BRAND SECRETS AND STRATEGIES

PODCAST #182

Hello and thank you for joining us today. This is the Brand Secrets and Strategies Podcast #182

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!

If you want to stop wasting money on ineffective promotions, your in the right place!

Welcome, Before I begin, I started doing free webinars to help support our natural community during this crisis. Many in our community are struggling, worried about the unknown, and looking for our support. Know that you are not alone! The most important thing I can do is help you confidently weather this storm and prepare for the day we can all venture outside.

I welcome other leaders, groups, and organizations to partner with me in this important initiative. Reach out to me if you want to contribute or partner with me to help our community - our family. Please share this podcast episode and help me raise the bar in our industry.

You can learn more about the free webinars past, present, and future on the speaker page of my website at brandsecretsandstrategies.com/speaking. If you are listening to this in the future, you can also find replays to select webinars there. You will need to register to listen to most webinar recordings.

Are you tired of feeling like an ATM machine? Stop throwing money away!

One of the biggest pain points for every brands are deductions. Deductions are a huge drain on your finances and not all are valid. They can derail and even bankrupt your brand. They place a huge burden on your cash flow that can negatively impact every aspect of your business.

Some retailers and distributors view deductions as a profit center hoping that brands won’t invest the necessary time required to investigate the mountain of excessive claims.

Learning simple strategies to gain control over YOUR MONEY and channel your resources can help you grow sustainable sales and scale your brand.

Here’s why this matters, 25% of a brand gyros sales are tied to your trade marketing and yet over 70% is wasted or ineffective - more in natural.

With every slight improvement means more runway for sales growth, higher brand valuations, better terms when negotiating with investors, fuel for more innovation, greater support for mission based causes, and much much more.

This podcast episode is a snippet of the Top 5 Strategies To Dramatically Reduce Deductions And Save Money free webinar I’m doing on April 17th 2020 at 9 MST. You can register at brandsecretsandstrategies.com/DeductionManagement.

This podcast episode and the free webinar are a sneak peak at the Trade Marketing Essentials course I am in the process of building. A soup to nuts resource to address and answer all of your trade marketing questions and concerns. You can learn more about this course on the podcast web page and in today’s show notes.

A couple of years ago while walking the show floor at Expo West, I came across one of the brands that had been on the podcast. When I asked them how they were doing, her eyes welled up. As she fought back the tears she shared their distributor was holding onto their funds and deducting for things that were not valid. She shared that they did not know if they would be in business from one day to the next because of this. Sales proceeds they were counting on were unavailable and they were not getting any response from the distributor.

Does this sound familiar? You are not alone!

Unfortunately, I hear sad stories like this all the time. While listening to her it took me back to when I managed deductions for a brand. I distinctly remember the paper blizzard that greeted me each morning. I would sometimes spend hours validating each and every claim - sound familiar? It kept me from doing my regular job as the Key Account Executive for UniLever. My job was to sell, not to do paperwork 24/7. Eventually, my boss told me to focus only on the large deductions and to ignore the small ones. I remember being told the amount I would collect was worth less than the sales I could generate. I have to admit that I felt like we were being robbed blind and wondered what this was costing each brand. It felt like we were being taking advantage of. This was a painful lesson I took to every position going forward.

Several years I was able to turn the table on that retailer. I was able to show them how much more it cost to sell our products in their stores compared to their biggest competitor. I was able to leverage my analysis to renegotiate the promotional fees they charged. As a result, I was able to dramatically reduce what it cost to promote our brand in their stores.

This taught me a valuable lesson - that everything is negotiable, especially in this industry. These are some of the skills I hope to teach you.

I since committed to become an expert in trade marketing. I created several innovative reports including one that calculated the contribution from a promotion back to the brand and the retailer - essentially what you take to the bank at the end of the promotion.

Here’s a quick tip you can use today to improve your trade marketing ROI today. Clarification and accountability. This might seam overly simple but this is the primary failing that every brand struggles with.

Let me explain. Think of your promotional agreement as a contract, which it really is. Make absolutely certain that it is complete and that it addresses each and every aspect of the promotion from when the additional product needs to be shipped to be on hand on time, exactly how much additional product each store needs to have on hand to support the promotion with no out-of-stocks and not leftover back stock, the agreed upon price point, etc.

It amazes me how many brands overlook key details of promotions like this. The biggest wast of your trade dollars includes promoting your brand with out-of-stocks, incorrect pricing, poor merchandising, etc. For the accountability piece, use a scorecard as a project management tool to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. Then just it to review the promotion to identify what you could have done better to make it even more of a success.

You’ll need to addend the free webinar or watch the replay to learn more.

This weeks free downloadable guide is my Trade Management Essentials To Grow And Scale Your Brand

Trade marketing includes everything required to promote your brand. It's your growth engine and the largest item on your P&L. Most trade spending is wasted. Every brand seeks to maximize their promotional ROI. There is a better way to grow sales & profits.

You can get it instantly on this weeks podcast page and on the show note. You can get there by going to brandsecretsandstrategies.com/session182

Thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.

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.