At the end of January I hosted a webinar for Qoot Lebanon. an agri-food innovation cluster initiated by Berrytech and the Dutch government, supervised by Foodvalley, among others.
In this article, I’ll share the most important tips I’ve shared with Qoot. Every category in food retail is different, but for every innovation you can increase chances in the following ways:
- Know the trends and challenges in the category that you want to enter: your customer usually has the responsibility to manage many different categories. You should be the expert of the category that you are active in.
- Have a good overview of the competitive market: make sure you know all the players in the market and what their strengths and weaknesses are. What are your strength and weaknesses and where do you fit in? What is your positioning?
- Make sure your story is credible and realistic: the data you use should be correct and coming from trustworthy sources. Make sure that you perform a good analysis and that it’s credible. Optimistic is always good but keep it realistic!
- USP’s, USP’s USP’s: it all comes down to having added value. What makes you stand out in the crowd? And most importantly: does this meet consumer needs?
- Contribute to the targets of the retailer: read their strategy plans (can often be found online) and talk to those responsible. How can you help them achieve their goals?
- Make sure you have removed any barrier: this is often dependant on the category (examples are shelve life and sustainability)
- Make it concrete: always ask yourself if information is adding value to the presentation. You can always put the extra information in the attachments.
- Always keep in mind ’what’s in it for them’: why should the retailer put your product on the shelves? Try to look at the presentation from the perspective of the customer. How do you make it so that they can only say yes?
- Practice makes perfect: if you do not have a lot of experience, hire the help of an expert, or at least practice your presentation with other relevant people before you go to an important customer. You only have one chance to make a first impression!
Start-ups often ask me the question: when am I ready? I have developed a framework and way of working for this. You can always plan a meeting if you are thinking of working with me.
