Never stop trying
The Vitality Show caused a mass rush for the business, which was of course great, but it means that things have got rather hectic lately!
Here’s why:
1) These trade shows usually mean that you are out of the office, so there was nobody here to run the day-to-day detail, which means now we’re playing catch up.
2) Then there’s the interest that it generates in the first place, i.e. what you’re there for, that needs following up.
3) We have decided to extend our product range to fill a gap in the market.
We now have four products to consolidate into a design family. I have managed to get meetings with all of the major retailers
next week (Asda, Spar, Tesco, One-Stop to name but a few). After a year of trying to get our products out into Sainsburys (and that is something I always say, never stop trying) you get to the point where the big players want to see us. So we need to ensure that everything is set up properly for these meetings (while we also run the day-to-day business, extend the family of products …). So it has meant an awful lot of work to make sure that we are 100% ready to take our products to them.
The Vitality Show is described as ‘the ulitimate girl’s day out’, and had various celebrity expert speakers (Gillian McKeith, Amanda Hamilton were two, think GMTV), and when negotiating for a spot at Vitality Scotland in Glasgow in May I asked if they needed me to speak! I do a lot of speaking about the importance of hydration, so the audience will be numbering 500 to 100 per day, and my talk should last around one hour per session, and being opposite the Santeau stand too should mean we will generate loads of interest. Top tip: negotiating is key, go for the most outrageous thing – I negotiated the stand at a knock-down price only because I was brave enough to ask, and will also receive fees for speaking.
We’ve had reorders from the MoDs which mean the trial was successful. And with our new sport product O2GO Sport+ (the product has yet to be finalised) we have sales there as well. Top tip 2: always tell someone you can do something, sell it to them and then do something! OK I would rather do it the other way around but you have to be brave. All our products in the family have to be brought into line into a holistic whole though, as a Santeau offering to the market, or each product just gets lost in itsown category. A family of products is always more successful, especially wth big retailers.
Easter will be spent sorting the redesign of all the family of products. Our design company are working over the weekend for us, so I will be there for them, phone at the ready, no rest for the wicked. Then I need to prepare thoroughly for the negotiations next Wednesday with Asda.
Paul and I were really pleased to see the reception of products at The Vitality Show. I used to get personally offended if people didn’t take to my products, but I think it was good for Paul to see that the 98% of people who love it outweigh the 2% who don’t, any day of the week. Not all products are for everybody; always remember that!
