The objective of this project is to facilitate greater visibility into the independent retail market. You will find the sales templates here as well as a button to add a document. This is where you will provide your communication and sales reporting quarterly.
This portal will be used to easily keep track of progress as we move forward with the introduction of the product and company to the network.
We hope you are having a good day so far. These are some of the people that have shown interest by clicking to learn more about the line through the eblast, however they did not enter their information in the lead form once they landed on the sell sheet. I am able to pull the emails associated with the accounts from my end. Please keep detailed communication notes while you are reaching out as they may not all be a good fit for your product line. As we discussed on our Product Education Call, we are going to need reporting from your end, which you can upload directly to your dashboard. Please note that the contacts were contacted through the retail association and are not familiar with our company Mr. Checkout.
C & T Food Market- Charlie- ct.mart@yahoo.com– (859) 734-2381- 123 N Main St Harrodsburg KY
Quillins Quality Inc- Mike- mike.quillin@quillinsfoods.com– (608) 785-1424- La Crosse WI
Zagaras Marketplace- John- jzagara@zmp1936.com -(216) 321-7917- Cleveland Heights OH
Ashland Food Cooperative- Kelly- marketingteam@ashlandfood.coop– (541) 482-2237 – 237 N 1st St Ashland OR
Harvest Market- Sue, Dan & Erin- moneyroom10808@agne.com– (603) 569-8944- 36 Center St Wolfeboro NH
Sickles Market- Diane -sickelsmarket@sicklesmarket.com– (732) 731-9563 -Little Silver NJ
Atkins Farms Mkt- Maryellen -maryellen@atkinsfarms.com– (413) 253-9528- 1150 WEST ST Amherst MA
Fiddleheads Food Coop- Stephanie – grocery@fiddleheadsfood.coop– (860) 701-9123 – 13 Broad St ALEXANDRIA MN
Murphy’s Markets- John- hosthq@murphysmarkets.com– (609) 654-8422- 666 Stokes Rd Medford NJ
Atkins Farms Mkt- Maryellen- maryellen@atkinsfarms.com– (413) 253-9528- 1150 WEST ST Amherst MA
We try to make this as easy as possible with templates you can find here: https://mrcheckout.net/sales-report-templates/
Please let me know if you have any trouble reaching them, Keep us updated on your progress.
Hi, When I try to log into the directory I get the message: “Cheatin’, eh?” Can this be repaired? My username and password are my email that you have on file. Also, is there a more user-friendly access to the directory? For example, I would a like share the list with employees who can reach out directly to the various businesses. We are a startup. Employees are me, my wife, and a part-time employee. Thank you for any help you can provide.
Hi,
Can you send send me a copy of the email blast that was sent out? We would like to see what our potential partners are seeing on their end.
Please email it to brian@arpatea.com.
Thank you,
Brian Daniels
Hello Brian,
I’ve sent the sample of our recent eblast for you to review. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Emailed to account manager:
Hi Michelle,
I’ve posted this to the Dashboard, but haven’t received a response. I was told I would have access to the directory. Usually, I can’t access the directory, although sometimes I can. The URL seems to never work if I type it directly into a browser window, and only works sometimes if I click the link directly that you emailed me on 9/12. If I click on the link and am brought to a login screen, I enter my username and password. I’m either taken to the naturalgrocers.org homepage, or I receive the message “Cheating, eh?”. I can only access the site sometimes by clicking directly on the link you emailed me on 9/12: https://independentgrocerassociation.com/directory/. On occasions when I am redirected to the Directory I do not have to enter a username or password, but am taken directly to the Directory.
I have tried clearing the cache and using various browsers. Whether I can access the directory or not seems very random.
Can you offer some guidance?
Sincerely,
Brian Daniels
CEO
Daniels Trading Company, LLC
http://www.arpatea.com
Hello Brian,
Thank you for reaching out. I’m unsure why the system has is operating this way and I will send this information to our team to determine if there is anything they are able to assist with.
If you do need help logging in at any time, I can log you out internally and it should allow you to access the page.
Thank you and I look foward to your reply.
Hi,
Can you log me out of the system? I am getting the message “Cheatin’, eh?” and can’t access the directory. This is a frustrating issue. It happens basically anytime I try to access the directory. Also, can you send me a lot more contacts in an accessible format? This is the value of this system, correct? I was sent “some of the people who have shown interest.” Can you please send me ALL of the people who have shown interest? Why are you teasing me with only “some”? Thanks.
Can you please address my questions from 9/24? Thank you.
Hello Daniel,
I’m sorry that you’ve had these log in errors and issues. There are no other platforms or interfaces to access our directory at this time. I’m unsure of what other procedures I can offer for you to follow in regards to the “cheatin'” error however I have sent you a password reset link to see if that will help the problem.
I would suggest once you reset the password and log in, any future attempts to access the directory from the same browser/computer, you should no log in when asked, but simply refresh the page and see if that will allow you to view the directory. Typically once you log in, even if you’ve left he site, it still will have you logged in for the next time you attempt to gain access.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions on this matter and if it would be helpful for your team, I can add an additional contact to the directory access. If that would be helpful, please send me the additional email you’d like to have added and I will set it up asap.
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for addressing this. So far I have been able to access the directory without issue. Please also add access for the following person:
Abigail Pokorski
abigail@arpatea.com
Thank you so much!
Brian Daniels
Hello Brian,
Thank you for the confirmation and I have added abigail@arpatea.com to our system as well. Their username and password will be both abigail@arpatea.com unless changed on your end.
Thank you and please let me know if you have any furhter questions.
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for adding Abigail. However, she is not longer with us beginning today.
Also, I will be emailing you the required quarterly sales report. We will be working the directory. However, none of the companies that were sent to us have indicated that they would even like to receive a sample of our product. None except C & T Food Market has said no, but neither have any said yes. Do you have more “warm” leads to send or should we just focus on calling names on the directory? Is more than one email blast sent out? How often? Thank you.
Hello,
Thank you for this update and I’ve removed Abigail’s credentials from our system. In regards to the report, I see you’ve been able to contact most of these leads once and left messages. We know it can be difficult to get in touch with some of these retailers and we would suggest you follow up between 3-5 times before considering them to be dead leads. Our team makes hundreds of calls a day and the retailers could also be receiving as many calls and voicemails a day. We also suggest phone follow up over email to ensure your mail has not ended up in their spam folders.
We will not be conducting a reintroduction by email however our team will be able to continue their introductions by phone with a more personalized approach. Once we see what feedback you receive from this continued follow up, we can then discuss our moving forward with these calls.
Hi,
Thank you. I am in the process of hiring an employee, so once that is done calls and follow-ups will be regular.
Secondly, I cannot access the directory. Please reset it. Is there something more that can be done? This is a regular problem.
Thanks again!
Brian Daniels
Hello Brian,
Thank you for the updates and I look forward to how everything progresses with the additional team member. I have logged you out of the directory and it should no allow you to have access. If you’re unable to get into to directory consistently, we can try to add an alternative email again or we can schedule a call to try to trouble shoot in real time.
Let me know and if you need to schedule a call, you can schedule a follow up call with me using this link: https://mrcheckout.net/follow-up-call-with-account-manager/
Hi,
So I can only access the Directory sometimes by clicking the link that was sent to me. Most often, however, it doesn’t work. When it does work, I am taken directly to the directory and am not requested to enter a username or password. Most of the time, though, I am taken to a login page. When I enter my credentials I am either redirected your main page, or I receive the message “Cheatin’, eh?” It feels like it is on a timer because when I can access it, I can access it on a variety of devices and browers. I was only sent 9 leads initially. My new employee is going to be primarily calling businesses to promote our product. She will likely be calling 25+ business per day. Your database seems promising, but I can’t benefit from it if I cannot login. Please fix my access in a permanent way.
Am I current with my requirements for your company? Is there anything outstanding on my part? Thank you.
Hello,
Thank you for reaching out. There is nothing outstanding from your company with our program and we can discuss the directory access further during our upcoming call.
Thank you and I look forward to speaking with you next week.
Hi,
I have a new, full-time employee. Her name is Savana Griggs. Her email is savana@arpatea.com. Can you create a separate user profile for her? — Thank you for speaking with me the other day. Refreshing the webpage after logging in was the key.
Secondly, I spoke with Patel Vipul with Brooklyn Born Mini Mart. He requested a sample. When I spoke with him recently he said the sample hasn’t sold yet, and when it sells he will place an order. I find this to be very unusual. Is this a case where your team can reach out? Our minimum wholesale orders are for a dozen boxes of tea at $60 or a dozen pouches at $96. The initial commitment for a retailer is very small.
Thirdly, I have two questions about what to include when we submit our sales reports:
1. Should each report only include businesses we contacted during the period, or should it be cumulative including all businesses we ever contacted?
2. Should we only include businesses that indicated that they want a sample or all businesses contacted?
And, lastly, we will submit the October sales report shortly.
Thank you,
Brian
Hello Brian,
Thank you for these updates and questions. I have added Savana’s email to our database and her user name and password are both “savana@arpatea.com”. She now has access to the directory as well.
In regards to Patel Vipul, it seems he is unsure of the sell through from his end and would like to see if he can move the samples before purchasing. As he is a small operation, he may be hesitant to pull the trigger without the data backing him. Have you discussed the pricing with him and if possible, offered any incentives for the first order. I suggest holding off on our team’s follow up until after we see the feedback from his customers.
As for the reporting, I look forward to seeing the details of your outreach thus far and the data we are looking for is for all contacts Mr. Checkout has delivered and the feedback you’ve received from all of your follow up thus far. We like to see how the outreach has progressed and when and who you were able to speak with.
Thank you and let me know if you have any further questions.
Hello,
I just uploaded our 10/22 sales report template. It is a culmination of Sept & Oct contacts. Is it okay to send you an ever-growing file?
I have a suggestion for the Project Discussion reponses: It would be helpful if the most recent messages appeared at the top of the discussion so I don’t have to scroll to the bottom of the page to see new messages. Can you talk to your IT about that?
RE: Patel Vipul, you seem to be well acquainted with him. Is that correct? We offer many incentives to our retail partners which we outline in our brochure including 50% margin, low minimum orders, $20 flat shipping, free shipping on orders over $300, an 11″ x 17″ window poster, shelf talkers, tri-fold brochures, end-caps (custom order for orders over $500), promotion of his business on our website and social media, digital ads, and promotion of his business at our in-person events. So, yes, he has been made aware of our incentives.
We have sent out several samples. We will continue to work the database.
Sincerely,
Brian Daniels
Hello Brian,
Thank you for the report. I do see that you have many samples being reviewed and I look forward to seeing the feedback you receive from them. I understand it can seem too persistent to try to follow up again to retrieve feedback, however we feel 3-5 attempts is necessary to ensure no opportunities will be missed.
Please feel free to keep me updated with new reports showing all of this data as well as the continued follow up. Our team will like to see how things progress from report to report.
Once we see the feedback from those who are reviewing samples, we can move forward with our team’s phone outreach as well.
Hi,
Multiple retailers we have reached out to have said they are interested in our tea, but that they require that we are associated with a distribtor. I thought the database was a list of Natural Grocers members who are looking for direct relationships. Can you provide insight?
Thanks,
Brian
Hello Brian,
I’d like to get a better idea of the type of retailers who are looking for distributor relationships. Could you please advise are these retailers we’ve delivered from our blast or retailers you’re reaching out to from our member directory?
This information will help me determine where the disconnect may be and what we need to do to proceed forward.
Hi,
Of the retailers you delivered from the blast, only Fiddleheads seems to be genuinely interested. Notes regarding our interaction with all through 10/31 have been submitted. It’s businesses from the membership directory that are desiring that we have a connection with a distributor for them to begin working with us. We’ve probably spoken to 10 of around 100 who have specifically said they require us to be affiliated with a distributor before they will consider carrying our product.
Thanks for your continued communication.
Sincerely,
Brian Daniels
Hello Brian,
Thank you for the swift reply. I understand would be happy to have our team conduct further introductions to see if we can move the relationships forward. Please send me the retailer company name and who you spoke with, as well as the name of the distribution company they wanted you to work with.
I will then have our team follow up on these matters.
Thank you and I look forward to your reply.
Hello,
I will get you those names shortly. The directory appears to not be working. I would set a screenshot, but you folks have that disabled. When we log in the database appears fully intact. Then as the screen finishes loading, the table reduces with no data. I will take a photograph and email that to you.
Thank you,
Brian
Hello Brian,
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. I have received the screen shot and sent it to our team to investigate and correct.
I will reach out to let you know when this matter is corrected.
Emailed to account manager:
Here is a list of the companies we have spoken to already that have requested that we belong to a distributor before they would be able to work with us.
14 Carrot
Abundance Cooperative Market
Acme Fresh Market
Ashland Food Cooperative
Ace Natural, who is also on the list, is a food distributor. acenatural.com
We’ve called through around 100 companies so far.
Sincerely,
Brian Daniels
Hello,
While our team investigates the directory and waits for your reply regarding the distributors, we’ve received some additional interest from our retailers.
2 J’s Fresh Market- Eugene- esaxton@2jsfreshmarket.com -(406) 761-0134- 105 Smelter Ave NE Ste 17 Great Falls MT -2jsfreshmarket.com
After speaking with Eugene, he’s expressed interest in the line and asked for an email with more information.
Act Natural Health Foods- actnaturalhealthfoods@yahoo.com– Joyce- (912) 882-2563- 695 Kingsbay Rd St Marys GA -https://www.actnaturalhealthfoods.com/
Asked to email Joyce with more information and she’ll review the line further.
Healthy Edge- newproduct@healthyedge.com– Jeff Shackleford- (918) 664-2136- 3321 E 31st St Tulsa OK -akins.com
After reaching out to Jeff, we’ve received this reply.
Thanks for reaching out to us! We are always looking for new, exciting and unique products for our stores. We attempt to make the review process pretty easy and straight forward, just follow these steps:
Send 1 of each of your products you would like to have reviewed/considered to the address below.
In the box with the products please be sure to include the following information:
Sale sheets for the product(s)
List of distributors the product is currently in
If not currently in distributors please provide:
Unit minimum order quantity
Freight Paid minimum order quantity/dollar amount
Wholesale Cost List
Your contact information – email and phone
Once the box arrives it will be assigned to the category manager and they will reach out to you to start discussions and let you know expected time lines for the review process and ask any questions they may have.
The Healthy Edge Retail Group
Attn: Jeff Shackelford
7807 E 51st St
Tulsa OK 74145
Hello,
On the 11/21 post I referenced several retailers who require that we are affiliated with a distributor in order to consider our products. I reached out to the companies and have been provided the following information:
14 Carrot – United, KeHe
Ashland Food Cooperative – Rogue Natural Foods
Abundance Coop – They said they will email me a list of their current distributors.
Acme Fresh Market – UniFi, KeHe, Sherwood Foods, Lipari Foods
PS. The directory is still not working. When I log in, the information loads temporary. The site continues to load. When it finishes loading the spreadsheet information disappears. I can still see the spreadsheet, but there is no data. Please see that the database is accessible to us as this has been our primary means of reaching new businesses since contracting with your company.
Hello,
Thank you for these additional details. I will ask our team to reach out to these provided distributors to see if we can get the conversations started that can lead to relationships with their retailers. Please still forward me the information you receive from Abundance Coop as well.
Please note, It may be best for our team to wait to conduct this outreach once Q1 has begun and the distributors are more receptive to reviewing new products. If they do think the response will be positive before January, they will begin their calls. Please continue to monitor this page for these results and the updates from our team.
In regards to our directory, I’ve sent this matter to our team as it does not seem to be an isolated incident and they will be working on correcting this issue asap. I will reach back out once I have confirmation that it has been fixed.
Hi,
We’re really striking out here. We have contacted 100+ retailers now. Only about 15 have accepted samples. We still haven’t had any orders yet. Many emails/phone calls. I thought these were partner retailers who were ready to receive product. How do we even do a test market when no one will carry our product? We contracted with you for test market placement to eventually solicit distributors. None of your “contacts” are legitimate. Please advise. How will you help? You should have been upfront that you were just selling access to a list.
Sincerely,
Brian Daniels
724-506-3319
Hello Brian,
I understand the frustration however it sounds like there has been a major misconception about our timeline. This process is not fast paced, that is why we have a 2-year (minimum) agreement. It takes time to build relationships with our guys, hence it has taken us 30 years to create, keep, and manage our relationships. Perhaps this is not the business model that you may have envisioned.
As mentioned, we will move forward with our team’s outreach as mentioned in my previous message. I see from the recently uploaded report that several of the contacts needed to be followed up still and suggest conducting this follow up after the start of Q1 as the retailers should be more responsive at that time.
Thank you again for reaching out and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and a wonderful holiday.
Hello,
I hope you’re doing well today and have had a good start to your new year so far. Our team will begin making their calls to the provided distributors as we discussed however I was hoping to add the distributors for Abundance co-op as you mentioned you’d be sending. Have you received their list of distributors as of yet?
Thank you and I look forward to your reply.
Hello,
I hope you’re doing well today. Our team have completed their outreach to the distributors mentioned previously and below are the next steps and results from their outreach. Please feel free reach out to these distributors using the information provided below to continue the introductions.
UNFI requests that new product go through Range ME
https://www.unfi.com/new-supplier
KeHE takes on new product submissions through Range Me
https://www.kehe.com/suppliers/
Rouge Natural Foods – http://roguenaturalfoods.com/contact/
Please contact them directly though their provided contact form to continue the introductions.
Lipari Foods, LLC- Ron Bachon -586-447-3500- info@liparifoods.com– 26661 Bunert Rd. Warren, MI 48089- https://liparifoods.com/contact/ We’ve tried to connect with Ron but have not yet been in touch. We are continuing to conduct this outreach however feel free to reach out to him as well to introduce the line further.
SHERWOOD FOOD DISTRIBUTORS- 313-659-7300 -12499 Evergreen Rd, Detroit, MI 48228 https://sherwoodfoods.com/#
We’ve tried to connect with the buyer for Sherwood but have not yet been in touch. We are continuing to conduct this outreach however feel free to reach out to them as well to introduce the line further.
We hope you’re doing well. Would you mind sending me the reports on the leads we sent over. As we discussed on our product education call, we require communication reporting every quarter at minimum. This helps us get a better understanding of how the conversations are going and if they are or are not a good fit for your product. Once we receive this information, we can then follow up on our end as to why it wasn’t a good fit and then regroup and find the retailers that may be a better market fit. This is also one of your roles and responsibilities listed your contract with us.
We try to make this as easy as possible with templates you can find here: https://mrcheckout.net/sales-report-templates/
Please make sure to include if the retailer decided it was not the right fit so that we will be able to regroup and try to find the right retailers to make a better market fit.
We hope you’re doing well. Would you mind sending me the reports on the leads we sent over. As we discussed on our product education call, we require communication reporting every quarter at minimum. This helps us get a better understanding of how the conversations are going and if they are or are not a good fit for your product. Once we receive this information, we can then follow up on our end as to why it wasn’t a good fit and then regroup and find the retailers that may be a better market fit. This is also one of your roles and responsibilities listed your contract with us.
We try to make this as easy as possible with templates you can find here: https://mrcheckout.net/sales-report-templates/
Please make sure to include if the retailer decided it was not the right fit so that we will be able to regroup and try to find the right retailers to make a better market fit.
Hi,
I’ve attached our 12/2022 report. Sorry for the delay. January’s report will be posted more promptly. We have been members of RangeMe since June 2022. We had discovered that many large distributors like UNFI, KeHe, and Giant Eagle (Pittsburgh-based grocery chain) only use RangeMe.
We are being much more selective about the companies we contact that are listed in your database.
Sincerely,
Brian Daniels
Hello Brian,
Thank you for sharing these updates. I see you have several potential sales with the contacts you’ve connected with. Please keep me updated on how those relationships progress and when the sales have been completed.
