270. How To Land Shelf Space & Win at Retail

0:00The retailers won't tell you this, but I will. If you're an emerging CPG brand, chances are you're feeling two things at the moment retail expansion enters the conversation. One, you're excited about landing more doors. And two, you're terrified about blowing the opportunity before you even get on the shelf. And that fear is real because most brands do blow it. Not because they lack a great product, not because their mission isn't compelling, and not because their story isn't meaningful. but because the entire industry has trained founders to believe that landing shelf space is about sending samples, having a check ready for slotting in other retailer fees, having a pretty sell sheet, complete customer testimonials, graphs and data, showing up at the appointment with a multi-page deck and hoping the buyer says yes.

0:48But that's not how it works. In reality, retailers don't buy products, they buy confidence. Confidence that you understand the retailers go to market strategy. their competitive landscape so that you can help them grow market share, their shoppers, the category, the trend shaping category growth, where your product belongs, and how you'll help them win. Landing shelf space is not a pitch, it's a partnership. Today I'm going to show you how to land shelf space and win at retail using a strategic founder-led approach almost no small brand ever uses. This alone will give you a significant competitive advantage.

1:25And I'll be deploying from the New Items Essentials system, starting with one of the most important mini courses inside it, how to land shelf space and win at retail. This is a foundational skill big brands groom into their teams and one that smaller brands must master if they want their new item launches to succeed. This is also one of the most asked questions founders routinely submit to my articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, and emails. But before we dive into the strategies, let me take you back to a real moment in my journey, a lesson that shaped how I approach retail to this day. The story.

2:00The first time I realized why retailers say no. Years ago when I was consulting a fast-growing natural brand, we had a meeting with a major retailer for a key category view. The founder was excited. They had been having a lot of success. The product was strong and it was a good fit for the retailer. The mission was inspiring and it was aligned with the retailer. Velocity was promising. On paper, it looked like a slam dunk. But as the founder delivered his presentation, I could see the buyer's expression shift from curious to confused to disengaged. At the end of the meeting, the buyer said, I like your product, but I'm not convinced you know how it fits into our store.

2:39That was it. No placement, no test, no second chance. On the drive back, the founder asked me what happened. Here's what I told him, the same truth I'm going to share with you today. You told the brand story. You didn't tell the category story. That's the moment founders lose a sale because retailers aren't looking for your mission first and why you think it's a good fit for them. They're looking for how your product grows their category, attracts more shoppers, and differentiates them from their competition. And the founder had never been taught how to do that. This is why I created the New Items Essentials system so brands can show up prepared, confident, and strategically aligned with what retailers actually need.

3:21This is also why podcast episode 54 struck such a chord because misplacement, misunderstanding, and misalignment cost brands tens of thousands of dollars after they get on the shelf. But the truth is many brands never even get to that point because their initial presentation never speaks the retailer's language. Go back and listen to that episode to gain insider secrets to getting on the shelf with retailers with Mathis Martinez, formerly with Kroger. Today's episode fixes that. Why this matters? Landing shelf space isn't luck. It's a system. You increase your odds dramatically when you understand the retailer's objectives and their go-to-market strategy.

4:02The retailer's competitors and what gaps you can help them close. The category dynamics. How all the products in the category interact. Shopper behavior. How shoppers purchase the category, how they make buying decisions. The shopper's need states. Think of a need state as the problem they are trying to solve. For example, if you want to cook an Italian dinner for two, you might want pasta, tomato basil sauce, Parmesan cheese, bread, wine, and everything else that will make the meal memorable. What problem does your product solve and how does the customer shop your products? This is the kind of information retailers need from you.

4:40This is the kind of information they can't get on their own. Sharing this will differentiate your brand. So, where does your product fit? How does your product transform the shopper experience? For example, plant-based shoppers typically purchase other plant-based items across other categories. And how can you help retailers attract more shoppers and grow profit? This is where you highlight your market basket and you show how you plan to drive shoppers into the store. For example, when shoppers purchase your product, they also purchase X, Y, and Z. Therefore, your market basket is 12 % higher than the average market basket for other items in the category.

5:17This episode is the first pillar in the New Items Essentials series, which includes fundamental category view strategies, assessing your brand health, hint, it's not velocity, but rather your brand's contribution, Shelf strategies, assortment strategies, merchandising, market basket growth, data analytics, broker effectiveness, category management strategies. And today we're going to cover the step that determines whether you even get a shot. How to land shelf space and win at retail through advanced category management thinking. Let's dive into the strategies that will transform how you approach new item placement.

5:52Strategy number one. Retailers buy category growth, not products. The founder mistake. Most founders walk into a retail meeting believing the retailers are evaluating their brand. They're not. Retailers are evaluating the category and whether your product will grow basket size, meaning cause shoppers to spend more at the register. Trade shoppers up, meaning cause shoppers to spend more per transaction. Drive traffic, meaning bring new shoppers into the category. Differentiate their assortment, meaning providing something unique in their market and deliver profitable contribution and velocity. The ranking report trap.

6:30Most retailers place too much emphasis on their ranking report, but that doesn't tell the whole story. As I shared in episode 269, big brands tend to drive velocity through deep discounts, effectively commoditizing their product and the category, providing no real incentive to the retailer shoppers to be loyal when their price returns to normal. Despite this, their products tend to rank high on a traditional ranking report. This is why ranking reports are incomplete. They don't tell the full story. The real metric you need to consider is dollars per point in distribution. This is your brand's contribution.

7:06This is also what the retailer takes to the bank. I dig more into this and why it matters in the Assessing Your Brand Health mini course. The better way is you must show how your brand aligns with the retailer's strategy, why your product matters to the shopper, what problems it solves, back to their need states, How grows the category more profitable than mainstream alternatives, the big brands? To do this, use fact-based insights like shopper behavior. Better-for-you shoppers are less price-sensitive, and they will choose premium products that align with their needs, like less sugar, high-protein, plant-based, etc.

7:41Clean label trends are at the center of healthy eating. Shoppers want simple, easy-to-pronounce ingredients that can be easily found in nature that are pesticide and chemical-free. Food as medicine patterns are a key trend that drives a lot of shopper buying decisions. Market basket expansion. Shoppers who buy your brand buy other premium products while in their store. Thus, your market basket is higher than other brands in the category. Action steps to do this week. Number one, identify the two to three attributes your idea shopper values most. Have a conversation with them. They will tell you in their words why they choose your brand.

8:16Use their quotes in your retailer sales decks. Number two, map out how those attributes drive incremental category dollars. Use facts to validate your claims. Number three, prepare one slide that says, here's how we help you win your shopper. To dig deeper into this, listen to podcast episodes 104, 202, and 176 to help you better understand the category dynamics. Strategy number two, perfect your recommended placement argument. The founder mistake. They pitch their brand without specifying where it belongs in the retailer's shelf. Or worse, they say we're flexible. No, flexibility is not a strategy.

8:53Your shoppers won't go on a scavenger hunt to find your brand. From the retailer lens, retailers are an expert in every category. They rely on others to manage your category schematics. Those time crunch resources typically manage schematics across multiple categories. Your brand is not their priority. The third-party companies don't produce high-quality results in most cases. Speaking from personal experience, some of the sets I've seen are complete train wreck. Internal analysis. Some of their numbers overlook key metrics like your contribution and how your brand interacts with other items in the category and the store.

9:29Broker assumptions, including brokers that might manage competing products in the same category. Incomplete planograms with incomplete product dimensions and configurations. Your job is to show them where the shopper expects to find your product and why. The better way is to show a photo of your competitive set. Provide your recommended schematic. There's a creative recommendation included in the new items essential guide available at the end of the episode. A brief, fact-based explanation of how the shopper shops their category. If this sounds familiar, it's because episode 104 proved how disastrous misplacement is.

10:03Action steps to do this week. Number one, take photos of the exact shelf where your items belong. Number two, annotate it with where your product belongs and why. Show where the shopper expects to find your items with fact-based reasoning. Tie your product placement to how your core customer shops a store. For example, when she buys X, she also looks for Y. Number three, add a slide title. Here's where we belong and why it helps your shopper win. Strategy number three, master the retailer persona. Retailers don't all want the same things. Whole Foods wants innovation plus premium shopper alignment.

10:41Kroger wants mass adoption plus category expansion. Sprouts wants attribute plus first differentiation. Costco wants efficiency plus trade-up value. Target wants lifestyle alignment. The founder mistake is pitching the same story to every retailer. The better way is to customize your pitch to match the retailer's persona. Most brands consistently make demands from retailers. How do I know this? I've held several senior retail management positions, including grocery manager at Price Club, now Costco. Few, if any, brands spoke to me as a person, not realizing that I held the fate of their brand in my hands.

11:18This is back when I had almost complete autonomy over my department, including what items I sold. When I worked for Unilever, we called this account penetration. We were required to compose a detailed analysis of each retailer. I knew each retailer intimately as a result. I knew what mattered to the retail buyer as a person as well as a retail category buyer in addition to the retail go-to-market strategy, their pricing and promotion strategy, and etc. We talked as friends and I was quickly able to gain their trust as a result. That simple lesson has paid huge dividends. Demonstrate that you know how to help them achieve their objectives on a consistent basis.

11:56Put their needs first always. Action steps to do this week. Number one, write one sentence. Our brand helps retailer win by number two. Build your pitch around that one sentence. Number three, eliminate anything that doesn't support that narrative. Strategy number four, use data like a category leader. Retailers don't want pretty charts, they want insights. The founder mistake is showing top line velocity without any context. Through the retailer lens, they want to know how their product compares in their store and in the market, How your brand impacts overall category growth in the store and the market If your brand index is high with premium households If your item fills an assortment gap at their store or in the market How it affects shopper loyalty, share of wallet, and basket size The better way is to turn numbers into strategy Instead of, our velocity is X, try shoppers who buy our product spend 23 % more in this category or our item converts mainstream shoppers into premium ones.

13:01This is where the category is headed. Action steps to do this week. Number one, identify your top two to three insights using syndicated POS data and shopper marketing data. Number two, create a single slide titled, here's what the data says and what your shoppers want next. This alone differentiates you as a category leader, not just a brand. Strategy number five, build partnerships, not presentations. Retailers reward brands that make their jobs easier. The founder mistake is that brands show up to get shelf space. The better way is to show how you give value. They already know how the category is performing in their store.

13:38Provide insights they don't have access to. Insights are on how your core customer shops a category and how your shoppers are uniquely qualified to help the retailer achieve their objectives. When they buy your brand, they also buy X, Y, and Z. Their market basket is X percent higher than other brands in the category. A great thing to showcase is how your ideal customer buys other things the retailer cares about most in their store. This goes back to knowing their strategy and what matters most to them. For example, years ago I was able to gain exclusive distribution on a national brand by highlighting how customers who purchased our brand also purchased their produce, meat, and dairy.

14:16These were the things that the retailer cared about most, where they drove the highest margins and the largest basket growth. Conversely, the competitor shoppers were loyal to price and therefore would go to a different retailer if they found a better price. This is what I mean by brands using deep discounts to commoditize their brand and the category effectively not providing any real loyalty to their shoppers to remain loyal to a specific retailer. This positions you as a partner, not as a vendor. Action steps to do this week. 1. Bring one unexpected insight to your next retailer conversation.

14:50Number two, bring one creative but practical merchandising solution. Number three, ask what's the biggest challenge you're trying to solve in this category? That one question flips the entire dynamic. Recap, five ways to land shelf space and win at retail. Number one, sell category growth, not your product. Number two, own your recommended placement argument. Number three, align with a retailer's persona and strategy. Number four, use data in the way category leaders do. Number five, show up as a strategic partner, not as a vendor. None of these require a big budget. They require clarity, preparation, and knowing what retailers actually care about.

15:34This is how small brands punch far above their weight class. This is how you land more shelf space and keep it. This is how you extend your runway while growing sales sustainably. In closing, over the next several episodes in the New Items Essentials series, We're going to dig deeper into evaluating your brand health, maximizing assortment, building merchandising strategies that drive shopper loyalty, increasing market basket size, and mastering category management. If you haven't already, download the New Items Essential Guide in the show notes. It includes placement visuals, checklists, and strategies big brands use, but small brands rarely see.

16:12And as always, subscribe and follow the show. Connect with me on LinkedIn. in. Visit RetailSolve.com for a full list of episodes plus brand building resources. Share this episode with a founder who needs to hear it. In the next episode, we're going to talk about why trade spend fails and how to fix it. You don't need to play the same game big brands play. You just need to understand how the game works and how to stack the odds in your favor. I'm Dan Lohman and this is the Bulletproof Your CPG Brand Podcast. Want a competitive edge? The recipe for success. Here's this week's free downloadable guide.

16:45New product innovation is a lifeblood of every brand. New products fuel sustainable growth, attract new shoppers, and increase brand awareness. Learn the crucial steps to get your product on more retailer shelves and in the hands of more shoppers. Maximizing your trade marketing can pour rocket fuel on your lunch. Thanks for joining us today. Please reach out and share your most pressing questions, and I'll do my best to get you the answers that you need on future episodes, including expert advice from CEOs and industry thought leaders. Comment, leave your questions, and get this week's free downloadable guide and the show notes at RetailSolve.com slash session 270.