For Manufacturers

The Services We Provide

Footprint Reps

Estab­lished in 2012, Foot­print Reps LLC is a lead­ing Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ Rep firm cen­trally located in the Mid­west­ern United States. We have worked with the largest retail­ers in the US, as well as with many smaller inde­pen­dent chains, allow­ing us to develop mar­kets by lever­ag­ing our expe­ri­ence and key rela­tion­ships. Foot­print Reps LLC takes branded con­sumer prod­ucts from the stages of early adopter to main­stream mar­ket­place in US retail by estab­lish­ing an ecosys­tem of dis­trib­u­tor and retail part­ners across the country.

Target Customers
RETAIL TAR­GETS
  • Big-Box, Mass-Market
  • E-Commerce
  • Regional Retail
  • Spe­cialty Retail
DIS­TRI­B­U­TION TARGETS
  • National Dis­tri­b­u­tion
  • Regional Dis­tri­b­u­tion
  • Spe­cialty Distribution
  • Value-Added Resellers (VAR)
Services
BUSI­NESS DEVELOPMENT:
  • Brand Launch
  • Iden­tify Targets
  • Prod­uct Proposals
  • Sales Con­sult­ing
    • Freight Terms
    • Pay­ment Terms
    • Cost and Margins
    • Mar­ket Devel­op­ment Funds
    • Back-End Pro­gram
  • Ven­dor Setups
    • Con­tract Consulting
    • Ven­dor Compliance
  • New Item Setups
    • Con­sumer Prod­uct Testing
ACCOUNT MAN­AGE­MENT
  • Sales Meet­ings
  • Mar­ket Analytics
  • New Prod­uct Proposals
  • New Item Setups
  • Pro­duc­tion and Ship­ping Consulting
    • Fore­cast Planning
    • Demand Plan­ning
    • Pro­duc­tion Planning
  • Cost Opti­miza­tion Consulting
    • Sup­ply Chain Optimization
    • Domes­tic Inven­tory Optimization
    • Ware­house Loca­tion Optimization
  • Brand Image
    • Min­i­mum Adver­tised Price (MAP)

Your Go-To Market Strategy

Should you use Footprint Reps?

Understanding Your Options

Manufacturers have options when building a sales team for an individual account or specific market development. You can hire direct employees or you can outsource the development. All options have their advantages and disadvantages, and each option should be reviewed objectively with your individual business in mind. Below you can find some questions that should give you an understanding of what would work best for your organization.

What Are Your Goals
Let’s look at your business objectively. Every day a potential customer is not merchandising your product is a lost opportunity.
What are your goals?
  • Do you currently the have human resources you need to reach them?
    • Time
    • Experience
    • Contact Network
Where do you want to grow?
  • Do you currently have a local sales office that is able to call on the target accounts?
  • Is your team working in the same time zone as your retail targets?
Where do you want to see your products?
  • Is your team familiar with the requirements of goal retailers?
  • Does your team have contacts within the goal retailers?
Do you currently have everything you need to accomplish your goals?
  • Could you use some help?

Our Approach

You Focus on Your Product, Footprint Reps Will Focus on Sales

In terms of marketing, continue to be yourself! Footprint Reps is not in the business of telling you how to build your product, create your marketing material, or sell your product to the end consumer. That’s your job, and you’re great at it! We simply handle the business development in the US market. We are business consultants and will help you develop the US market. We only work with manufacturers that have a clear vision in terms of their brands and have put together a powerful message that compels consumers to purchase.

Step 1: Understand Your Goals

Our process is to clearly understand your brand and where it is positioned, then we discuss your goals for the market and develop a strategy to meet those goals.

Who is your target market?

Age, Economic Status, Gender, Geographical Territory, Interests, Etc.

Where do they shop?

Where are your customers already shopping?  What key retailers make the most sense for your brand?

What categories work best for your product?

Where does your product belong in the store?  In which key categories are you seeing the most success from a global sales standpoint?

Step 2: Make Sure We're Ready

Next, we make sure your brand is ready to sell within the US market. We openly discuss the requirements of retail and go over your current supply chain and production line. If something is lacking, we help you get it set up.

Retail Requirements
Do you have a domestic warehouse?

If not, we’ll help you find one that meets your needs.

Is your warehouse familiar working with Retail, and are they shipping similar products?
  • Your products may require special handling
Is this warehouse currently working with your target customers?
  • Are they currently shipping to the target retailers?
  • Are they familiar with the target retailers Routing Guides?
    • Carton requirements
      • Labeling, size, configurations, etc.
    • Pallet requirements
      • Height, configurations, etc.
Can this warehouse handle both drop-shipping and palletized programs?
  • Drop-Ship:
    • Are they able to handle Drop-Shipping?
    • Can they communicate in-stock levels via EDI?
    • Are they able to ship out by the cut-off times?
  • Palletized Programs:
    • Are they able to handle these?
Are your Master Cartons in configurations that work for retailers?
  • Will the case pack quantities work for the retailer?
  • Have the case pack dimensions been analyzed for optimized shipping costs?
  • Have the case packs been optimized for palletized shipments?
Do you currently have a Product Liability Insurance?
  • Does your policy meet the target retailers’ requirements?
  • Are you able to co-insure?

**If not we’ll help you find a partner and policy that works for you.

Do you currently have UPC or EAN codes?

If not, we’ll help you obtain these.

Are you currently setup with EDI?
  • Are you able to issue and receive the following documents?
    • Issue:
      • 810 Invoice
      • 997 Functional Acknowledgment
      • 856 Advanced Shipment Notice
      • GS1-128 Carton Labels
    • Receive:
      • 816 Organizational Relationship
      • 850 Purchase Order
      • 860 Purchase Order Cancellation
      • 864 Text Message
      • 997 Functional Acknowledgment

**If not, we’ll help you get it setup.

Operational Requirements
What is your capacity?
  • What is the standard production lead-time for the products?
  • How many units can be produced a month?
From where will the product ship?

City and Country

Step 3: Develop Sales

Once the supply chain is set, the product is ready and the strategy is set we begin the review process with retailers.

Provide category managers with the information they need on your brand and products
  • Product Catalogs
  • Product Information
  • Product Samples
Create and provide a pitch on why the brand and products work for the retailer

Create a clear and concise pitch as to why the brand and products fit for the individual retailer.

  • Their needs
  • Their customers
  • Their customers needs
Set up In Person Meetings To Review Products

Meet in person to review your product and brand

Create programs that work for the retailer
  • Brand Launch
  • Program Consulting
    • Freight Terms
    • Payment Terms
    • Cost and Margins
    • Market Development Funds
    • Back-End Program
  • Vendor Setups
    • Contract Consulting
    • Vendor Compliance
    • New Item Setups
    • Consumer Product Testing

Step 4: Optimize The Program

As business picks up and becomes established, we look at the business objectively to see if any cost and lead-time saving initiatives can be put in place.

Optimization
Is there anything we can do to minimize costs?

Is your domestic warehouse in the ideal location?  Does it match your business?

Is there anything we can do to cut down the lead-time?

Is your US warehouse in the correct location?

  • Is it optimized to cut down in-bound shipping?
  • Is it optimized to provide 2 day shipping to all US customers?
Are we using the best methods of shipping?
  • Are we looking at the cost of shipments objectively?  Are we weighing the cost of all the different forms of transit to get to the best cost?
    • Air Freight
    • Sea Freight
    • Train Freight
    • Truck Freight
Have the master cartons been optimized for shipping?
  • Have the dimensions of the master cartons been maximize for pallet capacity?
  • Have the dimensions of the master cartons been maximized for standard parcel shipments?
Are we forecasting accurately?
  • Are we taking seasonal trends and holidays into consideration?
  • Can we forecast from an entire market standpoint?
Are we using actual sales data in marketing campaigns?
  • Are we utilizing geographical sales data in marketing campaigns?
Are we taking advantage of all of the Seasonal Trends and Holidays?
  • Christmas
  • Back to School
  • Black Friday
  • Memorial Day
  • Valentines Day
  • Mothers Day
  • Etc.