Don't get ghosted!

Hi, I was at PLMA this week, Private Label Manufacturers Association, and went through this presentation about how to understand the 2 worlds of buying and selling and how actually both of us are very similar. And so I thought it would be really good just to re-record it. So what are the key learnings, the key takeouts from what I talked about? First of all, thinking about what actually goes on in a buyer's world, mostly focusing on grocery retail, but it's applicable to any buyers and procurement. Moment really. Then I talked about how to understand your buyer better so that you can have better conversations and how to adapt them. And then something that just seems to be coming up more and more at the moment is how to actually keep that conversation going and avoid being ghosted. So if we start with understanding the pressures really the retailers are under, what we see is suppliers is they don't reply. They don't know what they want. They make unrealistic requests. They make demands where they don't actually make financial sense. Maybe certainly not to us in terms of you're asked to invest in marketing, you're asked to invest in merchandising, and then guess what? The volumes don't add up to cover even those costs, let alone make a profit. But the reality of the buyer's world, and I think it's useful to think about this, is that they're under the same pressure that we are. Sales targets, cost and margin pressure. They have very strong KPIs. And I think it's important to mention that the net margin of the average retailer is between 3% and 4%. So I think Sainsbury's makes 2.7% and Tesco's is a bit better at 4%. I know when you see the headlines, it's like they're making billions and billions of pounds of profit, which is true. But as a percentage of their turnover, it's actually tiny. So just bear that in mind when you're thinking, well, these guys make loads of money, so they've got loads. They haven't. Because the other thing is they do have operational complexity. Remember, they're running thousands and thousands, in some cases, stores, fabulous complex supply chain. So it's It's very difficult. And again, in this day and age where there's inflation and there's various supply chain disruptions, recalls, it's hard work. It's hard work being a buyer. And they're also contending what their competitors are doing. And, you know, I don't need to tell you about Aldi and Lidl and what's going on there, but also everybody's competing for that share of the customer's pound. So it is quite hard and they need to manage risk. Because everything that they do, any changes they make potentially adds risk to the business, especially if they're looking at new suppliers, new products, new ranges. And I think the other thing to think about is that the buyer's world is way more complicated than maybe we realize in terms of we think there's the buyer, the seller, which is us, and then they don't really have anyone else to talk to, but they have a broad range. So they've got the actual customers that go into the stores. They don't necessarily have a lot of conversations, but Certainly customer complaints come in, they have to deal with those. They've got to deal with the stores. So the store managers will be writing in, sorting out the logistics, merchandising issues, availability. There's the technical teams, the quality teams, finance, invoice paying. We've all been through experiences where we haven't been paid properly. And obviously the buyer has to deal with that. There's the new product development departments, which we would all love to be involved with. There's merchandising, there's space planning. So before the products even go in store, got to do the planning. There's the marketing teams. So the PR, the sustainability, the cap directors and the leadership team. So they've got 360-degree number of people to manage. Data and insight teams. Again, mentioned competitors, don't know that they're actually dealing with competitors, but they're certainly having to be aware of them. And then the legal side, the sustainability, the codes of practice. So being a buyer is actually really complicated. And of course, then we come along and say, hey, I sent you an email last week, you're not applied. That's where you end up with some disconnect because the buyer is obviously dealing with all these other elements, not just the range that you want to be supplying. On the other side also, the buyer has a view. So what the buyer sees sometimes from suppliers is they're being difficult, they're being slow. Sometimes, I'm sure you're aware that especially for where you're doing own label or you're doing something brand new for a retailer, there might need to be CapEx, there might need to be new packaging. There's a lot of elements that have long lead times. So sometimes we are slower than the buyer would like. So they get frustrated with us. And sometimes they ask us to invest, whether that's in promotions or marketing or CapEx or MPD, and sometimes they get pushback. But the actual reality from a supplier point of view is pretty similar to that of the buyer, the retailer. We're under growth challenges. You've got cost and margin pressures, especially at the moment, operational complexity depending on the brands and products that you make. supply chain disruption, competitive behavior, managing risk. And the other one, which sometimes we don't necessarily think about, is the other customers that we work with. And there's always, well, there's not always, but in most cases, businesses are dealing with more than one retailer. And there can be a real conflict between how do you service each of them in the right way. So all pressures that are facing us when we're trying to respond to buyers, and that's So we're both under pressure. That's the reality. We're both under pressure, but it doesn't have to be that way. We can work better together, and I'm gonna present to you a thought process. So before you start communicating, take a breather and ask yourself, what pressure might they be under right now? What, what might they be feeling? Things are impacting them on their day-to-day, and go find out. Go go have a look on LinkedIn. Go have a look on Facebook. Go into the press. Just see what's going on in their world before you go. You haven't done this, or you haven't done that, and get frustrated because that will certainly help you in the long run. So I like to put a structure on how you get to know your targets, and I do have a book, Virology, and I go into this in a lot of detail. If you want a free copy, I can send you one, and that will come. Later on, but when you get to know your targets, remember, we're not that different. As I've said already, we're interested in profitable sales growth. We want ease of doing business. So I mentioned buyers need to reduce risk, but so do suppliers. We want a nice, easy life. We want long-term partnerships. I asked this question at the PLMA conference that I was delivering, and pretty much everyone put their hand up and said they want long-term partnerships. Nobody in this day and age just wants a one-off. And then the other thing, of course, is we want career success. A lot of people that will be watching this are working for big corporates. You want to do well in your business. And if you're a founder or a CEO, you still want to be successful in what you're doing. And so do buyers. So how do we actually make that happen? The first thing you want to think about is when we are selling, or even when people are buying, there are 2 elements. And actually in my buyerology matrix, I have 3. So you've got on one side, you've got the person. We forget that people are human and Harvard Business School did some research and they found that 95% of decisions that business buyers make are based on emotion, not fact. That's a scary number. So you've got to think about how you deal with the person. And I know AI is coming along and I know that will take some of that personal element out of it. But people are still running the AI. So I think you have to really think about who is the person that you are talking to, and then obviously who's the company customer. You know, we're all, I think we're better at that. But think about not only the companies themselves, but also their customers, especially if you're working in retail. And as it says at the bottom there, most people focus on the company, but of course the decision is made by a person. And the reason those 2 circles are overlapping is there is a 3rd element which I mentioned, which is how the person interacts with the company. So think about, for example, I mentioned career success. What does the person actually want from the business that they're working for? How are they getting on with the company? Are they, are they enjoying it? Are they feeling positive? Do they want to get promoted or are they thinking of leaving the business? It's a hard one to find out, but it's It will influence how they see your business and can make all the difference. So if we think about the person first, there's 3 elements that I look at here. Personality, what's their current challenges, and their personal KPIs. I'm going to show you how to find out someone's personality. It's really important because it's the way that people receive information, process information will depend on who they are. So this is a really simple model just to think about how can I adapt my email, adapt my presentation, make a little bit of a difference. Second one is what's their current challenges? As I said, get out there, do the research, find out what that person might be looking for, and also ask them. You know, you don't have to do all this covertly. You can be overt as well and find out what their KPIs are. They're not always what you expect. So, you know, we've got sales margin, cash profit, market share, service level. There's a whole list. And I know some retailers obviously have a KPI scorecard, but just find out what's that person's personal KPIs. Because one of the things as an account manager we used to say is that our job was to get the buyer promoted. So if you have that mantra in the back of your mind, it changes the way you look at how you're going to present things. And then, of course, you've got the company. So it's a kind of mirror, really. So the company is— the personality of the company is actually its missions and values. So that's easy to find out. Go on the website and you can get that information really easily. Market challenges. Again, do your research. Go find out what's going on. Look at what the press releases they've put out. Look at news. And then their business goals. Again, you might be able to pick that up and annual reports are a really good source of information to find out what people are up to if it's a big company. And then start to think, what does that mean for me? How does my business, how does my personality overlap onto the other person so that you're actually starting to think about how am I going to adapt my message to make it as amenable as possible to the person you're selling to. So I took an example, as I say, I was at the PLMA, Peter got in touch with me before the show to say he'd really like to meet up. So I thought, right, here's a good example of doing some research. So I put a prompt into AI and I said, basically meeting this company, this is my background. I'm a former Boots buyer. I advise food and drink companies on how to achieve UK retail growth, right? Private label strategy and routes to market. Can you give me a briefing about this company? And this is a list of things. You're welcome to write your own. And AI wrote this for me anyway. What is the company doing? Who are their customers? Weaknesses, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then I said, think like a commercially experienced UK grocery buyer looking for strategic opportunities rather than networking. So really getting very specific. And back came a lot of really good stuff for me, which is too much. To put in here, but the summary was two things: they're a trusted supplier, but they appear to be operationally led rather than shopper-led, and there's a risk of commodity because frozen seafood, which is what they do, can be price-driven. And so it then made some suggestions on retail opportunities that they might not be maximizing. So it's starting to give me some material to have a conversation. We then look at the personality. So this is my number one top tip out of this presentation on how to profile. I use Humantic AI, but there are others. Crystal Knows is another one that's really good. And basically you can go into LinkedIn, you don't have to be linked in with them. You have a look at the profile, you install the little Chrome extension, and what comes back is on the left, lovely summary of who that person is. And on the right, there's their personality. So Peter is a blue, he's a questioner, he's gonna need more detail. Also profile yourself so you know who you are. I'm quite a strong red dominant personality, so I will be inclined to do things more quickly. Therefore, I need to slow down, have a think about how to put my point across with more detail rather than less. So if you're not aware of DiSC, do go out, Google it, and you can get a little profiling kit. Humantics have ones. You can go online and do it. And basically how it's designed is it splits personalities into 4 groups: dominance, influence, conscientiousness, and steadiness. Most people are a compound of 1 or 2, so that makes it a little bit more complicated, but you tend to have 1 particular personality type. So dominant people, direct, as I say, decisive, quick thinking, competitive, want to know about results. Influencer, much more people orientated. They're very enthusiastic. They're very optimistic. They want to collaborate more than anything. Conscientious people are, as I say, we've just talked about Peter, blue, conscientious, analytical. And then steady people, very people, people. They're supportive, reliable. Again, they're going to be wanting to collaborate. So what I did here is actually create, what does that mean? What does it matter? So you've then got things like the opening question that works. If you're at a show. So we were obviously talking about what you're going to do at an exhibition. So here you've got the opening question for a dominant person is what are the key results you need from suppliers right now? So thinking about a results question, influencing question is more about ideas, partnerships, collaboration, steady people. They also are very risk averse. So they'd be looking for support. How can we make this partnership easier and more successful for you? So it's much softer than the D and then the blues. It's much more facts, data, and process. So what are the important factors that you need to evaluate suppliers on, for example? So you can use this model, and again, there's a lot more detail in the book, to adapt not just obviously your opening question or your elevator pitch or call it what you will, but others as well. So what we do for Peter, our example, Is we get into specific details, get into the commercial depth, detailed questions, evidence-based. So people like myself who actually is a combination of D and I are more likely to be, yeah, we do great. We've got great results, you know, but no detail. The Cs really want some details. So don't use hype, salesy language, chitty chat, you know, how was it? How did you get to the show? How are you? No, it's not relevant here. And actually AI then gave me a couple of questions for Peter, detailed questions to go through. So I think that's, it's a really useful way of structuring, not just working at trade shows, but that initial conversation if you're going into a pitch. And remember, you've got to adapt that approach. So I've talked about a few of them and I think I've got 11 in the book, but pace is important. So as I say, D's like pace. S's and C's are much slower. C's like detail, D's not so much. And then over and above the DiSC personality profile, you've got other elements. So cultural sensitivity is a really important one. So if you think about the, the way different cultures approach and use different language and interpret different language, it's really important. I'm not just talking about the language we speak, but actually the way we use words. And then generational sensitivity. So there's now 7 generations in the workplace, which makes life quite complicated because each generation has gone through a different life experience and work at things very differently. So again, go on LinkedIn, work out how old that person is, give or take, or at least the generation, and then think about how do you adapt your approach to them. So have a think about someone you're gonna meet this week. Think about what are the key issues for the company. What pressure are they under personally? Who are they? What's their personality type? And how can you help them? And how can you adapt the way you would normally present to, to fit in with them as people? So how do you actually keep conversations going? We did this Mentimeter. So everybody in the room was asked, what frustrates you most about buyers? And there, bang smack in the middle is ghosting, and then silence from the other end, no feedback, lack of understanding. And there's several points that I'm going to take you through to, to think about what do you do to avoid ghosting in its various forms. So one suggestion which came from Harvard Business Review is send a recap email within a, within an hour of the conversation, and it actually increases replies by 7x. I mean, that's incredible. I used to be told by my boss as an account manager, I had to send account reports within 48 hours. Within an hour? It's possible now with AI, but yeah, just think about that. That's an interesting point. Secondly, don't just follow up. This is really important because the temptation is, I sent you an email last week, just following up. Don't do that. Think about every follow-up adding value, whether you're sending them an insight, an observation on what they're doing, new resource. Anything like that so that you're actually adding value every time you speak to them because then they're gonna go, oh, I'll just have a look at that email, see what he or she's got to say. Have a follow-up strategy. I'm a great believer in this. I do this with clients. We look at the route to market, we pick a retailer, and then we say, right, what are we gonna do? So think about all the things that you can put into this. This could be a couple of years. So I've had clients where We've started a conversation, they've been super keen, they've seen the products at pitch, and then it goes quiet. And then literally 2 years later, they've come back. So new facts and figures, news about your brand, congratulations on their news, seasonally relevant messages, newsletters, whatever you like, but have a follow-up strategy. Have a think about different ways of communicating. We send emails. Gosh, how easy is it? You see that email from that person, you could just delete, delete, delete, delete. Easy. So do something different. Send them LinkedIn messages, use phone calls, and what I haven't actually put on here is letters. We're trialling letters with a client at the moment, and I think it's going to be super successful. Give the buyers a reason to respond, um, and know when to pause, when to go, right, actually, I'll wait a couple of weeks, have a look at what they're doing. Maybe there's something really exciting going on. Maybe they've just landed a new launch and Take it easy. Don't inundate. When I say have a strategy, let it be a strategy, not an inundation of different things. And then finally, and this caused a lot of debate in my discussions, was have a breakup email. So the breakup email gives you headspace. It can often prompt people to come back and talk to you. And sometimes if you write it like this, it gives you the opportunity to go back in 6 months, and it doesn't look too clunky. So this is an example. I took it from HubSpot. I haven't heard from you in a few weeks. I'm guessing timing or priorities have shifted. I'll come back to you in 6 months. If things change, come back to me. Great. You can put it to one side. You don't have to think about it anymore. You diarize that you're gonna talk to them in 6 months, and you move on. Takes nerve, but it's well worth a go. I can really recommend it. So in summary, understand the pressures buyers are on under profile, both the human and the company. Know the why you as well. Once you know them, work out how you are relevant to them. Adapt your approach. One size does not fit all. Have a comms strategy so you actually know how you're going to keep talking to people and keep the conversation going. And don't be afraid to walk away from relationships. Sometimes it's better just to leave them. As I mentioned, a lot more detail in my book, Buyerology: Know Your Buyer, Sell More and Sell Better. If you scan the QR code, I will happily send you a free PDF. And then if you want a hard copy, then you can let me know and delighted to send you that. Amazon send all around the world. And keep in touch if you want to book in a call with me, grab that QR code and let's Keep in touch and drop me an email, drop me a WhatsApp on the phone number, and let me see if I can help you sell more and sell better. Thanks.