By the time the show rolled around a month later, Bucci figures he spent $30,000 in total, on everything from the patent work to putting up a website, in order to pitch his invention to the industry's largest retailers. And he was excited by the attention he received from the crowd, especially reps from Lowes and Home Depot. But when Bucci went down to Atlanta the following month to meet with Home Depot, he left without a deal because he felt they were trying to sell the product too cheaply.
Undeterred, Bucci began selling his product online and to smaller retailers to establish a solid sales track record. His key turning point, though, came about a year later when he struck a partnership deal with Hyde Tools, a major supplier of paint sundries. Since Home Depot already carried Hyde products, Bucci was able to get his product onto store shelves easily. "Large retailers don't like to add new vendors because it involves a lot paperwork," he says. "All they had to do was a new SKU." The good news got better when Lowes, also a partner with Hyde, picked up the Painter's Pyramid as well.
TIP: Partner with other companies to make your company more attractive to big retailers.
Dig Deeper: Bringing Fixed-gear Bikes to the Masses
M-Edge
Patrick Mish blames his wife for why he started his Odenton, Md.-based company, M-Edge, which sells accessories like covers for e-readers like the Kindle and the iPad. Six years ago, Mish, an engineer working for Northrup Grumman, was tired of carrying around all the books his wife – who happens to be a prolific reader – brought on trips. So he started looking into the then nascent market for e-reading devices that consisted of a single product made by Sony.
While the device itself wasn't great, Mish noticed that there weren't a lot of accessories available for it. Given that and the potential he saw for growth in the market, he decided to take a gamble and launch a company of his own. At first, he sold his covers on Amazon's third-party marketplace. Then, when Amazon released the Kindle in October 2007, he was already positioned in a great channel to begin selling accessories for that device.
At the same time, he began reaching out to other brick-and-mortar retailers like Best Buy and Staples. More often than not, though, the buyers would hang up on him since there wasn't a big market for e-readers yet. Eventually, however, as M-Edge's sales continued to grow and the Kindle and similar devices began to take off, Mish's phone calls got more interesting and culminated in Best Buy placing an order.
"Our track record gave us the credibility to know what features are important to customers and what sells well," says Mish. That first order soon led to others and the company's accessories are now sold in Walmart, Target and Staples here in the U.S., as well as in other retailers like John Lewis and Dixons in the U.K.
TIP: Establish a track record of sales to gain credibility with larger retailers.
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Honey-Can-Do
Steve Greenspon started Berkeley, Ill.-based Honey-Can-Do, a provider of home storage, organization and laundry care products, back in 2007. When he founded the company, though, Greenspon had already learned many lessons about selling products in his years working, first for a wholesaler of heating and air-conditioning equipment, followed by a stint working for a manufacturer of bath products. It was after selling his ownership stake in the bath product company that Greenspon began thinking about starting a venture of his own.
"I knew I wanted to be in consumer products," he says. "I wanted to sell something I could understand and I understood laundry and organization." Greenspon then spent weeks wandering the aisles of big-box retailers, analyzing what was out there and how much it cost as a way to research what he could do differently. He wasn't looking to invent something new – only improve the quality and design of what was already out there.
By chance, Greenspon also got a call from a former colleague, Debbie Gerfy, who had headed up the Asian operations at his former company for 15 years. Gerfy, who lives in China, came on board Greenspon's new company and immediately helped him establish manufacturing and distribution relationships in China that could make and ship their new product line, which now consists of some 400 products, with 100 new additions coming on each year.
Greenspon, who provided all the capital for the company, also invested heavily in the software and technology that would allow him to accept and process large orders as well as manage the company's inventory. Greenspon made these investments because he knew that when he talked to the retailers – Target was his first big-box customer – they would feel confident in working with his company if he built the infrastructure necessary to scale his operations to meet demand. "You need to build the confidence with them that you've done this before and that you'll make them look good for choosing to work with you," he says, noting that retailers such as Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Kmart and others now carry the Honey-Can-Do line.
TIP: Make the necessary investments to give big retailers confidence that you can scale up and deliver.
Dig Deeper: Making Life Easier for His Customers
