Beauty brand Mudita Earth has landed several deals that originated as meetings at ECRM Sessions, including Natural Grocers, Meijer and KeHE Distributors. What’s interesting, however, is the fact that buyers from all three of these organizations initially were not interested in doing business with Mudita Earth.

They said NO.

But in each of these cases, the brand was able to keep the conversations going, build relationships with each of the buyers, and adapt its offerings to better suit each buyer’s category needs and objectives. 

One by one, each of these NOs became a YES.

In this post, we’ll unpack some of the strategies and tactics Mudita Earth used to accomplish this.

Science-backed clean beauty

Mudita Earth is a clean natural skin care brand founded by the mother/daughter team of Jessica and Pooja Chopra. It specializes in skin care solutions for women of color, addressing their unique needs.

“My mom has a master’s degree in cosmetic science, and learned all about skin biology,” says Pooja Chopra, who I interviewed in-person at ECRM’s Skin Care, Bath, Cosmetics, Natural & Clean Beauty Session (see full video interview below). “She speaks with professors regularly to make sure that everything we are putting into the market is clinically backed. We get our products tested in clinical trials that include people with varying melanin levels to make sure our products are effective on them.”

The products include two cleaners, two serums and two moisturizers. All of the products use plant-based ingredients and are free from parabens, sulfates, artificial colors and fragrances, silicones and PEGs.

Following the Skinimalism trend noted by NIQ’s Yvonne Buisson during a recent ECRM presentation, Mudita Earth seeks to simplify consumers’ beauty regimens. “You should be able to make a morning and evening routine really easy,” says Chopra. “Grab a cleanser, a serum and a moisturizer and you’re good to go.”

From NO to YES: It’s all in the follow ups

Mudita Earth initially sought out ECRM after having no success at traditional beauty trade shows. “All of our success is thanks to ECRM,” says Chopra. “We weren’t getting a single retailer at trade shows. We’d set up a booth, but nothing was happening because you really need to get that one-on-one meeting with the retail buyer. Nothing competes with that. Once you meet the buyer in person, it’s easier to follow up with them. And once you get one or two retailers, it’s easier to get the third, the fourth and the fifth.”

The key, as Chopra mentions, is in the follow ups. While ECRM events will get you the in-person meeting with the retail buyer and help kick off the relationship, it’s what a brand does AFTER the meeting that counts. “It’s not just about the relationship in those 10 minutes, it’s about what you do afterward,” says Chopra. “You have to keep that relationship going. That’s how you make sure you are in lock step with them, doing what the retailer wants, and eventually moving product off the shelf, which is the ultimate goal.”

And it was in the follow ups where Chopra turned each initial NO into a YES. Following are some of the best practices Chopra employed to do so.

Listen and learn from the buyer

First and foremost, Chopra believes the most important practice a brand can do with buyers is to listen. “I do my pitch for five minutes and then ask them what they are looking for,” she says. “How can we make it easier for you to say yes. And you really have to listen. Do they want their basket size to increase? Do they want a new customer in their aisle? And then you work with that information, hit those metrics, and take it back to them in a follow up and show them what you did. This shows the buyer that if you took the time to do that in your follow up pitch, imaging how much you are going to do for the retailer once you are actually on the shelves.”

Show the buyer how you will help drive sales at the store

As I often say, getting on the shelf is only the start; you need to also get your products OFF the shelf – and into shoppers’ baskets (and hopefully, many of these shoppers are new to the store). In her follow ups, Chopra shows the buyer just how much effort they put into supporting sales at the store level. 

Mudita Earth drives sales at the store in several ways, and many of them center around building relationships with store-level associates, as well as leveraging digital marketing and social media to drive traffic into the store.

In-store activities include demos and giveaways, but the real power comes from regular in-store visits to build relationships with the retailer’s body care managers. “We’ve been in Natural Grocers for about six months now, and have done at least 100 store visits,” says Chopra. “We talk to the body care managers, we look at products on the shelf, and we’ll ask them about their customers’ needs. We do anything needed to make sure we are in line with their customers' needs. Then we’ll do sampling, Instacart ads, geo-targeted ads.”

Developing relationships with the store-level associates has a ton of benefits. It helps educate them about your products, and it has the effect of turning them into ambassadors for your brand. “It’s worth every single second of time to speak with them and get their input,” says Chopra. “What’s great is that when you have those relationships, if you are ever on a lower shelf, they may move you to an eye-level shelf, because they start rooting for you. Many have done that for us.”

Start small, then expand

One of Chopra’s biggest recommendations for emerging brands is to start small and grow organically. This enables you to do the store visits, try things out, and learn in a very granular way how to best serve your customers.

Natural Grocers, for example, was a very strategic step for Mudita Earth. “They are the nicest retail partner to have,” says Chopra. “The buyer is amazing, and it is also a very de-risked entry. The last thing you want is to send out 10,000 units, then they don’t move and you have to buy them back and no retailer wants to touch you. At Natural Grocers we were able to develop very personal relationships, do store visits, shelf talkers and a merchandising tray. A larger retailer may not let you do that.”

Community-based retailers are a great way to start building your brand in brick-and-mortar retail, and are typically more amenable to testing out new concepts to see how they work with shoppers. Indeed, these retailers are a great way for emerging brands to build a foundation from which to approach larger retailers down the road. 

Go get that YES!

So next time you have that buyer meeting and you hear a NO, remember, it’s not necessarily a NO forever. It may just mean you have some tweaks to make and some further discussions with the buyer to make sure you are the right fit for them. Be patient, listen, make whatever adjustments you have to make, then follow up and get that YES!

Watch the full video interview here!