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On this episode of The Jeff Crilley Show, Jeff sits down with Tia Ellis, Founder and CEO of Wildflower Insight, to unpack what really happens inside high-stakes retail buyer meetings. With more than $200 million in product sales experience across all 50 states, Tia shares how her time on the broker side revealed a critical truth: founders must learn to pitch and win purchase orders themselves....
Jeff Crilley is a former news reporter, who spent more than 25 years in newsrooms across the country. He’s an Emmy Award winning journalist, who decided to make the jump from news in 2008, when he founded his own PR Firm, Real News Public Relations.
Today, the firm has more than 100 clients, and Jeff continues to tell the stories of interesting people he meets along the way.
These are those stories.
Alright. Let's say you have a product, then you wanna get into HEB or Walgreens or, Costco, you hire somebody like my next guest. Tia Ellis is in the studio. She's the CEO and founder of Wildflower Insights. Her incredible journey just ahead. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they've enjoyed the reputation of being the nation's icebox. Watch a burglar in his home this morning by webcam. As a journalist of over twenty five years, stories are what make my world turn. Reporting live from The Dallas Newsroom tonight, Jeff Crilley, Fox four news. But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home. We're talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I'm using becomes a television network. We started slowly growing the company, and we now have over a 100 clients. And we've branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team, and the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is The Jeff Crilley Show. Well, I have a lot of people on this show who they they create a product. They wanna get on the shelves of HEB or, Walmart, but it's it's very it's a very, tricky, river to navigate, if you will. Tia Ellis is in the studio. She's, an expert on this. She's the founder and CEO of Wildflower Insights. Thanks for coming on the show. I'm so honored to be here. It's like I'm in the presence of a celebrity truly. No. No. You're too kind. You're too kind. Well, I really admire what you've created because you worked on the other side. So, tell us a little bit about your background. Yeah. My my background, I started in the retail space about ten years ago, I was actually on the broker side. And so in the industry and and products and and working with retailers, there are these people and agencies called brokers. And, essentially, they are the middleman that help founders get their products on store shelves. And so that's my background. I've helped founders sell over $200,000,000 worth of products across all 50 states from health and wellness to food and beverage. And now what we do at Wildflower is we teach founders how to pitch and land purchase orders themselves without having to go through brokers or middlemen so that they can get their products on shelf successfully. Well, Tia, I'm fascinated about your journey because at one point, you were representing them as you're approaching Walmart or something like that. Mhmm. But you discovered that at some point, the founder and CEO has to stand on his or her own legs. Yes. Absolutely. I think the the huge pivotal moment there was when I was actually sitting in a buyer meeting. I was actually in Bentonville, Northwest Arkansas with Walmart was the pitch. And I was sitting in the room. There was a brand, a broker, and a buyer. Say that four times fast. Wow. And the brand that had hired this broker was expecting the broker to do the pitch to the to the retail buyer. And I literally watched the broker sit back, cross their arms, and lean back completely removing themselves from the conversation. Wow. And the brand did 97% of the pitch to the buyer. And so the brand actually talked with us afterward and said, why was our broker in that meeting? What did they do? They didn't really provide very much value outside of helping them facilitate the introduction. They did do that. But for so many founders with technology how it is nowadays, they can absolutely do it themselves. They don't need somebody to facilitate introductions, especially when you follow, you know, templated guidelines on how you build a brand successfully with even social media. Yes. I think it's brilliant. We're gonna, pull up your website. And as we scroll down the website, I want you to talk about the kinds of clients that you like to attract. We have two types of clients. So originally when we started our company, we were working with a lot of international brands that were looking to enter into The US retail environment. So most of the times, those founders would be very successful. We're talking multimillion dollar brands, but they're looking to expand into international markets or stateside market. We since then have started to support founders that are much earlier staged, and we typically call them the green founders, but they are willing to put in the work and the investment of their time and energy and resources to make sure that their company is built for success long term in the retail environment. One of the things that we talk about all the time is the golden retail rule, which is essentially build your product properly for the customer so that when you make a mistake, because everybody makes mistakes, especially in products Sure. It's a much smaller mistake and it's easier to remedy. And so when you are growing your products or you're growing your brand and you are a green entrepreneur Right. A green brand, we suggest that they follow the golden retail rule, which is build it properly online and then work local, regional, and then national even into the really large accounts. So the green founders know that their goal essentially is to be a a household brand, a household name, but they wanna make sure that they're building their company in a sustainable way that's gonna be able to support retail accounts Yes. Along that retail strategy. So let's take Walmart as an example. The person who is making these decisions, they're hearing a dozen pitches a day. I mean, how many pitches do they hear? Well, so retail buyers have what's called a review cycle. So this is essentially the time in their category, in their calendars rather that they review products and it's either annually or biannually. And so during the review cycle, they typically are meeting with anywhere between ten and twenty founders a day for about two weeks. And mind you, if you are a buyer for a retailer, you are over a specific category. So let's say honey. Right? Honey is a category. The retail buyer is reviewing 10 brands in honey that are all competing. They're all saying probably the same similar things Right. Same similar packaging, and they're talking to the same similar customer. And so when you're trying to pitch to a retail buyer, you actually need to think about the buyer not necessarily as your customer. You need to think about who their customer is, like who are the if we're talking about Walmart, who is the Walmart customer? Who are who is buying that product once it's in the Walmart stores? And that's how you kind of curate and custom tailor your pitch to the retail buyer that's gonna resonate with them. Because you can't assume that the buyer is gonna be their customer. What if what if the person is allergic to honey? Right. And their their job is to make a successful honey category, but they may not be able to even try it. Yes. Alright. Let's let's continue down that road. So Walmart knows every jar of honey that they sell, and so they probably are always looking to move somebody out and move somebody in who will be more successful. Definitely. So give us some tips. Like, if you were coaching one of your clients on how to make an impression on Walmart with Honey, what would you tell them? The most important thing when you're talking with any retailer, if you're talking to Walmart, you know, largest retailer in the world, go big blue. Right? As they say, The most important thing for a founder to do when you pitch to a retail buyer is to actually go to their stores. You need to put your product on their shelf and make sure that it makes sense. Now you can't leave it there, of course, but I always suggest this as a little tip to founders is literally take your product and put it on the shelf and see if it makes sense. Take a picture of it. And even sometimes, and this is another little tip, sometimes I'll even suggest to brands to actually put that picture in the buyer meeting presentation. Like, oh, look how good it would look. Like, it's so funny. You know, it's it's such a comical thing, but it buyers acknowledge, you know, the hustle. And they appreciate the humor, they appreciate the the realness in less of a transactional pitch. They they really want to partner with founders that are going to be long term partners for them and not somebody that's just Yes. Can I have something? Can I have a minute of time? Can I get a cycle? Can I get, you know, on your shelf? Yes. So if if Walmart takes a chance on a new honey, do they put them on the bottom shelf? I mean, because there's prime real estate in every grocery store, and its eye level is prime real estate. Right? So if you get if you're successful in getting one of your clients in Walmart but they're on a lower shelf, can they be successful? They can absolutely be successful and so much of the time founders think, I want the prime the prime real estate as you're talking about, or like I want something a little bit higher. I want something a little bit lower. Of course, there is prime. But there's also opportunity every place that they are on that shelf. Being in the store is a win. And so I'll give you an example. Depending on who your customer is, let's say it's a honey, but let's say it's packaged for children. They're honey sticks. Do you think that having really high real estate shelf placement is gonna be successful versus having it lower where the children's eyes are and can grab? And so you you just keep you need to kind of understand again who the customer is Sure. And how you can spin it to make it successful for you. Okay. Without naming the customer, tell me one of your favorite success stories. We have a founder that is in college. He is a 20 I think 21, maybe 22 year old students student. He graduates in in May in two months, and he joined our program less than a month ago. Since joining our program, he's already had very successful conversations with Walmart. They're planning a national rollout. Huge. He's had successful conversations with Shields with, two Tractor Supply actually even two other very large retailers that I'm not supposed mention just yet. But Sure. I can tell you confidently by the end of this year, he's gonna be doing million dollar months in Wow. Retail sales. And your your customer has to be able to scale up because if Walmart places an order, it's not for like two jars of honey. Right. Walmart is the largest retailer in the world. So their minimum order quantities are typically one to two containers, which is which are those large semi trucks that you see on the road. That's not typical. Right? Most founders don't start with, I've got this idea, and now I'm I'm selling containers to each warehouse location. That's that's a huge jump. But, yeah, for for retail, when you start talking about what those orders look like, we're now not talking about even one single unit or one single case. We're talking about pallets or half trucks or even potentially full truckloads. Wow. What does that feel like when you have a a win for your client? What does that feel like? It it's it's almost it's almost undescribable. It is the best feeling in the world when you see a founder and they have worked so hard and they have put everything on the line to make their business successful. Family relationships, financial relationships, you know, investing their time. And when they hit that first purchase order with two commas, it is life changing. Not just, you know, with success, but it's also life changing financially. So they can, you know, potentially retire their mom and and put her in the in the house that she's always wanted and deserves. Or, you know, maybe it's a younger family and they're able to set money aside to take their kids through college without having to have them go through debt. And so it is it is the best feeling in world. It's hard to explain. It's hard to describe, but it is it's almost and I'm so cautious to say this, but it's like a drug. Like, it's a high. It's so addictive. Yes. I can see that. And it's it's the best part of what I do. It's why I do it. That's so awesome. You do a lot of coaching leading up to the presentation, and one of the things you coach about is make sure you do your homework. So, have you found a lot of candidates, who just come in kind of blind and they're asking questions that they should never be asking? Yeah. If if you are going into a buyer meeting and you don't know who if we're talking about Honey again, if you're going into a buyer meeting and you're talking to the the Honey buyer and you haven't gone to that retailer and you don't know who their top your top five competitors are, and you go into the buyer meeting and say, well, who do you who do you think we could replace? That's a big no. Or you say, you know, who who's who's the best performer in the category? That's a big no. You should go in as the founder that's trying to pitch to a buyer as the expert because your your goal in the buyer meeting as a founder because again, all of these other founders are pitching to the retail buyer all of the time. The way that you separate yourself and you become different isn't usually by having a better honey or a sweeter honey or a Right. Less sugar honey because they're very similar. All the products that you're pitching typically in that category are similar to the buyer, at least from their perspective. The way that you separate yourself and really truly, you know, become special is by doing the extra work and going into the meeting even sometimes more prepared than the buyer because then it allows the buyer to be less offense and more defense of, oh my gosh. I'm just enjoying the presentation. I'm enjoying learning about it. I have a question. You have the answer. Or you've even answered my question before I And asked it becomes, again, a very meaningful relationship, and it's it's a fun conversation Sure. Versus can I have this? Can I get this? And it's, like, very transactional. Is it a little bit like Shark Tank? I mean, do they is it that level of prep preparation? Because I have to imagine before somebody goes on Shark Tank, they've rehearsed this presentation a thousand times. It's very similar to Shark Tank, but Shark Tank is a different pitch. So there are in regards to preparation, definitely, it's very similar. You need to have your your pitch deck done. You need to have the presentation. You need to have your research. You need to have your follow ups. You need to have the sell sheet. Like, you need to have all of your materials completely done and dialed in. There are three types of pitches potentially that a founder needs to master. The first one is to the customer. So why does the honey taste good? What's it gonna do for me? It Is gonna help me with sickness? You know, what what do does does the person get out of it? Second one is potentially to an investor, and that's very much Shark Tank. Most of the time, the sharks are not the customers. They're most of the time not gonna be eating the honey or enjoying the honey. They just wanna know, if I give you x amount of dollars, what will I get back in a five year period? Yes. And if you can answer that, you gotta win. Right? The third pitch that you sometimes or, you know, a lot of times need to master as a founder is to the retail buyer. And the retail buyer, again, is a corporate employee, and they have internal KPIs to hit. And so their mindset is, I might not be a customer. I am definitely not an investor. I'm not gonna get any money back. That's not how it works. But what I wanna do is grow a category. I wanna grow the honey category successfully so that all of the customers that come into Walmart to purchase honey are very happy. Honey sales go up. Yes. And then I perform well. And then guess what? My boss says, hey, good job, honey category buyer. Yeah. You know, I'm I'm gonna think about you next time. You're it's time for a promotion or I you know, you you might get a holiday bonus or, you know, whatever it is. They they you need to understand that there are internal KPIs to hit. And when you can kind of reframe the pitch to reflect what matters to the buyer Mhmm. It becomes way easier it it becomes more difficult for them to say no. Yes. Okay. What happens when you run into a founder who's an introvert? And you can tell that he or she is just not a natural presenter? How you are you selective? Do you you probably don't take everybody who calls you up? Well, you know, it's so interesting that question because I think that being shy to speak is something that you can teach or you can train, you know. And I think that you're probably a great testament to that. I think that when you learn how to have the successful buyer meeting and you learn that it's not just like, I hope I show up and I I nail it, it's very templated. There is a specific pitch. There's a specific things you're supposed to say. There's specific things that they wanna hear. There's things that are gonna be yeses, and there's things that you should take out. When you do that, it becomes for the people that are more introverted and less abstract, less creative, and they need the structure. It becomes a structured pitch and presentation, and then you throw in a smile or two and you, you know, ask a nice question and you ask somebody how their day is going. Mhmm. And it becomes something that's not so overwhelming and scary and intimidating. Is it fun for you to go into a store where you've placed somebody's product and see it there That's like the a year later? It's the best. And And I'll you know, sometimes if you ever go to the grocery store with me, it's like, oh, I'll tell you story about that one. Oh, you gotta get this one. Oh, try that one. Oh, that one's you know, that one's got a cool story. That one just won an award. This one's you know, it's like it's like my Super Bowl going into the grocery stores. And That's so cool. I will tell you something else. When I go when my husband and I travel overseas or really anywhere, I always make it a point to stop into the grocery store. And I'm more excited most of the time to stop at the grocery store and see all of the fun different products that they have in different locations than even, like, usually the excursions that we have. I love it. Sounds like you have a very understanding husband. Yes. Alright. So, I'm gonna pull up your Instagram page because you're very active in the community. You're all over the place, and, we'll just scroll down this. And and have you just kinda described I I see you in a store there. Is that you showing off one of the products that you placed? That one that that store photo is actually talking about packaging mistakes that brands make. So making sure that, you know, it's when you are on a shelf and there's a whole bunch of competitors that are also doing similar things to you in your category, you have to stand out. And so by having the right font, having the right graphics, having the right colors, you know, there's Yeah. There are tips and there's a science behind that too. And is that something you do so the client comes to you and their packaging is wrong? I will tell you I'm a straight shooter. Yeah. I can I'm I've got an eye for it. Yeah. I've I've, you know, I'd like to I'm a I'm a self proclaimed professional snacker. I can tell you if the packaging looks good or not. Yeah. But that's not my marketing. I'm not that's not my expertise. That's not what we do. However, if if one of the brands that we work with comes to us and says, hey. Do you think this is good or not? I will absolutely tell them what I think. Mhmm. You never have to worry about where you stand with me or or my opinions about things. And so, typically, what we'll do very serious. If somebody comes to us and says, hey. I I'm not sure about this, and I really truly I don't think that that's gonna be successful. I'll I'll send them to somebody that that's what they do so that they get the right help and support. Alright. Since we've been talking so much about honey, you've made me hungry. Are there colors that kinda jump off the shelves? Gosh. Good question. It depends. Well, most of the print, when you walk into a store and you can actually go into the magazine aisle, most of the writing is white. That's what pops on the eyes. But everybody does that. So one of the things that I've noticed in the last two, maybe three years, is brands that are doing bright, bold, fully colored packaging are very successful at the moment. Mhmm. So, like, Poppy was one that did that, and they completely reinvented it. It's com it's like bright pink or bright orange or whatever it might be. That's what a lot of brands are kind of trending toward. Yes. Very bright colors, very, you know, pop off of the shelf. I think about, you know, success coaches, baseball coaches, football coaches. Everybody needs a coach, especially somebody who's been on the other side saying, hey. Listen. This is what you're about to head into. This person is probably interviewing you at the end of the day. They've already heard 20 different pitches. They're gonna be tired. It's gonna be 04:30 in the afternoon in Bentonville. Right. Yeah. I I think that so many founders, there's in the CPG and in product space, just general products, actually, there is a lot of narratives and a lot of advice and and coaches that will say, you need to hire a broker, or you need to do this, or you need to go and, you know, do more expos or more conferences. And there's so much opinion about what's the first and next steps potentially should be. And so much of the time, those opinions and that advice are for brands that have multimillion dollar budgets. And so for founders that are just starting out, I I'm I'm here to tell you, you can absolutely pitch and win a retail buyer, and you can do it by yourself. You don't need to hire somebody that is going to, you know, say that they're gonna do it for you, and then you end up spending a fat retainer fee on a on a monthly basis, or you have to share commission with them when that's really money that you could be saving and reinvesting into your business to help you grow and and be successful. So I'm a huge believer and and advocate that all people, not just founders, all entrepreneurs need coaches. All people should have coaches to to help you get better. And I'm I'm also a believer that iron sharpens iron. So when around people that have been there and have done that, it makes it easier to answer questions and solve problems. Amen. Thank you so much for coming on the show and and sharing your your thoughts and your insights with us. We're gonna end with her website, which is wildflowerinsight.com. The great Tia Ellis, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you. You bet. That's it for now. We'll see you next time.