pitching to a retailer

[Paul Czege]

So...Luke's http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=8498">photo of OctaNe, InSpectres, Burning Wheel, and Shades of Earth on display at Pandemonium Books in Boston got me thinking about how I might directly pitch local retailers on carrying My Life with Master. I suspect the Burning Wheel and HinterWelt books were ordered by Pandemonium from RPGnow, but OctaNe and InSpectres must have been pitched directly. And I seem to recall Ron once saying he'd directly pitched and sold Sorcerer to Chicago area retailers.

So those of you who've done this, what's your method? How do you introduce yourself? Do you think it's important to be recognized as a regular store customer? Have you had sales to stores where you don't believe you were recognized as a regular customer? What kind of language do you use in making the pitch? Do you mention it casually, while in the process of purchasing something from the store? What if you don't know who has the authority to make purchasing decisions? Is there a good time of day or week for making a pitch to a retailer like this? What do you have with you when you make the pitch? Copies of reviews? Business cards? Just a couple of copies of the game? Should I expect to be paid with a check? Or cash? Or should I pretty much expect offers to stock my game on consignment only?

Thanks,

Paul

[jdagna]

Most (OK, all) of my direct sales to retailers have been at conventions where they can see you and can see people playing and buying the game from you.  Most of the time, I've been paid in cash, but a lot of stores offer to trade merchandise instead of paying directly.  I generally refuse this, but I've made a few exceptions.

[HinterWelt]

Paul,
To be honest I have to think that the folks at PB ordered our books through their distributor. Hinterwelt is in with Impressions which means we are carried by over 40 distributors. Helps to get you exposure even if people do not think it is worth it.

That said, we have done our share of direct pitches. We hanadle our local pitches differently from our phone pitches. We have a bit of an advantage as we owned Warhorse Hobbies (IL and MI) about ten ysears ago.

O.K, the local pitch. We try to show up on off hours (i.e. during the week day) and look around the store first. We bring our sell sheets, business cards, and copies of our books. We dress corporate casual. After a brief zip around the store we go up and intorduce ourselves and tell them we are from HinterWelt Enterprises. Proffer cards and lay our product on the counter. We ASK if they have time to talk about our product. We assure them it will not take more than 15 minutes (AND WE MAKE SURE IT TAKES NO MORE THAN THE STATED TIME). As we tell them about our product we refer to each. We let them flip through the copies. Answer any of their quetions. Be prepared for the following questions:

How does your game play?

Do you sell direct to stores and/or what distributors carry your product?

What is the setting like?

Who is your target audience?

Do you offer a discount if I buy these  now? Hint: industry standard is 40-50%.

We then GIVE them a copy of each of our books. I have recently been told just how stupid I am for doing this for a retailer who is not likely to order even two more. I believe in this model. I will tell you this, NOTHING tells a retailer you are more confident in your product then giving him a copy, asking him to look it over and when he is done to put it out on the shelves. We thank the owner for their time and move on.

The above method has gotten us into local shops, reorders at 3 of 7 shops.

Phone pitches follow much of the above points but in clude an initial call to the retailer asking if we can send some copies of our games for his evaluation. An important point here is to ask what the retailer sells. In other words are you nending you baby to a CCG shop? Might not be helpful unless they are really interested. We then send copies. After a week we call again and discuss the books asking for ways to improve, pointing out our web support, offering to send them demo kits and the like. We ask them if we can put them on our retailer mailing list.

We have sold, through our distributors, to 8 shops so far this way.

Well, that is how we do it. I am interested to here what Ron has to say.

Ciao,
Bill

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Bill's way is better than my way, which is best described as desultory and not especially widely-applied. I really ought to be more active about it.

So, I point to Bill's post and say, "Do that, and never mind how I'm fumbling about."

Best,
Ron

[Valamir]

That's some shit Bill.

Little stuff like asking for 15 minutes first and not going beyond is the sort of thing that corporations spend big bucks to have consultants teach their sales staff.

Very top drawer

[HinterWelt]

Thaanks for the kind words guys. I am glad my college educations, years of retail experience and genetic predisposition to BS could come in handy. :)

Bill

[Luke]

Burning Wheel has no distribution or fulfillment whatsoever. Every sale I make is a result of one of my pitches (or Don's, he's really good at this) either in a forum, at a con or in person at a store.

At the stores, I am a bit more casual than the Hinterwelt guys. T-shirt and cargo pants are good enough for my mother, they're good enough for a game store.

But I do go in and check out the store. I look around, see how the games are displayed and what games are actually on the shelf. Then I try to at least buy something.

After the sale I simply ask, "How does one get a game on the shelves here?"

I only ever do this if I have a copy of the game on me to show them. Hand them the game, let them flip through it and take a look.

Are they interested? Yes? Then I discuss terms, 50/50 split. At that point, I leave them copies of the game and then send them an invoice later. Some stores simply will not pay you, others pay right away. My friend Don has the amazing knack (and cojones) to hand them them two sets and say, "That'll be $15 bucks." And they usually write him a check!

I also make sure I give them a stack of stickers.

Pandemonium is great, they pay fairly frequently and they are friendly.

We are currently carried in four other stores. Two other retailers picked us up and then dropped us after selling 3-4 sets. And at least five retailers that I 've pitched have said no directly. So take this all with a grain of salt.

Also, if a store asks for demo game or has a demo area available, take it!!!

Good luck, Paul.
I think you have winner.

-Luke