Opportunities to sell the products you produce are evolving all the time. We focus on selling to retail, however you can learn a lot from selling direct and applying what you learn to your retail customers. This is not a new idea but how you execute is changing. You can also learn more about what your retail customers are trying to accomplish with consumers.

What you learn can be as important as what you sell

There are a number of options for producers to sell direct to consumers. You can sell at the farm, set up in farm markets, make your products available through a consolidation point such as Penguin Fresh or even sell on-line.

Regardless of the option(s) you select, you want to put some money in the bank and learn from your interaction with consumers. The learning can be invaluable and consider it one of the most effective forms of consumer research. Consumer research in the food industry can be very expensive and time consuming. Direct selling, especially in primary agriculture where consumers want it, can be an opportunity to get paid to conduct research.

Direct selling allows you to sell segments of your crop that might not meet the specifications demanded by your retail customers or perhaps the product is great quality, but does not have the shelf life to travel through a warehouse and into a store.  Regardless of the attributes, direct selling can increase your saleable yield, which should be beneficial.

You have the opportunity to trial smaller amounts for direct selling before you have to commit to bigger numbers for your retail customers. This is the opportunity to watch how your products perform and which new varieties will resonate with consumers. You will learn more when you can get dependable input from consumers. Perhaps make them a special offer if they take your one-page form that is designed to give you product feedback and return it the following week. They will receive the special offer when they bring your research form back.

Direct selling can be a great learning experience for different people in your business. When you see an employee who has the passion for selling direct to consumers they might be ready for the next step of working with some of your larger customers.

Listen to consumers. The real win for you is to interpret their opinions and use them to predict the future. Steve Jobs from Apple used to include anticipating consumer needs as an integral part of his definition for marketing. In your business, it can take years to develop new products so insights you get from consumers about how varieties perform and taste can save you a lot of time and resources.

How you apply what you learn to your retail customers

One of the biggest benefits of direct selling is that there is some validation to your ideas and opportunities. You can share your experience and the results. It is important to remember that a farm market is not a grocery store. There are a number of differences so you need to consider the following before you run to your retail customers with opportunities to change the world:

1. Consumers who patronize farm markets or other direct selling options are not always exactly the same as consumers who do their shopping in grocery stores. Definitely there is cross over. However the dedicated farm market consumer will not be as concerned about imperfections, size and packaging. Right or wrong we have trained retail consumers to expect certain things.
2. The shopping environment is very different. Assortment in direct selling is much less. Your products ‘compete’ against many other produce items from around the world in a bigger retail environment.
3. Consumers trust farmers and they don’t have nearly the same level of trust for big retailers. You can sell things they just can’t. A farm market consumer might see a small container of locally grown sweet cherries as a real find whereas the same offering in a big retail store is perceived as over priced and does not support the positioning of the retail format.
4. Don’t underestimate the power of selling that happens in farm markets. Your product in a large retail store gets very little attention. They will display it and put a sign with a description and a price. It needs to sell itself whereas  direct selling is a different experience.

Different markets can deliver different results

Direct selling and selling to retail offer different benefits to you. Keep the priorities and the expectations in line with the channel where you are selling. Learn in both and do not try to apply what you learn directly from one to another.

If you have any questions about selling your products direct to consumers please give me a call at (902) 489-2900 or send me an email at peter@skufood.com.   Next month we will explore on-line selling of food.

RETAIL NEWS

Keep looking for opportunities to differentiate

Recently I was walking through Costco and this package caught my attention. Costco members get two cartons of molasses and a cookbook. There are a few reasons this is a good idea.

1. The cookbook removes the direct comparison to the same carton in any retail store.
2. Cookbooks drive consumption
3. The value totally changes with the addition of the cookbook. Consumers would attach a different value to the cookbook and it will vary by consumer.
4. It is different. Standing out in a sea of products is always a challenge.

A cookbook with your product might or might not be realistic. The challenge for you is what can you do to achieve the wins we listed with your products and packaging?