Episode #197: How Get Your Products In Stores With A Pitch That Stands Out with Rick Derr
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In Q4 some toy entrepreneurs are feeling FOMO, wishing that they made a bigger push to get into retail for this season. But don’t worry, your next big opportunity for sales is just around the corner. This week's episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone struggling to get their toy or game products noticed by retailers. If you've been tirelessly pitching with little to no response, this episode is a turning point.
Discover the secrets of creating a standout pitch that captures the attention of toy store owners. This episode is especially timely as we explore the prime opportunity that lies in Q1 for pitching to specialty stores. Azhelle interviews Rick Derr, owner of Learning Express Lake Zurich, to dissect actual wholesale and retail email campaigns from toy companies and provide a laser-focused critique on improving pitches. Together, they delve into the critical elements of a successful pitch, from leveraging sales data to crafting a clear, compelling call to action.
This episode isn't just theory; it's loaded with practical, actionable advice. Learn how to reduce friction in the transaction process, the importance of prior sales data, and the art of building a strong, authentic voice. Whether you're a Toy Creators Academy member with full access to our comprehensive lessons or a toy entrepreneur looking for breakthrough strategies, this episode is an invaluable resource in your journey. However, if you ARE a Toy Creators Academy student, head over to courses.thethetoycoach.com and login to your student platform and click into Module 9 to access the full conversation and a 8 phase pitch plan.
🔍 Key Takeaways:
A Great Time to Pitch is Around The Corner: Understand why Q1 is a golden window for pitching to specialty retailers.
Crafting Effective Pitches: Learn from a toy store owner, Rick Derr about creating pitches with a strong call to action, ease of access, and focused messaging.
Utilizing Sales Data: Discover how to use sales data effectively to make your pitch more compelling.
Building Relationships: Uncover the importance of relationships in the toy industry and how to nurture them for business success.
Email Marketing Insights: Gain valuable tips on segmenting your email list and creating impactful email marketing campaigns.
🔗 Resources:
For additional resources, links, and a visual experience of the interviews, visit thetoycoach.com/197 and join Toy Creators Academy to unlock the full interview and 8 phase step by step guide by visiting https://toycreatorsacademy.com.
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🔗 Resources:
Join Toy Creators Academy to unlock the full interview and 8 phase step by step guide by visiting https://www.toycreatorsacademy.com.
Download the Email Marketing Guide Mentioned In This Episode: https://learn.thetoycoach.com/email
If you are a current student, visit courses.thetoycoach.com and login to the platform to access the programs you have access to.
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This one's it says new launch, play food for kids.
It's boring. I know what played food is. And by the way, by the way, why you instead of Melissa and Doug, why you instead of Hape, why you instead of X sustainably sourced.
Okay. Yeah, but no big deal. No big deal. I'll go to green toys if I have to. Yeah, this is kind of boring. Now. If, if this was wholesale and it said, is your Melissa and Doug business down? Oh, see what I
mean? Oh man. You're going for the jugular.
But yeah, that gets my attention.
you are listening to Making It In The Toy Industry, episode number 📍 197.
Hey there, toy people!
Ajelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of the Toy Coach podcast, making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by thetoycoach. com. If you are pitching and pitching your toy or game product to retailers, trying to get it into stores and just struggling to get a response.
You have clicked onto the right episode today, my friend. Today's podcast episode is all about how to get your product in stores with a pitch that stands out. In Q4, many toy entrepreneurs have the feeling of FOMO. Wishing they pitched harder or more often before the holiday season hit.
Well, if that's you at any time, I want you to turn that frown upside down because the next best opportunity for you to pitch is actually right around the corner in Q1, especially if you're selling to specialty. Because in Q1, inventory is low and dollars are high for store owners. So, what better way to get you ready than to do a podcast all about improving your pitch to toy store owners? During today's episode, you're going to hear the clips of a conversation I had with Rick Derr, the owner of Learning Express Lake Zurich. And we're going to be addressing all of those questions, how to improve that pitch. Rick and I will analyze actual email campaigns that I have received from toy brands. By the end of this episode, you'll know the one thing that you probably have. Too many of in your outreach email to retailers. You'll learn how to create less friction in the transaction process. We also dive into the importance of prior sales data and what to do when you don't have any, we talk about visual cues, simple messaging, how to build a strong, authentic voice, and so much more.
Now this podcast episode is just clips from my full conversation with Rick. So if you happen to have access to Toy Creators Academy and you're listening to this episode, I want you to listen in, but when you're done, go back to module nine of TCA and look for the lesson that will be titled the same as this episode, how to get your products in stores with a pitch that stands out. And there you will find the full video of our interview,
plus a step by step action plan to make it really clear how to put everything we're learning here into action. That video and download is waiting for you in module nine right now. So head over to courses. thetoycoach. com and log in. If you aren't a member of TCA, you can join today.
Just visit ToyCreatorsAcademy. com if you'd like a walkthrough of TCA, visit ToyCreatorsAcademy. com slash walkthrough. Okay. So let's dive into this conversation with Rick.
The goal here is to learn what a specialty or mass toy store owner is thinking when they get a pitch for a new product so you can pitch them more effectively and get more responses.
The first thing we address at the very beginning are key areas for improvement in your pitches. The things that Rick calls out are call to action and ease of access, as well as simplicity and focus. Let's listen in.
I kind of have three bugaboos. Sort of three areas that, that I think people should at least consider working on.
The three things I see are one there, there's no call to action. In the whole memo, and if it is, it's near the bottom. And I'll never make it to the bottom if I don't have something at the top.
Number two. I don't want to do the work for you. Okay. And what I mean by that is, hey, here's my website.
Here's my product. Open this, go to this. I'm the customer. You should have all that laid out for me, in my opinion, so that I don't have to do the work. I don't want to have to do your work. And then thirdly, you make it too difficult to actually Want to work with you. And again, by that, I mean, you don't present a document that distills the information down to a, what you want me to do, like. What products do you want me to buy? Here's my whole catalog. Well, I, I don't care about your whole catalog. I don't even know you. So, back to number two, some work to distill it into a very simple concept of here's the three items to start with. Bingo, bongo, bongo. Here's, just check here, send this back, and we'll be on our way. If somebody would hit those three points, I think they would have not only conversation with the person and buyer, but perhaps their ultimate goal, which is to make a sale.
whAt's the best call to action you have seen?
Obviously in toys, It's about sales and trends. If you can attract my attention by actual data that says StorAx sold 50 of these. In the first week that gets my attention, not views, not sell in, not YouTube subscribers, all those other periphery things.
I want sales everybody says they have an excellent outstanding. I'm thrilled to introduce, you know, all the buzzwords there. It just. Goes over my head now What I don't see is and this is where people will stand out is I tested a product and it sold 50 in the first week Hashtag then it goes on to say this new product is gaining steam.
I want you to be early on And this store in Rockaway, New York Place this item and had it, you know, visible to clients. So we know that it has consumer takeaway that all of a sudden a stands out because nobody does it be. I'm interested 50 units in a week. Okay, I'll take that.
How many times have you pitched your toy or game with the words amazing, or incredible, or outstanding instead of using data that would actually support those claims. Now, utilizing sales data, you can highlight past sales with actual data to grab attention. Or if you want to utilize trend data, you can utilize specific examples of stores that have multiplied their business by expanding into a new trendy category of product. How do you do that? Let's continue listening in.
If they don't have the sales, what's another angle that works?
So sales works the best, even if you have them online, anywhere that you can bring factual information in.
Okay. Let's leave it at that. Sales is the top of the list, but there could be other factual based information that, that you can bring to the party. Nobody wants to deal in facts anymore. It's just thrilling, exciting, unbelievable views, this, that I want verbs. Sold 70. So there's a, there's a bit, you know, you use verbs to catch attention, not adjectives, we're all tired of the fluffy stuff. Uh, so, but okay. Say you don't have sales, you're a brand new company, whatever.
You can then transfer into the trend issue, like. Right now, Kauai, all trends point to that as getting bigger and bigger, just as fashion and tween was a couple of years ago. There'll be other new little trends that, that pop out. So if you were going after a game store, you know, Uh, I would put in their research points out since COVID tremendous explosion in board game sales, but, and then go into stores that are carrying anime, like the millennium game store in Rochester, New York has blown their sales up.
Several million dollars. And that's a fact.
How would you find that out?
Well, you go to conferences, you, you Google, you research. That was on Fox News, uh, out of Rochester, New York. And then I happened to meet Travis, uh, The, the owner. And we had a discussion. You call him on the phone. This is what I mean about doing your homework.
Yeah. Okay. You just don't, can't read the wall street journal with one headline and then make, then dive deeper. Yeah. How did Travis do it? He's willing to talk to you. Most people are, if you do it the right way. Now all of a sudden the board game, people say, Oh. Maybe I should consider this other area to add to my mix.
How did he do it? And they'll go maybe, uh, or have a link to Millennium Games. Check this out. They did a great, um, online, uh, Facebook video of opening their new location. Yeah. Going from four, five, 4, 000 square feet to 22, 000 square feet. Wow. And All of it was because of the tremendous increase in sales over the last couple of years.
So no sales, then move on to other fact based information.
If you're just pitching and pitching and wondering why you haven't heard back, perhaps it's because of a lack of relationships. Yes, relationships are hugely important in any business. That's why inside of Toy Creators Academy, we don't just talk about Getting your product ready and pitching by email we also want to get you out into trade shows and into toy stores to establish real life in person connections. So let's talk about establishing connections. You've got to prioritize relationship building before you make that sales pitch. How? Go to trade shows or visit stores in person. You also can build trust and credibility by genuine engagement on online platforms that show your understanding of the buyer's needs let's listen in to more details on this from Rick.
you have to have some relationships. Probably your local market first, then maybe through LinkedIn and, and you basically. Ask for help. You ask. People are willing to help you. If somebody is in a really great post or something said, I'm a new vendor. I'm reaching out to my local stores, but also would be interested if somebody would consider.
Placing my two or three items in the store for a short period of time to read the consumer takeaway and, and give me honest feedback. And then, you know, some probably would give you some product, some would split the cost, but you know what I mean.
And you can always offer, if you wanted to sell it, you can always offer things like I'll buy back what you don't sell in 30 days. If you're just trying
to, we'll, we'll do it on consignment because I know you're putting in time and effort. So take credit for the sales, whatever's not there, you can either donate or, you know, we'll pick it up from you in other words, you ship me two cases of X, put it on the shelf, and we'll read that at the end of the month, pay me for what you sold, if you want to keep it. Okay. If not, you know, return it, whatever else,
Okay. The last thing we did in our conversation was reviewed some actual email marketing campaigns. Now likely if you have a small business, you might be running your own email marketing campaigns. If your business is a little bit bigger, you might have a small team doing that, but how well Do you actually think these campaigns through?
Do you segment your list? Meaning do you separate your wholesale customers from your retail customers and send them different messaging? Now, if you want some help with your email marketing, I have a good guide for you. You can grab that guide for free at learn. thetoycoach. com slash Email and there's actually a podcast episode to go along with that guide.
It's podcast episode number 192 So it's thetoycoach. com forward slash 192 if you want to listen to that as well but before you go off and get that guide and listen to that episode You don't want to miss Rick's review of these email campaigns that I'd received and gone through with him.
Now, again, if you're a member of Toy Creators Academy, you can actually see the full interview, but also you can see the emails that we're discussing in this portion of the interview. So head over to courses.
thetoycoach. com, log into your account, and if you have access to Toy Creators Academy, go to module nine and look for the lesson, um, that is the same title as this podcast episode. So you can watch as we go through these emails and review them.
And if you're listening and you're not part of Toy Creators Academy, but you want to join, just head over to ToyCreatorsAcademy. com. Okay, let's dive in and review some actual email marketing campaigns.
I want to show you a couple emails if you have a minute. These are just toy company emails that I've gotten and I throw them into a folder. Some of them have great headlines.
Like they stand out in all of your emojis or new launch. But, you know, 15 percent off actually bunny Hopkins is one I've been seeing lately that I actually really liked. So let's click on bunny Hopkins. They have a headline says get 15 percent off USA made toys at fair market. You click in, you see their logo, they address retailers, um, gear up for the season's best deals, explore fair market and elevate your business.
It's a little vague, but, um, then it says we're kicking off fair market with insider day on Monday, July 7th, the market will continue to July 18th to 20th was access. For retailers on fair and then they have some specials that they list. They have pictures of their product, um, with the price, the retail price underneath that they can click on.
And I guess we'll, Oh, no, it doesn't take you to buy it. I thought that was going to happen. Shop now button, I guess we'll take you to buy it if I had a fair account. Uh, so yeah, what do you think about an email like this?
Well, number one is, I don't know who Bunny Hopkins is, so this would get deleted.
This email is for two, one, one main audience and one sub A. The main audience is, this is for retailers that buy Bunny Hopkins. Yeah. Okay. So you've eliminated people like me. So if you're trying to get, uh, additional business, this is not the email. Number two is, um, percent offs. Never. I, I, I, they don't do anything for me.
I buy products because they're great products. Not because I can get a deal on. In fact, sometimes I feel like, Oh, I got a deal on streamline on, uh, a toy. Hot deal. We're, we're going to extend the promotion. You know what that tells me? They got extra. Uh, yeah, yeah. Don't want it. So the, the sub category here would be those that are thinking about funny Hopkins or had clicked on it.
But never bought this might gear them, but that audience probably is very, very small too. So this is for a current bunny Hopkins customer.
So lesson here, segment your list.
You have to have a new subscriber, a new customer on boarding sequence. You should have a new subscriber on boarding sequence that leads to either a new customer funnel or a existing customer funnel so that you know who you're talking to.
I could rewrite that memo for them. I would get my attention as a non Bunny Hopkins person just by saying is Uh, you have not heard of Bonnie Hopkins, have you but now you will.
That would at least get me to click on and say, who are these people right now? 15 percent off the, I don't care. But you're right.
.
That's, this is a, most of these will probably need segmenting to some extent, but it's, yeah, it's, uh, you know, not, not a, you'd have to do homework
This one might be new. This one's Skillmatics. It says new launch, play food for, food for kids. So that makes me feel like they're going to tell me about it. Um, it says grocery set with play food inside, and it looks like a rendering, not a real product shot. Okay. Introducing a carefully crafted play food set with 10 containers, inspire pretend play and empower your child to cultivate creativity, social skills, and healthy eating habits.
Shop now, sustainably sourced and child safe and a lot of renderings. I don't know how I feel about that. 100 plus pieces of play food inside hours of imaginative play with pretend food pictures of kids playing with the real food. Okay. We know it exists now. Um, free shipping over 25 orders delivered within three to five days.
Is this a wholesale situation? Oh, this is a product on Amazon.
Well, that wasn't even on if it was to me and, and even on Amazon. It's boring. I know what played food is. And by the way, by the way, why you instead of Melissa and Doug, why you instead of Hape why you instead of X sustainably sourced.
Okay. Yeah, but no big deal. No big deal. I'll go to green toys if I have to. Yeah, this is kind of boring.
Yeah. Doesn't really pull on any
now. If, if this was wholesale and it said, is your Melissa and Doug business down? Oh, see what I
mean? Oh man. You're going for the jugular.
But yeah, that gets my attention.
That's true. We're not here to make friends. That's a good one. Okay. Well, let's see if we can get one more. This looks like it might be wholesale. This is introducing kinderfeeds sustainably made intelligently designed collections that support physical and cognitive child developments.
Um, then they go on to kind of the story about kin, about the founder of kinderfeeds. There's a photo of it, view our products. Oh, and they have a link to the catalog.
Well, I can tell you right now, this is your typical 80 percent companies that do this, but do I care about the founder or do I care about the product?
Well, so
that's where I was thinking in the last email, I was like, well, maybe introducing who's behind the product would catch your eye more. So I actually was thinking that you might say that was a solution. Why is it taking so long to load?
I'm not going to look through this catalog. Yeah.
Yeah. That's a cute baby
though. Cute baby. But why wouldn't they just direct me to their best item and say, yes, this item. Is top notch sells like boom, boom, boom. And, and really laser focus on that. I'm not going to buy all your items. I don't care about all your items.
I can't stock all your items, but if you want me to get in, pick your best shot.
So can you help rewrite this one?
If they're in distribution in the Netherlands, correct?
Uh huh.
Where a love of biking is, why don't you include a picture of this bike? Uh, in a store in Netherlands, both on shelf and, or kids playing with it in a store and, and the store is selling X per week. Ooh. Yeah. Then you can go in to learn more about kinder seat coming to the U S
yes, that is a really good one.
And I also they have too many called action. View the catalog, view the registration form. There's too many calls to action. You want one clear, do this
thing. And what, what do you think they want me to do as a retailer with this? I
think they would want you to open an account because once you open an account, then they can, then they know you're really interested.
But, but why do I want to open an account? I know,
I know, I could see how the pre filled order form could work in their favor here. They have that image you said of it in a store. The, the, the factual text of sells this many per week at this store.
And then another thing, place your first order of our recommended product. Click here for a pre filled order form, you know, and
And be first in the U. S.
For retail, everybody does wanna be first Yes. With a retail product.
So that's great. Speed, speed, efficiency. Uh, uh, also, what might be queued here in addition to the store. Mm-Hmm. . And the placement, how it looks and the sales would be. To click a video of that cute kid riding the bike. I was thinking the same thing.
Yeah. 30 seconds. That's it. Forget this stuff at the bottom of clicking. And even the guy behind it until you open the account, that doesn't really matter.
And I get Europe is all about sustainably made but they got to know their market and the U S isn't there yet.
Thank you so much for this Rick.
Have a great day. Always good talking to you.
Before I jump into my summary of today's episode, I'd like to take a quick break and give a shout out to Ryan L.
Hamilton.
Ryan says great industry insights. I've been in the toy industry for more than 20 years. And even so I get insights out of each episodes of this podcast. It's great to hear deeper conversations with so many of the toy people that I know and love and to learn more about the aspects of our ever changing business of play.
Keep up the great work, Ajell. Well, thank you, Ryan. I will.
Okay, now let's dive into our quick summary of today's episode. First thing we want to keep in mind is keep our communications simple. Have a clear call to action for your potential customer and make their job easy. It's your job to sell your product to them.
Don't make them go looking for the best product that they should buy, wondering how many units they should purchase. Make it super easy. So I want you to think through your sales process and think about how you could make it as simple as click right here to order one case of our best sellers and you'll be on your way.
The second thing Rick brought up was data. Data is also a piece that makes it easier for a buyer to say yes. So essentially if you can tell this buyer, Hey, our sell through is typically 50%. So if you order one case pack of 24 units, you can be sure to sell through that within the month based on our previous sales.
That makes it easier for them to say yes. And then further to data, do your research, know your store, know what they're looking for, and be able to fulfill their order if they are interested. Along with data, Rick says, stop using all these flowery words, just tell me what it is.
It's not tremendous astounding, it's 50 percent sell through, or it is 10 units a month, be specific. The last important piece I want you to take away is the importance of building relationships. You can start building them online if there's no toy trade show for you to attend, but really you want to get in person when you're meeting someone for the first time. Get to their store, get to a trade show to meet them, have your product in hand to be able to demonstrate its value and its function.
now again, iF you are a TCA er and you have access to Toy Creators Academy right now, then I want you to head over and listen to the full interview. It's about 48 minutes, so there's a lot more detail than we're getting into on this podcast.
Not only that, you will get an. Eight phase action plan for pitching your product ideas to stores, including the initial phase one of the in person networking and research. So if you love a checklist and a step by step how to, and you're my TCA er, get into the course platform at courses.
thetoycoach. com. Head over to module nine. , And look for the lesson that is titled the same as this episode. That's what you need to dive into ASAP. If you're not a member of TCA, you can be head over to toycreatorsacademy. com to learn more and feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
Okay, let's get into your action item to do for next week. I would love for you to up your email game.
So head over to learn. thetoycoach. com slash email and learn how to be better at email marketing. If you can't write down that URL, don't worry. You can just head over to the toy coach.
com forward slash one nine seven. The link will be there. All the links I mentioned today will be there in the show notes and please send me a message on Instagram. Let me know if you did the work. I do want to hear from you. Now, if you love this podcast and you haven't already left us a review, please, what are you waiting for?
Wherever you're listening to this podcast, scroll on down, leave a review. I get a notification every time a new review comes in and it puts a huge smile on my face and keeps me motivated to keep coming back week after week. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me today.
I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there, so it truly means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week,
I'll see you later, 📍 toy people.
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