One of the most difficult markets for the job of the salesperson is that of servicing department stores or supermarkets.
In some cases the task of the salesperson is simply relegated to that of an order taker, or that of a verifier that their products are in a good place on the shelves.
Exceptions are given in those cases where the seller offers an exclusive product or whose specific brand is requested by the public, so it is always interesting to explore if within the range of products you offer there are some with these characteristics, or if there are means to promote that the brand is clearly differentiated from the rest and that the public requires it.
Let's say that what is tried is that the products are as less generic as possible.
For example, if what you sell is wheat flour in bags, there are 40 other suppliers able to offer the same, and this obviously favors the supermarket since it simplifies the task of finding the lowest price penny by penny, and allows you impose the conditions you want.
There are many things to do, and I think we must begin by knowing that the personnel in some of these department stores are highly trained.
I know the subject because I have personally trained the personnel in the purchasing areas and relations with supermarket suppliers in negotiation techniques.
I can assure you that in many cases these people are in a position to put real pressure on you when negotiating with you, and they seem to always play the best cards.
For these large corporations to invest in training the person-to-person negotiation skills of their purchasing managers, it will give you an idea of how the relationship and personal communication between buyer and seller influence commercial results, whether in the expensive deal. face or phone.
These are increasingly competitive times and we must be trained and prepared to the maximum in our communication, negotiation, and sales skills to deal with increasingly informed and capable clients.
As sellers that can be our decisive advantage when it comes to competing.
In the field of commercial strategy, these are some examples of the things that the most successful companies that supply department stores and supermarkets do:
Develop some unique and innovative product.
You don't have to be 3M for this. Sometimes a fresh and clean salad packed ready to eat, a wheat flour to which you only need to add water to prepare the dough for a pizza in two minutes, are simple examples of how the most valuable resource when developing a new product is being attentive and generating ideas.
Important:
Do like 3M, when the market begins to become saturated with similar products that compete with yours for price and make it generic, do not enter the fight… withdraw !, and launch your attack on another flank with a new product.
- Make yourself available to the supermarket so that the customer himself can express exactly what he wants from us and from our products, in terms of weights and measures, quality, packaging, colors, brand, and other specifications.
Asking questions in this regard sometimes leads to answers such as: "Until now we have not been able to find the supplier capable of delivering this product to us with…" and perhaps it is something that you are in perfect condition to offer, but that had never occurred to you. think it might be important to your client.
- Promote activities such as lunches, visits to manufacturing plants, shared sports or recreational activities, etc. to have more conducive frameworks for person-to-person communication with buyers, and with supermarkets' senior staff Offering supermarket staff training either on the specific product (its preservation, display methods, maintenance), or topics of interest that are not strictly related to the product (safety, workplace, marketing, customer service).
This also expands the space for personal communication, adds value to the relationship between the companies, and promotes the loyalty of the participants in the training activities with the supplier company.
- Explore new business possibilities. For example, in Uruguay we can cite the case of wineries that when selling to a supermarket chain, have also negotiated the export of their wines to Europe to be marketed through the establishments of that chain. Create two or more different products with the same product. Let me explain: Let's say you sell sugar in one-kilo bags, with your company brand.
Sugar could also be packaged with another wrapper and another brand for the supermarket, and both packages of sugar could coexist on the same shelf, with different prices, and also different consumer profiles. So far it is a common operation.
What some companies do is also create a premium brand for their sugar, which will differ from the other two not in the product that remains practically the same, but in the positioning of the brand, in its packaging, in its presentation, in its way of being commercialized, in the attributes that its brand communicates, etc.
In this sense, let's take the case of two beer manufacturers in Argentina.
In the case of Cervecería Quilmes de Argentina, which leads the market with its massive sale of Quilmes beer in supermarkets, it also exploits the Iguana beer, with a more exclusive profile, and with a higher sale price, for its marketing more focused on bars, restaurants, and discos.
In the case of Cía. Industrial Cervecera, Budweiser's producer in Argentina, has in addition to Bud, with other brands that target localized markets.
Thus, for example, it has the brand name «Santa Fé», «Rosario», «Córdoba», which refer to the names of the cities where they are most consumed and where the company mainly distributes them.
They also pack beer under the "Schneider" brand, aimed at a similar audience to the one targeted by Iguana.
Something to highlight is that the beer packaged with the brands Santa Fé, Rosario, Córdoba, and Schneider, are exactly the same beer!
The goal is to strengthen relationships with people, differentiate and add value to our product, make it desirable for consumers, inform us about the needs and desires of our customers, be flexible enough to be able to modify our offer when necessary. and to withdraw from a negotiation before reaching the limit in which an operation or commercial relationship does not suit our permanent interests.
Thinking not only about the products that we are offering at this precise moment, but about everything we could offer and how far we want to go, allows us to generate more options and new markets for our products, always keeping in mind that if what we are doing is not it works… we must do something else.
