Before you hit send or call your Category Manager, ask yourself a few questions…

As a new Supplier, learning HOW to work with large Retailers and Category Managers can feel like a bit of a maze. The familiarity and casual approach selling to smaller retailers 1:1 just won’t cut it and you need to think and act a lot more mindfully to build your working relationship and the ever critical trust.

Understand that life as a Category Manager is a crazy rollercoaster of meetings with suppliers, internal marketing teams, retailer teams, finance, supply chain and more. And then there’s the actual ‘doing’ of managing promotional programs, NPD, planograms, internal stakeholders, reworking budgets and digging into data to uncover the nuggets of insights to succeed. While Suppliers are a key part of their working life - after all products are the lifeblood for a Retailer and the reason they have a business - there are LOTS of alternative suppliers and options that they could choose to work with.

By asking yourself these questions when communicating, you’ll create a more mindful and considered approach and work better (not harder).

DO YOU REALLY NEED TO SEND THAT EMAIL?

Ask yourself if your actions and words are going to get you what you need - or if they are a ‘flame’ response. If you’re feeling emotional about a decision, then taking a breath and maybe grabbing a coffee, friend or going for a walk is better than furiously typing a text, email or DM.

Not getting the response as quickly as you need? Before sending your 8th email in one day think about how you could better achieve what you need. Is it right to email every contact you have within the business? How has your 8th email sent today impacted the recipient? What are they going through? What could you do better to help the situation?

Are they the right person? Good Category Managers and Retailers should be able to share with you the contact details for the key internal contacts from invoicing, supply chain and administration.

ARE YOU CLEAR IN WHAT YOU NEED FROM THEM?

Long rambling emails, or short cryptic DM’s without any clear request or response, are a recipe for either being ignored or deleted quickly. This won’t get you whatever it is you want and will just cause more frustration from both sides. You’ll wonder why they’re not responding to your ‘hey, how are sales going?’ text, and they will mentally mark you down as ‘hard to deal with’.

The best emails are often structured more like a checklist document and include clear headings (I like to do mine in caps), explain the situation, what the issue/ update is, what you need from them (the ‘request’) and timing for response. This could include asking for a referral to someone inside the organisation, phone/ Teams meeting or a face-to-face longer meeting.

Make sure you include all the key information including:

• Product codes (the Retailers, not your internal one), product descriptions

• Your contact details - sometimes these can fall off emails or are unclear

• Any relevant internal information ie pricing, promotional dates, product information

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLVE THIS FOR YOURSELF?

Complaining or asking for solutions without explaining how you’ve taken your own actions to try and solve an issue, is a recipe for reliance and expectation that the Retailer is going to do your work for you… All major Retailers have support portals with a whole lot of information and contact info on their own websites and it is on YOU to work your way through this first.

Foodstuffs: https://www.foodstuffs-exchange.co.nz/

Countdown: https://supplier.countdown.co.nz/

Remember: The Category Manager is not your administrator, marketing department or sales team. There are a lot of partner business’ like GS1 that can answer questions around barcodes, packaging and system interfaces with retailer networks.

WHAT’S THEIR PREFERRED MEANS OF COMMUNICATION? Hint…. it’s not their WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn or social media account

There are plenty of ways to access your business partner - ringing, texting, emailing should be sufficient. In a world of endless ways to communicate, this is about setting clear boundaries and expectations upfront and respecting their personal space. What impact does it have if you then send an uninvited 'what's app' message as well? Is it too much? Yes! This is a working relationship not a personal friend - and it’s on YOU to hold the line and not overstep familiarity.

It’s completely acceptable to ask your Category Manager for their preferred way of communicating, and how (and when) they work best for meetings and replies. I’ve seen some have an automated email reply that has all the detail of how, when and who to communicate with to deal with your questions.

DO YOU NEED TO SEND IT NOW? Timing is everything… and it’s not 4am, 11pm, or during the weekend unless its a critical health & safety issue.

Although supermarkets have staff working 24/7 including weekends, this is not an excuse to contact outside agreed business hours. For emergencies like major food recalls, you should have set up GS1 Product Recall which has all the links to the right people within your Retail partners. Check out https://www.gs1nz.org/services/product-recall/ to find out how this could work for you.


FINALLY…. STOP TALKING WHEN THE TIME IS UP

If someone is generous enough to give an additional 45mins of their time and that person asks to end the meeting to be able to get in a 10min break before the next meeting, are you respecting boundaries if you continue your own agenda to 'optimise' someone else's time?

Best practice is to set expectations upfront in a meeting about the key points to work through, and send any indepth review information or presentations through a LEAST 2-3 days before the meeting so they have time to read through and make any notes. Ask upfront at the start of the meeting if there are any time considerations and try to finish 5 minutes EARLIER than you need to so you have time for any over-run in conversation.

Working with retailers is about creating trust, respect and partnership.

If you wouldn’t say it to your kids or partner - then really really don’t say it to your Category Manager.

If you need help with working on emails, presentations or communicating with Category Managers, then drop us a line for a free quick chat and hints.