Peter Gialantzis

As Steve Jobs famously said, "Focus is saying no". EVERY sales team has limited bandwidth and it is mission critical to focus on the highest leverage opportunities. The ability to identify and curate leads to meet the unique needs of your business is an art. Sales leaders need to guide their teams on where to say no, and give them license to focus on what can make them successful.

It may be cliche at this point, but “failing fast” is a mission critical cultural touchstone for any company serious about innovation and differentiation. An innovative merchandising plan needs to be flexible enough to pivot out of product that isn’t working, and into product that is, quickly. This includes having a clearly defined exit strategy to move out of slower -moving programming to make room for the latest first to market innovations quickly.

Our sole focus as a business is to provide CPG brands with "speed to scale". This requires speed to market and first to market capabilities to key retailers. In order to achieve this with consistency the focus needs to be on product market fit. The two key questions that needs to be answered here are: "Who will buy this product" "How much are they willing to pay for it." Once there is an understanding of the overall growth potential of the brand, it becomes a relatively straightforward exercise to match the brand to the right customers based upon quantifiable metrics.

Test and learn. Fail Fast. These five words are thrown around quite a bit in our industry but for those startups who truly live by them, a world of opportunity awaits. It's critical to be able to iteratively trial new concepts, ideas, products, and programs, but to do so quickly. Using a combination of art and science, it is possible to find what works without investing too much time and money into the development process. Once a concept shows promise, the focus shifts to scalability. By learning and failing as quickly as possible, companies can avoid wasting resources on bringing something to market that the end user doesn't actually want.

Our entire company ethos revolves around innovation and frugality. To maintain a culture of innovation, it is mission critical for everyone in the company to be able to speak with radical candor and communicate in real time. No ideas are bad ideas until they have been proven to be. A lot of companies talk about "failing fast" but few companies actually tolerate failure, or even the risk of failure. A true culture of innovation requires everyone to be willing and able to wear multiple hats, risk failure, and move on from failure quickly to the next opportunity.

Most salespeople "fail" most of the time. There is less than 50% sell-through rate on cold or warm leads. In retail grocery, a successful presentation results in 25% of the products presented being approved. Any salesperson needs to keep in mind that just making the pitch and presenting the product or services gives you a fighting chance to succeed. Repetition and persistence is the name of the game...don't be discouraged by setbacks and always be learning from buyer feedback.