Selling Strategy

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

• Becoming a B Corp
• Top trend predictions for Christmas 2021
• Self-sacrifice: The importance of building a leadership legacy centred on others
• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

A couple of comments this week from different quarters have caused me to think, and as I was with some retailers at the Association of Independent Stores Food Gift Show this week, generated some conversations there too

The first was an e-mail from a long-standing customer in London to one of my Regional Account Managers basically saying in a nutshell: “Thank you for all your service and products over the past 8 + years, but we have decided to change what we are doing, and are going to source products directly from Europe that are exclusive to us in London. We love your products but we see them in other stores nearby, which you must be supplying, and don’t want to be the same as them.” 

It was a much longer e-mail than that, but that was the gist of what they were saying. I completely understand where they are coming from, and as they have 2-3 stores this strategy may work logistically for them. But would a shop full of brands that no-one has ever heard of work? It may do if the staff within the shop were super sales people and also did lots of tastings, as I am sure they would be very good products. However, foodie consumers, whilst always appreciating new products and brands, will generally spend more of their hard-earned cash on brands that are trusted and known within the speciality food sector. Surely the balance is to have a mix of innovation and exclusivity but also brands that consumers will recognise, and by this I don’t mean supermarket brands. There are still many recognisable brands within the sector that do not supply supermarkets, or Costa Coffee or BP garages!

The second correspondence this week was from one of my Regional Account Managers. I had sent out a few questions for them to reply to regarding the speciality retail sector at present, and one of these was along the lines of which shops were doing well at present and which perhaps not so well. Being a Regional Account Manager means you do have time to think whilst in the car, and her answer was that the shops that were prospering at present were those that were innovating and had the most positive response to the new brands she was showing them. The example she used was that of Beetroot Ketchup, a new product we launched a month ago. The response from the growing retailers was very positive – they had ordered 10 cases, made a display, done tastings and ordered another 10 cases the following week. The response from some other retailers was less positive – “beetroot ketchup – who would ever buy that?” Of course, there are many other factors involved, but a lot of success has to do with people and their attitude, but I guess we all know that anyway!

The sun is finally shining – have a good week!