Finding stockists & retail buyers
A retail pitch is an argument about the buyer's shelf. Not a story about your brand, not a list of your ingredients, not your founding moment. The buyer is deciding whether four hundred dollars of their own money turns over faster in your product than in the thing they would otherwise reorder, and every sentence that does not help them answer that is a sentence that costs you attention.
That is a different discipline from DTC copywriting, where the job is to make one person want the thing. Here the job is to make one person believe their customers will want the thing, repeatedly, at a pace that justifies the space.
The five-part structure
Whether it is a two-minute conversation at a counter, a phone call, or a proper appointment, the same shape works.
The shelf. Start with them. One observed sentence about what they carry and where your product would sit. "You have three ceramic brands and nothing scented under thirty dollars."
The product. What it is, in one sentence a customer would use. Then who buys it: the occasion, the gift, the repeat.
The numbers. Wholesale price, retail price, case pack, minimum. Said plainly and without hedging.
The proof. One piece of evidence that it moves. Not a claim, a fact.
The ask. One thing, and the smallest one that advances the deal.
Five parts, in that order. The temptation is to open with part two, because the product is what you care about. Opening with part one is what makes the buyer listen to part two.
The numbers a buyer actually wants
Say your candle retails at twenty-four dollars, wholesales at twelve, ships in cases of six, and your minimum is two cases.
Present it as their arithmetic, not yours. Two cases is a hundred and forty-four dollars of stock, twelve units, which becomes two hundred and eighty-eight dollars at the shelf. If those twelve move in eight weeks, the shelf slot has turned their money twice before the quarter is out. That is the sentence. Margin percentages are less persuasive than the turn, because the turn is what a shop owner feels.
Be ready with the boring numbers too, because hesitation on any of them reads as a brand that has not done this before. Lead time from order to delivery. Who pays the freight and at what order value it becomes yours. Case pack and whether it can be split. Payment terms on the first order and after. Barcodes. Whether you have a counter display.
If any of those answers is still "I am not sure", fix that before pitching rather than in front of a buyer. The wholesale readiness checklist is the list to clear, and the pricing itself is worked through in how to calculate wholesale price.
Proof, in order of what it is worth
Buyers discount claims and believe evidence. Use whatever rung of this ladder you can honestly reach.
Sell-through from a comparable shop. "A gift shop about your size in Bath took three cases in March and reordered in seven weeks." This beats everything else and is the reason your first three accounts matter so much.
A named nearby stockist. Even without numbers, "the deli on Union Street started carrying these in spring" tells a buyer that a peer took the risk already.
Your own repeat purchase data. DTC brands have this and rarely use it. "About a third of our direct customers buy again within four months" is a statement about demand, which is exactly the thing the buyer is unsure of.
Volume at a market or a pop-up. "We sold forty at the Christmas market in two days" is specific and physical, and shop owners trust it.
The product itself. At the bottom of the ladder but not nothing. Putting a well-made object in someone's hand does work that no sentence does.
Never inflate any of these. A buyer who stocks you on a number that turns out to be decorated will not reorder, and will tell the other shop owners in town.
The one ask, and how small it should be
The most common pitch failure is asking for too much. "Would you like to place an order" puts a spending decision in front of someone mid-shift, and the easiest answer is no.
Ask for the next step instead. Permission to send a sample. Permission to send the line sheet. A ten-minute call next week. Leaving one unit on the counter to see whether anyone picks it up. Each of these is a small yes, and small yeses are how wholesale accounts actually start.
When the buyer is clearly ready to order, make the decision easy by recommending rather than presenting. Do not hand over a twelve-item line sheet and say choose. Say: "for a shop like yours I would start with two cases of the amber and one of the cedar, that is the assortment that has worked in gift shops." A recommended opening assortment converts far better than an open catalogue, and it is the reason line sheet examples usually include a suggested starter set.
The five objections, and honest answers
"Your minimum is too high." Offer a lower first order, once, as an opening exception rather than a new minimum. Never cut the unit price — the reasoning is in minimum order quantity.
"We already have a candle brand." Good, that means candles sell here. Position beside rather than instead: a different price point, a different scent family, a different occasion. "You are strong at the fifteen dollar gift; this is the one people buy for themselves at twenty-four."
"Can you do it cheaper?" Hold the price and move a different lever: a display piece, freight paid at a stated order value, or delayed payment on the second order. A price cut becomes that account's permanent price and leaks to their neighbours.
"Will I be undercut by your website?" State the policy plainly. You sell at the same retail price and you do not run deep discounts on the lines they carry. Then honour it, because this is the objection that ends relationships rather than deals.
"Leave it with me." The real answer to this is the follow-up, not a clever line. Agree a specific next moment before you leave: "I will send the line sheet today and check back the week after next."
The appointment, when you get one
A proper meeting — in the shop, at a market, or on a call — is a different format from an email and worth preparing for.
Bring finished product, not prototypes. Bring a one-page price sheet you can leave behind. Bring, if you can, a photo of the product on a shelf in another shop, because buyers think in shelves and a picture of one does more than a paragraph.
Spend the first few minutes asking rather than talking. What sells for them in this category, what price their customers accept, when they buy for the season, whether they are planning a refit. Everything you learn reshapes the pitch you are about to give, and buyers notice immediately whether you are interested in their shop or just performing at it.
Then pitch in the five parts above, take a decision or a next step, and leave. Meetings that overrun are meetings that end without an ask.
What happens after the yes
The pitch is not finished when they agree. It is finished when the stock is on the shelf and moving.
Confirm the order in writing the same day, with quantities, price, delivery date and payment terms in one short message. Ship on the date you said. Include something that helps it sell: a small card explaining the product, a counter display if you have one, a note suggesting where it works best in a shop.
Then diary a check-in for six to eight weeks out. One question about how it is moving and one concrete suggestion for the reorder. That message is where the account's real value begins, and the pipeline that keeps it from being forgotten is in wholesale sales.
If you are still working out which shops deserve this level of preparation, paste your store or product link into WholesalePilot and look at the preview of retailers and distributors stocking comparable products, then pitch the ones that match your price band first.
Questions DTC founders ask about pitching retailers
Do I need a deck? No. A one-page sheet with photos, prices, case packs and minimums does everything a deck would, and a buyer will actually read it.
How long should a first pitch be? Thirty to sixty seconds spoken, or a phone screen of text. The detail comes after they are interested.
Should I mention that I sell direct? Yes, plainly, along with your retail price policy. Finding out later feels like something you hid.
What if I have no stockists yet to point to? Use your direct repeat rate and market sell-through instead, and be honest that they would be among the first. Some buyers like being first — it is a reason to say yes, not a weakness.