Dirty Hands: Understanding the Consumer Products Sales Process

Engineer-type brains sometimes like to get their hands dirty, but understanding the mess that is consumer product sales may be dirtier than many engineers are comfortable with. I'll try to explain some of the basics, then tell you the dirty truths about consumer product sales.

The Basics:
1.) The consumer buys your products from: a.) you, or b.) a channel
2.) There are dozens of kinds of channels... here is the top 4:: retail, e-tail (e-tailer), System Integrator, VAR
3.) These channels buy from either: a.) you, or b.) a distributor
4.) The distributor buys from either: a.) you, or b.) an aggregater (or aggregator), or c.) a rep firm.
5.) The aggregator buys from either: a.) you, or b.) a rep firm.

So, the most direct route...
you->consumer.
The longest route...
you->rep.firm->aggregator->distributor->e-tail->consumer

And there is the rub... there are many e-tailers and most retailers who will no 'buy from you direct', especially if you are small.
Instead, you have to work with a distributor... funny, there are many (most) distributors who will not work with you directly.
So, you have to work with a rep firm or aggregator or both.

That can be a lot of hands in the pie! It is only just the beginning. In addition to the margin points that every step needs to take, each will want your marketing dollars to help make their channel/distribution succeed.

Messy yet?

Many channels require these marketing dollars (called Market Development Funds or MDF) or they will delist your product, regardless of how many you are selling.

So, how do you navigate this maze?

Very carefully, and hopefully with a lot of margin built in to your product.

Winning at Sales: Sales Dogs

Doing sales is easy, right? What the heck is doing sales anyways? So many engineering type brains wonder: why do we pay sales-people? What do they do all day? The answer is: not much... just everything.

Losing at sales is easy. Make a call, get rejected, give up, repeat. Very few sales-people do this... so their day gets FILLED with NOT GIVING UP! That's what you are paying the sales-person for: persistence.

Winning at sales is hard. I used to sell aerial photographs of peoples homes, now I've sold Killer NICs, Stock, and "the Karmaback viral marketing program"... each progressively harder. Here is a few of the things "I do all day"... and your sales-person should be doing too:

1. Manage dozens/hundreds of contacts and leads: reaching out to them via email and phone to set up pitches, keep them updated, etc.
2. Do 2 or 3 hour-long sales calls per day.
3. Research existing leads before each call & email to be up to date on their business and products.
4. Research new leads & beg friends for more leads.
5. Build custom presentations & custom proposals & custom contracts for each lead & prospect.
6. Learn/Practice everything about own company/products
7. Beg for more assets, more demos, etc.
8. ....I could go on and on....
   

In summary, Winning at Sales takes a Sales Dog! A hound that never gives up, never loses faith, always wags his tail, and works DAMN HARD!

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Hating the customer.

If you decide to get into 'business' at all, you will have customers. The customer may be fortune 500 companies or 13 year-old kids, but you are going to be selling to someone. And you will hate them. You won't admit it, but you will feel it. Why? Because they will not behave how you want them to! They won't say the right things (FLAMES), or buy enough, or care about you. They take too long, play mind games, and pay too little. So how do I cope?

A few tips that have helped me learn to hate my customers less.
1.) accept that you cannot control others.
2.) try to learn what they 'do do' consistently.
3.) have a dialogue. JUST TALK TO THEM... normally. Don't always be selling, sometimes you just need to learn more about them.
4.) remember you exist to help them... but you can't help the un-willing.
5.) GOLDEN RULE: do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. TREAT YOUR SUPPLIERS BETTER! Really. Just consider how you treat your own suppliers, and good karma will start to flow.

For more on Karma see: http://www.karmaback.com :)
coming soon!

Photo Attributes: derivative work: — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb Kittyplya03042006.JPG: Photographed by and copyright of (c) David Corby (User:Miskatonic, uploader) 2006