“It may be painful playing the long game, but it’s totally worth it.”

This quote is from Andrew Allen, Key Account Executive at Fresh Scents, which makes air fresheners for the home and car in the form of scented sachets that you’ve likely seen (and smelled) at many specialty and mass retail locations merchandised in a PDQ, bulk bin, sidekick or pegged in a planogram. 

I caught up with Allen in his meeting room at ECRM’s recent Impulse, Front-End & Checklane Session, where he was pitching retail buyers across food, mass drug and convenience channels. Over the years Fresh Scents has been to more than a dozen ECRM Sessions, including Housewares, Household & General Merchandise, Convenience, Candles & Home Fragrance and Seasonal, Holiday & Gift Wrap, and has also participated in several of RangeMe’s Immediate Opportunities, each of which has resulted in business (see full video interview below).

Fresh Scents products were already distributed among the majority of specialty chain retail, which is where the brand got its start. But over the past several years they have expanded into mass and grocery chains as well, and a lot of that came from ECRM and RangeMe.

 “When we were starting out, we had an amazing track record in specialty chains and a history of growing sales for our retailers year over year,” says Allen. “But we were trying to figure out how to reach more consumers. So by going to ECRM and having these conversations with buyers, over time these relationships formed and we broke into mass for the first time and have grown significantly in that channel. Office supplies was another. It was a completely untapped channel that we had never had contact with before, but through ECRM those relationships started and it was off to the races.”

The brand has also done very well with Immediate Opportunities, which they submit products to regularly. 

Unpacking Fresh Scents’ success

With all of the recent mass retail wins under his belt, one might imagine Allen as an aggressive, fired-up salesperson. Quite the opposite. His superpower, in fact, is patience. Patience, and the ability to foster long-term relationships through which he learns their needs and objectives, and customizing his offerings based on this information. 

“Regardless of how strongly you believe in your product, the buyers you are sitting down with at an ECRM Session are doing 50, 60, 70 or more meetings with brands in the course of a few days,” he says. “If you aggressively pitch them, it doesn’t work.”

Instead, he takes the pressure off. His approach is not one of expecting them to buy his products right away, but rather to get to know them, and get feedback from them in an open and honest conversation.”

He gives an example: “In one conversation, at our first ECRM, we met with a retail buyer and weren’t a fit for them at that time,” says Allen. “Didn’t have the right products, didn’t have the right price points. But three and a half years later we ended up getting our first purchase order from them. Not from incessant follow up or nagging, but just from keeping the conversation going.”

Patience wins in the long-term

Too often, brands – particularly new ones – expect to land business right out of the gate in their first ECRM. While that does happen occasionally, it’s pretty rare. Instead, as Allen shows, landing those purchase orders is a marathon, not a sprint, and learning from the buyer conversations, tweaking your offerings based on their feedback, and having regular meaningful conversations lead to much more success over time. 

And yes, while playing the long game can indeed be painful, as Allen alluded to in his opening quote, it’s the surefire way of success. I’ve reported on it with Mekor Corp, which 10Xed its distribution over 10 years of ECRM meetings, but even Skin Centrick, which has seen almost a dozen retail wins in the two years it’s been coming to ECRM Sessions, says the same thing:

Patience definitely leads to purchase orders.