Selling into big box retail isn’t the static process it once was. If you are relying on strategies from even two years ago, you are already behind, especially with AI bots now scanning buyer inboxes for immediate calls to action.
You’ve landed the initial meeting—you have the buyer’s attention. But what happens in that crucial, confusing middle ground where interest is high, but the product launch is stalled? This post dives deep into proven, in-the-trenches strategies for turning buyer interest into action.
Learn how to accurately identify genuine engagement—it’s not about compliments, but about specific questions on pricing, margins, and MOQs. Discover the vital importance of a 24-hour response time, how to craft a pitch summary that bypasses the “boss veto,” and the exact follow-up cadence to use when a buyer goes silent. Stop selling once they are interested, and start collaborating to get your product on the shelf.
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Turning Buyer Interest Into Action
Big Boxers, welcome to the show, a program that is dedicated to helping you get your products into a major big box retailer. Tim here. I am coming to you with some information on retail and how to get your products there. Hopefully, you have been following me in more places than just the show. Obviously, the podcast is hit or miss these days, but I have a great channel on Substack putting out some YouTube shorts. You can find it under TLB Consulting.
Retail Is Constantly Changing
The Substack is under Shelf Strategy, and I just started a new TLB Consulting Instagram page. There are lots of places to get content as information is coming faster than ever before. Interestingly, you would think selling into retail would be a fairly static process, right? You would think that things are pretty much the same. If I learned it twenty years ago, it probably still holds today. The strategies that my dad used or that people that I met years ago use probably still basically work with just a few tweaks. The honest answer to that is not really.
Whatever you were doing two years ago, three years ago, or four years ago is probably not going to work the same way that it used to. Before we get into today’s topic, I will give you just a quick example. I do not know what you guys use for email, but I use something called Superhuman. Whatever you are using, most likely there is an AI component to it. Buyers are also using that. They use it to scan their email. What emails out there are urgent? What emails out there do I need to respond to? What emails out there have calls to action? They do not use the word call to action, but when they say, “What do I need to respond to? What’s urgent?”
Whatever you were doing two, three, or four years ago probably won’t work the same way anymore. Click To TweetAI is going to read your email, and if there is no call to action in there, there is nothing that the buyer technically needs to do or should do, or you are asking them to do, that AI bot is not going to include that in the things that they say that they should follow up on. It is going to get bypassed. It is vitally important that when you are sending a buyer an email, you are very clear about what you are trying to do. You are very clear about what you want. You are very clear about what the email is about. You are also very clear about what you want them to do or what you are asking them to do.
When they say to their AI, “What emails did I get this week that I need to respond to that have some need for me to comment on?” Your email is going to pull into that because of your request. AI cannot actually look at your request and say, “That’s a new vendor that’s asking you to do this. You don’t need to respond to that.” They are just going to respond to the fact that you are asking something. That alone is a change that has happened just in the last 12 or 13 months.
That is what I am talking about. It is not the same process. It is not the same buyer. It is not the same team. It is not the same cycle. None of it is the same as it was even two years ago. One of the great things about TLB Consulting, and one of the things that I like to pride myself on, is that I am still doing it. Every day, I still talk to buyers. I am still in the trenches. I am still placing products, and things have been going well. We were launching a product in Walmart later this year in 2700 locations.
We just launched a product into Academy Sports in all stores. We launched a product in some key stores in Guitar Center, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and then Canadian Tire. That all happened in the last six to eight months. Things are continuing to go well, and we are still out there doing it. I am still out there doing it. The things that we are going to talk about are based on what I do, how I do it, and what I know works, and maybe what does not work. Believe me, I have had my fair share of things that do not work. I have had my fair share of nos. I have had my fair share of all passes.
Some of it just literally makes me want to pull my hair out. I do not know about you, but sometimes when you see, for instance, an actor in a show, you know there have got to be hundreds of actors out there that are better looking, that are more talented. How did this guy or this girl get that part? Who did they know to get placed in this show? I think the same thing about products. I will go into a retailer, and I am looking at a section. I have a product that could potentially go in that section, and I will see something. I will say, “How did that make it in here? How did that make it in there, but I got a pass?”
The Critical Middle Ground After Buyer Interest
Sometimes it is just that frustrating. One of the things that we are getting ready to cover in my Retail Accelerator group, and if you have not heard about the Retail Accelerator group, you should definitely go to TLBconsulting.com and click on Retail Accelerator. I will talk a little bit about that later at the end of the show. One of the things we are getting ready to cover is what to do once you have the buyer’s interest. This is not “What do you do once you’re in?” This is not “How do you get the buyer’s attention?”
This is that weird middle ground where you actually have the buyer’s attention. Now, what do I do? The buyer is actually interested. This is not even on my agenda here, but one of the key things I want to make sure that you know is once you have the buyer’s attention and you have identified that they have interest, which we will talk about, stop selling. A lot of times, I will see my clients, who are having a follow-up call with the buyer, and they are still trying to sell the product.
They are still trying to sell why they should buy it or why they should offer it. That is why you are on this call. They already are interested in doing that. You do not need to sell anymore. Now you are into the collaboration part. You have slid around the table. You are no longer across from each other. You have slid around the table. All you are trying to figure out is how to get this deal done because that is a big part of it.
How do you know if the buyer is actually interested? That is something that is hard to know. It is not actually hard, but you are not going to want to hear it. You are not going to want to identify it when it is happening because when the buyer is not interested, they are going to say things that make you feel really good. They are going to say things like, “Man, this product’s awesome. I can’t wait to have this product in my stores.”
“I’m going to give you a call next week, and we’re going to try to put an order together.” “I’ll get you some vendor paperwork, and we’ll get this thing rolling.” All of that is going to make you feel really good. The buyer is not interested. They are never going to call you. They are not going to send you vendor paperwork. None of that. The reason is that those are statements. They are not saying anything that would actually let you know that they are interested.
If they have questions that indicate interest, and then they say that after, “That is a whole other thing.” If that is all they are saying, as good as you feel, you will walk out of that meeting on cloud nine, as good as you feel, you are not going to talk to them again. How do you know if they are interested? They are going to ask you questions about pricing, MOQs, margins, lead samples, and logistics. They are going to start asking you things. Think about it for yourself. When is the last time you bought anything of substance without asking one or two questions?
When was the last time you walked into a car dealership, had the salesperson give you their pitch, and then said, “This is awesome, I’ll take it?” That does not happen. You are going to ask, “What’s the mileage? What’s this? What’s that? What’s the pricing? What are my rates?” There are some questions to be in there. That is how you know if they are interested. They are going to be asking you some questions. Number two. I cannot remember how many numbers I have here, but we are going to go through at least the first five.
Speed Of Execution Determines Momentum
How do you keep them engaged? A lot of times, you get this initial interest, things go quiet, and things do not happen as quickly as you want. One of the number one things that makes buyers go cold is that you were not actually ready for them to be interested. I know that sounds counterintuitive. Why would you have actually reached out if you were not ready? The thing is, you were not.
You did not have all the things that you needed to have because when the buyer starts asking you for information, if it takes you more than 24 hours to put it together, if it takes you more than 24 hours to get back to them, or if it takes you more than 24 to 48 hours to fill out paperwork that they are asking for, that is going to go colder and colder because they need to move on. They have got to keep going. Once they are engaged with you, you have to act. If you do not know some of the things that they are asking you, then you are going to delay.
Once you start to delay, they become less and less engaged and less and less interested. Number three. How much does the buyer’s boss matter? You are like, “I never even thought about the buyer having a boss.” That is right. The buyer has a boss. You will know this if you have ever had this situation where you had a buyer really interested in your product, and you were so pumped, things were really happening, and things were flowing. You even got vendor paperwork. You sent them the vendor paperwork and follow-up, and then you heard nothing.
One day, the buyer says, “You know what? Things have shifted. We’re going to pass.” That is all they give you. They just leave you cold. What that generally means, at least in my experience, is that they ran your product by their boss and their boss said, “No.” They do not want to tell you, “I got a boss, and my boss said no. I got spanked.” They do not want to tell you that.
What they are going to say is, “We pass.” They are not going to give you anything more than that, and you are going to be left cold, feeling like you did something wrong. You did not. There is a way that you can not necessarily avoid this. One of the key parts to making sure the boss says yes is making sure the buyer can pitch your product as effectively as, or maybe not as effectively, but at least as close to how you pitch it.
Making sure that the buyer can pitch it to their boss as you pitched it to them. They are not going to be as effective as you. It is not their product, but they need to have all the information that you gave them. What I like to do, and this can be a cool little nugget for you, is I like to, at the back of my deck, put a pitch summary on it. Something that the buyer can use to pitch to their boss. Do not call it a boss pitch summary. Do not do that.
At the end, I will say, “Here’s the deck for you. By the way, on the very back is kind of a summary, quick cheat sheet on everything that we talked about, all on one page,” and they can use that to pitch it to their boss. Number four. What if the buyer goes silent? They are going to go silent a lot of times because they have more things going on than just you. They have more things happening. They have to run a business too. They are not all about just bringing on new products. Wouldn’t that be great? It could be timing. It could be internal priorities or politics.
They could be waiting on approvals. It could be a whole slew of different things. Do not panic here. That is the key. Consistent follow-up. Assuming that the silence means that things are over is going to cause you to say things in an email that you should not say. Always assume that you have the business. Always assume that things are moving forward. Always assume that things are on track. Number five. Follow-up cadence. What should that be? Should you follow up every day, twice a day, or three times a day? The answer is no.
The way I do it is if the buyer requested something and I sent it to them, and then I did not hear back. Whenever I send information, I always ask at the bottom of that email, “Please confirm that you received this.” If I do not get a confirmation, then I am going to follow up probably every couple of days until I do. The reason I can do that is that you asked me for something, I sent it to you, I want to make sure it is right, and I want to make sure you have it.
Other than that, I am checking in every ten days to make sure that things are moving forward. This is
A follow-up cadence for a program that is in process. This is not a follow cadence. That is a whole different podcast, when we are actually trying to get with the buyer, talk to the buyer, and connect with the buyer. That is not what this is. This is we are in the middle of trying to onboard and see how we are going to make this situation work. I am following up every ten days or so unless the buyer tells me, “I’m going to be in China. I’m going to be here. I’m going to be there. I’m going on vacation.”
That might give me some reason that I can gap it out a little bit further than that. Number six. This should be self-explanatory, but how fast should you respond to a buyer? Same day, if you can, same day. That is when they are thinking about what it is they are asking you. That is when they need it, same day. At the very least, 24 is acceptable, 48 plus hours, you are starting to lose interest. Number seven. Does onboarding mean you are in?
No, because even once you fill out your onboarding paperwork, you still do not have a vendor number. It is once you fill out that, that is what the buyer takes to their boss. They have a meeting probably once a month where they present all these new vendors. The bosses are going to say yay or nay. Onboarding means that you have a serious interest from the buyer, but you are not in yet. You still have to get approved. You still have to get your vendor number. Ultimately, you really need to get a PO. You need to ship it, and then you need to sell it, and then you need to get a reorder.
You can actually say, “I’m in.” Every client I have ever had, I am not even going to exaggerate here, every client I have ever had, when I tell them that we have interest from a retailer, they always ask me the same thing. “How much are they going to buy? How much is this order going to be?” They start expecting numbers, quantities, and timelines right then. I am like, “Back the trolley up.” They have an interest. I do not know anything about order size. I do not know anything about the timeline.
I do not know anything about those. You are not going to for quite some time. The buyer will start to discuss that when they are ready. That is how you are going to know. “What if I don’t have enough time to make it?” You will, as long as when you filled out your paperwork, you created a lead time that is appropriate. Do not worry about that. The buyer telling you they are interested and you saying, “Sounds good. What are we thinking? What are we talking about? Container, two containers?”
That is not the right time for that. Number nine. Onboarding. If this is a big retailer like a Walmart, one of the things that you should understand about onboarding is that the buyer does not do it. The buyer is going to shift you off to the onboarding team. When you have questions about onboarding, going back and asking those to the buyer is going to fall on deaf ears. They are going to basically forget that you even existed all the way until you are onboarded, and then you shift back over for them. The only time that I go back to the buyer is when I have a question and the onboarding team is ghosting me.
I reach out to the buyer and tell them, and I always give them, “This is what’s happening, and this is what the ramifications are of the fact that they’re not answering me. You asked me to get this information in by the 13th. It’s now the 11th, and I still haven’t heard from them. Is there somebody that you can call to speed this along so I can hear back?” Always tell them, “If I don’t hear back, this is what’s going to happen, it’s going to delay things.”
It is important that you know the buyer is not generally in charge of your onboarding. That is a whole other team. You want to be nice to those people. They have a thankless job. Every big retailer’s onboarding process is difficult. It is all proprietary, and none of it makes sense. It is not like using an iPhone. It is not all connected. It is all very fragmented and difficult. If you can find somebody who can help you with that, I would do it.
Reorders Define True Retail Success
We talked about a lot of things there, and we ran down a lot of different things. The last thing, really, is when are you actually in retail? I already told you that. It is when you get a reorder from your original order. Once your product has sold enough that they start reordering it, then you can actually say that you are in. Logistically, you are in. You are on the shelf at Target, you are in.
When are you actually in retail? It’s when you get a reorder from your original order. Once your product sells through and they start reordering, that’s when you know you’re truly in. Click To TweetAre you going to stay in? That is going to depend on whether your product sells through and you get a reorder. Can you say you are in? Absolutely. Can you tell other people, “We’re on the shelf of Target”? Absolutely. If you want to stay in and have that be a staple part of your business, you are going to need to get sell-through and a reorder.
That is just a quick look at what we are going to be going through over the next few weeks in the Retail Accelerator program. Let me tell you what that is. The Retail Accelerator group is a small group of individuals who have all run a company. They all have a product. Some of them are in retail. Some of them are starting to go to retail, but they all have one thing in common. They want to get into more retailers, and they want to grow their distribution.
This is a really great group because everybody is dealing with the same kind of thing. They are dealing with some sort of rejection. They are dealing with difficult retailers. They are dealing with buyers. They are dealing with companies, logistics, and 3PLs, and all of that. A lot of times, as a solopreneur or an entrepreneur, if you are the head of your company, a lot of times it is lonely, right? There is nobody for you to talk to. Nobody really understands what you are going through.
This group does. Every few weeks, we start a new topic. We go really deep into it. We talk about each of these bullet points. They are going to probably get discussed for two different days because everybody has a different perspective. Everybody is going to have different questions. It is a really great group. If you want to know what it is all about, you can go to my website, TLBconsulting.com, and there is a button for the Retail Accelerator.
You can read down through that. You click on a link to apply for it, and then I will get back to you. We meet every Friday at noon Eastern time. Right now, it has a really great group of people in it. We are going to cap it at 20 to 25 people. If you are interested, I would love to have you apply and love to talk to you. All right, guys, it is really great to be back in the podcast saddle. I appreciate you. Do not forget to check out Shelf Strategy Substack. I have been having a lot of fun with Substack.
A lot of great articles on there. It is great to put some stuff down in writing. Do not forget to check out TLB Consulting’s YouTube. There are a lot of great shorts in there. The TLB Consulting Instagram page is just getting up and running. There are a lot of places to find us, but we are glad that you are here. I hope that your conversations with buyers are fruitful, and I look forward to seeing your products on the shelf.
Important Links
- TLB Consulting
- Shelf Strategy Substack
- TLB Consulting on YouTube
- TLB Consulting on Instagram
- TLB Consulting Retail Accelerator