A distributor launches a new range in January. Catalogues go out, an email is sent, and the account managers mention it where they can.
By March a third of the stockist base has not registered that it exists. Several of them have committed their budget to something else, and two found out from a competitor's shelves.
The range is good and the launch was not. Every stockist could have known in the first week, and the information required to convince them existed the whole time.
1. Tell stockists what is new, specifically
Not that a catalogue has been issued. What products, what they replace and why a stockist should care.
2. State the trade price and the expected margin
The number that decides whether a stockist orders, and the one most frequently omitted from a launch communication.
3. State the minimum order for the new line
Since a stockist deciding whether to try something needs to know what trying it commits them to.
4. State what it replaces
Which is the supersession question in product availability and discontinued line questions.
5. Provide the specification and imagery immediately
Which stockists need to sell it, and which is the ground in product specification questions from resellers.
6. Provide the point of sale material
What exists, how to order it and whether it costs anything, since a stockist without materials sells less of it.
7. Explain the launch timing
When it is available, whether there is a pre order window and whether early orders get anything, which drives the initial volume.
8. Explain the support arrangements
Training, samples, returns on unsold stock and anything else that reduces the risk of trying something new.
9. Make it answerable on demand
A stockist wondering in March what was new in January should be able to find out in seconds rather than searching an inbox.
10. Keep the catalogue queryable rather than static
Since what a stockist wants is an answer about one product rather than a document containing everything.
11. Flag the seasonal ordering deadlines
Which decide whether anything is stocked at all, and which stockists miss constantly.
12. Tell them what is selling
Which lines are moving elsewhere, since that is the most persuasive argument available and is rarely shared.
13. Answer the question outside office hours
Buyers review ranges and place orders in the evening, which is when a catalogue question has nowhere to go.
14. Tell them what is coming, not only what has arrived
Buyers plan a season ahead, and a stockist who knows what is launching in six months can plan budget around it rather than discovering it after the money is committed elsewhere.
15. Make it easy to order a small trial quantity
The single biggest obstacle to a stockist trying something new is the minimum, and a reduced trial quantity on new lines converts far more accounts than any amount of catalogue material.
16. Let every stockist ask what is new whenever they think of it
An assistant that states what is new, what it replaces, the trade price and margin, the minimum order and what support comes with it means a stockist in March finds out in seconds what was launched in January. The product data questions sit in product data and catalogue questions, and the matching logic in ai shopping assistant product fit. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under wholesale distribution.