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Are Your Products Selling the Way They Should?

Leading a manufacturing company comes with a revolving door of responsibilities. What began as simple product development, now involves R&D, marketing, warehousing, planning, and sales strategies. At the current stage in your company’s lifecycle, you may have teams devoted to each of these, whether they be in-house or outsourced. In all, each of these additional teams exist to help you, the manufacturer, stay focused on creating new and better products.

Whether you handle sales internally or outsource to an agency, your goal is similar – to have your already-great products readily available and easily accessible to the right buyers.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at a few reasons your great grocery products may not be flying off the shelves as quickly as you want.

Reason #1: You’re Spread Too Thin

Believe it or not, manufacturers can run into sales issues or reach a plateau. The same types of strategies that were working previously aren’t producing at the same level anymore. If you’ve added on more accounts and/or put new products into the market, then some of the strategies you have been utilizing likely need to be revised. 

As you know, much of the difference between your products being in front of customers or collecting dust in your warehouse lies in timing and organization. A missed phone call could ultimately lead to a missed opportunity. Naturally, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay organized and operate efficiently as more and more brokers and buyers contact you.

What Can We Do About It?

Free you up. If you’re having regular meetings and see diminishing returns due to bandwidth issues, you could benefit from taking a look at the style and frequency of communication you’re having with your distributors and retailers. You may need to grow your sales teams or better, incorporate a trusted sales agency to make sure you’re truly on top of every opportunity to improve your sales strategies.

Reason #2: Issues with Communication and Managing Expectations

How long has it been since you sat down with your sales teams and discussed new or ongoing goals and the strategies you’re incorporating to reach them? If it’s been a substantial period of time, it’s incredibly likely that your sales have stalled. 

Regular communication between manufacturer and sales is needed to properly address what’s happening now and how to adapt quickly to the future. 

• Are distributors and retailers not interested in certain products right now? 
• Are there issues in the supply chain causing delays?
• Have there been any market shifts we need to be aware of?

You won’t really know how to address these without proper communication.

What Can We Do About It?

Answering questions like those above helps your sales and leadership teams manage expectations and solve a number of issues before they arise. If you’re working with a trusted sales agency, they will often paint a picture of the types of results and pitfalls that may happen with current plans. When you’re aware of what could happen, you can prepare accordingly and act quickly. 

Reason #3: Your Grocery Products Aren’t Reaching the Right Customers

This may sound pretty simple, but it’s often overlooked. If you are producing more products and reaching more potential customers but not experiencing growth in sales anymore, it may be time to reevaluate your customer base. 

• Has our ideal customer profile changed?
• Are we working with the right distributors and retailers?
• Do all of our new and original products share the same customer base?

Yamaha Corporation develops products ranging from concert pianos to jetskis. It’s unlikely you’ll see these sold in the same store. In the world of Grocery, if you’ve put new products into the market and have experienced some stagnation in your sales, you may want to take a deeper look into which customers are seeing your products. 

Also, according to the 80/20 rule, most of your revenue (usually around 80%) is chiefly generated by 20% of your inventory. So, consider: which products are carrying the load for your sales teams?

What Can We Do About It

Make sure your sales teams are properly utilizing the correct distributor and retailer networks for all of your products. As the manufacturer, you probably have an idea of who buys your grocery products, but your sales teams need to use ideal customer profiles and get each of your products in front of the right people instead of trying to fit every product into the same channel.

Schedule a Brand Assessment to Dig Further into Your Sales

The best way to diagnose plateauing sales is by digging through the numbers in a one-on-one conversation. The grocery, convenience, and specialty store professionals at Kelly Brand Management share decades of experience helping brands and manufacturers continually build successful sales strategies. If you have questions or thoughts about your current sales strategies, reach out today.