A store buyer decides in about thirty seconds whether to keep reading, and the first thing she checks is the margin. She does not need to love your product yet. She needs to see that if it sells, she makes money, and that if it does not, you will not leave her holding it. Everything you bring to the meeting should answer those two questions.

This guide is for makers, brands and suppliers selling to stores, not for store owners. The checklist is the preparation; the sections after it explain each item, with the margin arithmetic on one product so you can run the same numbers on yours.

The buyer-meeting checklist

  1. A one-page line sheet with every item, its wholesale price, suggested retail price, case pack and minimum order.
  2. The margin for the store on each item, calculated and printed, so she does not have to do it.
  3. Your terms in writing: payment days, freight, returns and damaged goods, reorder lead time.
  4. Proof the product sells: sales at other stores, online, at markets. Real numbers, even small.
  5. The name of the right buyer for your category, confirmed by a phone call to the store or a look at the retailer's vendor page.
  6. The date of the retailer's next line review or open call, if one exists.
  7. A sample she can touch and keep, packed the way it would arrive.
  8. A test offer: a handful of stores, a time frame and a sell-through target.

The line sheet

One page. Product photos, item names, SKU or UPC, case pack, wholesale cost, suggested retail price, minimum opening order, and your contact details. Buyers file these, so put your name and email on the page itself. If your products need a 12-unit case pack to ship efficiently, say so, because a buyer who wants 6 units of something will otherwise assume you ship singles.

Margin math on a $12 product

Take a candle that sells for $12 at retail. A common retail markup is keystone, where the store doubles the wholesale price, so she pays you $6 and keeps $6, a 50 percent margin on the retail price. Many stores want more than that on small items; some natural-food and gift stores ask for 55 percent or higher, which would put your wholesale price at $5.40. Don't guess. Ask what margin she needs, and build the number into the line sheet.

Now your side. If the candle costs you $2.40 to make and package, then at $6 wholesale your gross profit is $3.60 a unit, 60 percent of wholesale. At $5.40 it is $3.00, about 56 percent. Subtract freight to the store (say $0.30 a unit when shipped in cases), and any allowance for damaged goods. If your margin at the store's required price is thin, fix the cost or the price before the meeting, not after the buyer says yes.

Terms: returns, payment days and freight

Three terms trip up new brands. Payment: net 30 is common, and some larger retailers pay later, which affects your cash. Returns: some stores expect to return unsold goods or ask for a markdown allowance; decide in advance what you'll offer, and put it in writing. Freight: state who pays shipping and what order size ships free. Offering a small opening order with prepaid freight, and larger orders net 30, is a reasonable starting structure. Have a lawyer or a trade association review a standard terms sheet; this is general information, not legal advice.

Finding the right buyer

Big chains list vendor submission pages with category contacts. Regional chains and independents do not, so you call the store and ask who buys your category. Look for gaps: a shelf with three similar products where yours would be different, a local-brand section, a seasonal display. Our guide to how to find decision makers at a company covers naming the person, and how to get wholesale customers covers the larger picture of selling to stores from the maker's side.

The meeting and the sample

Ask for 15 minutes. Lead with the proof, then the margin, then the terms. Bring the product and let her handle it. Ask what she needs in order to bring it in, and write down the answer. At the end, offer the small test. Many buyers will not commit to a full rollout on a first meeting but will say yes to a limited trial.

A test offer to a regional chain might read: "Eight stores, 24 units each, with a display card. If you sell through 60 percent in eight weeks, we talk about the next quarter." Check the arithmetic: eight stores times 24 units is 192 units. At $6 wholesale that is $1,152 for you, against $460.80 in product cost (192 times $2.40), leaving $691.20 before freight. At the 60 percent target, 115 units sell, and the store rings up about $1,380 at the shelf price; if all 192 sell, it is $2,304.

The follow-up that earns a reorder

Two weeks after delivery, call the store, not the buyer, and ask whether the product is on the shelf and how it is moving. Fix problems quickly: replace damaged units, adjust the display. At week six, send the buyer a short sales report if the store shares data, or ask her for it. At week eight, ask for the reorder. If she says no, ask what number would change her mind. How to follow up after a meeting has wording, and getting customers for an ecommerce brand shows how online sales can supply the proof a buyer wants. Keep an eye on what each new account costs you as you add stores.

Finding the buyers at 40 regional stores and writing to each is the part that eats evenings. Rocketship can find them by name, email them from your own Gmail with your line sheet, and follow up; see how the AI workers run it. Selling to hospitals is a very different, slower buyer, covered in how to sell to hospitals.

Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required.