This article originally appeared in the January 2018 print edition of Cannabis Business Times. To subscribe, click here.
Fact: It’s not always easy—or even moderately easy—to get your cannabis products in front of a retailer, let alone onto a retailer’s shelves. But these tips from cultivators—who developed strong relationships with retailers in their states—should make it easier.
1. Consider your products’ backstory.
According to Robby Flannery, Ph.D., CEO and founder of Dr. Robb Farms in California, “the days of dispensary product managers being willing to accept pretty much anything that comes in off the streets are long gone—and they are not coming back.” This could paint a grim outlook for getting your product in a dispensary’s door. But an easy solution exists to this widespread problem: Sell your products’ story as much as you sell the products themselves.
“The most important thing that gets a cannabis product into the marketplace is something that has an interesting story behind it,” Flannery says. “If your product comes with an interesting backstory, that product is just much more marketable in the product manager’s eyes as well.” Practice your story-telling skills before you meet with a product manager, and ensure he or she won’t forget the story or the product.
2. Work with a partner.
When it comes to getting your products into a retailer, you have at least two options: Approach the product manager directly, hoping to score a sale, or work with an outside expert—one who already has a positive, long-standing relationship with area retailers and who can arrange to distribute your products for you. The latter is the sales method Dr. Robb Farms employs, and Flannery says it works well.
To read the full article in Cannabis Business Times' January issue, click here.
Top photo courtesy of Dr. Robb Farms
