Brandon Stark

LISTENING It's probably the MOST IMPORTANT skill a CPG supplier can have, especially if they are seeking to take their company to the next level of growth. Listen closely to buyers, uncover their pain points, and figure out how you can help them. If you listen closely, they will point the way. During my recent panel discussion with Jack Savdie of Global Beauty Care and Osman Mithavayani of Okay Pure Naturals at ECRM's recent Beauty Sessions, I asked them how they grew from small family businesses with a limited number of SKUs to the successful companies they are now with hundreds of SKUs on retail shelves. Both attributed their growth from spending time listening to buyers' needs. and finding ways to solve for them. When you do this over the course of many years and thousands of meetings which each of them have had during the 10+ years they have been attending ECRM Sessions), you get a good idea of where you should take your company. But it's not just the meetings; it's the hours they also spend building relationships outside of the meetings -- during the meals and networking functions at Sessions, phone conversations and office visits -- that also give them time to listen. Mekor Corporation is another example. While CEO Sapan N. wasn't on my panel, I interviewed him recently about how he grew his business 10X over the past decade. No surprise -- he said the same thing: He listened to buyers and learned what their needs were. And then he found a way to address them (see a link to my blog on Mekor in the comments). So sure -- when you meet with a buyer you need to spend time pitching your products; that goes without saying. But also spend some time listening. Learning. And finding out all the ways in which you can help them. Because helping them is also helping you. #sales #smallbusiness #cpg #retail #ecrmrangeme GORUCK

41

18 Comments

How I ran a Basket Analysis for a multi-door cannabis retailer. First step: I go beyond the averages. Averages don’t tell the whole story. Focusing on a trailing average basket size hides where you have the biggest room for growth. If the goal is to increase baskets by $2.00, you need to find the baskets with the most opportunities. Let's say your store's average basket is $42 – steady over 3 months. Great, right? But do you know if this represents genuine customer habits or is skewed by a few big spenders. It could be hiding the fact that the bulk of baskets are below $20, with tons of 1-unit transactions. You want to boost sales and see that $2.00 increase but where do you start? Here’s my flow: - 90-day transaction roundup: pull and analyze the data. - Zero in on single-item transactions: Where's the biggest opportunity? - Prioritize by value: Which low-value baskets can be easily targeted? Once you know the baskets with the biggest opportunity, you can focus your aim and equip your team with the selling tactics to increase basket size. #CannabisRetail #Vetrina #SalesKPIs

17

4 Comments

As Brené Brown says, "If you are not in the arena getting your a** kicked on occasion, I am not interested in or open to your feedback." With that as my guide, here are some things in the #cannabisindustry on which I don't give feedback: -Growing the plant -Assessing the medical needs of a patient or consumer -Granular state restrictions in markets beyond my core or neighbor states Things on which I do: -Brand voice & strategic marketing tactics -Advocacy best practices & account management -Career pathing as a woman and/or LGBTQIA+ human I'm well-aware that I'm a cannabis newbie. I'm also aware that I hold a good amount of power in my role in this industry. To pretend to be the expert on every topic is just wasting time--mine, as well as my team's. I have plenty to offer the people I lead, and the clarity on what that really is has always garnered me more respect than trying to prove my authority with a puffy chest and a bunch of bravado. Let's #makeleadershiphuman again. #leadership #feedback #advice #careergrowth #mentorship

47

1 Comment

The branding opportunity in the cannabis industry is one that doesn't come around too often. Part of the reason for that is the context it currently exists in. I don't think this is a consolidated environment for brands yet - success is still being built through genuine competition for customer loyalty, not gatekeeping or backroom deals. That makes it exceptional in the commercial environment of state-legal cannabis where an undefined future tipping point in the supply balance always threatens a race to the bottom. I see brands that achieve high discoverability and high availability building enduring customer bases on merit, and it reminds me that so much of that is also sustained by a lack of cultural gatekeeping to defining what's popular. There's no central critic or authority shifting purchase habits, contra popular will. The people are better served by that competition because in the end that's the job of a growth-oriented brand - to form an enduring bond with a customer that extends beyond the retail transaction, do it right, and do it at scale.

92

1 Comment