ECRM & Effective Retail Collaboration

This is CPG Insiders, the podcast that helps consumer packaged goods companies survive and thrive in business. Now your hosts, Mark Young and Rob Taylor.

Welcome everybody to this edition of CPG Insiders. I'm your host, Mark Young. Today we are going to have a show about ecrm. Now if you're in the CPG business, probably heard of ecrm, just like you've probably heard of like nacds Marketplace. But what we want to talk about today is the intricacies of ecrm.

Who should go?

When should you go? How do you get the most out of ecrm? And to do that, we have two of the experts from ECRM on the show today. We have Joe Tarnowski, who's vice president of content, and Sarah Davidson. And Sarah, you're the SVP of the grocery side.

So we'll be able to.

So we'll talk about the CPG and the HPA side and we'll get some.

Of the food side because we have listeners in both those categories.

So I want to welcome you both to CPG Insiders. Thank you for being here. And how about if we start off with what is ecrm? For the people who don't know what it is, what is ecrm?

Sure. And I will give a broad overview of what we do. And there are some things that are kind of new to even the old timers of ecrm. So just in a nutshell, what ECRM does is we bring efficiencies and effectiveness to the buying and selling process. And the way we do that is by connecting buyers and suppliers of food service, consumer packaged goods, pharmacy and medical markets through our 85 category based programs. And these programs consist of two components. You have your digital side, which is the Rangewee product discovery platform. And then you'll have the human interaction, the face to face component that everybody is most familiar with, which is the sessions that we do where we bring them together physically in one location. Now that's the basic level of it, but there's a lot of services that are wrapped around that and we'll dig a little more into these as we go along. I remember in your last podcast you talked to, you refer to some of the the other industry events as speed dating. And what's funny is we just post posted a video of me and our VP of channel development, Tyler Barrett about how ECRM is not a speed gaming service because within our programs there's a lot of prep work that we do with the buyers and the sellers to get them ready and get the most out of their meetings. So on the buyer side, what we'll do is we will learn their needs and capabilities and then on the supplier side we'll consult with them through phone calls and emails with our account managers and we'll learn their categories, their capabilities, their certification, anything that the buyers will need to know based on all that information. Will curate a very targeted schedule of appointments for them at one of these sessions. And then we also have a host of follow up services to kind of help them go that last mile. So I know a lot of the over time, over history, we've been known just for that face to face component. But what they don't see, what's not as obvious, is all of the services that we do in the prep side and the follow up side. So Sarah, did I miss anything?

No, Jo, I think that was spot on. That was perfect.

And when I was speaking about speed dating. So folks, in case you haven't listened to the other broadcast, I was talking about NACDs meet the market. And I'm sure you guys have been to NACDs meet the market and it is speed dating.

There is no component of prep or anything. Right? Yeah, right.

And one of the things that happens there is, and this is one of the things I always try to talk to people that it's their first year. Because if you ever talk to anyone who went to Meet the Market and you talk to them at 5pm after meet the Market, they will tell you that every account at every buyer in every account in every part of the country said yes and is bringing in their product. And I'm always trying to tell them no, it was a speed date. They were being polite and said yes, that's an interesting product. Yes, that's an interesting product. Maybe we can talk further in the future. But when you look at Meet the Market, there's not a lot of real selling that happens there. It's really more of a. I can get to know you. Yes, I have some new SKUs. Maybe I'll see the buyer, maybe I'm already a marketer and I'll see my buyer and show them some new stuff, you know, some new SKUs. But NACDs and ECRM are very different.

Yes.

So when I'm at an ECRM show, there's decisions being made there. It's not like this. Is that the case?

Yeah, absolutely, Mark. Because of how much work is getting put in on the front end, there's a lot more that can happen on the back end. So like anything else, the more you put into it, the more you're going to get out of it. And that's why we've really created this whole program, this whole process that works to curate a schedule that matches you up with your best fit. So in speed dating, you sit down with somebody and it's cold. You're both there kind of learning about each other and within those first couple minutes. And when you go to one of our programs, there's a lot that's happened beforehand to make sure that it's already a good quality fit, that the buyer you're meeting with makes decisions over your product categories that the buyer you're meeting with doesn't have any requirements that you don't already fit, such as a certification or some kind of built in requirement that their company policies might have. And so we kind of learn all of that through our account management process. We call this part of our program that's Supply.

ECRM Advantage or Supply.

Yes. I'm sorry Joe, I was going to say supply.

I have the cheat sheet in front of me.

I'm wrapping two things into one. But our ECRM Advantage, where our ECRM account managers are working with these suppliers to really understand their offerings and highlight that to the buyers, which gets into supplier demand where we, we really start to highlight and promote what the suppliers are doing to the buyers in advance. So this is done through email communication through our web portal where the buyers can log in and actually see all this information in advance. Even when they arrive on site, are getting a nice profile of each of the suppliers. They're getting an app where they can review more details. So when you get in to have a 10 or 20 minute meeting, it's not cold right off the bat to start learning. You're actually already have your foot in the door already have some understanding that hey, we could be a great fit to work together. Let's get down to business and really understand how these synergies we can work together.

So NACDS is more like match.com and ECRM is more like eharmony where we've already gone into depth about 141 different points of psychological backgrounds to make sure that there's a real match happening here.

You got it. It's, it's like a concierge service. And you know, to your point that you made in your last podcast with Dave Berenbaum, where the homework is so important, but when you're going into one of these meetings with a buyer, and that's one of the things that we do is we help them to do their homework beforehand and we do that not Just, you know, through the consultations. But we also do a lot of content where we give recommendations on what to do in these meetings, what to expect in these meetings, how to set up the physical space, how to present your products, what to know going in, you know, so that's, that's why, and that's where my role comes in a lot, is to provide some of that content that's going to help both the buyers and suppliers to make the most out of those 10 or 20 minutes.

Now, unlike NACDS, where everybody's in one big room, an ECRM meeting is really focused on a category of business. So it might be what a cough and cold show or hair care or beauty or something of that nature, right?

Yes.

We try to line our programs with how the buyers purchase. So you'll find over 80 different programs on our website today to choose from. And it's all based off of how retail or in our food service operations, how those buyers purchase. So in Cuff Cold, the example that you brought up, it's a seasonal category. We're talking to retailers about when they're making decisions around that category so that we host the actual physical part of the program during a time where decisions can be made. So that's why you see when a program's being hosted on our calendar is based off of how the retailer is purchasing it, time of year, if there's seasonality to it. In grocery, I run a lot of my snack programs at the same time as some of my center store programs because a lot of those have synergies with buyers and sellers that can kind of cross into multiple categories. So everything's really thought through from the buyer's perspective so that we're getting suppliers in front of them during the right times and the right audience as well that can make decisions over their categories. And you don't have a person that's in cough cold, that's meeting with a buyer that purchases pet food. Everything's very targeted and specific so we can have that intimate experience where productive and quality conversations can happen.

So let's say it's my first time. I've never done an ecrm. So walk our audience through the process. I'm going to do what? First go to the website and I'm going to figure out what shows, what categories are right for me.

Yes. So our website and also you could call into our main line and talk to an ECRM representative here that can walk you through the process. Kind of under would understand more about your company and your products and then we can make Some recommendations we also have at our website, ecrm.marketgate.com a listing of programs that you can sort by category so that you can then understand. Here's everything that's offered within my category. You could click into that to learn a lot more about the program, whether it be who's already registered to attend, different registration options, other things that are going on in the agenda besides the one on one meetings. We do a lot of added value with education and other things surrounding those actual face to face appointments. So you can learn a lot from there. Once you're ready to either learn more, you can talk to an ECRM representative that's going to walk you through everything, or you can sign up there and you'll immediately get email confirmation from your ECM account manager. This person's then there to walk you through the whole program, the whole process. It's that Ethereum Advantage that I mentioned before that they will first start talking to you about making sure that your products are on RangeMe. So we'll make sure that we're starting to advertise your products from the moment you sign up for the program and get your product out in front of these retailers on the discovery platform we have through RangeMe. Then from there we're going to start to ask to collect some information, learn a little bit more about your company, what you're currently providing. And we have products as well, well as information around your business today so that we can start promoting that to both the retailers that are attending and retailers that we're engaging with to recruit and come to the session down the road. And finally that account manager is going to work with you on curating the schedule, which all goes back to again, everything we learned about your business, about what your product is and your capabilities. And then we can start to curate the schedule and walk you through updates weekly, monthly on exactly who's going to be on your schedule, what those buyers objectives are, what their profile is so you can prepare for that similar to how you prepare for an office visit. Except you're going to actually know when you walk into that office visit what they're looking for. Because those are all questions we're asking the buyers when they sign up for a session.

And Sarah, for a lot of these sessions, if not all of them, we do a prep webcast, correct? Especially where we'll we may bring on a buyer and a supplier that is a regular attendee and they will actually help give guidance.

So I'm the first timer and I want to get to people that have been There, you know, regulars. But on the first timers, get that part. Now. What do I need to be doing to prepare for this? What do we need on my end? And again, imagine I'm new to the, to the cpg, to the food space.

Yeah, that's a great question. So I think one, the first and foremost you want to set up a time with your account manager to walk through our preparation site. This is going to walk you through each of the steps that you'd want to prepare for by inputting your data on your company and your products, but then also reviewing the appointment list. Who do you have appointments with? Information about them so you can start to prepare for those appointments. There's also going to be things that they'll walk you through on the logistics side, such as what your meeting space looks like, examples of what other suppliers have done in the past. You can get an idea of how many samples you want to bring in. What kind of marketing materials do you want to bring in? It's a much different setup than a typical trade show where you're trying to really attract people to come into your booth. At ecrm, you're going to have that dedicated time with the retailers. So you really want to think about, you know, the marketing materials and things that you're going to have inside already a private meeting space that you can really show and highlight things to the buyers when they come through. So I think that's the critical part is getting in front of your account manager and just giving a dedicated 20, 30 minutes to walk through all those steps so that you can accurately prepare and be ready for these appointments when you have them.

And I'm not building a 10 or 20 foot booth like I would at a trade show. I'm working inside my own hotel suite.

So yeah, no, you're right. There's three types of setups that we have and we have programs developed for emerging brands, for challenger brands and for leading brands. So those consist of, you'll have our Discovery Hub, which is a ballroom where everybody has a tabletop space and those are 10 minute meetings. So those are a lot of those guys come from rangeme, where they've been on rangeme only and it's their first ecrm. So it's kind of like an on ramp into the process. They maybe have distribution online, maybe a couple of regional or local retailers and they're looking to kind of expand. So we always recommend the Discovery Hub is a great way to do that. And again, they'll have 10 minute meetings. They'll have. And again Their tabletop space they could set up any way they want. There's some people that get very elaborate. They'll bring in some signage to make put around it and some people just keep it simple, just a few products on the table, samples underneath. However they want to do it, whatever is best for the way they are going about their pitch. Then we'll have the innovation pipeline and that is again for the challenger brands. Maybe they have some distribution, they're looking to expand their distribution. Those will be another ballroom where it'll be piping drape and they'll have a 10 by 10 foot space and they'll have again they can set up that space however they want. There'll always be a round meeting table in there and a couple of display tables. But you know some people get very elaborate and every, you know all three walls are actually have banners on them, they have tablecloths and everything. Some people keep it simple and again so that's the mid tier and those attend meetings.

And how big are those companies? How would you size those companies up?

Sarah, what do you think?

It really depends on the session and what the focus is for the company. So Joe mentioned most of the suppliers we've seen there are challenger brands. These are mid sized suppliers that have some distribution that are already out in retail but don't have the whole landscape covered. So they're really coming to the program to find some new business, open some new accounts, target maybe some special channels that they're looking to get more business in. And so I'd say these are more mid sized players that you might recognize the name but can associate some of the products like, you know, you've heard of them. But there's definitely still more penetration that they're trying to get across the market. However that's.

Go ahead, go ahead. I was going to say or in some cases now these are not exclusive, it's not written in stone. It may be a leading brand that everybody knows but they're launching one new product and that's all they're showing. So they don't need 20 minutes, they just want that 10 minutes to quickly demonstrate that product. So these are just, you know, we're being very general here.

And now tell us about the last group.

All right, so that's the leading brands for you know, generally leading brands. And that is our planning, planning session. So those are the ones where we will take a room, a hotel sleeping room, we will remove the bed and have a six foot round meeting table and a couple of display tables. And then again it's up to them how they want to set it up. But that's completely private. And in some cases we may have more space. It may be small ballroom just for that one customer, depending on the format of the hotel and what's available. But generally it will be a private room with a meeting table, two display tables and they can set it up however they want.

So then I'm scheduling meetings with buyers and they're coming to my room correct to meet with me. So I don't have, I don't have a lot of buzz around me. I don't have a lot of interference or a lot of distraction. And I can focus on this buyer and they can focus what I'm trying to tell them.

You nailed it. Basically what we do with these things is we take away, we take everything off your plate other than your, you know, your focus on those meetings. You don't have to think about what you're going to eat because we prepare all the meals. You don't have to worry about your schmoozing and networking functions because we have all of them. We take care of all of them. You don't even have to worry about all of the free. The way we set up, right, there's several different components to one of our sessions. The in person meetings we'll have our hospitality area and that team which handles that's like the home base, right? That'll usually be an essentially located area. That's where everybody checks in. That's where you can go for any information that you need. We also have our IT group, our freight group and logistics. We'll have all of our account managers there, sales team. We're very, very people heavy at our sessions. Like at traditional trade shows, you don't really see the trade show staff unless something goes wrong. At ours, the people are part of the process and they're an essential component. Everybody is connected by headsets. We also have your client service representatives. Those are the ones that are stationed within every 10 rooms for the planning sessions and in the ballrooms they're the ones that give the famous three minute knocks. You know, time's up. And so you don't even have to worry about when your meetings start and end because we're going to let you know so you can completely focus just on the meeting at hand. And since you're going to have anywhere from 30 to 60 or in some cases to some buyers, it can be even more if we have some crossover sessions, you don't want to use up your energy thinking about non essential things. So you could just completely focus on the meetings and what you have to do. We'll take care of everything else.

So Sarah, when you're working with someone, what's the biggest mistakes you see people do at ecrm? What's the things that you look at and you just cringe and say, oh, that is not the thing to do here. What are those things?

Yeah. So two things come to mind. First is preparation. So register for the, for the program and then think that there's all that. The next step is just to show up. And you have to remember there's been a lot of coordination with these buyers and with the sellers and preparing this meeting schedule. And so if you just register and you don't talk to your account manager and you just show up, that's always a recipe for disaster. Just because you're going to have these 10 or 20 minutes and they're really critical time for a buyer to discover something new. These are quality suppliers that are here doing business with retail today that have something special to talk about. And these suppliers are getting in front of quality retailers. These are major food, drug, mass players that are out there and looking for new suppliers. So it's critical that you prepare. And so I think that's the biggest mistake that I cringe about is when I get there and someone says, I never really looked at my schedule, can you print something out for me? What time's my first meeting? It just makes me cringe. And they say someone back in the office just did all this for me. And so I think there is a little bit of investment and time on the front end to make sure your on site experience and those crucial minutes that you get with the buyer or the seller is well taken. You take advantage of all of that. So that's number one. Number two is how you conduct the meeting. So I sit in a lot of meetings. It's the way I get ideas on how to grow our business and better serve the industry, how we can perfect our services for our buyers and for our sellers. I sit in a lot of meetings and the meetings that have discussions, interactions and questions between the buyers and sellers always are the best ones. The ones where someone sits and has 10 minutes and they roll out a PowerPoint and they present a PowerPoint for nine and a half minutes and we say, all right, time's up and scoot the buyer out the door because they have to go to the next meeting. And it's kind of left that, all right, thank you. And there's no mention of follow up. What do I do. Next. Where do I stand? Was there interest? None of the next steps are discussed. So I always think that's another part that kind of. I cringe over as well, Mark, because it was definitely an opportunity to lay the groundwork for the next steps and to have some engagement. And that's it's really important to do that and not just push all the information. These are minutes to have a discussion around it.

So let me expand on that one for a minute. I have a 10 minute or a 20 minute meeting depending on what group I'm in. Would it make. And I see new clients because I deal with people that are new in the business just like you do. I will sometimes see people and they'll tell me, well, here's our deck and it's 81 pages. And I'm like, where are you going with that? So is your advice that if you're in the 10 minute group, you should start, sit down and rehearsing your 10 minute presentation, start practicing it and figuring out it's going to take me this long to get through these pages. Leaving some blank space for questions, leaving space for follow up. What would you suggest people do?

Yeah, all of the above. So I think first and foremost is know who you're meeting with. Know, know what their objects are. You know, if I'm a supplier, I'll take it from the supplier standpoint. So I'm a supplier. I'm going to meet with 45 buyers in three days. I'm going to want to know who I'm meeting with from each of these chains and what their objectives are. Make little notes. We have ways in our system that you can do a pre event note. Really remind yourself while you're in that appointment. Oh yeah, I wanted to ask them about this. I saw in their profile that they're heavily focused on premium or they're heavily focused on organic or whatever. And I have this offering so I know that I want to talk to them right off the gate about that or have some questions about that. Know what your objective is for each appointment and what you want to get out of it. So I think step one is just preparing and understanding who's on your schedule and what they're looking for because we are handing that off to you. One of the things the account managers are working with each of the buyers on is what are you looking for? And we then will present that to you so you can really prepare and be ready for that. So that's number one. The next thing is definitely to have questions ready for how you're going to follow up. You're not going to necessarily close a deal in 10 or 20 minutes, but you can get pretty close, especially if you ask the right follow up questions. So everyone's going to go back and get back into their busy days and be back in the office with all the distractions that we just took everybody out of. What's the best follow up methods? I think that's a critical piece. When do you want me to follow up? How do you want me to follow up? What's the best method for me to follow up? What's your interest level? Have your questions ready so you can ask those questions. And then finally capturing it all. I think that's the last piece. I always sit down and meet with everyone on site before they take off and ask them, have you been utilizing any of the technology? Do you have a note system? How do you take some. Always curious on how people plan to follow up and how they've captured. You just had 45 meetings. Sometimes it's hard to remember what happened 10 meetings ago. And so we have some great technology to help you capture that in a quick, easy format. So it's definitely taking some notes and being prepared. Either you're going to do it or you're going to have associate with you to tag team the meeting and who's going to do what so that when you leave there, you're ready to take everything you just did into action.

And that's a good point that you brought up is the Connect app. So everybody is handed an iPad when they get to the session. And that iPad has what we call ECRM Connect. It's an app that we develop specifically for the buyers and sellers to use that it links into their profile, their marketgate profile, and it has all their information first. It's got all the information of what's happening at the session, anything. It's got areas, it's even got the menus of what's going to be served every day and every meal. It's got the schedule of when the educational sessions are when. It's got travel information, any information that they'll need. But then also for their meetings, they can drill down into their appointment and then they can take notes. If they're a buyer, they can take pictures of products. They can give their meetings a rating of 1 to 5 stars. I believe it is this way, when they're doing their follow ups, all of that can be forwarded to their colleagues back in the office. Or once they save it, it's accessible. When they log into their profile page on our MarketGate platform. So we have these awesome tools. Not everybody uses them. You may still see some people walking around with the profile books and jotting down notes, but we highly recommend that people use that because of exactly what Sarah just said. You're going through all of these meetings after 50 meetings, are you really going to remember what the first one talked about? And so this way, it's a kind of a cheat sheet for that, for the buyers that really use it. I mean, for the buyers and suppliers that really use the system, it definitely helps because also it keeps the notes year over year. So if you're a supplier and one of the things that I always tell suppliers is that you should come away with at least one of two things from every single meeting. Either a follow up that can possibly lead to business or insights on how to make your offerings better. So coming away with both would be great, but you should come away with at least one of those. And what some guys have done, and here's a cool example, there was one supplier from Brazil and he came to our pet session two years ago, three years ago, with the express intent of getting information from his buyer meetings to rebrand his products for the United States market. And he spent all of his meetings talking to these buyers and getting and taking out information. Then he redesigned his product line, came back, knocked it out of the park two years later. So you can use these. You know, there's nothing that makes a buyer happier then when you, you know, maybe the first year you didn't have something, but then the next year you come back and you say, hey, you know what? Based on the information you gave me at our last meeting last year, here were some of the changes I made. I think you'll like this.

Now, they love that we subscribe to a concept here of there are the winning teams, the losing teams, and the learning teams. And we always try to tell people, don't be on the losing team, be on the winning team or the learning team, which is kind of where you're going there. We can win, but maybe we just, you know, obtain some new distribution or we can still win if we learned how to get distribution in the future.

You got it.

So one of the things that I see and tell me if you see this, I see people getting ready for these meetings and these pitches and they will have 45 pages in their pitchbook covering their clinical studies or their taste test studies or their food quality studies. And you guys, correct me if I'm wrong, most people, most retailers do not Expect a manufacturer to be bringing them a product that is defective and poor performance and doesn't work and has no FDA approvals and all of these things. So we're always trying to tell people, look, there's a cost of entry that is expected. Don't spend your 10 minutes telling people how you reach the cost of entry. Spend the 10 minutes telling me what is the most unique thing about your product and how you're going to make money in my store? How will my store make money with this? Do you see that same thing from people, especially new people to ecrm?

Yeah. I mean, they try to overload with information and, you know, we recommend the same thing. You know, you want to boil it down to the essentials. Leave with your best stuff, and if you do your homework, you'll know exactly what that best stuff should be. And, you know, the analogy that I like using is, you know, if you have someone going for a venture capitalist pitch, they don't want to see any slides. They just want to hear you talk for a few minutes and they'll know exactly whether it's right or not. I mean, you can follow up with the bullets and the studies and all of that, but you want to just boom and get right into it. But based on all of the preparation that you did before Sarah.

Yeah, no, I think, Mark, you hit it on the head. You know, what is your point of difference? That's what these buyers want to know. And how are you going to. To help me accomplish my goals? I was just at our store Brands Leadership Summit a couple weeks ago, and the theme from the retailers was all about partnership. How can we help each other? Help me help you. And it was, tell me your point of difference. Tell me how you're going to drive traffic to my stores. Tell me how you're going to help me grow sales in this category. And then we can work together and really just understanding each other's capabilities and how we can benefit each other together. And so I think that it's really important to be able to nail your point of difference going into the conversation. I think as far as like the PowerPoints that you're saying, and I think I mentioned it earlier, where it just kind of dominates the whole conversation. We see less and less of that. I mean, I've been with ECRM now for 15 years, and back when we first started, it was a lot of just kind of getting people together in a room. And as we've curated this process and really worked and invested in our account management team, a lot of that Coaching is happening in advance so that you know exactly what these buyers objectives are, what they're looking for so that you don't make these mistakes that we're talking about now. So I think back in history of things that make me cringe and it's great to see that not happening as much anymore on site because we are feeding a lot of the information to both the buyers and the sellers. So you know, the buyers are spending time with us in advance to make the most of their time. Time is critical, you know, for these buyers and to get them out of the office and step away for a couple days. They want to make the most of it and so they're happy to feed you with some information to help, you know, help me help you help. They want to make things better and they know by sharing their objectives and getting that to these suppliers in advance gives the best opportunity for them to have a quality 10 or 20 minute meeting that could produce into business what's.

The out of all the people you've seen pitch, you've got all these companies and all these years people pitching. I'd like to ask you what's the worst example you've ever seen? No names. And what was the what and what was the best example you ever seen of somebody coming in and just knocking the COVID off the ball?

Hmm, I got a worst one I could bring up right away.

Sure, let's hear it.

It was, I think it was at a household at housewares where the supplier obviously did not do his homework and did not understand what the buyer was, you know, what the buyer was currently doing and kind of dug into the buyer and said you need to up your private brand game. Meanwhile, the buyer, 65% of that buyer's category was store brands. And it just did not end well. But when they go in, assuming it always, you know, it always tends to backfire on them. But it was kind of almost an arrogant approach when he told that to the retailer. And so obviously the retailer was not happy with that and it did not go well.

My worst case, I'll tell you what my worst case was a supplier or vendor meeting with a Walmart buyer and telling the Walmart buyer, we don't do business the way you're asking, you'll need to change. Which I thought was hysterical that you non existent, almost nobody manufacturer are about to tell Walmart to change their policies in order to do business with you. So I'm thinking, you know, the odds aren't really good on this.

No, probably not.

All right, so what's the best case 1. Sarah, what do you think? What one stands out? What client? You don't need to use the name again, but what client stands out is like, okay, these guys just do ecrm, right? And what do they do?

Yeah, so the one that stands out to me was actually a follow up meeting. So this was their second time that they came to program and they met with a buyer that they met with actually before. And so when the buyer came in, they picked up right where they left off and said, last time we spoke, this is what you told me and here is what we've done since the last time we've met you to cater to your needs. Here's how we can help you. Here's the product I have. And the buyer just seems so impressed right off the bat because I don't know if they even remembered the supplier, but they were so impressed that they knew all this stuff they prepared. You know, I think they really made this buyer feel like they were the only buyer that they were going to meet with all day. And they came there specifically just to present this to them and really just buttoned up their presentation and the rest of the presentation. It wasn't a presentation actually, it was a discussion. So they were maybe two minutes said what they did since the last time they talked, went through their product description, what they're going to do to help this retailer. And then the retailer had a ton of questions, the supplier had a ton of questions. It was a straight dialogue and at the end there was a hard follow up discussion about when they were going to roll out the new reset and when they could get in and next meeting they wanted to have. It was just a home run. And that supplier was so ecstatic when the buyer left. And so that one was a real feel good that I remember. And that kind of thing happened. Happens a lot. But that one stands out to me right now.

So the crux of that, what I'm really picking up from that is that in this particular case the vendor listened. And this is something that we try to drive with people. There's a tendency, and we all do this, there is a tendency on people's part when we're having a conversation that you're talking, I'm listening. But what I'm doing is I'm really formulating what I'm about to tell you next because I want to dominate the conversation. I want you to bring my product in. So all I'm doing is trying to figure out what I'm going to pitch you next and what we try to tell people is really focus on active listening. Stop worrying about what you're going to say next. You'll figure that out. And just focus on every word that buyers telling you. Just listen to them because they will tell you everything you need to know to be able to put a product on their shelf. If you'll pay attention and, and don't believe that your idea is, I'm going to put a product on your shelf and your customer base is going to make me successful, you better walk in with a plan for how I'm going to bring new customers into your store. So, I mean, any agreement, disagreement with that.

Absolutely right. There's nothing more important that makes somebody feel better than an engaged listener, somebody who's actually completely present and paying attention. And you can go for a whole conversation, maybe say two words, but be actively listening the whole time. And they'll say what a wonderful conversationalist you are, even though you said one sentence.

Which is why I'm not a big fan of the PowerPoint presentations, because instead of you and I having a conversation, we're both going to look at the screen.

Yep.

When I should be looking you in the eye and calibrating your body language and paying attention to what you're saying. And are you being, are you happy? Are you engaged? Are you irritated? And what do I need? What do I need to do next to fulfill, you know, your needs? I think this thing we need, we need the vendors to understand buyers are people. They're just like us. They have jobs to do. They're under a lot of pressure. They're under a lot of pressure to, you know, to increase their profitability, reduce, you know, their inventory costs, increase their turn rates. Our job is, and this is what another piece of language that we use with our clients is when we walk into that ECRM meeting. Our job as a vendor is to become that buyer's hero. How can we become a hero to that buyer? And we can become a hero to that buyer, as you said before, by doing that upfront work, discovering what their needs are. Where do they have a hole in their business? Or where do they have a weakness in their business? Or how can I offer them something they don't have? How can I put a program together that will bring some traffic to them that they don't normally get to see? And I find this to be the case especially in the regional guys, because I think the regional buyers get.

Passed.

Over for the nationals. So I put a big presentation together for Walmart and cvs, Rite Aid, Target Walmart. But then I come in and I start meeting the regionals and I haven't really thought out a marketing plan for them because well, they're only in the northeast region so I'm not, they're not going to be part of the ad campaign. Well then why should they bring your product in? So how are you going to deal with them? You need, they need to be shown love also.

Or even worse, they're showing the regional buyer the target or CVS presentation.

Yeah. How many people actually customize the presentations for every meeting?

You know, I see it quite a bit. I mean the more that we've been able to supply information to the suppliers in advance and the deeper we've been able to get, you know, really getting into the objectives, we're seeing more and more customization and more and more treatment of this like it's an individual own appointment. And then okay, we're going to the next because you know, we're handing that information to them on a silver platter beforehand really to take advantage of it. So I'm seeing it more and more, you know, at each one of our programs, the suppliers taking advantage of that and really trying to cater their presentation, their discussion, what even the product samples that they have, they know when a dollar chain walks in that they're not going to go show them something that's a premium item or something that's highly organic and they don't really have much of an organic offering in their stores. We're trying to coach as much up front about that so they can be confident and go in with the right approach.

Right from the get go actually to Sarah's point. And I go to a ton of these since I cover across categories and at the sessions is where I get a lot of my content. I've been to maybe 25 of them already this year. 20 of them. But yeah, I cut across all the different categories. So the one comment I've heard the most from buyers this year and we've been really, really focusing on this prep service over the past couple of years. But over the past year we've really stepped it up and just this year alone I've heard so many comments from buyers saying the most popular comment was my meetings were so relevant, you know, on point or you know, very targeted. Everybody was relevant. And so I'm not hearing anymore. Oh well, I got a couple of guys that weren't so good. No. And they're saying all the meetings I had were relevant. So. And that's what we want to get. That means that our account management and retail relationship managers are really like Sarah said, digging in and finding out their needs and objectives and passing that along to the survivors.

Now, average ECRM is what, two days, three days? How long is the normal program?

We have programs from one to four days. So four days is the max. And our kind of newer launches, I have a meat and seafood launch for example, this year, that's a one day program. So it really depends on the category and the size of the, the amount of attendees.

And are there besides for meeting with the buyers and the vendors, are there other sessions? Are there networking sessions? Are there any seminars or classes, what else goes on?

Yeah, I'm glad you asked about that, Mark, because I was trying to figure out where to fit it in because we've talked a lot about appointments and that's definitely the bread and butter. I mean everything's about the appointments in the preparation. But once you get on site, the real, you know, kind of what makes it all special and very unique is how intimate this session is. Over those two to four days that you're there, everybody's on site together. We actually book all of the buyers and sellers, hotel accommodations, we book their reservation, so everyone's there together. We host breakfast, lunch and dinner. And so outside of these one on one meetings, there is a ton of networking opportunities, whether it be bumping into somebody in the elevator because we're all on site there together to the meal functions that we have where everybody's coming down for breakfast and lunch together. In the evenings we bring in entertainment, we take everybody off site for dinner functions or networking opportunities to really build a relationship on another level than you got to do in that 10 or 20 minutes. And that's really where I think the, you know, things start to sink in. You get to know your buyers on another level or your, you talk with peers and talk about business opportunities or learn things from other suppliers and conversations and meetings that they might have had with buyers. And so there's just a wealth of opportunity with so many connections that are happening outside of these one on one meetings throughout the week. Additionally, we've really been focused on adding some educational components to each of the different programs. So typically we're going to bring in industry expertise, industry leader that's going to talk about some key trends or something that's facing that particular industry, that particular category. A lot of times that's the way we kick off our sessions, kind of get everybody in the same room together and start to, you know, before we jump into the one on one appointments, We've also been doing a lot around roundtables. There's a lot happening in the industry. There's a lot of challenges, like I said, for the buyers and the sellers, getting them together and having a kind of casual format around some roundtables on these key topics. It gets everyone talking, networking, a way to build some relationships, make some introductions before you have those one on one meetings and kind of warm up to things. Warm up to it. So that's another critical thing that I always recommend people take advantage of while you're on site. It's long days, you're gonna have a lot of appointments during the day and you're gonna be tired at the end of the night. But taking advantage of that casual kind of intimate atmosphere that we're going to have at dinner that evening to be able to sit down with one of your buyers or peers in the industry and have a great conversation, they're going to remember you when you email them a couple weeks from now or pick up the phone when you call them because, you know, then you had opportunity to talk about your kids and your pets and the travel and other things that just weren't on the agenda during those 10 or 20 minutes you had FaceTime with them.

So last couple questions I'm going to ask you both and that is looking into the future, three years, five years from now, where do you see the biggest threat in the industry? What are the biggest problems and what are the biggest opportunities that you see?

So by threat do you mean just in the industries that we cover or as far as threat to our business?

I think to the industry, to, to the vendors, to the retailers? You know, is digital a big threat? Is Amazon a big threat? What is scaring people? What's making people nervous right now?

Well, Amazon, from what I hear, is Amazon's making a lot of people nervous. And, but the thing is, it's also the kind of commoditization of a lot of products, I mean, with retailers driving prices down. But I would say most often I hear is Amazon, that's the biggest challenge.

Yeah, yeah. I think the threat and opportunity is one and the same. And it's what we're hearing about all the time. It's, you know, consumers preferences are changing radically as technology grows and it's all about home delivery and you know, anticipating their needs before they even know they need it. And you know, I was just at a, at a trade show that was out there and they had a futurist talk and he was explaining that pretty soon you're never you don't even know that you placed an order and you select the button and it's on your doorstep. And you know how retail is going to get there and how they're going to anticipate those needs. I think in some cases, you know, it's very threatening to retailers, business and suppliers too, and how to, how to provide options to these retailers that are trying to focus on home delivery and online options where we know consumers are. Every day, everybody's on their phone, everybody's on their computer, everybody is constantly searching social media and finding sites that they can purchase from. So you know who's going to do well at that, who's going to struggle. So I think for some it's a really big threat. For others it's a big opportunity that are a little ahead of the game. And so we hear about it a lot in talking with buyers and sellers and some are excited and some are nervous, I think, in how their company's position to address those needs.

Well, one of the things that people often think that people's number one fear is a fear of death or a fear of public speaking, but the actual biggest fear that humans have is a fear of change. And a lot of people don't embrace that. So I think when we look at technology that's changing things quickly and changing how people buy, a lot of, of people want to dig in and resist that change rather than trying to figure out how to adapt to it. And I think it's important that we learn how to adapt to the marketplace because the marketplace is not likely going to adapt to us anytime soon. How can our listeners get a hold of you guys at ecrm or if they want to attend an ecrm, who do they talk to? How do they get in touch with you?

You can find us by going to our website, ecrm. I would also recommend also for the suppliers in the audience and the buyers as well to follow our blog, which is just easterung.marketgate.com blog and also you can go. There'll be a list of all the sessions there and then by session they can drill down to the actual person they would need to reach. And their phone numbers and their email addresses are on the session page. So if they start on our website, they could drill down and get to the exact person they need.

And if you go to the show notes@cpginsiders.com and look at this episode, you'll see links to the website and to any kind of social media or anything else that's associated to ecrm, you'll see it right there. So don't worry if you're driving in your car and you didn't write down numbers or whatever the case is, just go to the website and it'll all be there.

That's right. And don't forget, you could follow us on LinkedIn too. We have a big presence and we share a lot on LinkedIn because I think a lot of buyers and sellers are getting very active on that platform. So that's also a recommendation for your audience too. LinkedIn is really a big B2B platform. So I know if you're doing B2C, you're going on Facebook, you're going Instagram, but now B2B, you're dealing with buyers. So they're all on LinkedIn and they're active on it. So that's definitely something you, you want to be active on as well.

Well, Sarah Davidson, Joe Tarnowski from ecrm, thanks for being with us here at CPG Insiders. And hopefully I'll be running into you guys at some kind of ECRM show coming up soon. Folks, if you like the podcast, by all means, wherever you're getting your show, itunes, I heart stitcher, leave us five star review. And again, if you want to get more information about ecrm, just go to the show Notes and all the links will be there, including the links to LinkedIn and all the social media contacts. Till then, we will see you on the next episode of CPG Insiders. If you're looking to greatly increase sales on your CPG product, don't hesitate to contact us at Jekyll and Hyde Advertising and Marketing. By the way, the only advertising agency with a guaranteed result. Just go to jekyllheidagency.com or feel free to give us a a call at 800-542-10.