Business Development

Drive Sales Through Channel Partner Marketing

Business Development, ,

A lot of specialty coffee industry companies use distributors and reseller partners to deliver their message and their goods to the end-customer in various B2B channels: Cafe, OCS, grocery, gourmet, restaurant, vending, c-stores, club stores, online resellers. However, many find that their partners are often lacking in driving new business and that they’re just handling that which is given to them.

At SOS, we work with clients to increase distributor sell through. Here are some useful tips we have learned. Continue reading →

Why Your Trade Ads Don’t Work

Business Development, Marketing Plan, Specialty Coffee Industry Business Development Marketing, ,

It has nothing to do with the magazine or Facebook or Google, or any other form of media.

It has to do with what you have to say and how you say it.

Here are a few samples of headlines from recent coffee industry ads: “The Finest Coffee On Earth”, ”Absolutely Brilliant Coffee Brewers”, or my favorite “Create The Ultimate Vanilla Latte”. Continue reading →

B2B Sales: How To Know When You Are Too Dependent On One Customer

Business Development

Sure, it’s great to have a big contract with a big company. But how do you know when you’re too dependent on that one relationship?

It happens like this: A young, growing business finally gets the call it longs for–a massive company (Wal-Mart, maybe, or Whole Foods, or whoever the dominant company is in the industry) wants their product or service. A lot of it. A big, big contract awaits. Heaven on a stick, right? Continue reading →

5 Critical Signs You’ve Outgrown Your Marketing People

Business Development,

There’s no doubt that we all need to know how to choose the right marketing people. These could be anyone doing your marketing including marketing coordinators, interns with marketing degrees, sales people, a PR person, your distributor, or your website designer. Continue reading →