Senior retail sales on your account. Without the hire.
A head of retail sales runs $100,000 to $150,000 a year before on-costs, on the incumbent broker's own comparison, plus six to twelve months of ramp. We run your retailer conversations, reviews, launches and promotions in your name, for a $4,000 monthly retainer that includes all onboarding and set-up for fulfilment. Fixed on your scope sheet before you sign.
The problem
$100K to $150K
a year for a head of retail sales before on-costs, on the incumbent broker's own comparison
~6 months
between category reviews, with about two weeks' notice to present
10 to 25%
of gross sales commonly lost to trade spend: rebates, co-op and promotional allowances
Getting ranged is the start of the job, not the end of it. Category reviews come around roughly every six months, and the invitation to present can arrive with about two weeks' notice. Between reviews, your buyer is watching rate of sale, the units your product moves per store per week, and deciding your shelf space from that number, not from your founding story. Someone has to be reading the same number, every week, and acting on it before the review email lands.
The full picture
Right now that someone is probably you. You built the brand, so you take the buyer meetings, build the review decks at midnight, and guess at promotional slots between everything else you run. It works until it doesn't: a missed new-line window, a promotion committed without modelling the trade spend, the rebates, co-op and promotional allowances that commonly run 10 to 25 percent of gross sales, and a review you walked into underprepared.
The standard fix is hiring it in-house, and for most founder-led brands the maths does not clear. Six figures of salary before on-costs, months of ramp, and one person carrying knowledge that walks out the door with them. We are the third option: the same senior capability, on your account, at a price that is two fixed numbers on a scope sheet.
Who this is for
- Founder-led brands already on shelf who are still running every buyer conversation themselves
- Brands whose ranging is underperforming: rate of sale below the category, promotional slots going unused, review prep starting when the invitation arrives
- Brands finishing the First PO Program and moving to steady-state account management
- DTC-born brands doing roughly 100 to 1,000 orders a month, in food, beverage or supplements first; beauty case by case, with our register of interests on the table before the first conversation
What we do
- 01
Run the buyer relationship in your name: scheduled trading meetings, day-to-day correspondence, and escalations, with you copied on everything and in the room whenever you choose
- 02
Build your range-review case each cycle, the retailer's regular decision on what stays on shelf and what leaves, so the work is done before the two weeks' notice arrives
- 03
Plan and manage your promotional program, with the trade spend of every promotion modelled before you commit to it, not after it is deducted
- 04
Prepare new-line submissions when your rate of sale supports asking for more, and tell you plainly when it does not yet
- 05
Track rate of sale, distribution and forecast accuracy weekly, and translate the retailer's own reporting into decisions
- 06
Run demand and supply planning against DC orders so the forecast, the production run and the delivery window agree with each other
- 07
Monitor chargebacks, the deductions retailers apply when compliance fails, which commonly run 1 to 5 percent of invoice value when it goes wrong, and chase the root cause rather than absorbing them
Australian Glow, the founder's brand. Campaign imagery.
On shelf is the start. Sell-through is the job.
Deliverables
- A monthly account report in plain numbers: rate of sale by line, sell-in versus forecast, promotional results, chargebacks and their causes
- Your category's review calendar with preparation dates working backwards from each review, maintained continuously
- A promotion plan with a per-promotion trade spend model, so every slot is a decision you made with the number in front of you
- The range-review case itself, each cycle: the document, the data and the recommendation, yours to keep
- A named account lead on every meeting and every email, with access to your data logged and an audit right warranted in your contract before you pay anything
How it is bought
$4,000 a month to be represented
- Includes all onboarding and fulfilment set-up.
- The retainer is fixed on your scope sheet before you sign, and it does not move after it.
- If fulfilment runs through our Melbourne warehouse, the rates are fixed on your scope sheet, with an audit right in your contract.
- Freight is carrier cost plus a disclosed 5 percent.
If a number is not on the pricing page or your scope sheet, you do not pay it.
The full terms, in prose
Representation is $4,000 a month, and it includes all onboarding and set-up for fulfilment. The retainer is fixed on your scope sheet before you sign, and it does not move after it. If your fulfilment runs through our Melbourne warehouse, the rates are fixed on your scope sheet before you sign, with an audit right in your contract. Freight is carrier cost plus a disclosed 5 percent. If a number is not on the pricing page or your scope sheet, you do not pay it.
The process
- 01
Scope the account
One call. Bring your trading terms, your sell-in history and your current promotional calendar. Before it ends you will know the number on your scope sheet: the $4,000 monthly retainer and exactly what it includes. If we think the account is already well run, or the fix is upstream of sales, we will say so and point you at the Sprint instead.
- 02
Handover month
We read your trading terms line by line, rebuild the account file, review the last two range-review outcomes, and meet your buyer with you in the room. Nothing changes for the retailer except that the emails start getting answered faster.
- 03
The running rhythm
Weekly rate-of-sale tracking, the monthly account report, promotions modelled before commitment, forecasts reconciled against DC orders. The buyer deals with a named person who knows your numbers cold.
- 04
Review cycles
Roughly every six months your category comes up for review, often with about two weeks' notice to present. The case is built before the invitation arrives: your numbers, your promotional results, your recommendation. The buyer decides the outcome. Our job is that you never walk in with a hope instead of a case.
- 05
Expansion, when the numbers earn it
New lines, new stores, new banners: we submit when your rate of sale supports the ask, and we tell you when it does not yet. Asking early costs credibility you spend at the next review.
Questions founders ask
Does my buyer stop dealing with me?
Only as much as you want. Some founders hand over everything and read the monthly report. Some stay in every meeting and use us for the preparation and the follow-through. Either way the relationship stays yours: we work in your name, you are copied on all of it, and if we ever part ways, the account file, the review cases and the models are yours to keep.
How is this different from hiring a broker?
A good broker can genuinely run your buyer relationships, and if yours is working, keep them. Two differences. First, the numbers side: we run the forecasting, the demand planning and the chargeback follow-up alongside the buyer conversations, so the person presenting your case is also the one accountable for the supply behind it. Second, the pricing: $4,000 a month on a scope sheet, including all onboarding and set-up for fulfilment, rather than an open-ended fee with no defined deliverable.
Can you promise we keep our ranging at review?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. The buyer decides, every cycle. What we control is the machinery: the case built before the notice arrives, the rate of sale tracked all year rather than reconstructed the week before, the promotional results documented. Prepared brands still lose reviews sometimes. Unprepared ones lose them more often.
What if my rate of sale is bad?
Then that is the work, and we will say it plainly rather than submit expansion requests that damage your standing. Sometimes the right plan for a cycle is defending the lines you hold and fixing velocity: promotion timing, price point, off-location display. Sometimes the honest advice is to exit a ranging that is losing you money. You will get the recommendation with the numbers attached, and the decision stays yours.
The next step
Send your sell-in history and your last review outcome through the form below. We will tell you within the first call whether we can run the account better than it is being run now, and exactly what the two numbers on your scope sheet would be. If the answer is that you don't need us yet, you will hear that too.
Send your sell-in historyThe form is at the bottom of this page and lands straight in our inbox.
Ready to find out whether your brand is built for retail?
Start with a focused conversation about your category, commercial model and target retailers. We will tell you what is ready, what is missing and whether we are the right partner.
No generic sales pitch. A practical first conversation about your retail opportunity, and a reply within two business days.
