Evan Carmichael explains how to get a product like Health Balls onto retail shelves: build real proof first. Real customers, sales revenue, social media followers, and media coverage give you leverage so retailers compete for your product instead of you begging for shelf space.
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How do you get your products into stores? It's a question I get asked a lot by entrepreneurs who have a physical product. They're trying to get into the store, they're struggling. They think, you know, I have this great product, I can produce it in mass quantities, if only it was in Walmart, or only it was in Target, or whatever store, I'd make millions. The problem here is these guys are getting pitched all the time by entrepreneurs who think they have a great product. And you have to really stand out, right? There are buyers for every category, so whatever category you fall into, there are buyers for it, and you can pitch them, you can email them, you can call them, you can— if they have demo days, you can go and meet them. But you need to have something that makes you stand out against everybody else who's pitching, because everybody wants to be on those shelves in those stores. So what are you going to do that's so different? The biggest thing you can do is get some momentum. And this is what I saw when I was in the VC world. People were pitching me ideas for their business plan. Most people come with just an idea, with no momentum, no product, no demo, just an idea on paper. The closer you are to actually having customers, having some kind of revenue, showing some kind of momentum with your business, the better chance you have of getting success with whoever you're selling— an investor, a store, any customer, big order you're trying to get. You wanna show momentum. Nobody wants to be the first person to take this huge risk on you. Got a question from a reader, Monu, who has a product called Health Balls. So it says, similar to health bars that Monu makes, it says, uh, producing in large quantities is not a problem. I want to get it on the stores and shelves in stores. Made of 9 ingredients, no sugar added. Ongoing. The problem here is, okay, the health food category is super saturated. It's a growing market, it's trending, but there's so many companies who are trying to get into this space. The key thing here is you need to get momentum. You need to get customers on your own. You need to get people who are ordering from your website. You need to get people following you on social media. People who are following your Twitter account and YouTube and Facebook and are engaging with you. And when you say, "I'm gonna be here," people will come. You need to build that up. Companies expect that now. If you just go with an idea, even a finished product, they're not gonna buy from you. You need to show that if I come and I bring my product to you, I'm also going to bring a market to you. That dramatically increases the chance of you getting the deal you're after. An example is, uh, I'm doing a book deal right now. Okay, I'm writing the book, I'm in the process of it. I could go to any publisher and get a book deal. If I was willing just to write a book and get a cut of the commissions, I could do that with any publisher because I have an audience. I built that up. It's taken me a while, but I built that up. Now I want a good book deal. I want to work with a publisher who's going to really promote this thing. I want a good advance up front so I get commitment out of them. I can pick and choose. Where most people would be begging to get a book deal, where most people would do it and would pay to do it, but I have a leverage on these companies. I stand out from everybody else that I'm going up against. I'm attractive to them because I've built up a lot of momentum on my own. And that's what you need to do. So before going out and pitching these guys and being thrown into the average category with everybody else, build up some momentum. Get some customers. Get some traction. Get some traffic. Get some media mentions. And when you go and you pitch them, you can say, "I've been in this newspaper. I have these customers ongoing." I have these advisors on my team. I have this many followers on my social media accounts who are loyal fans. When I go somewhere, people come out to the events, right? Build that up so then when you go and pitch them, you're going to be so different than everybody else who's pitching that the companies will fight over having you on board, right? When I'm lining up my book deal, I'll have publishers fight over who gets my book. Because of the audience and attraction I built up. And you want the same thing for you. You want to be in a position of power, position of leverage. And even though you need them, right, I still need the book publisher to publish this thing, you still need the stores to sell your stuff, but you can create leverage by having that differentiating factor and showing some momentum. Believe. For those of you watching, like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. It makes me want to do more, and I'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment underneath, let me know what you're thinking. You have a question, leave it below. I'm MicahVideoResponse. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
