Product Startup Podcast Episode 227: Sell Products to Companies

00:00:00 Kevin Mako: Hello, product innovators. Today we learn how to sell your invention directly to corporations for them to use as promotional products from a 20-year marketer and past marketing lead at Google.

00:00:09 Kevin Mako: This is the Product Startup Podcast, a show to learn from top leaders in hardware product development, prototyping, manufacturing, product selling, and everything in between. Hosted by Kevin Mako, the leading expert on product development for hardware startups.

00:00:23 Kevin Mako: Welcome back, everyone. I'm very excited to introduce Jeff Lerner to the show. Jeff is the CEO of Misnomer, a fractional chief marketing officer company. He has helped raise $400 million from VCs and was a former marketing lead at Google for many years. Today, Jeff will share some valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on how to sell your invention directly to corporations for them to use as promotional products, how to figure out the ways in which your product could add value to a corporation,

00:00:49 Kevin Mako: And the different types of promotional products that are often not considered, especially for a new invention brand. Now, onto the episode. This show is produced by Mako Design, the original firm providing end-to-end consumer product development services tailored specifically to hardware startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Take your product from idea to store shelves at MakoDesign.com. Now, onto the episode.

00:01:15 Kevin Mako: Hey, Jeff, welcome to the show.

00:01:17 Jeff Lerner: Thank you, Kevin. Good to be here.

00:01:19 Kevin Mako: Well, we're looking forward today to talk to you about selling direct B2B to companies. So this is selling volumes of product, potentially tens of thousands of units of your product directly to companies as promotional products.

00:01:33 Kevin Mako: Now, there's lots of other things you could do beyond promotional products for selling directly B2B, but we're going to break it down today why this is such a great avenue to consider as a hardware startup or scale up, whether you haven't sold any product yet and you're looking for options of different ways to sell.

00:01:47 Kevin Mako: Well, this is something that could be top of mind, or whether you're already selling, let's say you've gone through crowdfunding, you scaled up, you're in retail or whatever else, looking at options to sell directly to companies, procurement departments of companies that are actually placing large orders for unique products. And this is a huge industry that's often overlooked by a lot of hardware startups and something that a lot manufacturers don't consider until much further down the chain. But it's something incredible because just think one buyer could

00:02:13 Kevin Mako: Place 10,000 unit order for themselves. One deal, one and done, and they're doing whatever they're dealing with it. And we'll get into different ways that that works and different reasons why companies are buying these things. But more importantly, we're going to get into the frameworks of how you plan for this sort of stuff and what better person than Jeff Lerner to come on the show to talk about it today. Jeff, before we get into all these nuggets about how to sell direct B2B for promotional products to big companies, first, just give us a bit of a backstory

00:02:37 Kevin Mako: Of how you became the success that you are today?

00:02:40 Jeff Lerner: Yeah. So I've been in the marketing space for 20 plus years, having spent a big chunk of my career at Google in the early days, then moved on to some agencies and then the corporate marketing world.

00:02:54 Jeff Lerner: And over the last four or five years, I've solely focused on working with startups.

00:03:01 Jeff Lerner: And one of the things that I continue to learn and the part of my expertise, if you will, is understanding that B2B market so that every organization, whether it is a traditional D2C or just kind of a B2C company that's struggling to make inroads on how they can go about tapping that potential and finding the multiple.

00:03:25 Jeff Lerner: And hear me out, multiple avenues to get into another organization and make that sales process a little bit more effective. That's great. Now let's talk big picture. What does it mean to sell B2B into companies as a promotional product?

00:03:40 Kevin Mako: You know, one of the things that people often

00:03:44 Jeff Lerner: Overlook and is really, you know, it's great when people do recognize that even though we're talking about B2B, there's still a person or people on the other side. So it really still is a person-to-person sales process. There's just other factors that go into it, such as the individual who's making the decision is usually not spending their own money.

00:04:08 Jeff Lerner: They're spending corporate money. And so they often have approval processes and other things that go along with it. But when selling into a B2B organization, there are multiple avenues and paths that allow this process to be successful. So for example, there's often with my clients, they find, you know, that one person in an organization that they can reach out to

00:04:34 Jeff Lerner: Who is looking for a solution to a specific problem that he or she may face. And so they're offering that solution and they can partner with that individual to then go and sell it through within the rest of the organization. You have that person who's there to champion your product.

00:04:55 Jeff Lerner: And so finding that person is key to success. Another element is now looking at the organizational situation and how this product can, in fact, solve a larger organizational issue by reaching out to various members of the organization and broadcasting a solution that you think that they might have.

00:05:20 Jeff Lerner: These different techniques also allow for, and if you play your cards right, when you're talking to that champion, make that champion understand that, hey, by having this solution and bringing it to your peers, they have a chance to look good. So you're adding value to that one person who is the champion for your product and say, look, we're going to help you excel

00:05:45 Jeff Lerner: By offering a solution that works for your organization, but you look good now.

00:05:51 Kevin Mako: Let's talk about some of the different options for solutions here, because it's somewhat misunderstood. If you're selling directly to a company, especially as a promotional product, a lot of people think about it and say, well, I'm not selling like a pen or a t-shirt. Therefore, I'm not really a promotional product. But the reality is companies that are looking to buy large swaths of products for internal use, trade shows, or a number of other things, they're looking for unique and interesting solutions that aren't already out there.

00:06:15 Kevin Mako: If somebody wants to go buy a t-shirt or a pen, they could just go online and find that, or they probably already have a broker for that sort of thing. It's quick, simple transaction. Action, it doesn't have a tremendous amount of uniqueness. And as a result, it doesn't really have that big of an impact. Instead, you've got to look at your product and say, what do I have here that is unique to these types of organizations? Whereas maybe if their staff had it, if their clients had it

00:06:39 Kevin Mako: If their partners had it if any number of stakeholders had it within or around their organization, it would help that organization. How does your product help? That is what you can now think about and looking at these different organizations to try and really feel out where your product might fit within their ecosystem. And it doesn't have to be revolutionary. You don't have some massive architecture for them to go into place. It can just be a simple product that allows greater visibility at a trade show.

00:07:06 Kevin Mako: There's lots of different ways to do it. So I want to hear from your perspective, what are some of the ways that you see that you can sell into these organizations with inventions, gadgets, that sort of stuff that inventors are coming up with and manufacturers are producing that can now be sold through this methodology directly to corporations?

00:07:21 Jeff Lerner: That's exactly right. The idea behind all of this is having that, and of course I have that marketing angle, so this is how I think all the time, but what is that message that's going to resonate with the person or people at an organization that will then get them interested?

00:07:38 Jeff Lerner: And so to your point, there's how is this product going to add value to the internal team? And that's one avenue that you might go down. Just like you said, does this improve efficiency?

00:07:50 Jeff Lerner: Does this aid employee retention? Does this do something internally within the walls that it doesn't need to go external? It doesn't need to be for someone else.

00:08:01 Jeff Lerner: But for the organization itself, how does this add value? And if you can articulate that clearly and effectively, that will resonate with the B2B buyer.

00:08:12 Jeff Lerner: At the same time, then it becomes how does this product add value to their sales process?

00:08:20 Jeff Lerner: Right. Every organization, large or small, wants to know how to generate more revenue.

00:08:26 Jeff Lerner: How are they going to grow? And if you have a product which you can position that says, hey, this will help you attract more business, stand out against the competition, be differentiated.

00:08:39 Jeff Lerner: And therefore that is likely to increase your leads, increase your sales, grow your revenue, you've now tapped into a monumental market. Because in that case, not only do some sort of procurement teams or other internal teams want to learn more, you now have the sales team, which usually has the loudest voice within an organization.

00:09:03 Jeff Lerner: You have the sales team now saying, we need this, we want to be different. I've been to hundreds of conferences and I come back every time and I have notebooks and I have pens, and I even have a USB, you know, charger.

00:09:21 Jeff Lerner: And I have, you know, all the same things that you get from all of them. And when you get the ones that are unique, you talk about it, you use it.

00:09:31 Jeff Lerner: In fact, I have found that one of the most successful things is coming up with something unique that also can live on someone's desk. Because again, now you're talking about something that's front of my face all day long. And so that's how product designers and developers need to think like, what is it that I'm offering? Who does it serve? And how do I make it so that

00:09:55 Jeff Lerner: It's unique and memorable? So people look at it and engage with it moving forward.

00:10:00 Kevin Mako: This is so powerful because typically if you're thinking about promotional products or any type of product that you're selling direct to corporations. So many hardware startups think about big buyers, which typically means you're sending to a wholesaler distributor or even the retailers for them to then sell on. But this is actually just selling to the end user directly just in volume. That is the key difference. So one of the things that you can do as a hardware

00:10:23 Kevin Mako: Startup is get really creative as well about thinking about these different value propositions to your individual buyer. I love how you mentioned trade shows and we've talked about internal tools, sales tools. You mentioned employee retention. And there's dozens more that you could think about to say, okay, how does my product fit in anywhere within this organization?

00:10:43 Kevin Mako: And if you can find a missing gap, whether it's a pain point or an opportunity, you have something to sell. And presumably, if you've got a hardware invention or something, you're a hardware startup, it's relatively low cost item. We're not talking about massive corporate wide integration here. You're selling some object to help with maybe sales at a trade show or something maybe memorable for somebody's birthdays or whatever else. So you've come up with

00:11:06 Kevin Mako: Something that has some sort of unique value. Ideally, you can tie it to that company and make it unique and special to that country. And as such, you just have to convince one person within that department that has the authority to buy to purchase this set of products. And then from there, start looking at how that worked with those folks and then look at other companies that might have similar interests or similar pain points. So it's really amazing how this whole system can unwind

00:11:30 Kevin Mako: If you just think really creatively in the beginning of how your product can sell into particular organizations, try and get the foot in the door and then use that as a snowball effect.

00:11:38 Kevin Mako: So as such, I want to kind of go back in some of the lead up. So as you're coming up with these ideas of how your product could add value to different companies, what is some of those structures or frameworks that you would do to prepare either the pitch or the product or the you know, promotion to those folks to get them interested in buying your product?

00:12:00 Jeff Lerner: Yeah, great question. You know, one of the first things I always do with my clients is I want to understand the value proposition from the mouths of the people who designed and developed it, right? Like, I want to know why does this product exist? You know what was the basis for for creating it. But then almost more importantly, I want to understand how it's differentiated

00:12:25 Jeff Lerner: Against what else might be out in the market. Is this an existing product that was made better? Is this something completely new? And the reason why those are important questions is because if it's something completely new, there's both massive advantage to that, but there's also disadvantage. And now you're educating people on why you need this new thing

00:12:49 Jeff Lerner: That may not have existed previously. If it's an enhancement or an improvement of something that's already been out in market, there's a much easier time explaining, hey, you have all played with these widgets and now there's this even better widget because we've added x, y, and z to it so those are really important factors for me to understand but then as we've been

00:13:14 Jeff Lerner: Talking the most important part for me especially in the B2B space is it's great that we have a product that we like and that's you know we think is a great product it's amazing that you know it may be new it may not but what problem will this solve is this a nice to have is this

00:13:34 Jeff Lerner: A must-have? Is this something that can and will, in fact, move the needle for an organization in the sense of growing, whether it's revenue, efficiency, retention, all of those things.

00:13:49 Jeff Lerner: So I want to have a plan before launch, right? So I talk about this with product designers and engineers all the time. Before launch, this is what I'm thinking about because that also goes into the packaging. It goes into every detail to explain what value the consumer, whether that consumer is a business or an individual, what value are they going to get from this product?

00:14:15 Kevin Mako: That's great. Now, what are some of the methods that you use to actually reach out direct to some of these B2B promotional product procurement departments in order to just get in the door? Let's assume you don't know anybody, but you've identified some companies that could use your widget at a trade show, as an example.

00:14:31 Kevin Mako: How do you get in front of those folks?

00:14:33 Jeff Lerner: Yeah, so the irony or the joke of it is there are actually trade shows about people in trade shows. So, you know, there's always, you know, that route. But, you know, LinkedIn is a great tool for finding individuals within an organization that have specific titles.

00:14:50 Jeff Lerner: And so that's one path I go down. The other, like, jokingly but not, is trade shows are a great place to go and find relevant people based on your audience and what that looks like. But then there's also networking groups. Like if you're a new product, you don't have to go global or even national to start when you're launching. Find a networking group within

00:15:15 Jeff Lerner: Your local community, within your 100 miles of where you are or something like that. And there are usually, you know, groups that meet for startups. There are new businesses.

00:15:27 Jeff Lerner: Talk to your local chamber of commerce. Like there's a lot of overlooked small ways to go about some level of traction that just require a little bit of time and effort to tap into those.

00:15:43 Kevin Mako: I find the local angle is very powerful, especially for a hardware startup. Your goal isn't global domination on day one. Your goal is to get your first few units sold.

00:15:51 Kevin Mako: What better way than exploring your own backyard to just get your first 100, 500, 5,000 customers? From there, of course, you can learn from those customers and figure out how to scale and grow like crazy.

00:16:03 Kevin Mako: But the first job as a new hardware startup, especially, is to get those early customers. And of course hopefully they're going to be raving fans and thus that allows you to get more customers. And so on the snowball effect we talked about earlier continues to grow.

00:16:15 Kevin Mako: And that's no matter what way you're selling.

00:16:17 Jeff Lerner: And just to add, even in the world of B2B, the faceless sale, when you're talking about that global domination or nationwide, it becomes faceless at some point in the sense of the person, if you're in southern california and the person you're trying to sell to is in New York, yes, you might talk to them over zoom like we are or exchange emails and things of that nature.

00:16:42 Jeff Lerner: But their motivation to work with you is purely based on the product, right? It's purely, will this solve my needs? But when you tap into a local community, local businesses want to see other local businesses succeed.

00:16:58 Jeff Lerner: Yes. So when you get to meet people face-to-face, when you're part of the shared community, then it has a much bigger effect. So you do have, in some cases, a little bit of an easier time penetrating the market when you do start in your own local community.

00:17:16 Kevin Mako: And the nice thing about approaching this type of sales going B2B, as we're talking about on this show, is that you can find those businesses and learn what they like and dislike about your product locally.

00:17:26 Jeff Lerner: That's right.

00:17:27 Kevin Mako: Find some buyers that are potentially, again, as you mentioned earlier, may purchase orders of hundreds or even thousands of units out of the gate, and then you leverage that from

00:17:35 Jeff Lerner: There.

00:17:35 Kevin Mako: But there's lots of companies in your backyard that are doing all kinds of things, internal and external with a variety of different promotional products, especially if you look at it under the lens that we're talking about in the show. This is not just a giveaway like a pen.

00:17:48 Kevin Mako: That can be one option, of course, but there's dozens and dozens of different types of internal and external promotional products and new types to be discovered. You're the one with the invention idea and with the product. So you've come up with this innovation.

00:18:00 Kevin Mako: You're obviously, as somebody who's created this as a listener on the show, you're a creative, innovative person who gets things done as you're getting this thing to production.

00:18:08 Kevin Mako: Use that same level of ingenuity to start thinking about those different opportunities within your potential buyers, starting in your backyard, getting some early wins, some early success, and then leveraging that and growing from that feedback that you're getting.

00:18:20 Kevin Mako: And also those hopefully raving customers at that point in time that allow you to maybe get a little bit more, like you said, on the faceless side where you can use some success in your backyard to start then getting some success further away.

00:18:31 Jeff Lerner: Way. Exactly. Every business that they want, if they're going to invest in purchasing hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of something, they want a case study. They want proof. They want some sort of validation to help sell it internally to within their organization that this is a worthwhile investment and purchase. So if you start small, even if it's 50 units to a

00:18:56 Jeff Lerner: Local company, that you can get feedback, as you mentioned, that you can have them write a review, that potentially a case study of the impact that your product had. That will only make your sales pitch and your ability to grow outside of your core community that much easier.

00:19:16 Kevin Mako: Well said. Talk about what you're doing. You've obviously worked with like 100 plus startups on the marketing initiatives in a variety of different capacities. Talk about what you're doing with that right now with Misnomer. Yeah. So for the last few years, having

00:19:32 Jeff Lerner: Started my own consulting company, I kind of focus on a couple of different aspects of startups and the marketing strategy. So, for some, I serve as a fractional cmo and I can spend three, six, nine months even within an organization helping with everything from product packaging to go-to-market strategies and advertising to building loyalty programs

00:19:57 Jeff Lerner: And retention programs for all sorts of other things. Or in some cases, I just simply do a short engagement of consulting around, okay, what

00:20:07 Kevin Mako: Does it mean to go to market? Let's launch.

00:20:09 Jeff Lerner: I need help with x, y, and z specifically.

00:20:12 Jeff Lerner: So whether this startup is looking for more long-term, strategic, how do we go from a to z, or there's just a problem that needs help being solved and kind of getting over the hump of potentially lagging sales, that's where I step in and help evaluate and strategize the best path forward.

00:20:34 Kevin Mako: What's the website, if you want to learn more?

00:20:37 Jeff Lerner: Yeah, it's Misnomer.co.

00:20:40 Kevin Mako: Jeff. And as always, I'll put the link in the show notes below for anyone who wants to click through. Jeff, thanks again for your words of wisdom on selling direct to companies for them to use as their own promotional products and often overlooked sales vertical that any hardware startup can start exploring as of today. Start looking into it and seeing what some of those potential options are in your backyard. Put your list together, get it on a spreadsheet, whatever you need to do to start organizing your thoughts around who might possibly want

00:21:04 Kevin Mako: Your product and why, and then start reaching out. And that could potentially be the beginning of a fairly sizable sales channel for your new hardware products. So Jeff, thanks again. Appreciate you being on the show and we'll talk again soon.

00:21:15 Jeff Lerner: Thank you, Kevin.

00:21:16 Kevin Mako: Thanks, take care. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Product Startup Podcast. If you found some value in the show, please do us a huge favor and hit the like button and subscribe.

00:21:28 Kevin Mako: If you have any questions, guest suggestions or anything else, feel free to reach out to us anytime at our email podcast@MakoDesign.com.

00:21:37 Kevin Mako: This show is hosted by Kevin Mako, North America's leading expert on product development for hardware startups. And the podcast is produced by Mako Design, the original firm providing end-to-end consumer product development services tailored specifically to hardware startups, small manufacturers and inventors.

00:21:54 Kevin Mako: Take your product from idea to store shelves at MakoDesign.com. That's M-A-K-O Design dot com. Thanks for joining and see you again soon.