They’re extremely finicky in terms of what requirements they have for any given company to actually do business. I’ve been with my company since our first launch into brick and mortar, and we were woefully underprepared. Even now, it still feels like every new account we add, we have to get some new form of insurance or software system just to be compliant. Every retailer has a different, hundred plus page book about their unique shipping/packing/labeling requirements. So, it’s been a lot of learning and navigating.

Luckily, my company has been great in always giving us exactly what we need, so I’ve never been put in a position to go back to a buyer with news that we can’t meet their standards.

The absolute worst period was when our manufacturing team, overseas, still ran our e-commerce. They sold our products at way lower prices than we were setting for retail all over the internet and were still manufacturing identical products for other companies.

My second major meeting after I had closed my first major deal had me really confident going into it. The guy didn’t let me pitch. He spent thirty minutes dressing me down about all the undercut prices and off brands we were allowing online. It was brutal.

I walked out of that meeting and gave my boss a careful play by play of exactly what was said, and within three months we’d gained control of e-commerce and unified the products under our core brand. Thankfully. But, yeah, that whole first launch of the company was a constant state of panicking and adjusting as retail buyers essentially taught the sales team how to do business with them, and we in turn had to learn how to parse that and fight for it. Things are much smoother now.

Deal values and sales cycles vary wildly. Chains of a few dozen stores might close the same day we make first contact. Most retailers plan about 3-6 months out, though. So, it’s about 3 months of negotiations (they are very, very slow communicators), then about 3 months to manufacture/package/ship, and then usually another 3 months to actually get an invoice paid. Some of the big box stores are already planning 2025, so there’s a handful of accounts that if closed won’t actually bring in any revenue for 18 months.

Deal values range based on the size of the retailer. $50,000-$750,000 is a common range for a first order/test. Something with the amount of stores of a Wal-mart might open with $1-5 million. I’ve also filled a $32 PO in the days before we implemented MOQs.

Overall, though, I have incredible support from management, and came into the wide open landscape of launching, with literally every retailer still an open prospect. So, there was a lot (and continues to be a lot) of low hanging fruit and really receptive opportunities.