How to sell your products as a start-up manufacturer?

[Anonymous]

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Hello everyone,

I am new to this site and I found this is such a great place! I am starting up a business making fresh plant-based milk such as soymilk and cold-pressed almond milk. I have a passion for food and health, that is also the main drive for me to start my own business.

I am going to make organic soymilk and premier cold-pressed almond milk with well designed recipes. They are also approved by accredited practising dietitian.

As a start-up, I really need some help on how to find my clients? People tole me that I need to start selling my prodcuts and gain some reputation before I can approch a distributor.

Should I find an agent helping me to sell? Should I really go down to retailers and cafes etc. to send out brochures and samples?

Can anyone please give me some suggestions on how to establish clients to sell my products as a start-up business?

Thanks a lot!

[Anonymous]

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Hi dreambig,

Thanks for joining the forum, and for your lovely feedback on our site

I’m sorry that your first posts got held up in our moderation queue for a while there, but they are here now, so I hope you get some interesting responses to your query.

Love the sound of your product, by the way
Jayne

[Anonymous]

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Thanks FS concierge! Looking forward to get useful advices from the lovely people here

[MichaelDigital]

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dreambig, post: 211323 wrote:

Hello everyone,

I am new to this site and I found this is such a great place! I am starting up a business making fresh plant-based milk such as soymilk and cold-pressed almond milk. I have a passion for food and health, that is also the main drive for me to start my own business.

I am going to make organic soymilk and premier cold-pressed almond milk with well designed recipes. They are also approved by accredited practising dietitian.

As a start-up, I really need some help on how to find my clients? People tole me that I need to start selling my prodcuts and gain some reputation before I can approch a distributor.

Should I find an agent helping me to sell? Should I really go down to retailers and cafes etc. to send out brochures and samples?

Can anyone please give me some suggestions on how to establish clients to sell my products as a start-up business?

Thanks a lot!

Hello Dreambig,
interesting venture you have – as a marketing person I would approach this in a multi-pronged fashion. To begin with you need to build brand awareness, and let the right people know about your products. I would firstly let all the health food outlets know, offer samples e.t.c BUT aside from this kind of leg work-based activity I would use the online resources we all have (but often don’t know how to leverage) There are a huge number of health conscious food loving people on Facebook – and yes you can be specific geographically with FB. Also Instagram has a massive user base of 18-34 demographics – you could mount an image based daily campaign of posting relevant images, with offers, details.
But i would definitely set up a Facebook community page, and start posting information, videos, health studies and anything you can think of to interest people in your milks. Using the ‘dark posts’ of Facebook advertising you can limit your spend to as little as $5 a day to gain interest.

Then of course you can build a website, and do all that is necessary to get that noticed – link this to your social media accounts. Presumably you want to gain national, and even international markets?
Let me know if you are interested in any of this, maybe we can do some kind of ‘shark tank’ deal re: marketing.

[Rowan@quaotic]

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I’m not sure anyone can give you good advice without knowing how your product is to be sold – will it be long life, or sold in containers for fresh consumption?

No matter what you are going to do, you will have to have all your regulatory stuff up to scratch for this kind of thing, insurance, council permissions, and food certificates.
How will you be bottling? If this takes off bottling in your kitchen will quickly turn into a nightmare and bottling machinery costs the earth. Then there is handling the waste product/grounds and the regulations that come with that.

As long as you have all the above in place it might be a good idea to start off at weekend markets which will give you some experience with customer feedback, finding your ideal market/the people who actually buy your product (which can be different than you think), as well as giving you time to fix the small problems you will get at the start.

Get it all right and start slowly before you look at distributors or it will cost you a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

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MichaelDigital, post: 211344 wrote:

Hello Dreambig,
interesting venture you have – as a marketing person I would approach this in a multi-pronged fashion. To begin with you need to build brand awareness, and let the right people know about your products. I would firstly let all the health food outlets know, offer samples e.t.c BUT aside from this kind of leg work-based activity I would use the online resources we all have (but often don’t know how to leverage) There are a huge number of health conscious food loving people on Facebook – and yes you can be specific geographically with FB. Also Instagram has a massive user base of 18-34 demographics – you could mount an image based daily campaign of posting relevant images, with offers, details.
But i would definitely set up a Facebook community page, and start posting information, videos, health studies and anything you can think of to interest people in your milks. Using the ‘dark posts’ of Facebook advertising you can limit your spend to as little as $5 a day to gain interest.

Then of course you can build a website, and do all that is necessary to get that noticed – link this to your social media accounts. Presumably you want to gain national, and even international markets?
Let me know if you are interested in any of this, maybe we can do some kind of ‘shark tank’ deal re: marketing.

Hi MichaelDigital, thanks for your reply. I have my own website and socila media accounts. I understand it is a long journey to build up a brand and it`s reputations. The problem I am facing right now is how to sell my prodcuts quickly!

How to get more buyers and secure a sale? Should I get an agent?

[Anonymous]

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Rowan @ GardenLarder, post: 211352 wrote:

I’m not sure anyone can give you good advice without knowing how your product is to be sold – will it be long life, or sold in containers for fresh consumption?

No matter what you are going to do, you will have to have all your regulatory stuff up to scratch for this kind of thing, insurance, council permissions, and food certificates.
How will you be bottling? If this takes off bottling in your kitchen will quickly turn into a nightmare and bottling machinery costs the earth. Then there is handling the waste product/grounds and the regulations that come with that.

As long as you have all the above in place it might be a good idea to start off at weekend markets which will give you some experience with customer feedback, finding your ideal market/the people who actually buy your product (which can be different than you think), as well as giving you time to fix the small problems you will get at the start.

Get it all right and start slowly before you look at distributors or it will cost you a lot of money.

Hello Rowan,

I am renting a HACCP certified commercial kitchen and I have purchased liability insurance and I have notified food authority etc. I don`t have a bottling machine yet as I just starting up.

My products will be packed in milk plastic bottles and need to be stored under 4 degree. I am going to use HPP process to prolong the shelf life.

Yes I am in such an awkward situation right now. Though I have lots of passion and faith in what I am doing, I certainly lack of relevant experience in this field. And I am on budget as well as you know this is a problem for more starters.

The shelf life of my products are 2-4 weeks refridgerate. My target customers are cafes/ retail shops.

People telling me to get a stall in the market as well but I am hoping to boost my sales in other ways like getting help from a commission based agent etc. if that is a good way to do it.

Thank you very much again:)

[Rowan@quaotic]

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Sounds like you have done your research, but I wouldn’t discount market selling, especially at first. This is where you find out who will buy your product, where you build your selling skills, and most importantly, as I have touched on, where you will be able to find and fix your start-up mistakes while it will not cost much to do so. This is where you get the time and chance to fix the bugs in your marketing information, labeling and advertising materials. Believe me, your marketing materials and designs will be tweaked as you go and you don’t want to spend a lot on signage and then find you want to change some details.

Remember that shopkeepers also visit markets to find out what is coming on the market. I have been approached a number of times by interested parties who want to sell my products that way and it is a good way to meet potential customers in a setting that is informal and comfortable for both.

It can be difficult to attract an agent without some sort of sales record, they get their commission on sales and need to be sure that it is worth having your product info on their books will be cost effective. Understand that they are a business too.

I wish you well in your new adventure.

[Anonymous]

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Rowan @ GardenLarder, post: 211358 wrote:

Sounds like you have done your research, but I wouldn’t discount market selling, especially at first. This is where you find out who will buy your product, where you build your selling skills, and most importantly, as I have touched on, where you will be able to find and fix your start-up mistakes while it will not cost much to do so. This is where you get the time and chance to fix the bugs in your marketing information, labeling and advertising materials. Believe me, your marketing materials and designs will be tweaked as you go and you don’t want to spend a lot on signage and then find you want to change some details.

Remember that shopkeepers also visit markets to find out what is coming on the market. I have been approached a number of times by interested parties who want to sell my products that way and it is a good way to meet potential customers in a setting that is informal and comfortable for both.

It can be difficult to attract an agent without some sort of sales record, they get their commission on sales and need to be sure that it is worth having your product info on their books will be cost effective. Understand that they are a business too.

I wish you well in your new adventure.

Big thanks to you Rowan! Are you also in the similar industry? Seems that I really have lots to do on my own before I can approch other parties. I agree I will learn from the experience! It also sounds like a more responsible way to doing business with people too.

When you just started do you go to shops drop flyers / samples in order to get sales? I just haven`t start manufacture yet but I wonder if it is possible to get some pre-orders first without samples?

[Rowan@quaotic]

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I am not in a similar industry but I do have a number of friends who make food products that sell in shops and cafes, as well as at markets.

I have been a shopkeeper in the past (not related to food though) and although you might be able to get some pre-orders it would depend on your marketing skills. I believe it would be difficult without samples.

As you already have a registered kitchen to work from I think it would be worth your while to make up some samples to offer, even if it is just samples for the store owner to drink and review rather than sales stock.
That will make it easier for them to both give you an idea if they are ready to buy your product as it is, and to allow them to make any suggestions that would be better from their point of view for you to think about.

[MichaelDigital]

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Yes, you have been advised it is a question of marketing – and just having those items I discussed does not mean you are using them properly, or to best advantage-you want to run before you are walking – which is understandable, but not really possible. Say you did get some commission based agents, you are competing with a wide range of other nut milks that can be purchased cheaply in super markets – there’s nothing really about your product that distinguishes you from a lot of other alternative milks.
I hear people say that a lot “oh I already have a website and a facebook account’
as if just having them means they are ‘doing marketing online’ sorry mate you are not.

[Anonymous]

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Rowan @ GardenLarder, post: 211361 wrote:

I am not in a similar industry but I do have a number of friends who make food products that sell in shops and cafes, as well as at markets.

I have been a shopkeeper in the past (not related to food though) and although you might be able to get some pre-orders it would depend on your marketing skills. I believe it would be difficult without samples.

As you already have a registered kitchen to work from I think it would be worth your while to make up some samples to offer, even if it is just samples for the store owner to drink and review rather than sales stock.
That will make it easier for them to both give you an idea if they are ready to buy your product as it is, and to allow them to make any suggestions that would be better from their point of view for you to think about.

Cool thank you very much Rowan! I think I just need to be prepared to learn
Hope you have a happy easter holiday!!!

[MH08]

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First, congrats to the venture your about to undertake! I’m always excited to see something new in the market and be hopeful to catch the wave! Straight to business end now, as a distributor (beverage and foodservice) myself, milk is very difficult to break at the moment for example we hold 4 lines – Almond Breeze, Vitasoy Barista, Bonsoy and Silk Milk the obvious choice for cafes and shops is currently a preference (and price) either Bonsoy or Vitasoy Barista.

Bonsoy and Vitasoy Barista have never been on special in any supermarket and we have been selling it wholesale cheaper then Coles and Woolworths for sometime and isn’t going to change any time soon.

This is also added pressure for the fresh stock, right now all the Soy brands are geared to shelf stable rather then refrigerated stock, shop owners are ever seeking cheaper prices. The main manufacturers tend to lift pricing by 5% in February, May, November.

We provide Bonsoy for $3.00 per 1L x 6 pack and Vitasoy Barista is $1.29 per 1L x 12 pack.

Distributors tend to take stock on consignment 90% of the time this is because we have such a huge range of products, we have around 5,000 lines and to add another has to be something pretty special, well marketed and demand otherwise we don’t go near it.

Don’t forget all established distributors know each other, burn one and they will all hear about it through your the grapevine, few phone calls can stop a product entirely in one state.

Another issue is selling the range to shops, cafes and restaurants, we’ve had a lot of changes in the industry were customers want to reduce the number of suppliers down to 2 to 3 with an extra for emergencies, that’s it. So I would start-up, building following have the data and approach a distributor and work as a rep for them selling your product through them, literally in one week you’ll know if your product has legs.

Best of luck!

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