How to Elevate Your Retail Pitch With Data
Content provided by Naturally Network partner SPINS
Pitching to retailers is one of the most crucial elements of growing your business, but it can be a difficult task to master. These conversations are an opportunity to break into a new store or market, expand your footprint, and build an ongoing relationship with retailers. Maximizing that opportunity means creating an engaging and effective pitch that addresses the retailer’s needs and puts your business in the best light. The right data can help you accomplish that and elevate your pitch.
With data, you have quantitative proof that there is a demand for your product and that retailers will benefit by giving you shelf space. Before your next meeting with a retailer, consider these 4 ways to elevate your pitch with data:
1. Weave Data Into Your Story
Data is essential to your pitch, but you shouldn’t forget your story. In fact, your story brings the data to life. What inspired you to begin this journey and why are you so passionate about it? Was there unmet demand in the market, a lack of innovative options, or white space no one was thinking about? That answer is in the attribute, channel, and velocity data you’re showing them. As you discuss the origins of your business or how it has evolved from one product to a whole portfolio, bring in data that reflects your decision. You might have begun with an inkling, but you’re laying out the proof that you were right and that data shows you are on the path to continued success. Retailers appreciate a passionate team, but they want to know they can trust your decision-making.
2. Take an Attribute-Level View
Product attributes are a combination of claims, certifications, nutrition information, ingredients, allergens, brand positioning, and consumer lifestyles. Wondering whether a product is vegan, Keto, organic, or gluten-free? Attributes provide that information and allow you to view the market at that granular level. For example, if your product is organic and plant-based, you can look at data to see how comparable products with one or both attributes perform. You might even find that products with both attributes do the best but there aren’t many options on the market yet. Attributes are an effective way to add dimension to your pitch.
3. Explore Your Channel
When retailers walk into a pitch, they ultimately want assurance that your audience and their audience overlap. Prove your product’s current reach—or potential reach if it hasn’t launched yet—by diving into relevant channel data. For example, look at the SPINS Natural Channel and see how your product ranks against competitors or how other emerging brands are performing in the natural market. Channel data provides an opportunity to have a conversation about how your product might be at the forefront of innovation or part of an ongoing trend. You can prove that you’re bringing to their shelves what natural shoppers are looking for.
4. Dive Into Your Category
If your product is already on the market (and even if it’s already in this retailer’s stores), the right data can prove you deserve to stay on the shelves or get more space. A category view lets you place your performance against your competitors and show where you outperform them or are gaining momentum and how that compares to overall category performance. For example, if you make an energy bar that is growing 13% year over year, but the overall wellness bar category is decreasing year over year, you clearly offer something unique. That’s the kind of data point that grabs attention and proves your case.
The SPINS Liftoff Bundle is a high-value data and application suite for emerging CPG brands that includes everything you need to accelerate your growth in today's dynamic retail environment. Get complete data coverage, a full application suite, and expert consulting for a special bundled price, plus Naturally Network members get a free 60-day trial. Learn more by clicking the image below.
