Trade Marketing Professionals Use These Strategic Planning Ideas In trade marketing, most successful marketing specialists know that the first rule is finding out what your retailer needs in order to better sell to their customers. In other words, what types of products do their customers want, and what are the main benefits their customers looking for? This knowledge is the key to building a strategic partnership with the retailer, where sales are then optimized so both you and your clients are profitable.

1. Trade Marketing Professionals Use
These Strategic Planning Ideas
In trade marketing, most successful marketing
specialists know that the first rule is finding out what
your retailer needs in order to better sell to their
customers. In other words, what types of products do
their customers want, and what are the main benefits
their customers looking for? This knowledge is the key
to building a strategic partnership with the retailer,
where sales are then optimized so both you and your
clients are profitable.
You Must Take the Initiative First.
Managers of retail, wholesale, and distribution outlets have a number of
responsibilities that keep them busy, so they are unlikely to seek out
marketers, like you, in order to find new products that they’re customers are
interested in buying. In the highly competitive state of trade marketing
today, they simply don’t need to seek out products because most
marketers will come to them.
To be a successful trade marketer you need to take the initiative in your
relationship with the retailer by making an effort to appeal to their image
and cooperate with their goals in order to help them sell to their customers.
Approaching clients and inquiring about their business is smart, but
learning about their customer base is essential in building a strategic
partnership that will help you stand out above your competition.
Advertisements at Trade Marketing Shows
Trade marketing shows can be one of the best ways to initially grab the
attention of the retailer. Retailers attend these shows with the sole purpose
of perusing the latest products in their industry, and this is a prime
opportunity for you to expose the value and potential profitability of your
product.
Successful trade marketing at these exhibitions is reliant upon a well
thought out solid sales process, one that focuses on the benefits your

2. product will bring to the retailers customers. The presentation should
include visually stimulating multi-media presentations, as well an interactive
experience for your potential clients. And free samples are always a plus.
Get Involved Before & After the Trade Marketing Show
Building a strategic partnership with your retailer begins before the actual
day of the trade show and should continue after the exhibition is over. To
increase the chances of selling your product, you should personally invite
select retailers to the trade show via phone calls, letters, and especially e-
mail.
Datran Media’s (now PulsePoint) annual Marketing and Media Survey
indicates that nearly half of all marketing executives have found e-mail
campaigns to be the most successful advertising tactic, a strategy that is
supported by the 2011 Econsultancy market research survey. In the latter
study, 72% of marketers agreed that e-mail marketing is an excellent way
to attract new clients and begin to build new relationships.
Create Trade Incentives That Your Customers Remember
Trade incentives should also be an important part of your strategic
planning. Trade incentive programs are aimed at corporate executives,
managers, or wider-level employees, and the main goal of these incentives
is to increase sales after you have sold your manufacturer’s product to the
retail supply chain.
These programs might include bonuses, commissions for employees, or
the organization of employee challenges and competitions. Make these
incentives frequent and enjoyable so your clients remember you regularly.
These tactics will provide employees at all levels with a reason to push
your particular product, leading to an increased profitability that will
strengthen the relationship between you and the retailer.
Along With Email and Social Media Marketing, Maintain
Personal Contact
In addition to capitalizing on the high success rates of e-mail and social
media marketing tactics, as a trade marketing professional you should
always stay in personal contact with your retailers. Whether it is through a

3. scheduled visit to their store or distribution center, a personal phone or
Skype call, or an individual email, these efforts are essential to building
longer term relationships with your retailers.
Precisely because other marketers are also using social media and internet
technology so often today, the trade marketing professional that keeps and
maintains a personal relationship with their clients will always be
remembered.
In other words, in this digital age and highly saturated market, retailers
want to know they are receiving special and personalized attention, and
they will gravitate toward marketers that they remember as their ‘go to’
source - someone that truly understands their business and they’re
customers, and that has continued to keep in contact with them on a
personal level.
In summary, maintaining close and frequent contact with your client is
integral to your successful trade marketing effectiveness, and in building
long term strategic partnerships with your retailers. Clients shouldn’t feel
suffocated, but they should feel like they are your top priority.
You need to be ready and willing to get to know your customers, their
customers, and frequently keep in touch with executives, work specifically
with your retailer’s brand vision, all the while keeping their customers in
mind.
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