BRAND SECRETS AND STRATEGIES

PODCAST #189

Hello and thank you for joining us today. This is the Brand Secrets and Strategies Podcast #189

Welcome to the Brand Secrets and Strategies podcast where the focus is on empowering brands and raising the bar.

I’m your host Dan Lohman. This weekly show is dedicated to getting your brand on the shelf and keeping it there.

Get ready to learn actionable insights and strategic solutions to grow your brand and save you valuable time and money.

LETS ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES AND GET STARTED!

Welcome, I have a special treat for you. Today I want to help you learn about an innovative strategy to get your brand on more store shelves and into the hands of more shoppers. After all that's why we're all here right! The best part is that you can use these resources today while the world is still locked down.

Let me back up and frame it this way. When Expo West was canceled we were all devastated. How are we going to go to market. How are we going to get our products in front of retailers and customers.

After catching my breath, I decided to lean in realizing that the best thing I can do to help you during this challenging time is to share resources to help you survive, grow, and thrive. With that in mind, I lunched the free webinar series to teach you strategies and skills that you can not only use today but as things start to open up and as we work toward the new normal.

The best part is that the free webinar series has attracted great partners, companies, and thought leaders to help support me and help me raise the bar in natural. They include ECRM, RangeMe, Phil Lempert The Supermarket Guru, Whole Foods Magazine, Big Orange, Plant Based Solutions, Social Nature, C-Suite Radio and C-Suite Network. Please reach out to them and thank them for their commitment to help support all of us. They all have great resources to give you competitive edge. We’re all in this together.

Links to register for future webinars and previous webinar recordings can be found on the speaker page of my website brandsecretsandstrategies.com/speaking. Please share these resources with any brand or retailer wanting to confidently grow and scale their business.

When I started in this industry, trade shows were the primary way we sold our products retailers. Now trade shows are so crowded that it’s difficult if not impossible to get one-on-one dedicated time with key retailers. Let’s fix that.

While we all wait until the next expo, we still need to get our products in front of retailers as we look for creative ways to keep the links on at the same time. Would you be interested in a way to save on jet fuel and still have personal interaction with retailers?

Today’s podcast is actually the live recording from today’s free webinar featuring ECRM and RangeMe How To Get Your Brand Discovered By Retailers And Get It Onto Their Shelves.

As always, thank you for being here. This show is about you and it’s for you. As a thank you for listening there is always a free downloadable guide to help you grow and scale your brand at the end of every podcast episode - one that can give you a sustainable competitive advantage.

If you like the podcast please share it and subscribe so that you will be the first to get new brand building content as soon as it becomes available. And don’t forget to go back and listen to prior episode what I much solve your more pressing bottleneck - you know the things that keep you up at night.

My mission is To make our healthy way of life more accessible by helping you get your products onto more store shelves and into the hands of more shoppers - including on-line. Please help me raise the bar by sharing these resources. Remember, you are not alone. We are here to help!

You will want to register for next weeks free webinar: How To Calculate The TRUE ROI From A Promotion. 25% of a brands gross sales are tied to trade marketing and yet over 70% is wasted or ineffective - more in natural. Knowing how to calculate the true ROI from an event can help you grow and thrive, innovate, negotiate better terms with investors, and much more. Todays free downloadable guide will give you the foundation to help you maximize your promotional spending.

The following week I’ll be talking with my good friend Phil Lempert The Supermarket Guru about the future of the industry. We’ll be sharing strategies focusing on brands and retailers partnering to make the shopper journey convenient, easy, and friendly. Hear from the experts and get firsthand actionable insights and creative strategies that are helping brands and retailers remain connected to their communities and the shoppers who love them.

Then next week I’ll be speaking with Daniel with Plant Based Solutions. Food supply issues are in the news daily. Shoppers are looking for alternatives to animal-based proteins and nutrients. Plant-based products are more relevant to retailers today than ever. There is a lot of confusion about how to merchandise and sell plant-based products before the pandemic. We need to get this right and make it easier for your shoppers to find and buy plant-based products. Learn creative actionable strategies to elevate the plant-based revolution beginning with meeting the needs of the growing segment of flexitarian shoppers.

The the next week I’ll be sharing the presentation I was to give at the Canadian Organic Trade Association Breakfast at Expo West. It has a lot of great content and insights about the organic shopper in Canada and the US, hint their is a big difference and knowing can give you a huge advantage.

Keep checking back as more events are scheduled. Go to brandsecretsandstrategies.com/speaking today!

Now here are Sarah, Joe, and Brandon.

Dan: Okay. Thank you everyone for being here. Let's go ahead and get started. Thank you so much for being here. Really been looking forward to this particular presentation more than anything. On the slide you can see several of the different brands that have partnered with me on this free webinar series. Let me introduce them real quick. First of all, there's PlantBased Solutions, and then ECRM RangeMe, they're here today and they're going to be sharing some great insights. Thank you for being here. Social Nature, WholeFoods Magazine, the SupermarketGuru - Phil Lempert, and then C-Suite Network, C-Suite Radio, and Big Orange. Do me a favor and reach out to them and thank them for supporting me in this and what I'm trying to do here.

Dan: Now, why we're here today is that when Expo West was canceled, we were all devastated. And I figured that what I needed to do is I needed to lean in and try to provide resources and insights to help you grow and scale your business, especially during these difficult times. With that said, I launched a free webinar series and these have been coming more and more popular. And I've had a lot of great companies, partners, come on and share wanting to be a part of this rather, and they're there collaborating with me on different webinars. And when you go through and look at the past and future webinars, you're going to hear insights from them specifically. Do me a favor, thank them for being here, thank them for participating in helping me raise the brand natural. And then at the same time, they've got a lot of great services that can help support you.

Dan: Help me raise the brand natural, share these resources with any brand or retailer wanting to grow sales. Remember, you're not in this alone. These are the things that we want... We want to know what keeps you up at night. What are the things that we can help support you with? What advice, what suggestions, what recommendations do you have? And on that note, as I mentioned that this is a free weekly webinar series. And next week we're going to talk about how to calculate the true ROI from a promotion. You'll definitely want to be there. This is one of the most challenging things for any brand, literally of all sizes. And you can get there by going to brandsecretsandstrategies.com/promoROI. All of these, by the way, are going to be in my website, brandsecretsandstrategies.com/speaking. You can get replays to previous webinars and see what the calendar is for the future ones.

Dan: Then the week after that Phil Lempert, the SupermarketGuru and I are going to sit down and we're going to talk about how this pandemic is changing the face of retail, and how do you remain relevant to retailers. How do you remain relevant to your shoppers? What are the things that you need to know. You'll make sure you want to... you will definitely want to sign up for that. And the week after that with Daniel, I'm going to be talking about plant-based solutions. And what's cool about this reason it's so relevant. You've heard the stories about how protein, animal-based protein products, are struggling, supply chains really fractured right now. Well, not only was plant-based solutions... plant-based products a growing trend, but that's the way that we can help backfill and the way we can help support the industry while we wait for the supply chain to get caught up.

Dan: More importantly, one of the things that a lot of people are looking to are what they call flexitarians, people that are looking for plant-based solutions in addition to meat-based. And we'll talk a lot about that. And then on the 5th of June, and then I'm going to be sharing the presentation that I was supposed to give at the Canada Organic Trade Association breakfast at Expo West, but obviously that was canceled. Anyhow, a lot of great insights about what does the organic shopper look like. And there's a difference between the organic customer shopper in Canada versus the US. With that said, Joe, you want to kick this off and tell us a little bit about why we're here and the new platform you have and...

Joe: Sure. I'll just give a brief overview of the company itself for those people who are on, who may not be familiar with us. Basically ECRM drives efficiencies and effectiveness in the buying and selling process for retailers, food service operators, pharmacies and medical markets, and the suppliers that serve them. And we do this in a few ways. One is through our programs, which are category specific, private prescheduled face to face meetings at scale that are both in person and now virtual as well, and the related services around them. We have about probably a hundred, maybe a little bit more of these programs across different segments like grocery, GM, health and beauty care, and pharmacy. And we have them in the US, Europe, and we do have one Asian program as well, Asian beauty program.

Joe: Now if you notice, I did not say events. We don't consider ourselves an event company in the sense of a traditional expo or a conference. What we do is, we're focused on providing services to really connect these retailers and suppliers. Now the way we traditionally have done it for the past 25 years is in person. And we would take over a hotel, all of the suppliers within that category that attend would have a designated meeting space, whether it be a hotel room where we take the beds out, put a meeting table and a display table, or it'll be a ballroom where they'll have a 10×10 with a meeting space, or tabletops. There's three different levels of supplier participation.

Joe: And then the buyers would go from meeting space, to meeting space, to meeting space in a very curated list of appointments. And the services that we wrap around there, it's very high touch. For example, when a buyer registers for one of our programs, be it virtual or be it in person, our client success team, they will consult with that buyer, learn the buyer's needs and objectives. And then at the same time on the supplier side, when a supplier registers, we find out, we learn about their products, the category and the segments that they address, their specific capabilities, any certifications they may have, anything that the buyers would need to know. And then we curate a very targeted list, all the appointments. And then those appointments are carefully managed so that everybody gets to meet with everybody and they spend their full time in those private meetings. The other component, and I'm going to pass this along to Brandon, is the RangeMe product discovery platform. Brandon, do you want to give an overview of that?

Brandon: Hey, what's up everybody? This is Brandon. I lead up marketing and growth here at RangeMe. For those of you who don't know what RangeMe is, RangeMe is the industry standard for product sourcing online hygienists. We work with about 70% of the top 100 retailers in the US and thousands of independent regional retailers, and we work with them in a very unique way. For some of the top retailers like Whole Foods, Walgreens, we just facilitated at Walmart's open call, Petco, Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Albertsons, Rite Aid, you name it, we've worked with them. If you go to any of those retailers' websites and you're looking to submit a product for their buying team to review, they'll take it to RangeMe.

Brandon: RangeMe facilitates the inbound process for submissions for those retailers. And then also because we're always on to have access to that, they use us proactively, their buying teams use us proactively to find new products for their stores. This has resulted in nearly 200,000 product suppliers and manufacturers in the platform who use us as both a channel and as a tool. Just like how LinkedIn replaced the resume, RangeMe is then the same thing with your sell sheet. A lot of brands then use us to enhance their current sales and marketing, and also to be discovered directly on the platform.

Dan: Thank you for sharing all that. And let me back up a little bit. And I should have framed this at the beginning, when you go to an aid... and well you guys are great and I really appreciate your being here and thanks to everyone for working through the bugs. Obviously I had something set up wrong at the beginning, my fault. But as far as why this matters, why this works, trade shows used to be the opportunity that brands would look to to be able to sell their product. And trade shows became so busy and so much about trying to network and stuff like that, that that lost its... you lose your ability to leverage a trade show to really be able to get one-on-one face time with a retailer, which is what you're trying to do. It's the only reason you're a business.

Dan: ECRM is a really cool platform that allows you to effectively do speed dating with a retailer. And I've been really blessed to have a relationship with them for quite a while. And the reason that this matters so much is because now when you can't go to... and you're going to hear about this more in a minute. Now when you can't go to a trade show, what do you do? How do you get your product in the hands of more retailers? How do you get discovered? And you're going to want to go back and listen to a couple of podcast episodes that I did with both Brandon and Sarah and Joe about why this matters, what they do, what they provide. And what's unique about today, and thank you everyone for coming on, is we're talking about new capabilities that they have to help support you in this time when we can't get on a plane. Joe, how has the impact of COVID-19 impacted the industry and the way we do business?

Joe: Sure. Well, as soon as this started happening, we saw that there were a few major pain points in the industry. For one thing with travel restrictions, buyers could not go to these shows. They couldn't go meet with anybody. They couldn't have suppliers meet with them. At the same time, they really did not have much time because they were so busy in dealing with out of stocks or supply chain issues. They were dealing with the flood of customers that were coming in and just keeping up with everything. They were doing everything that they could just to really serve their customers. And it was an all hands on deck situation. On the supplier side there was a lack of access to these buyers because of that.

Joe: Once this started happening, we all as a company put our heads together to try and figure out what can we do to really help them with their immediate needs but also their ongoing needs, because they still need to source products, they still need to discover new products. They still need to do their jobs in the midst of all of these. That is what resulted in the more virtual solutions that we've come up with. The first part, and this started in March when RangeMe started right off the bat with... and Brandon, I'm going to ask Brandon to give the details, because I know I call them review days, but you have another name for it. But right in March they started though getting with the retailers, a lot of retailers who were going to be at these shows and working with them so that they get still to discover products. Brandon, can you talk a little bit about that?

Brandon: Yeah. I think, to piggyback on what Joe was saying was, I think the first moment... and that was a milestone moment when all the dominoes started falling. I think that was the first moment was when Expo West was canceled. And I think that was the moment in which the entire industry was like, "Okay, so this is real and things are going to start happening and things are going to be different moving forward."

Brandon: And it's interesting because as the industry has continued to change during this time, RangeMe from that point on, it's just accelerated. It's always been here, lots of, I think like 15% just to 20% of the entire addressable market in the US uses RangeMe, they're on the platform. But what we've seen after this pandemic and as the dominoes continue to fall, we've just started to see both retailers and their buyers and suppliers themselves use RangeMe in new and imaginative ways, understand that this is an opportunity for them. It's almost like a blank canvas for them to have the ability to network and connect.

Brandon: One of the first things that Joe was alluding to is, as Expo West was canceled, we had a large, massive group of suppliers that are essentially putting their hands up going, "What do we do next?" And then you had some amazing buyers from amazing retailers thinking, "Okay, well now what do I do to fill my category to fulfill my assortment?" And what ended up happening was, "Hey, you know what? There's this tool that exists. I'm already using it, RangeMe. I think Thrive was the first one who really took initiative and decided, "Hey, you know what? I might not be able to come to the products." They decided bring the products to me.

Brandon: And what that team did was they kicked off their own sourcing campaign. They were like, for anyone who was going to attend Expo West why not... here's our RangeMe link, go ahead and submit here. And then you started to see other retailers do the same thing. And it was a beautiful thing because you actually really saw the industry come together. And it wasn't just about going to a trade show, it wasn't just about all the money that you're spending, all the travel and things like that. What it ended up becoming was, it went back to its roots of, "I just need to make connections. I want to see people, I want to get in front of the products."

Brandon: And the suppliers responded in kind. We've had more activity since March 2nd than any other time in our company, I've been with the company. I was the third employee here. And it's just going to show that as the industry changes, the industry continues to evolve and adapt and move forward, that's just one of the ways that retailers did it and how suppliers essentially not took advantage of but had the opportunity to experience. It was a great moment.

Dan: Brandon, thank you. And Joe too. Thank you for sharing that. That's so cool to hear. One of the things I say all the time is that what makes natural natural is our community. And it's great that you guys are providing that platform, that resource, that ability to connect and continue doing business. I read a lot of these threads in a lot of the different platforms and everyone's really worried about what to do and will the sunrise tomorrow. It's great to know that you're already taking a leadership role in this and helping us continue to grow and scale our business. Thank you for sharing that. Sarah, can you tell us about your efficient supplier introductions and the changes that you've made in the platform?

Sarah: Yes, absolutely. Good morning everyone. Happy to talk through that a little bit. And I think, just to lead into that I'm looking through the attendees that are on, and like many of you we've had to stop and look at our business and what our mission was as Joe was saying, to help connect buyers and sellers and how do we do it in this new environment. And with what Brandon's talking about with RangeMe and all the digital connectivity we can have between buyers and sellers, how do we [inaudible 00:16:06] change and still be very helpful in the environment that we were all up against. And that led us into the launch of what we're calling ESIs, efficient supplier introductions.

Sarah: And immediately after getting feedback from buyers that they still had a need to talk to these suppliers see, they still had to do their jobs, but they had to do it with a lot less time, and a lot less resources. We were talking to some buyers that were in stores stocking shelves, bagging groceries, but eventually they'd have to still be sourcing products, find the new items that they know that their sets may need here immediately or by the time they get to resets maybe a year from now. And we wanted to help but do it in a way that they could still use the very little time that they had to efficiently meet with suppliers. And then on the supply side, the same need that you're trying to get ahold of these buyers and they're in store, they're trying to tackle the day to day obstacles that they had and the needs that they had.

Sarah: What we launched was these efficient supplier interactions and they are tailored category specific focus sessions that are... really allow for product discovery. Suppliers receive a 10 minute presentation window where they'll talk about their point of difference, their products, their company, and be able to present that to multiple buyers listening in, really from the comfort of their desk or their home, and be able to connect with them. Now, the buyers would log in and listen to the presentations, but all of this was... it happened after some processes took place.

Sarah: We had a lot of hands on support to get this going. Number one, we had our client success managers that have always worked on our programs and worked with the buyers and sellers now working with those that were participating to first understand the buyer's objectives. When a buyer signed up, what are you looking for, what's your immediate need, what's your future need, why are you participating so that we could relay that to the suppliers?

Sarah: We also were working with them to show them how to utilize RangeMe. Every supplier that signed up included their RangeMe page with all their details so buyers could preview that. They could request samples in advance or after the presentation took place. And the suppliers, we were coaching them up on those buyers' objectives, their needs and relaying all those things the buyers told us so they could cater the presentation to that and get the RangeMe pages updated and make sure everything was specific to what they were talking about so buyers could find them and request samples. And afterwards we relate all the communication on both sides... the contact information on both sides so that follow up could happen and business can continue to get done.

Dan: That's amazing. That's great that you guys are able to do that. By the way, Rob, I do see your note in the chat and I'm going to... we'll answer that in just a minute. I don't want you to think we're ignoring you. Thank you for sharing that because that's really cool that you guys have been able to figure out how to connect the dots, how to thread the needle. Brandon, how has RangeMe involved in the new platform with the virtual sessions?

Brandon: I think part... one of the beautiful things about this was in... just to take a quick step back to frame it up a little bit, but we've done everything. Before this all happened, it was very much... there was two aspects in which ways that suppliers and buyers connected, it was either in person or online. And I think that during this time what has happened is, we're all on a Zoom right now. The industry and just everyone around us is getting a rapid education on virtual and how to use Zoom. And I know that my kids are on virtual schooling right now, I know that they're getting an education. And all parents are getting education on Zoom and virtual.

Brandon: And I think that that's weaved its way into the fabric of how the industry will... coming out of this, we'll continue to do business. We found another agile way for brands and buyers to connect. And it's exciting. Now all of a sudden you have that middle ground between online, which is very scaled to very low touch and then in person, which is not as scalable but extremely high touch and necessary. Right now you have this beautiful middle ground that binds it all together. And RangeMe has always sat at that online level where it's... like I said, I would use the LinkedIn analogy. It's essentially your tool. It's essentially your scale tool year round and your sell sheet that you use throughout the year.

Brandon: And that's how we support these virtual opportunities as well, we've that online portion of it. Sarah was saying for ESIs, as she was mentioning, it allows you to be a pre portion of that... before that virtual meeting, getting to know the products. Buyers can experience products that they're going to... and suppliers that they're going to meet in that virtual opportunity. And then suppliers themselves have the opportunity to be discovered pre that time and then post that time. It's all about connecting, requesting samples and talking, and doing business afterwards. And RangeMe facilitates that whole thing. It was a natural marriage, a natural step from online to virtual and then back to online for that. RangeMe has done this over the last month and a half across the board in lighter ways and heavier ways. But essentially we wrap around these opportunities, these rich opportunities and help to bind them together. It's a great experience, not just during which ECRM does so well, but before and after.

Dan: Speaking of learning more about virtual and how to use Zoom, et cetera, just kidding. Thank you for sharing that. One of the things that I think is really compelling about this, as we're talking, we're talking about a way to do something in a very different format. In other words, not face to face. I love the fact that you guys are talking about the fact that we still need to have those one-on-one interactions as though we... as we always have. It's critical that a brand not just to show up at a retailer's desk and say, "Hey, think about me. Put my product on the shelf," but more importantly, how do you help that retailer grow sales by leveraging the strength of your unique consumer. With that, how does the virtual offerings, how would they be integrated moving forward? And what I'm getting out of here, and I love all three of you to chime in on this, how does a brand step up to help the retailer and leverage your platform at the same time? Joe, you want to start?

Joe: Sure. Well, there's one thing and there's one component that I wanted to address because it's going to be a part of the answer to that is in addition to what RangeMe did in March and then the ESIs that we launched in April, this month we're launching our virtual sessions, which is basically in iteration of our in person sessions that are done online. It's going to have... because of the feedback from the ESIs, they also... they loved it. We had more than a thousand buyers sign up for the ESIs within a two week period. And they've also... we're talking about, they'd love the experience of our in person sessions with the one-on-one instead of one to many. We are going to offer that as well. Well, this is something that we're building, it's a custom platform. It's not Zoom. And it'll allow that one-to-one meeting.

Joe: With those people who are familiar with our sessions, they'll know that there's an app we hand out iPads to everybody to use when they have their meetings. And we have an app called ECRM Connect, which has their meeting schedules, it has an ability to take notes, to rate the meetings, it has all the products listed there that... so that if you're a buyer meeting with someone, you could see all the products that they have, all of that's uploaded ahead of time and it basically gives them all the information that they need for their meetings and to see their schedule. We've replicated that entire thing in a virtual environment. The process and the services, the customer service is all the same except now instead of meeting in a room or at a tabletop, you're meeting through the computer screen. It's a much more robust solution and it's going to really mimic the format that everybody is used to.

Joe: Now to your question, ongoing, once this pandemic is gone, we are still going to have all of these options. The ESIs are still going to exist. The virtual solutions are still going to exist, as well as the in person sessions that everybody has been coming to for 25 years. And the reason is, like Brandon alluded to before, this is the new normal. Everybody is getting used to doing all of their business communications through these virtual means. And people... there are a lot of people that see the value in doing that. We're not just going to cut it off afterwards. We're going to keep going with a mix of all three and which ones are used for which categories are going to be determined by feedback from the buyers, from the suppliers and what makes sense.

Joe: For example, I had an interview with a supplier who was on our Pet ESI, a couple of weeks ago. And she brought up a really, really good point. She also signed up for our Euro Pet ESI because she does reach the European market. And she told me, she said, even if there was no pandemic, as much as she would love to go to Europe and meet with these buyers at one of our sessions, she just doesn't have the time. For her it was a godsend, the fact that we created these virtual options because it will let her deal with retailers in Europe very easily without having to get on a plane and go over there and then come back and eat up that time in between. There's going to be a lot of applications for these virtual in ways that weren't originally intended that we're seeing as we move forward. Sarah, do you want to add to that, or?

Dan: Can I interject something real quick? Let me help throw some... I keep saying frame this and help people understand what's really cool about what you guys do is, like I said, speed dating. Let me explain why this matters, from my standpoint. I used to be a manufacturer. I've been a retailer, I've been all sorts. I've worn all different hats. As a brand, when I worked for Unilever, I became a premier executive in less than five months. I flew almost 600,000 miles in five months. Think about the amount of shoe leather to try to get in front of retailers. That's ridiculous. Think about the waste. Think about the cost. Now, imagine being able to have an opportunity to meet with 10, 15, however many retailers at one session. Imagine the efficiency in that.

Dan: Now take what Joe just said, and thank you for sharing that Joe. And now imagine being able to do that from the comfort of your own home, or wherever your office is, or whatever. And the point is that think of the efficiencies, think of the jet fuel that you said, think of the ability to get that one-on-one time that you desperately need. If you listen to the podcast, and I hope you do, you'll hear me talk about how trade shows are fantastic networking events. But the reality is, people don't walk around the trade show with a sign on their hat saying, "Hey, I'm a retailer." And tripping them and getting some dedicated time with them, tripping them, in other words, stopping them in their tracks as they walked by your booth, that's hard to do. And it's hard to get that one-on-one time with all those distractions.

Dan: I want to emphasize the point that Joe just made, that this is one-on-one dedicated time with a lot of different retailers. What we're doing is we're compressing your ability to get in front of a lot of retailers, to get your brand in more store shelves in the hands of more shoppers. Anyhow, sorry, Sarah, could you please go on?

Sarah: Yeah, I think this is the point I wanted to make with everything that we're talking about now is just the process behind it because I think any of us could reach out to buyers we've worked with or associates that we have to set up a Zoom meeting or an online... have a phone discussion. And it's hard to do, especially in this environment, but it's doable. What we wanted to do is take it a step further and actually get two parties together that there is an opportunity to do business and educate both groups beforehand on how best to do that. We're talking... Joe mentioned that in two weeks we got a thousand different buyers to register for these supplier introductions. Each one of those, when they participated talked to us about objectives, talked to us about what their needs were. And it was great to have a two hour window to see some opportunities, but to really put that on steroids and to really get the right suppliers in front of them they could actually act on right away.

Sarah: We had to do it in this curated process that we have for our programs. And that really put the... we immediately put the pressure on our IT teams, which luckily here at ECRM, we've always been a technology forward company heavily relying on our systems and our processes to help move the business forward, help our customers. And we went to them immediately to develop this platform saying, if we can't be face to face, we need the... how can we develop something online that's truly the next best thing. It's more than just seeing each other in a video conference, but it's being able to share your information that everyone's put onto RangeMe, it's being able to take meeting notes, it's being able to rotate through meetings in 10, 20 minute increments and being able to have 10, 15 meetings in a day very, very efficiently. Being able to support, you don't have the hands on technical support or customer support that we always have on the backend when we're face to face together.

Sarah: Once that was developed, the next thing was to take all the information that we've gathered from buyers that are participating and what their objectives are, and what they're looking for today, and relaying that to suppliers so that you could take what you already have as a supplier and relate that to that buyer and take those precious 10 or 20 minutes that you get with the buyer to talk about the true business that can get done. And I think that's a big piece of like, I'm learning a lot right now just in all the customers that I'm talking to because everybody's trying to pivot. Everybody's changing a bit. Suppliers might be changing the way some of their products, and some of the things they featured about their products now have changed a bit. Or they have a different angle that they're talking about with the retailers that they can really take advantage of.

Sarah: And the retailers, a lot of them, are trying to decide what are my customers' needs going to be as this all evolves. And I talked to a buyer just this morning that said, "Sometimes I don't know what I'm looking for until I see it. And I have to go to your program because everyone's doing a lot right now. I need to get in front of these suppliers. I'm ready when the opportunity exists." It was very, very open.

Sarah: And then you talk to other buyers that are saying really specifically... Rob, I saw your question about food service. We've had a number of food service ESIs recently where the buyers are coming in saying, "We're going to change our menus. We're going to try to focus more on products that can fulfill more of like delivery, carry out. Because even if our restaurants open, we think that a lot of people have been trained and like to do that more. We have to have items that are going to carry well in food service. We're going to have to have new supplies and equipment that can help us to transport the food. Or we're going to have to reorganize our store or our restaurant in a different way."

Sarah: And since I'm talking about the food service angle, a lot that we see there too is a pivot there as well. We have a food service program that's going to be in July. Traditionally it's been very heavy on restaurant groups that have participated. Now we're getting a lot more interest and we're focusing a lot more engaging with nursing homes, hospitals, health systems, colleges, universities, schools, places that 100% are going to need food and are looking at things maybe a bit differently but still have the need just as they always have. And then the restaurants that are participating are ones that are pivoting, ones that are doing some things differently and are looking to change their menus. And we're gathering all that upfront and relaying that to the supplier so that you get a group that you know is ready to do business and looking for something specific.

Dan: Thank you for answering this question. And on that note, this is about relationship building. That's the theme that's being woven through here. Brandon talked a lot about that in the beginning, so to Joe and Sarah, but the point is that relationship building, how many of us as brands have tried to get an appointment with a retailer? It's not always easy to do, especially with their pack schedules and everyone wants to see them. This is an opportunity to get introduction. Imagine that I would introduce you to a retailer. Someone else would introduce you to a retailer. Well, what ECRM and RangeMe are doing is they're making that introduction, "Here's a brand that we think you should look at. Here's a brand that has a product that aligns with the category, the mission, whatever you're trying to sell." Thank you for sharing that. And again, thank you for sharing the question that Rob had about food service, something I was going to ask later because that's such an important part of the changing environment we're in. Brandon, do you have any comments or any thoughts you wanted to share?

Brandon: Yeah. I think, part of this is, from... One of the things that we get to see on RangeMe is a lot of... because there's so much scale and because things are moving so fast we actually get the opportunity to see what trends are happening during this time and what trends have been emerging. I think, going off of what Joe and Sarah said, 100% of buyers are still sourcing. As a supplier, you still got to be discovered. You still have to get your products out there. But what we're seeing other than the macro trends of like now buyers are doing more virtual things. That's a big piece of it.

Brandon: But let's put that on the table for a second because what I've noticed is this is, buyers have been more agile in terms of the ability for them to start... to embrace virtual because it's a lot easier for them to transition into that. They can say, "Hey, you know what? I won't be able to travel, so I'm not going to be able to do this." Suppliers obviously are trying to adapt to how buyers want to continue to discover products. Hold that thought for a second.

Brandon: On the platform right now, RangeMe is seeing, as Sarah said, I can substantiate the fact that yes medical procurement and hospitals and whatnot, sourcing different types of products and then now you can see them actually using platforms like RangeMe to do that so they can do it at scale. Drop ship capable brands are extremely hot right now. As retailers continue to want to increase their assortment, but they don't have time, they don't have a lot of time to work with a brand, onboard them and do all the things that they would normally do to bring them into a store. But they do know that their online channels are slammed, they're getting a ton of traffic and they have a lot of out of stocks. And part of that is getting brands quickly onboarded that are drop ship capable and have the opportunity that can ship direct. That's a big one.

Brandon: But really the funny thing about it is, other than obviously the spike in essentials, there hasn't been much change in the trends and there actually hasn't been a lot of downturn either. In other words, the search terms that were being searched, stuff like CBD, stuff like Cudo, they're all still being searched and they're still being searched at the same level. We know that buyers are still doing business.

Brandon: Let's go back to that. Just like how you have to adapt your company. In other words, if buyers now are looking for drop ship capable brands, what are you going to do? You're going to go back after today if you're a brand and you're going to be like, "Okay, now, I'm not drop ship capable today." No. What is it at least going to take? What type of investment, what type of time, will my packaging hold up? Is this something that I can do? You're going to go back and research that because you want to take advantage of that trend.

Brandon: Well, this is the same thing with virtual. If buyers are going virtual, like you heard it, 1,200 buyers to place them in ESIs in less than a month. That means they're embracing it, which means that even though you might think that as a brand you're like, "You know what? What's this thing is all over. I'm going to go back to doing my trade shows. I'm going to go back to doing... just using RangeMe in doing checks." Look, this a new thing that's happening, buyers are using it. This is a trend. And this is going to last for a long time, and this is going to be part of the staple of how buyers are going to want to discover products moving forward.

Brandon: There's still going to... you're still going to have a mix of discovery opportunities. But at the end of the day, there are going to have... this is going to be part of it. Like I said, everyone's getting a rapid education on Zoom, getting more comfortable with it, getting a rapid education with virtual, they're getting comfortable with it. This is going to be part of the fabric of the industry moving forward. It's best now to stay ahead of that trend. Stay ahead of the fact that, "Okay, look, what you're going to have to do is if brands right now are hesitant to jump virtually, this is your time to take advantage of that. This is your time to get as much screen time as possible before everyone else starts jumping on the bandwagon."

Brandon: I think this is something that we've seen. There's a lot of trends that we obviously we know are very, very obvious. But this one, like I said, this is an opportunity for brands. Brands can now start early. Buyers are already doing this, and as we know, as the industry moves forward as the buyers learn different ways to discover, as the buyers go to these trade shows, this is the reason why brands attend them. As a brand... if buyers are going to be attending these virtual opportunities, you as a brand should jump on that now.

Dan: I think to add to that, I think now what we have together once the virtual sessions launch, basically buyers and suppliers are going to be able to connect when, where, and however they want to or what that makes sense to them. And that's what we want to provide is that capability. And someone just posted a question there. Brandon and Swiss, do you want to take a crack at that?

Sarah: Yeah, no thanks for the question. And the question is about how to leverage the programs and RangeMe together. And we'll help you. That's what we help do. They really do work together. As a way, all year round you can market your brand. In registering for our program, our client success managers will work with you to help optimize your RangeMe profile. When buyers register for our program where educating them on how to utilize RangeMe already, if they're not, in many cases they're already using RangeMe.

Sarah: And when the buyers see their schedule, it links directly to the RangeMe page that they can then view all the products that they're going to hear about in your meeting before, during, and after. And they do work, in many ways, hand in hand. We also find that a lot of suppliers that participate will use their RangeMe catalog, send out their RangeMe page as the way to get out their product information and get a whole catalog of their products into the buyer's hands. We'll hold your hand through that process and really coach you through how to do that once you're registered for our program.

Dan: It's all about being found. And we had to throw out a couple of thoughts and remember what I shared with you just a minute ago about all the travel that I did. Most brands, actually very few brands can afford that. Well, when you're working for Unilever, one of the biggest brands on the planet, that's the way things were done. But if you're a small brand, being able to spend that much on jet fuel, and hotel, and travel, and everything else, not in me beyond the burnout factor, et cetera, think about what you can accomplish in a short amount of time. A lot of people think about, well, to go to a trade show, what does it cost? And then they'll look at the ECRM RangeMe platform, and they try to compare the two. They're not the same.

Dan: Think about, you bring your people, you bring your samples, you bring everything else, what do you get? What is your ROI at the end of the day? And think about that. I want to throw out a couple other thoughts. And Brandon, you're starting to say something, I'll let you jump in. But right now a lot of retailers are suffering a lot of out-of-stocks, got a lot of out-of-stocks across a lot of shells. There is a real opportunity for creative brands to jump in and solve those problems, help those retailers solve those out-of-stock issues.

Dan: In addition to that, one of the things I've been hearing a lot about is how big brands are not going to innovate because they don't see them... not going to spend the money on it. But yet you hear me talk about all the time, true innovation is what we find in the natural channel, that's you guys. Here you have an opportunity to create an innovative product that your customers, you know your customers are going to want, and then partner with the retailer to solve that out-of-stock problem and solve that customer's problem that's looking for something that's no longer available on the shelf. Leverage these platforms and take advantage of this unique opportunity that you have. And the best part about it is when things get back to whatever the new normal looks like, you may already have space on a retailer shelf and then you're just a matter of keeping it. It gives you a competitive advantage. Brandon, I'm sorry you're going to say something?

Brandon: Yeah, I was just going to piggyback and continue on what Sarah was saying. I think from a ratio perspective, this is... when you go to an industry event that's like, you said not the trade shows, you say you go to a Shoptalk, you say you go to a NatchCom and you meet any industry professionals like Dan. First thing you do is you go to your LinkedIn and you connect with them. I've already had five, six LinkedIn requests just from... in the last 45 minutes from some of the panelists here. And that's what you're doing. You're using LinkedIn as a tool to stay connected.

Brandon: And I think that brands have the opportunity to do that as well with RangeMe. What RangeMe does is it binds all your activities together. As you're talking about how do we weave things together, essentially imagine this RangeMe thing is just always on. This is your LinkedIn for the industry, this is your opportunity to have your sell sheet in a digital way, real time, dynamic, and for you to be able to share it, host a show during the year. Anytime you would use your sell sheet, you have to create a new PDF or send out a new email. You can use RangeMe and it's that much easier. And I think that right now, a lot of brands are starting to say, "Okay, you know what? I should have put more time in this upfront," because really what it does is it enhances everything that you're already doing.

Brandon: Whether you're going to an ECRM session, whether you're going to sell at a farmer's market, whether you're going to a top-to-top meeting at a retailer, what you're trying to do is you're really trying to have this all year round visibility that exists for yourself, that doesn't make the pressure of that moment reliant on that. It softens everything because it gives you visibility, gives you awareness and it gives you a tool to be able to have throughout the year to scale your brand. That's all. I think we're talking about weaving ECRM and RangeMe together. You should be thinking about all of these opportunities as part of your arsenal, and how to best leverage them as part of your arsenal.

Brandon: And a lot of us are sitting at home right now because we have to and we're forced to start looking at opportunities like RangeMe to be able to do that. But this is, like I said, this has been a rapid education and all this stuff. Moving forward and coming out of this, make sure you're weaving it into you can scale, not just the online, not just in person, but also this new virtual thing that exists. [crosstalk 00:46:41].

Dan: Thank you for sharing that. I'm sorry, Joe. Go ahead. Could you guys put your contact information in the chat. Sorry Joe, go ahead.

Joe: Sure. To ride on what you were saying before about the opportunity for a lot of these emerging natural brands, we're in a point right now because of the whole supply chain situation and out-of-stocks where this whole pandemic is forcing the trial of new brands. If let's say there's some food staples at a grocery chain that are out of stock, they're going to look for alternatives. And a lot of times the opportunity is by finding an emerging brand that actually has product in stock that they may not have put on the shelf before, but now they need something there. They put those brands on the shelf and then the consumers start getting it because there's nothing else. Initially they're getting this brand because there's no other options, but now they like it and they're going to start... they start requesting it.

Joe: It's an opportunity for a lot of these emerging brands to get that space on the shelf in a time where people just need it and there's no other alternatives, but then it can end up becoming a normal part of that assortment, depending on the success of that brand. Right now that's why a lot of buyers are looking for these emerging brands just because their supply chain or their manufacturers are out, or maybe they just don't have the logistics capability to get enough of these products to the shelf on time because of the surge of people buying. It's a great opportunity for emerging brands.

Dan: Thank you for sharing that. And on that note, I know we're coming to the top of the hour. I'm going to put this on the Brand Secrets and Strategies podcast. It's going to be one of the... put it up as a podcast. You can always get the replay there, share it. Please, again, help us raise the bar in the industry. I'm also going to put this on my YouTube channel. I'm available to stay here and continue answering questions for as long as we need up to you guys, in terms of what your schedules. But please send us more questions. If you can't get your question answered here, please reach out to us. I put my contact information in there. Don't forget if you want to learn about future events, the speaking page on my website, and next week are going to be talking about how to calculate the ROI from a trade promotion.

Dan: And let me state one more thing. One of the things that I really wanted to share, thank you guys for coming out on here, is when you have this unique opportunity to get in front of a retailer, let's all be prepared. That's what all my content is focused on. How do you prepare for these opportunities? I always say you'll never get a second chance to disappoint a customer. Well, that's a retailer too. How do you leverage your best? How do you put your best foot forward when you have an opportunity to meet with a brand... meet with a retailer either virtually or through the RangeMe platform or whatever? How do you get found? Actually, Brandon and I had a great conversation about leveraging, like Brandon was talking about LinkedIn and other social profiles, to get on the radar of the retailer. With that said, any other thoughts? Any other questions, anything anyone else wants to talk about? We're here for you. This is about you.

Sarah: Daniel, I see two questions in here that we can still address. The first one I see here is about someone that has attended in the past and buyer seemed excited on site and then how do you get sales afterwards. And I want to talk a little bit about that because I think the buyers that we're getting to our programs to these sessions, they're very large buyers. Our sweet spot on the buyer side is very large national chains, larger regional players. They have significant... we're validating their buying power and making sure they can have significant buying power going in so that suppliers can see their return on their investment.

Sarah: And I would say with that, that we find, it does take... this is a great... this is I think in my opinion, the most efficient and best way to get in front of buyers to get you that return on investment. But it does take sometimes two, three times. You'll see multiple testimonials and case studies that we have from companies that have attended over the years that it could be that you attend and you have a great appointment with somebody and then you make a sale right away. But I wouldn't say that is the norm. It's going to get that out there to set the right expectation that this is like anything else you get in front of a retailer, you can start the process and depending on where you are with the relationship with that account, it's going to determine a little bit more about how fast that sale potentially will come. Sometimes it's your first time and it's a really... you're introducing yourself to the retailer and it might take two or three more times to get in front of them.

Sarah: I think the other thing that is really nice is that in this environment you have noticed that these buyers don't have any distractions going on. They're not in their office getting phone calls and having meetings, coming in and out. We really have them focused on... even in the virtual setting, meetings back to back to back and have prepped them and coached them on what they're looking for. And it's a great opportunity to get the feedback from them that you need to take another step forward in that relationship.

Sarah: As far as supplier success rates and things like that, I always talk to people a little bit about how far our programs have come from having one program in 1994 to a hundred programs today and having renewal rates on each one of those programs between 80% and 90% on the supplier side. People are coming back year after year because they are getting that return on investment, just sometimes it takes a number of times to get in front of those retailers, and we're committed to help doing that at a future program and ultimate programs or just helping in the followup process. I want to address that.

Sarah: And then there was another question about costs. How are the virtual programs fees versus the programs that are in person. We do have all of our programs fees posted on our website along with what it would cost if they're featuring virtual meetings. Those fees are incorporating all of the processes that we've talked about. Our team to curate the schedule for you, we have an outreach team that's getting these buyers engaged, then prepped and ready to get into the meetings, the platform that we've built to host all of the meetings to take place, the tools that we have to help do the connections before, during and after through RangeMe through our followup website.

Sarah: So happy to get in more details about that. But I saw the question there and most of these fees, just as an example, my specialty diets program very relevant for a lot of the suppliers that I see are on the call here. Being in the healthy foods specialty diets area, typically our 20 minute session to have meetings for that was about $16,000. Now that's $8,000. We do, when we converted to our virtual sessions, did reduce our rates pretty significantly to accommodate some of the changes that we have in way of costs that we were having take place with programs in person.

Dan: And there's a value. I want to emphasize this. There's a real value in learning from the experts about how to do this, about how to take advantage, what are the best practices. Let me give you an example of why this matters. I launched my business about 10 years ago. I have gone through a couple different email service providers, I've had a couple of different websites, I've used a lot of different things that didn't work. Think about all the lost business, all the money I've wasted, all the time I've wasted.

Dan: If I had had an expert guide me through this and help me understand what is the best strategies that... I've got the infrastructure now, but why was that a pain to get that in place? My point is this, if you're a brand and you're trying to learn how to get on Amazon or any other platform, it doesn't matter, whatever platform in front of whatever retailer, work with whatever broker, you need to have an expert guide. And what Sarah's talking about is they're willing to sit down, they're wanting to sit down with you to make this experience work for you. They're here to help you. They know what works and what doesn't work, so that you don't waste that opportunity, so that you don't disappoint that retailer because you weren't prepared, because you didn't have the right mix, or your sell sheet wasn't right. Or as Brandon was talking about, how do you make sure you've got the right content in there that's going to help you get discovered? Anyone else?

Brandon: Yeah, I see... this is Brandon. I see a question from Daniel. I just poked you on LinkedIn, I'll follow up with you after this. But one of the things that... one of the questions is essentially around more early stage brands and things like that who are still building up capital and whatnot. One of the things that I mentioned earlier was about leveraging all the channels that exist for you and using them in a way that can accelerate and scale what you're doing already. And I think part of that right now is you're going to... the common misconception about a lot of these things is, and Sarah alluded to it too when you were talking about follow ups and things like that. Common misconception is that everything's going to be turnkey. And from an experience standpoint, yes.

Brandon: Obviously, what ECRM does is very, very, very turnkey in terms of the experience, the program and the handholding throughout. But there's still an aspect of what you have to do as a brand for best practices. RangeMe is the opposite. RangeMe is like this is your tool, it's there. It's a channel. It's also... but it's mainly a tool for you. You're going to enhance your current sales and marketing with whatever you're going to do. That means that for all of these things, you're going to get out of it what you put into it. The better your profile looks, the better... the more USPs you add, the more certifications you get, all of the things that you do to market and sell your brand, you need to make sure that you're doing it in the best way possible, and then you're leveraging all the channels to get the word out.

Brandon: In other words, I see a lot of people, one of the biggest questions I always get is like, "Hey, how do I get more out of RangeMe?" And 99 times out of 100, it's like, "Well, are you using it for this? When you are going out and you meet someone, do you send them your digital sell sheet?" Because what ends up happening there is when you have new item launches, as you're at an early stage brand, as you have new ideas and new flavors and things like that, guess what? You're not going to have to resend a PDF to someone again that you've met. You're going to have that in real time, that link's going to stay the same and all your entire product line is going to be there.

Brandon: But if you think about just application-wise, all of the sales and marketing things you're doing shouldn't be done in silos. You shouldn't be doing them independently from each other. Like, "Oh, these are all just different things. All these different channels." No, it's all part of your marketing mix. I'm a marketer at heart, I geek out on this kind of stuff. And when we created RangeMe, I was part of like, how do we supplement all the things that are already happening in the industry yet trade shows and events are still happening? Yes, high touch opportunities that ECRM is still going to happen. Yes, you're still going to have top-to-top meetings, there are going to be open calls, there are going to be sourcing initiatives that these retailers run, there's going to be distributors out, they're going to help you as well. But how do you bind all of this together?

Brandon: And that's really what it's about. You ask about other ways, other than upgrading to premium for RangeMe that you can get more out of it. It's going to be what you've put into it and adding it to your marketing mix. I think the most common misconception is that when you start paying for something like premium, it's just like LinkedIn Premium too. With LinkedIn Premium, you get to see who's viewing your profile and you get to send InMails. But if you don't use InMails and you don't leverage or action upon who's looking at your profile, it doesn't mean anything. You're just paying for this capability. It's the same thing with RangeMe. It's like, yeah, you can pay and you can be premium, but if you're not ready for it in your too early stage and you're not even using RangeMe for the nuts and bolts of what it is, and the tool to supplement your sales and marketing, you're not going to get anything out of that as well.

Brandon: Like I said, all of this stuff is going to have the opportunity for you to grow. The more... and the question's about money. The more you pay, the more towards turnkey it's going to be, obviously. It's that triangle I always like to share to people that when we start talking about new features and things like that, is that triangle of the good, fast, cheap. If it's fast and cheap, it's not going to be good. If it's good and fast, it's not going to be cheap. And if it's fast and... well, you guys know what I'm saying. If it's cheap, it's not going to be fast.

Brandon: For you guys, I'm a resource for you. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. Like I said, I've been in marketing for a very, very long time and I've worked in CBG for a very long time. This is my second CBG company that I've been with, from a technology standpoint. If you have questions about how you can scale and how you can continue doing this stuff, I'm happy to help. I know Dan is a tremendous resource here as well. As we continue going... Dan, your education continues growing. You're going to see a lot of these opportunities sprinkle the way through. I would stick with it.

Dan: Well, I appreciate it. Thank you. And thank you for saying that. And one of the things I don't think Brandon has really hit on as much as is, I don't... Let me put this way, you guys have an amazing platform when you're just talking about the LinkedIn profile, just talking about version control. Why does this matter? I'm going to date myself. I started in this industry back when deck was invented. Just kidding. Every time I went out to a new retailer, there was a new deck being sent down by corporate. I had to print that thing out. I had to put it in a binder. I had to take it to the retailer and then as I'm leaving the retailer's office, I get an email. Of course, we didn't have smartphones back then, so I had to wait. I logged in and there was a new update that I didn't share with the retailer.

Dan: Imagine having a sell sheet that is correct, accurate, has the most current information and an every minute of every day. Every time you make a change, it's there. Just like your LinkedIn profile. One of the things that I think... one of the reasons I love RangeMe so much is because now you've got that ability to have a consistent voice of the retail. You've heard me talk a lot about the turnkey sales story strategies course and how the impetus behind that is that if I tell you a story and you tell someone else and so on, by the time that story comes back around to me, your story's unrecognizable.

Dan: The Achilles heel of almost every brand, especially big brands, is that their story is not told with the same passion and enthusiasm as originally told by the founder. Imagine being able to do that. That's, into my mind, that's RangeMe. Now leverage that with the ECRM platform and now you're adding... you're putting that on steroids, forget the pun, because we're talking about natural channel, but now you're being able to add rocket fuel to your ability to make those connections and drive those relationships and build those sales. Anyone else?

Joe: Well, and the other thing is, at every one of our sessions, I always tell this to brands that from every meeting they have, be it virtual now or in person, they should get at least one of two things from it. One is obviously a follow up that could potentially lead to business. The other is insights that will help them make their business better. It's a back and forth. And the more work you put into it on the front end in terms of your research, your prep and listening in that conversation, these are two way conversations that we're doing at the virtual sessions. It's an opportunity to really get feedback on what you have.

Joe: One example is we had a pet product supplier from Brazil at one of our sessions, and he came with the sole purpose for this one year of learning for as much as he could from every buyer he met with on what he should put into the rebranding all of his products for the US market. And then based on his feedback, he came back two years later with the rebrand and knocked it out of the park because the one thing buyers love, if they give you input on your packaging, or sizing, or whatever ingredients and then you meet with them this following year, like [Swiss 01:04:38] said before, it's important that you come back and meet, and meet, and meet, come back the next year and you meet with that buyer and just say, "Hey, I took your input, here's what resulted from it based on it." They'd love that. And you're making it relevant. It's all about relevance and that's what's really going to drive that business, that engagement, those relationships.

Dan: Great story. And imagine if you're a brand, how much it would cost you to do all that research on your own. Now you're getting advice from retailers that want to see you succeed. Thank you for sharing that, Joe. Anyone else? If you've got any other questions, please reach out to us. Our contact information is in the chat. Don't forget to check out future webinars and thank you everyone for being here. And with that, unless anyone's got another question we'll go ahead and end this.

Sarah: Thank you so much for having time Daniel. We really appreciate it.

Brandon: Thanks a lot dude.

Joe: Thanks Dan. [crosstalk 01:05:47].

Dan: Yeah, thanks. And look for this on the podcast, I'll publish it next week. I'm going to put it on the YouTube channel even though you don't get to see everyone's smiling faces. Like Brandon said, it's a learning curve. I've never set up a meeting with so many people and I had it set up so that people be able to share. Anyway, I don't know what I did. Consider it a blond thing. But thank you for being here. Thank you for showing up. And like I said, we're here to help you. We're here to help you grow and thrive in this new normal, and whatever this amounts to. And again, like we said, if you could get a jumpstart on your competition by leveraging the platforms of RangeMe and ECRM, that's a whim.

Dan: Oh, one of the things I wanted to say real quick, Sarah made the comment that they have mostly larger retailers on their platform. If you listen to the podcast episode that I did with Brandon, one of those larger retailers, there's a little retailer called Whole Foods Market. They are dealing with, or working with a lot of natural retailers. Now, with the relationship with WholeFoods Magazine, et cetera, we're trying to bring some of those other retailers into this ecosystem. And keep reaching back out, keep letting us know what you guys need. And we're here to help you. Anyway, with that, thank you very much and I look forward to seeing you guys next Friday, same time. We're going to be talking about trade marketing ROI. Thanks.

Joe: Thank you.

Sarah: Thank you.

Brandon: Thank you.

I want to thank Sarah Joe and Brandon for being available today for coming on the podcast for sharing their insights. I want to thank them for for helping you understand how to get the most out of their new platform how to leverage it to to gain a competitive advantage. I'll be certain to put a link to ECRM and RangeMe in the show notes and on the podcast web page.

Today's free downloadable guide is my Trade Marketing Essentials To Grow And Scale your brand. This is my single most popular download and the great part about it is this it is leading up to next week’s free webinar How To Calculate The TRUE ROI From A Promotion. You can listen to todays podcast as well as download todays show notes on the podcast webpage and you can get there by going to brandsecretsandstrategies.com/session189. Thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.

ECRM https://ecrm.marketgate.com

RangeMe https://rangeme.com

Thanks again for joining us today. Make sure to stop over at brandsecretsandstrategies.com for the show notes along with more great brand building articles and resources. Check out my free course Turnkey Sales Story Strategies, your roadmap to success. You can find that on my website or at TurnkeySalesStoryStrategies.com/growsales. Please subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and recommend it to your friends and colleagues.

Sign up today on my website so you don’t miss out on actionable insights and strategic solutions to grow your brand and save you valuable time and money.

I appreciate all the positive feedback. Keep your suggestions coming.

Until next time, this is Dan Lohman with Brand Secrets and Strategies where the focus is on empowering brands and raising the bar.