The Importance of Founder-Led Sales

Greetings from Anaheim! It has been a great Expo West so far and I can’t wait to hit the floor again today. 

I posted on X that my only Expo West advice is to stay at Newport Beach and drive in daily. 

Yes, the drive is about 40 minutes with traffic in the morning, but it’s 25 minutes in the evening and you can get a great place for your entire team for the same price as one of those motels that is supposed to look like its a cute chateau in the Swiss Alps, but doesn’t quite hit the mark. 

My vibe check newsletter from last week seems to align with the conversations I have been having. Brands are trying to find the balance between being excited about future opportunities while also nervous about all the outside factors that are going to affect CPG in 2025. 

As brands look to navigate 2025, many of them will do so by adding additional sales help through broker partnerships. The word broker can often elicit a strong reaction in brands. They either have PTSD from a horrible experience or speak glowingly about a true partner who has helped scale their business. 

I have touched on questions you should ask brokers and things to look out for during the interview process, but today I wanted to talk about the importance of hitting a certain threshold of sales without a broker first and why it’s important to not offload sales in the early days. 

First, I wanted to give a quick shoutout to this week’s sponsor, RDSolutions: 

Unlock Total Brand Excellence with RDSolutions

RDSolutions, helps brands drive growth and optimize every customer touchpoint - both online and in-store. With over 35 years of experience, we provide comprehensive, data-driven insights using global web scraping and extensive field coverage across North America. Our solutions deliver actionable 1st and 3rd party data that allow brands to identify and resolve issues in real time, boosting brand visibility, improving customer satisfaction, and staying competitive in today’s fast-changing retail environment.

Whether you're a large enterprise or a small business, we tailor our services to fit your needs. Our team acts as an extension of your brand, supporting you with both digital insights and in-field assistance to ensure success at every touchpoint. From pricing strategies to customer loyalty, RDSolutions equips you with the tools to succeed at the shelf and online.

Ready to stop guessing and start growing? Let RDSolutions show you how our data-driven insights can solve your brand's challenges from day one. Learn more here and see the impact for yourself HERE. 

When speaking to emerging brands, one of the most common things I hear is that they are onboarding a new broker team or that they are unhappy with their current broker team. 

It never seems to be that a smaller brand is applauding its broker team and it's my assumption that the less you hear about a broker, the better job they are probably doing. 

Although there are plenty of bad brokers out there who prey on smaller brands, make promises of large retail placement, and don’t deliver. The harsh truth is that most brands share in the responsibility of that failed broker relationship. They share the responsibility because at the end of the day, the broker is a tool for you to maximize your current results and not a savior to manufacture results from nothing. 

The purpose of brokers is to amplify a successful product, brand, and sales process. 

It’s on you as the founder to drive those initial results and to fail as often as possible so that you can refine your sales story, pitch, and positioning. Once this has been refined and you have traction, then it’s time to fast-track those results with a broker. 

You want to be in the drivers seat as the brand when you initiate those broker conversations and achieving a certain amount of sales success on your own will give you that ability. 

You want to be outlining what has been working for you, how buyers have been reacting, and how you view the pitch potentially coming through when it’s not led by the founder. With this in hand, the conversation shifts from “how can you help our brand grow” to “how can we expedite what is already working through your network and with your team.”

As a founder you have to establish what that milestone is going to be for founder-led sales which will then trigger your broker search. I think $1M in retail sales is a good general rule of thumb which will force you to present to a strong mix of small and medium sized retailers on your own to hit that sales goal. 

Once you have hit that number on your own, you're going to know exactly what story resonates and how your brand needs to be represented. This will empower you to find a sales partner from a point of strength and any good broker partner will be delighted to work with you, understanding that you have de-risked the brand already through your founder-led sales efforts. 

Once you are ready to kick off the search, I would keep the following in mind when speaking with potential partners.

1) More Than Just Contacts

If a broker is saying they know your buyer well and they can walk your product into an account given their personal relationship with that buyer, run! Just run in the opposite direction.

Buyers change seats every 6-18 months now and most of them are young professionals. It is not 20 years ago when a personal relationship is going to be the gold stamp for your brand.

You want a broker who deeply understands your category and each retailer, and can position your brand story around that intimate knowledge they have. You don’t want a broker who is just bringing a relationship to the table.

Asking a broker about success stories they have had in a certain category or retailer is a great way to feel out if they are the right fit. Ask them how they would position your brand to the buyer and make sure their pitch aligns with your brand values. You want to feel comfortable with this person representing your brand without you, and that takes a lot of trust on both sides.

2)  No Gatekeepers

I can't stand if a broker is putting a wall between me and their contacts. A good broker should want you in the buyer meetings.

They view you as a team member and not a threat to their sales process. Good brokers don't fear you are going to take their contact and run, instead, they embrace your sales story and have you in on the conversations early.

They see you, the founder, as a key asset.

Make sure you establish early on that you intend to be a part of the sales process. If there is pushback, it should be flagged. Hitting that benchmark on your own will also help you position around this and empower you to be clear that you're not dropping off from the sales process just because they are coming onboard.

3) Long-Term Partners

Solid brokers will interview you as a potential client, as much as you interview them. That’s because the good brokers understand that if they unlock success for your brand that it means potentially working with you up until acquisition. 

They will want to know how you're going to support them and they will have a rigorous onboarding process. They will want to get you in front of their team and ensure you feel welcomed into their portfolio. 

They aren’t thinking about your brand as just another monthly payment to make up for a brand they just lost, but instead they see the potential of what representing your brand in 3-5 years will mean to their firm. 

You have to look past the short-term results you want and see if you can envision working with their team for the next decade plus. 

I want to be clear, I am not saying you should isolate yourself on an island until you hit some arbitrary sales number and then start your search for sales help. You’re going to need help, but until you hit your founder-led sales goal, I would prioritize help that is going to work alongside you and help you refine your processes and strategy instead of a broker who is simply selling you on their ability to get your brands into new points of distribution.

You need to have a plan in place and there are great consultants and fractional professionals for emerging brands that aren’t brokers that will help you craft your retail strategy so that you can have success. 

I would tap into these people and services in the early days instead of offloading your sales to a third-party who is never going to be invested in your early success as much as you are. 

If you're going to be at Expo West today, please do send me a message. It would be great to connect!