Posts
Links
Startups
- 3 Startup Trends to Watch Out For techcocktail.com/paul-singh-sta…
- Amazing! Startup I did some mentoring with @eatnomiku Kickstarter raise of 200k is now at > 532K with 16 hours to go. Great product!
- Why startups fail: ow.ly/cwr1z Great data in this infographic.
Consumer Products
- RT @retail_sails: Are #Retail Trucks The Next Wave Of Shopping? bit.ly/OYbhaI Kinda like lunch trucks with products
- Instagram: Killer for #Retail bit.ly/Oi8RY8 Potentially innovative marketing idea here for brands and retailers.
- RT @retail_sails: Stormy Weather Persists for CPG Sales in US bit.ly/STPOV7 Good data here.
- Some good stuff here: ow.ly/ctBDy 12 Big Trends Changing Retail Marketing Today
Miscellaneous
- Vote to make this nominee the BEST Training. Love My Dog Training: soc.li/apwmzpm
- Drought to continue for most of the lower 48 cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/exper…
- Excellent infographic on how Libor rates are set and how they have been manipulated ritholtz.com/blog/2012/07/l…
- Measure Social Media Return on Investment (ROI) #infographic bit.ly/NFpKIr via @SydesJokes
- Some good sales no-no’s in this article: ow.ly/crzUp
- Great article. Anyone whose industry is affected by technology (most people) should keep up with Scoble’s blog. ow.ly/ck5hA
Quora/LinkedIn
My Answer: In general, assuming I had the resources to sell large retailers, I would absolutely sell to the largest retailers. Relatively speaking, they are not that much more work to sell to and manage than a small or regional retailer, so you can do huge volume with a small sales operations staff. In my experience, when I had both large and small retailers, 90% of my sales came from my 10 biggest accounts, which were large retailers, yet I spent 50% of my time managing the small ones.
Think about adding a Wal Mart with 3500 locations or even only 600 for a region. How long would it take you to add those number of locations in small retailers? Further, in my experience with food, Wal Mart generally does more volume by at least a factor of 5-10 than any other channel except club. Simple math should make it an easy decision to focus on the large retailer.
The only reason why I would chose small retailers is to test my product’s sell through and figure out how to optimize its promotion so that I can go to a large retailer with a track record and confidence in knowing it will work.
Other Stuff
We got 17 baby chicks a few weeks ago (we lost 2, so its now 15) to eventually give us our own soy-free eggs. Soy bothers me and we are feeding our chicks organic soy-free feesd Here’s an image the day we got them in the mail.
Disclosure: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to brands, products or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
