Time is precious for convenience retailers. Balancing stock management, customer service and team morale leaves precious little time for anything outside the shop, yet the relationships between independent retailers and suppliers remain vital for driving sales, introducing new products and building long-term partnerships. Building them has to fit in somehow.
However, the past few years have seen the number of face-to-face connections between retailers and brands decline. Rep visits, already dropping before 2020, have fallen off a cliff edge. Suppliers who were once considered sector leading are now discussed bitterly by retailers, while others have doubled down on hands-on support and earned trust and ‘first-choice’ status for doing so.
To explore how retailers have maintained, grown and modernised these relationships, we spoke to two independent retailers – David Lomas of Lomas News in Bury, Lancashire, and Kevin Polley of Kash Retail in Bedale, North Yorkshire. They share how they prepare for rep visits, identify red flags, and ensure that their relationships deliver value for both parties. Here’s what brand owners should expect.
Making time for visits
Like most areas of a convenience store, the level of success in relationships is directly proportional to the amount of prep and research completed beforehand. “With regards to preparation, our reps message us once a week to tell us they’re coming,” explains Lomas. “They’ll ask about stock levels, deals and promotions, so I’m prepared because they prepare me. It’s great and a sign of a good rep.”
Once in store, a little goes a long way. The best supplier reps will work hard to gain an understanding of the operating model, where the biggest opportunities are, and what consumers love most about the shop. “One of our reps comes in at the same time, and actually knows a lot of our customers now. She chats with them and customers love that service, too,” Lomas says.
Independent retailers are increasingly becoming data-driven in their prep and tell us they like to pull their latest EPoS reports ahead of the visit to make the conversation more productive. This can be helpful for supplier reps, but it also arms retailers with any pushback that the national data they see might not tell the same story in their shop.
“We always keep an open mind with a new rep,” says Polley. “Some reps need sales data to understand how a specific range has been performing, so we’ll look at this ahead of time, and prepare anything else we need to discuss. We also look at notes from previous visits to see what’s been delivered and what’s outstanding.”
Avoiding red flag behaviour
There’s nothing that clears a brand off a retailer’s order list faster than an aggressive sales tactic from a rep. Pressuring behaviour, unproven claims and a relentless focus on ‘the sell’ is a sure way to ensure you never cross their threshold again.
“A few weeks ago, we were approached by someone for an advertising campaign, but as we hadn’t heard of them before, we likely won’t use them,” Lomas explains. “Also, they used an aggressive sales tactic, and if I’ve not heard of a brand, I won’t be shelling out for 10 cases as it might not sell.
“I need to be wary of new products and new brands. We want them to back up what they say and not expect an instant sale or agreement. They should come in, say ‘hi’, explain the product and then give me time to research. They can’t expect overnight success.”
The challenge for brands is to show up in places where retailers will see them before the rep reaches out. Wholesaler activations, trade media coverage and trade shows create the blanket ‘air cover’ that makes any direct engagement more likely to be a success.
Polley says that he’s much more likely to buy if he’s seen a product first, or preferably tried it himself. “With new reps, I like them to have a friendly personality and be keen to work with us, but some are a bit forward,” he says. “Some reps can be a bit pushy about selling that product, but I like to go away and think about it. I shy away from aggressive sales talk.”
The opportunity for category shakers
Pick up any trade mag and the chances are you’ll see a news article or letter to the editor from a retailer lamenting the decline in the number of rep visits. The names of the market leaders who have reduced their sales force spring to retailers’ minds as quickly as the ones who continue to do it well.
“The reps we do have are extremely important,” says Lomas. “One of our reps has been coming to us for five years, and she’s friendly and on the ball with her product knowledge. She looks after us and goes above and beyond her role.
“Then there’s the other side of rep visits that have declined and fallen by the wayside. Some confectionery giants and some tobacco companies have stopped coming to us and we don’t see them.” Lomas points out that the majority of his range has slowly but steadily shifted over the years to the recommendations made by the one who chats to his customers.
So is there an opportunity for challenger brands to fill this void? “If there are new products or promotions from these suppliers where we don’t get rep visits, I might buy them. But if a brand visited us, we would definitely buy them because of that relationship we built.”
Thriving in a post-rep world
Challenger brands of course can’t roll out a nationwide field sales force overnight. If some of the giants struggle to justify the P&L for a field team, then a disruptor is unlikely to either.
Partnering with a wholesaler like Epicurium enables challenger brands to punch well above their weight. Instead of burning capital on a 20-person field team, brands gain instant access to an established network of high-performing independent retailers. Epicurium provides the regional coverage and trusted trade visibility that independent store owners rely on, effectively acting as the ‘air cover’ and seal of approval brands need to build retailer trust.
This also helps brands respond to the evolving ways retailers are communicating. More top store owners are using LinkedIn and the trade show – once considered to be consigned to history – has risen again in importance. Retailers expect business to be done in this way once again, and challenger brands can absolutely play in these spaces. Epicurium has a consistent programme of trade show appearances that partners can tap into too.
“The challenge is suppliers and companies are laying off their field teams, so there are less reps out there. To counteract this, we’re showing up more at trade shows to get our name out there more,” Polley notes. “LinkedIn also plays a good role in maintaining relationships. We post about how we’re happy to work with X brand and if we’ve sold a product of theirs, we’ll post about that too. Other retailers then see this and pick it up, too, which suppliers like.
“We’re talking to suppliers more via WhatsApp and we’ll share photos of any activations and send sales figures. We continue to feed them information to keep our relationship alive and ongoing. We keep things positive, so they want to come back and continue to work with us.”
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