer that you have the greatest beverage the world will ever taste. Everyone calling the buyer thinks they have the greatest beverage in the world.

4. Be Ready With Specifics: Have some quick and brief facts and benefits about your product and how you plan to drive traffic to the retailers store and how you already have demand for your product.

5. Start to close with a small commitment: Know that you have the buyer interested in your product, you want to ask for a small commitment and that should be to send the buyer some samples. If you really think the buyer is really interested in your product, you can ask for an appointment.

6. Follow up: If the buyer is fine with you sending them samples of your product, make sure you follow up and see what they thought of your product and close for a face to face meeting. If you have to fly to meet with the buyer, make sure they are really interested in your product and not just being nice to keep you from bugging them. You need to let them know that you are going to have to fly to meet them and that you want to make sure they are sincerely interested in meeting your. Some buyers have open to buy day and that is when anyone can come in and present their product. Your goal is to shoot for a day that is not for everyone else, so that the buyer has adequate time to focus and evaluated your product.