If you understand the words below, you understand your customers’ business (retailers and distributors). In this article, I share with you the most important elements of your customer's business that you should understand.

It's super important to understand where they are with each, and how you can help. Your goal is to make their life easy as well. A classic example is they love it if you handle the delivery instead of they worrying about the pick-up location from your warehouse.

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That is just one example. Try and work on the below and you will build a solid business.

1. Depletion rate

2. Inventory turnover

3. Profit contribution per box

4. Delivery schedules

5. Logistics

6. RIP (Retail Incentive Program)

7. Slot / Placement Fee

8. What Info is needed for their POS / Quickbooks / Systems to be a vendor?

9. RFP and How It Works if Pitching Chains

10. Their floor staff to the c-suite staff

11. What do they cover in their internal meetings?

12. Rack / Merchandise / Promotional programs and support

13. Contracts / Agreements / Reports

14. Portfolio. Who are their top suppliers for profit and for volume and why?

The above tips are based on my experience of me building my own brands. I do understand the challenges brand owners face and that's why Beverage Trade Network was created.

I am happy to share some of the old samples of my work, like the emails I used to send to get new distributors, agreement samples, merchandise programs, support programs, trade ad copies and more. DM me if you need it. Happy to help. You can reach me on LinkedIn or Instagram.