Sales & Marketing with LCG Foods
In our nearly 20 years of experience, we’ve worked with dozens of brokers, hundreds of brand owners, and thousands of retailers. Of the brands we’ve onboarded, we’ve seen some success stories – we’ve worked with pre-revenue brands and watched them exit for 9-figures. We’ve also brought on well-known international food brands and helped them launch into Canada to rapidly access hundreds of retailers in their first year. We’ve also brought on mature brands seeking help to launch on Amazon.ca and Costco.ca – to reach all corners of the market.
Unfortunately, we’ve also seen some brands struggle to find success. While no one can say for sure if a brand will be successful, a lot of times, failure is the result of insufficient investment in sales & marketing or lack of focus on strategic planning and sales execution.
Reflecting on this experience, it has become clearer how brand owners can dramatically improve their odds of success, and it comes down to answering these key questions.
- How will your brand get noticed by retailers in the distributor’s catalog?
- Who will be responsible for selling? How are sales activities incentivized?
- Is the brand well prepared for selling, including having effective sell-sheets that have all necessary elements?
- What is the strategy, how does it align to sales goals, and are the goals realistic?
What does it mean to be "listed"?
The term “listed” is frequently used in the food industry. Perhaps you’re interested in being listed with a distributor, such as LCG Foods. Or perhaps you’re trying to get listed at a retailer, but they’ve asked you to get listed with a distributor first.
Let’s keep it plain and simple. To be "listed" simply means your products exist in a computer system. No more, no less. Being listed does not in itself generate sales.
To be listed at LCG Foods, it means we’ve added your products to our catalog of available products, included them in a standard price list, and the item is available for purchase. We’ve performed important work on behalf of the retailer such as checking the packaging for compliance, verified barcodes, codified case pack quantities, verified insurance coverage, and dozens of other mundane but critical tasks to make the retailer’s life easier. When retailers send us a purchase order for your products – our teams will know how to locate your items in the warehouse to fulfill those orders. When we run low, systems and processes are in place to re-order.
Being listed at a retailer means that a grocery manager, for example, can see it in their inventory system and is permitted to buy products from an authorized vendor such as LCG Foods. They can purchase your products along with other items they normally order to make minimum order requirements. When the product arrives, they can acknowledge receipt of inventory into their system and pay for goods. Distributors make life easier for retailers. In the event there are problems with an order, there are well defined processes for resolving them with the distributor.
In short - being listed with LCG Foods alone creates no specific obligation or expectation that a retailer will purchase your product.
Who will be Responsible for Selling?
In general, we have brands that fall into one of three categories:
- Brands who have hired sales brokers or agencies.
- Brands who sell themselves or have their own sales team.
- Brands that want LCG Foods to sell on their behalf.
If your brand is being considered for listing with LCG Foods, responsibility for selling will be established as part of our review process. We generally recommend that brands use a broker or agency but brands that wish to sell for themselves are certainly welcome to.
In either case, we provide retailer locations to accelerate your sales efforts. For brand owners who want our sales team to sell on their behalf – we offer a sales campaign service.
Inside Sales Campaign
An inside Sales Campaign is a short “blitz” intended to drive sales via phone or e-mail communications to all Key Accounts, Major Independents, Independent Collectives (e.g. franchise locations), and other independent stores by Account Managers. Account Managers are assigned to stores which have high purchasing potential or purchase at least monthly. The campaign includes distribution of sell sheets, sending of samples, and sample follow-up. A sales campaign lasts 2-4 weeks or when sales objectives are achieved. A campaign performance report is provided to indicate new store listings, where samples were sent, follow-up attempts, and customer feedback when products were not listed by the retailer.
Sales Team Training (Brand Owner-Led)
This opportunity is for brand owners who intend to leverage our inside and/or field sales team (including services from Shelfie.ca). We allocate up to 60 minutes to receive sales training from the brand owner. Session topics include brand messaging, ideal customer profile, ideal store placement, competitive analysis, how to pitch, answers to frequently asked questions, objection handling, and finish with live Q&A. Sessions are recorded for future reference and re-training.
Key Account Submissions
The definition of Key Account differs by organization. Examples of LCG Foods’ Key Accounts include Whole Foods Market, Farm Boy, Healthy Planet, Urban Fare, Country Grocer, and Sobeys (local program). LCG Foods definition of Key Account is “any multi-location retailer (account) where listing decisions are made by a centralized buyer on behalf of all locations”. Your broker may have a different definition of Key Account.
Key Accounts typically require forms to be completed and submitted by the distributor. If working with a broker or consultant, your broker will complete the forms in partnership with LCG Foods before submitting.
If you do not have a broker, sales agency, or otherwise have experience with these forms, LCG Foods can submit forms on your behalf. This service is billed, as required, per listing submission. Listing form and promotion plan form are considered two submissions.
Once you have been listed with LCG Foods and have defined who will perform selling activities – your next goal is to get noticed.
Getting Noticed – Online
Once you’re listed with LCG Foods, your brand must get noticed before orders will start flowing. This is especially important if your brand is not yet well known. Getting noticed is a well-planned journey with multiple sales and marketing elements that support each other.
First and foremost, you need a foundation of essential sales & marketing materials to support every sales interaction. Through digital-first interactions, your brand may be noticed by buyers in a variety of ways – on our website, via email introduction, an online meeting, or other types of encounters. For each of these types of online interactions, you need the right set of materials ready.
Sell Sheets
Your most important piece of marketing is probably your product sell sheet. It must have all the critical elements that buyers are looking for. It should, for example, tell your brand story, effectively communicate your product’s unique value proposition, have barcodes, case quantities, and your distributors item codes. Most importantly, you must have an email-ready version of your sell sheet that is under 5MB to minimize the risk of being blocked by email servers. Your printer-ready version often is not suitable for email because high resolution graphics can make the files very large. If you need help with your sell sheet, LCG Foods offers services to design and/or review sell sheets.
Online Product Portfolio
Your brand’s visibility can be dramatically improved by getting added to our online Product Portfolio. See our latest one here
This type of marketing is designed for discovery on our website and our account managers reference it frequently in email introductions. We pass the link in chat messages during online meetings. The cost of producing the artwork for your brand is a one-time investment and your page needs to be updated only when you have significant changes to your branding or product lineup. These pages are further reused to announce promotions. You can view an example of our monthly promotions here.
Our digital product portfolio (online publication) gives your brand the opportunity to be noticed by buyers while they are browsing for other items or reviewing monthly promotions.
A Special Announcement
We love to tell all our customers about new brands which have been onboarded with us. Sometimes, brands have a line extension they wish to announce to all our customers. The most cost-effective way to get the news out is through an email newsletter. We offer services to design your email announcement to tell your brand story, showcase new products, and/or deliver a special message.
Tell Your Story
For brands that are newer to the market, it is beneficial for prospective retailers to hear the story behind your brand and products. To supplement product web pages (designed for purchasing), lcgfoods.com also has a section called “Stories Worth Telling” where our brand’s stories are posted. View an example here.
The landing page is also an asset that can be reused for e-mail announcements or shared on your social media account (and ours). Having landing pages is also generally good practice for search engine optimization.
Get Noticed with Promotions
Having promotions is critically important. We recommend having new-listing promotions – to incentivize retailers to try your product. We recommend having seasonal promotions to give salespeople and buyers a reason to stock up and promote your products in their stores. We recommend participating in some retailer specific in-store features, manager specials, and flyer programs.
A subscription to LCG Foods “Promo App” is required for all brands who have promotion schedules, plan to book in-store features and/or flyer ads and other marketing activities that result in manufacturer chargebacks. Promo App is a web-based application built by LCG Foods where such marketing activities are registered by LCG Foods and approved by Brand Owners by logging in to review, approve, or reject. LCG Foods is a leader in manufacturer chargeback transparency because of Promo App. The annual fee supports the operations, maintenance, and incremental development of enhancements to Promo App.
Getting Noticed – In Meetings
There are situations where printed media is a must. For in-person meetings, nothing is better than having printed sell sheets ready. Having sell sheets presented along with samples is critical because it communicates details which are important to the buyer which are not on the packaging such as SRP, case pack size, and other details.
If you are fortunate enough to have your own meeting with a buyer – a dedicated 15-30 minutes focusing only on your brand – the sell sheet is perfect. But what about other meetings?
When LCG Foods meets with a buyer, we often have 30-60 minutes to review multiple products. In addition to sell sheets, the printed version of our Brand Portfolio book (“Look-Book”) is our most important publication for these meetings. Buyers love the elegance and simplicity of our “Look-Book” approach – the ability to quickly flip through something physical in their hands. We’ve seen buyers make notes in the book, fold the corners of pages for products that catch their attention, and the book ultimately sits on their desk for ongoing reference. Therefore, we strongly recommend participating in our printed catalog.
Participating in the printed portfolio is strongly recommended for all brands. We aim to print up to 4 editions per year based on the number of brands opting for this service (establishing our budget), the number of copies utilized per quarter, and number of new brands onboarded at each quarter. Each time a new edition is printed, a copy is mailed to Key Account and Major Independent buyers by addressed mail. Further, the printed booklet is used to facilitate all in-person meetings and trade shows, such as CHFA.
Brands onboarding or opting-in mid-year will be included in the next scheduled print (e.g. next quarter’s publication). To qualify for this service, you must order a Digital Brand Portfolio page or already have a page in our digital catalog. This service is required if you intend to leverage field sales service.
Stay In Stock
Monthly Reporting
This service is recommended for all brand owners who wish to receive sales data on a month-to-month basis. Powered by Tableau software, our reports offer a clear snapshot of your key metrics. An interactive dashboard displays your key performance indicators (KPIs) at a glance, such as sales volume, revenue, and growth trends. Each chart or graph within the dashboard focuses on a specific data set.
This data will help brand owners understand breakdown of sales by account (including store addresses), the rate of new listings for their products, re-order rates, and see who has received samples. All data can be exported quickly to Excel for further analysis.
Quarterly Inventory Forecasts
This service is recommended for all brand owners who wish to receive an informed view of LCG Foods’ inventory requirements. A well-informed forecast will consider which stores and type of stores that carry the products, their relative re-order demands, planned promotions, anticipated new listings, and other factors.
I Need Help!
For brands who are not working with a broker or consultant, we offer business strategy consultations. This service is not intended to be an alternative to a brokerage services. Strategy sessions will consider how your product is established and performing in the market today – and help you establish a roadmap for achieving your short- and medium-term goals. Typically, at least 2 sessions are required to discuss your cost of production, your options for distribution, the markets you should participate in, and your timelines. The session(s) will give you a unique distributor’s perspective on how to improve the sales and marketing of your product. Sessions are facilitated by LCG Foods senior management and/or ownership.