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.
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Hi Michelle! Thanks for getting back with me. How will I know if an order comes in or anything? Will I get notified via email or only on this platform and if so, what would it look like?
Thanks again,
Heather
Hello Heather,
I will be posting the retailers who clicked to learn more about your product line for follow up and you should be receiving the sample requests leads direclty to your email as we confirmed during our product education call. Please be sure to check this page and your email (and spam folder) for all leads mentioned.
Thank you and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Hi Michelle! I found a lead in my spam folder…thanks for the heads up.
Thanks again,
Heather
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.
obullock@bullocks.com
iguatigu2@igu.com
edensdownunder@yahoo.com
marketingteam@ashlandfood.coop
tjhoffner@delallo.com
fran@delallo.com
gswegart@savemart.com
mstarr@plainfield-township.com
info@netcostmarket.com
cheryl@goodfoodstore.com
jeffh@bfsal.com
jzagara@zmp1936.com
vmpurchasing@southern.edu
grocery@fiddleheadsfood.coop
maryellen@atkinsfarms.com
jason.harding@superamart.com
manager@leesmarket.com
plannon@atkinsfarms.com
bmargolis@cooperbooth.com
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 Michelle, I see the emails but not necessarily the names of the company. What am I supposed to put in the company name section of the excel spreadsheet if unsure?
Hello,
Thank you for reaching out. We’ve provided you with a directory of all of the members (with compnay names and other contact information) of the Natural grocer’s association and I’ve sent you the log in information via email previously. Here is the link to the directory for your convenience: https://independentgrocerassociation.com/directory/
Please let me know if you have any issues logging into the directory and keep me updated as your outreach to these contacts progress.
Hi Michelle I can’t log in to see anything 🙁
Hello,
I’m sorry you’re having issue loggin into our directory. Could you please let me know what error message you’re receving? If you’ve received a notice that you’re “cheating” you can simply clear your computer’s cookies and try to log in again. Clearing your computer’s cookies will force a log out and allow you to log back in.
Please let me know if this will allow you to log in again and if you continue to have issues, please let me know.
Hi Michelle, I was just wondering if there was any kind of a 30 money back option or anything. I’m really not impressed with spending $2,500 and getting what I feel is no return on investment.
Thanks, Heather
Hello Heather,
Thank you for reaching out. Unfortunately our set up and onboarding fee is non refundable. We realize that $2,500 for a national push is not pennies but it is a small cost for committing our team’s time and resources.
We’re still very early on in our program and feel there is still opportunity in the line. As we discussed on our product education call, we’re looking for the feedback we receive from this initial group of contacts before we move forward with more outreach. We will use the feedback you receive to determine if we adjust our focus or target specific retailers within our association before getting on them on the phones.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions and keep me updated on how your follow up progresses.
It’s just I have emailed every one of the contacts and not even received a single reply. Also, I seem to be getting very few leads. How often do you advertise my brand? Is this something that happens weekly?
Thanks, Heather
Hello Heather,
We do suggest reaching out by phone as well as email to make a connection with these retailers. We’ve found email follow up to be underwhelming for sales. We give you access to these lead’s contact information within our provided directory. These retailers range from small to midsize and it is very common for them to be in and out of the office most days. We suggest 3-5 attempts before considering them to be dead leads.
In regards to conducting further outreach, we start with our initial introduction via Eblast and after we see the results and feedback you receive from your follow up, we will then have our team get on the phones with these retailers to generate more interest.
I see you have had two retailers who have sent sample requests as well. Have you been able to get in touch with those two contacts? Please be sure to keep me updated of your follow up details using the provided report templates as discussed.
Thank you and have a great rest of your day.
Hello,
Thank you for the report. I see you’re doing the right thing by reaching out but as mentioned above, reaching out by phone is suggested as well. Please continue your follow up by phone and email and if after the 3-5 attempts you’re stilll not able to get connected, we’ll then move forward with our team’s phone outreach.
Thank you and have a great rest of your day.
Hi Michelle, I can’t access the directory again, says I’m cheatin, I wanted to see if I could find the phone numbers to the list of emails I have. Can you please get me in? Thanks, Heather
?
Hello,
I’ve logged you out of the system interanlly and you should now be able to log back into the directory.
Please let me know if you continue to have issues with this and thank you for reaching out.
Emailed to account manager:
Hi Michelle, I have reached out twice since May 4th but I’ve not gotten any responses back. I have gotten no where with the emails and the one person I was able to send samples to liked the product but was unsure whether or not they could take on any new items because the area where the store is located is undergoing construction.
Thanks, Heather
Hello Heather,
Thank you for reaching out. Please send me an updated report and once I’m able to review with the team, we can discuss our next steps and what may be needed to move forward with additional outreach.
You can upload the reporting directly to this page using the add document button near the top of the page.
Thank you and I look forward to discussing next steps.
Hello Heather,
Thank you for the updated report. I see you’ve still not connected with Erin from Greenbank cheese and suggest continuing to reach out to ensure no opportunities are missed. Additionally, we suggest phone outreach be conducted as email follow up has proven to be underwhelming for sales.
Please keep me updated as you continue your follow up by phone and once we’ve seen that continued outreach, we’ll then discuss moving forward with our team’s phone outreach.
Thank you and have a great rest of your day.
Hi, that’s because Erin is not available during the week, only weekends and I work weekends.
Hello,
I suggest trying to make time during the weekend to connect with Erin, or emailing her directly to try to connect via phone at a time that is suitable for both of you.
Thank you and have a wonderful rest of your weekend.
Hi I sent her an email a couple of weeks ago and still nothing…what are the next steps because I don’t feel that anything is happening whatsoever.
Thanks, Heather
Hello Heather,
Thank you for this update. Please be sure you’re reaching out to all of these contacts by phone to ensure no opportunties will be missed. We’ve found email follow up to be underwhelming for sales.
Once we see the phone outreach, we can then being working on our phone introductions to generate more interest.
Please let me know if you have any further questions on this and I hope you have a good rest of your day.
So, now I have to call everyone? What is it your company does again? I thought you all had people that reached out as well. I feel like this is going no where.
Hello Heather,
I’m unsure as to where the disconnect may have been but as you may recall from our product education call, we begin by starting our introductions via E-blast to gauge interest and test the market. As our team is not a sales force, we ask that you follow up to continue the conversations and answer any questions or send samples. We are looking for feedback from this follow up to determine if our team should adjust their focus when conducting our phone introductions.
When conducting outreach to retailers sometimes it takes 3-5 calls before we can get them on the phone. That’s not because they are intentionally ignoring the calls, but rather because they are busy in and out of their offices all day. Email can be hit or miss with them, so we always recommend picking up the phone if you’re looking to build a relationship with a new retailer.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions on this and I look forward to seeing the continued follow up.
I guess I thought I would be brought way more leads…to have to work the same 10 or so for months seems absolutely fruitless. Also, I can tell that some of them would not be a good fit just because of the type of store it is so it most likely will be a waste of my time. Are you now saying that I have to call this list 3-5 time because I can even move on? I thought you all would market the product a lot more. This doesn’t seem to be going anywhere….just disappointed in the lack of results.
also how do i even get the phone numbers? all i see are emails
Hello,
We ask that you reach out between 3-5 times and suggest phone follow up as we’ve seen a better outcome and connection with this method. Emails do not work to get their attention and I wouldn’t recommend even sending an email further unless they ask for it. Please pick up the phone and connect with the retailers we sent you and find out if they are interested, my team has done a lot of outreach to get those lead and we would hate to see them dry up because your email may have hit their spam folder.
Below is the link to our member directory where you can find the contact emails and additional information we have for each contact. Your log in information has been provided in our product education call email and if you have not changed the password, the log in user name and password are both your email address.
Association directory link: https://independentgrocerassociation.com/directory/
This link always just gives me the main page…how do i get to the actual directory?
sent you a screenshot
Hello Heather,
When you log into the directory and it redirects you to the main page, you can simply add back the directory link to the URL or add the “/directory/” to the end of the main page’s url.
For example, when you’re redirected to the main page, the URL should read “https://naturalgrocers.org” then you would add “/directory/” back to the page.
Please note, it will ask you to sign in again but instead of sighing in, just refresh the page and it should then take you to the directory.
If you continue to have issues accessing the directory, please let me know.
Just checking in to see how your outreach is going with the list of interested leads we sent. Can you please send me the details notes from your outreach? We require quarterly reporting at a minimum to keep our agreement active.
These conversations are crucial for our operation and allow us to get a better understanding of how the conversations are going.
The details required are dates of outreach, method of outreach (call,text,email) and details of the final outcome.
If you did send or plan to send samples, please be sure to include the dates the samples are sent and are delivered. Please also include the follow up details on how the retailers felt about the samples.
Having this information will help us determine who the best retailers are for your product and company.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sorry I was out of town…sent the attachment. Honestly not going anywhere with these. I’m not going to stalk people. I’ve sent them the info to their direct emails or have spoken with people and left messages. No one seems interested.
Hello Heather,
Thank you for these updates. I see you’ve been doing the right thing and I will ask our team to begin working on their phone introductions. During these calls, our team will have a more focused approach for their calls. It may help to know where your products are being sold currently so that we can target similar retailers during this outreach.
Thank you and I look forward to your reply.
I’m in Healthy Edge, Chamberlain’s, Earth Origins, Nutrition Smart, and other small independent stores but my bulk business is white label and online sales.
Hello Heather,
Thank you for this information. I will send this to our team and they will begin making the phone introductions to our retailers. Once they’ve completed their calls, I will post the results here for you as I’ve done previously.
Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
Hello,
We hope you are having a good week. We’ve been able to reach out with a few retailers who’ve expressed early interest in learning more about your product.
Please feel free to reach out to them by sending an email to introduce yourself and answer any questions they may have.
Natural Grocers- (303) 986-4600 -https://www.naturalgrocers.com/body-care-criteria-instructions- 12612 West Alameda Lakewood CO -https://www.naturalgrocers.com/
Asked to submit more information via the website submission link. Please use this link to submit more form: https://www.naturalgrocers.com/body-care-criteria-instructions
Nature’s Best Inc- John/ Adam- (920) 452-6176- sales@naturesbest.com– 837 Riverfront Dr # 100 Sheboygan WI -http://new.naturesbestmkt.com/
Adam asked for more information via email and advised there may be a submission form to be completed as well. Emailed sell sheet.
Natures Emporium- Sheri- (905) 898-1844- Teresa.daddario@naturesemporium.com -PO BOX 856 Merrill WI -https://naturesemporium.com/
Sheri asked a lot of questions about the product line and asked for us to send more information to Teresa for a further review. Emailed sell sheet.
Natures Way Market- Amy Kirkling- amykirkling@gmail.com Becca – becca.naturesway@gmail.com -(724) 836-3524 -796 Highland Ave Greenburg PA -https://www.facebook.com/natureswaymarket/
Asked to send more information to Becca and Amy after speaking with them. They will review together to determine if the line is a good fit.
Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food- Sarella Bonilla -(619) 224-1387- storemanager@obpeoplesfood.coop -4765 Voltaire St San Diego CA – https://www.obpeoplesfood.coop/
Asked to send more information to Sarella as she is the store manager. She will review the line further for possible placement.
Please keep us updated on how your outreach is going. We try to make this as easy as possible with templates you can find here: https://mrcheckout.net/sales-report-templates/. You can upload this reporting directly to the dashboard for review.
Thank you and have a great day.
Hello,
We’ve received a response from Teresa with Nature’s Emporium and she has requested samples to be sent. Please feel free to reach out to her directly to discuss this request and confirm details.
Thank you and I look forward to seeing the feedback you receive.
Hi Michelle I sent you an email because the address that I was sent bounced back. Can you please check it and get back with me? Thanks, Heather
Hello Heather,
I’ve asked our team to look into this matter as well. If we’re able to obtain a updated email from this retailer we will post it here for you. If not, we will continue our introductions and proivde a new lead.
Thank you for reaching out with this and I will be back in touch when we have this follow up completed.
Hello Heather,
I’ve asked our team to look into this matter as well. If we’re able to obtain a updated email from this retailer we will post it here for you. If not, we will continue our introductions and provide a new lead.
Thank you for reaching out with this and I will be back in touch when we have this follow up completed.
Hello Heather,
While our team are working on retrieving the updated email, they’ve also continued their introductions and I’ve added a new lead for you to contact below:
Annie Kays Whole Foods Inc- Keith or Paula- (540) 552-6870- kbolte@bolte.biz/ manager@anniekays.com– 1531 S Main St Blacksburg VA- https://www.instagram.com/anniekays/?hl=en
After speaking with Paula, we’ve been asked to send an email with more information to the manager email for them to review 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.
Hello Heather,
Thank you for reaching out with this updated report. I see you’re doing the right thing and I look forward to seeing how your follow up progresses with these contacts.
Hello Heather,
I hope you’re doing well today and wanted to see how your follow up has been progressing. Have you been able to get in touch with those who you’ve not yet spoken with?
Thank you and I look forward to seeing your continued updates.
Hi, the leads are terrible. I haven’t gotten into a single store. Very disappointing.
Hello Heather,
I’m sorry to hear that the additional leads did not yield the results you were hoping for and I’d like to get a better idea of how the conversations had progressed since your last outreach efforts. Could you please upload a updated report so our team can review and determine next steps?
Hi, I haven’t heard back. I sent you the report weeks ago.
Hello Heather,
Thank you for following up on this matter. I see from the report that you had gotten some answers from the recently delivered contacts but had not yet connected with others. I see that from our contact with Nature’s Emporium, you were able to resend the email information however were you able to follow up and discuss more?
I will ask our team to continue their introductions to more of our retailers and once we have these calls completed, we will post the results here for you as I’ve done previously.
Thank you again and have a wonderful rest of your week.
Hello,
I hope you’re doing well today. Our team has completed their outreach and below are a few retailers who we’ve connected with who are interested in learning more about the line.
Health Wise Foods- Willard- healthwisefoods@gmail.com– (334) 277-9925- 5145 Atlanta Hwy Montgomery AL -healthwisefoods.org
After speaking with Willard, he’s expressed interest in looking at the line and asked for an email. We’ve emailed the sell sheet.
Newark Natural Foods- Aviva- Aviva@newark.coop– (302) 368-5894- 209 Newark Shopping Center Newark DE -https://www.newark.coop/
After speaking with Joe, he’s asked for more information to be emailed in so he can review with Aviva. We’ve emailed the sell sheet.
Potsdam Food Coop- Jessie LaRose- buyer@potsdamcoop.com -(315) 265-4630- 24 Elm Street, Potsdam, NY, 13676 -https://potsdamcoop.com/
After speaking with Jessie, she’s reviewed our sell sheet and reached back out to us to request samples. Please use the address above to send samples.
Please keep me updated on how your conversations progress and have a wonderful rest of your week.
