Retail Representation
Hire me to get your products on retail shelves
Have a product that’s ready to get onto retail shelves? Hire me to directly handle the sales process to get your products on shelves. 6 month commitment.
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About my Sales Representation Services
If you have a retail-ready product and are committed to making a serious effort to sell it to the nation’s leading retailers, then this is the program for you!
The Retail Representation program is everything you need to ensure your product gets introduced to buyers at major retail chains, catalogers, and TV shopping channels.
This special program requires that you make a six-month commitment as the buying cycles at retail can be very lengthy and it is rare to land a product on the shelves in just a few short months. Jim will be handling the sales for you who will work directly with the retailers.
In addition, Jim will work side by side with you to teach you everything you need to know about how to talk to buyers, carefully complete all retail required paperwork, and assist you with marketing plans to help drive traffic to the retailers. If you have a retail-ready product and are committed to making a serious effort to sell it to the nation’s leading retailers, then this is the program for you!
Sales & Marketing Plan
If you wish to gain access and entry into specialty, regional, and national retailers in the USA and Canada as well as TV shopping channels and leading websites, you must embark on an aggressive sales and marketing campaign that is led by an experienced leader in the industry with two decades of experience and countless successes with consumer product startup brands. As a former Vice President of Retail Product Commercialization for Kevin Harrington (one of the original sharks on the hit reality show Shark Tank) and having run my own product company that drove more than 10 million dollars a year in revenue for nearly a decade, I know how to reach retail buying executives, understand how to negotiate deals for product placement, and can guide you in how to properly prepare and to get your product placed!
Typically, retailers plan out their store assortments 6-12 months in advance, and the time it takes to reach them, have them review a product, negotiate a deal if they express interest, and get set up as a vendor with them can take months! It’s important to begin the process of coordinating all details including sales strategies, pricing of products for local, regional, and national markets, marketing strategies, PR (public relations), and other related areas such as fulfillment/shipping of products to retailers. A lot of the potential success for your product rests on the preparation and approach with retail buyers. We must begin to plan, create our sales and marketing plan, create a list of target accounts that we wish to pursue, make introductions to leading TV shows, prominent product bloggers, and magazines connected to consumer products, prepare to approach retailers, as well as coordinate sell sheets and PowerPoint presentations that will be presented to retail buyers. Lots to do!
Here are the main areas to address:
- Product profile sheets must be completed so we can solicit the sales team and introduce them to your product line
- Review product pricing and adjust if needed
- All sell sheets, PowerPoint presentations, price sheets, competitive comparison sheets, and other collateral materials must be created or reviewed if existing
- Create a list of appropriate retail chains, specialty chains, distributors, TV Shopping Channels, and other retail venues chosen in the US
- Contact the retail buyers and communication gets underway as they respond and request information, request samples, negotiate deals, present vendor set-up forms, etc
- Marketing strategies must be presented to retailers upon request ie. point of purchase displays, co-op advertising, PR, etc
- As sales occur we must service each account which includes replenishment to retail stores, buyer feedback and sales data analysis, and suggesting new products to them as you develop them
- Fulfillment/shipping of all orders must be arranged – likely through a third party but we can arrange and manage the process
There are a lot of details and work involved and we will manage this entire effort for the US and Canadian marketplace. In essence, it’s the equivalent of a VP of Sales role where we will manage and oversee all facets of the sales side of the operation.
My Retail Representation Programs
Retail Sales & Marketing Core Plan
Retail Sales & Marketing Advanced Plan
Reviews from Industry Experts
I’ve been in the invention and retail space for 25+ years. Hear what experts say about me.
Kevin Harrington
Shark Tank Investor, Infomercial King, author, world-recognized speaker
“Jim is a true shark! His retail connections are unmatched.”
Juli Shively
Founder, Innovation World Architect, Innovation World Alliance
“I’ve been in the youth innovation space for nearly 24 years, and I still learn something from every industry expert I meet. Jim DeBetta is one of those industry experts.”
Brock Felt
Investor, Cofounder, CMO, Acquisitions.
“Jim is my go to person for our brands. He is a leading force in the world of retail product development and sales. When my celebrity clients need a “go to” guy to get their products to market, Jim is the guy!”
Frequently Asked Questions
Jim has successfully sold tens of millions of dollars to the world’s leading retailers such as Costco, Target, Walgreens, Bed Bath & Beyond, and dozens of others. He has counseled hundreds of invention entrepreneurs and established multi-million dollar consumer products companies. As an industry-recognized blogger, author, and sought-after speaker, Jim has the deep experience and knowledge to help you succeed.
He will work with you one-on-one to get everything organized, created, and situated so that your product gets manufactured and prepared to sell to retailers. Think of it as having a dedicated employee with years of valuable experience working to help you!
Many things need to be done when you develop a product and build a business around it. A website needs to be created and polished if already in existence, proper spec and sell sheets need to be formed, great packaging must be created to help set your product apart, and pricing structures need to be formulated so that you and the retailer make money, manufacturing details must be organized so that your products are well made and done so for the best possible price, and when all of the dozens of other details have been addressed you must learn how to market and sell your products! Jim will teach you everything you need to know and will bring in his team of experts to help execute all phases of your project. Through calls, emails, and teleconferences with other experts, you will have Jim there by your side to guide you!
Jim has vast experience in the following areas:
Product development – getting an idea from your mind onto paper and beyond
Patents and Trademarks (disclosure – Jim is not a patent attorney or agent)
Manufacturing
Branding – logos, taglines, and website development
Licensing
Sales and marketing to small and large retailers
Social media marketing
Public Relations
Packaging
Pricing strategies
Funding
And so much more!
The Inner Circle of experts consists of the leading names in the consumer products industry including renowned patent attorneys, funding experts, factory sourcing agents, branding gurus, social media mavens, licensing pros, and highly successful retail sales and marketing leaders. Each one of these experts is industry-recognized and enjoys top-level reputations in the industry.
Jim will tell you that, in his nearly 20 years of selling to major retailers all over the world, nearly 90% of all people who approach him are NOT READY to sell to retailers or license their products to companies. Their websites and collateral materials usually need revisions, the product may need packaging changes or pricing restructuring and many other areas may need to be addressed for Jim to feel comfortable and confident when you approach executives who can purchase your product. The fact is that if you are not in the business of consumer products your judgment of your own product and its readiness may be clouded due to a lack of relevant information, inexperience in knowing what retail buyers and corporations want from you, and your simple desire to see your own product succeed. Jim would never perform surgery on himself or go to court without an attorney because he understands the extreme value of having an expert by his side to make sure things get done correctly. Having an expert to help you do the work is a big asset and money saver as well.
Simple…because it takes time to do everything that is mentioned in the above question and answers. On average, it takes more than a year of hard work to take an idea for a product and have it ready to be sold to retailers. Since there are dozens of “moving parts” to developing and preparing a product for selling, there will surely be many calls, emails, and back-and-forth work and discussions to complete everything and to answer the many questions you will have along the way. It is simply not possible to have Jim review everything you have done, make suggested changes, help you learn what you need to know, and do it all in a day or two. He does things RIGHT and to do that takes lots of time and commitment for both of you.
No, and anyone that promises success may be lying to you! There are so many factors that determine success and many of them have nothing to do with the product itself. Jim will do everything in his power to help you succeed but there are simply no guarantees.
He will email you a lengthy questionnaire. Once you answer it and send it back, he will review it and get a “baseline” from which to work and understand what you have done and what you need to do. Then, Jim will call you to review the questionnaire and begin laying out a game plan that you both will work from to ensure you stay on track and that work gets completed in order and efficiently.
He does not call on buyers as part of his standard coaching programs. Jim offers special programs that are dedicated to just selling products and that depends on a number of factors. However, Jim will teach you everything you need to know on how to make a cold call to a buyer, negotiate a deal, and follow up and get a deal done!
Hire Me for Retail Representation
See what it’s like working with a retail sales expert — take your ideas to retail faster than you can imagine.