Having your product sold at stores?!

[minnesotacold]

Can anybody please describe the process of approaching a grocery store manager and convincing them to have your product sold at their stores? I am in the process of developing a product and I have a very solid business plan but once the product is developed, I am afraid I may not know how to approach a grocery store manager to convince them to carry my product, Is it a very informal, straightforward process, like calling and talking to the manager or is there more redtape and/or ass kissing involved? I was shopping at the grocery store today and they have a lot of products, some of them are very small companies! Hopefully this question can also clarify for those who are thinking about developing a product for retail stores in general. Thanks!

[BioSpherical]

There's no specific process; however you will need to approach the manager of the store. That's it really, just arrange a meeting with them if possible (or speak on the phone) and take it from there.

[stand856]

Well it also depends if its a small mom and pop business or a chain like publix, shoprite, etc.
In that case you have to contact their buyer, submit product and so on.

[CDRamming]

I am assuming this is a food product. Although it is a food product if the store owner is unwilling to buy the product ask if you can place the product in the store on consignment. Obviously you're limited by the expiration date of the food, but this would help convince the retailer to stock the product and get a feel for how sales would be. Also, be willing to give a tour of the place of production if you are producing this product yourself. This will show them the quality and the safety of the product. Offer a sample product to the manager/purchasing agent so s/he can personally taste your product. If you are given an order for sale or consignment try setting up a free sample booth the first few weekends your product is stocked so that customers become aware of its presence. Also, keep in mind if you are speaking to a larger company there will probably be many channels to get through. Remember that someones assistant is very important, s/he will often control which messages make it through and which don't. Be sure to remember the assistant's name and be sure to use it each time you call. This will establish a better personal connection and make the assistant more willing to pass your message along or schedule a meeting. Also, a purchasing agent may like your product, but be unable order immediately based on budget restrictions until the next fiscal year. If you try to set this up now and you are going to a larger grocer there is a possibility they could allocate funds to buy your product for the next budgetary period.

[minnesotacold]

Thanks for your replies! I guess, I am trying to think of all the negative scenarios before I start to commit to the idea. Also, I figured it would be smart to try to work with a small grocer before trying to deal with larger grocery stores due to logistics and such, for example, talking to a small grocery store and maybe trying to get 10 boxes of my product ordered first to see what happens. Now, when I did profit analysis, basically the production cost will be about $0.10/unit. I am thinking about trying to negotiate a price of $0.45/unit and the grocery store could sell it for about 0.80/unit. Each box contains 20 units, so basically, my markup will be about 0.35/unit. If I sell 10 boxes (200 units), the markup would be $70 dollars. It seems low though. When I run the numbers, it appears to me that I would have to sell too much of my product to make a decent profit. Am I on the right track or is this business model flawed?