You can be as visible as you like – in the end, someone still has to say yes, pay, and preferably come back. That is sales.
For a small food producer, sales is rarely a sales team and a budget. It is you – at the market table, in the farm shop, or on the phone with a restaurateur. The good news: it can be learned, and most of it is about preparation, not about being "a salesperson type".
Marketing or sales?
The words often get mixed up, but they answer different questions:
- Marketing is about being seen and driving interest. Making sure the right people know you exist and pick you over the alternatives – the customer, the journey, Google, social media, your website.
- Sales is about making the deal. Where you sell, at what price, on what terms – and how much is actually left for you once the channel has taken its share.
Marketing creates the interest; this is where you turn it into money. You need both, but they are different crafts. This is the sales section – being seen and getting chosen has its own section: Marketing.
What sales is about
Five things, in the order they're built:
- Where you sell – understand the channels, what each one gives and demands, and prioritise by your strengths. (If you want to run the numbers, there's an optional Excel deep dive.)
- What you charge – calculate your floor, read the benchmark and dare to charge for what makes you special. A built-in calculator does the work.
- How the meeting goes – the sales conversation with the restaurateur or store manager: do your homework, ask questions first, find three problems you solve and book the next step.
- Selling through others – restaurants and stores: what happens after the yes, with delivery and terms that last.
- Your own best channel – the farm shop, where you own the price, the meeting and the story.
Where you earn – and lose – your money
One thing surprises almost everyone who starts doing the numbers properly: the product is rarely the problem. It's the channel. The same cheese, the same vegetable, the same jam can give you a good return in one setting and almost nothing in another – depending on who you sell through and how much of the price gets taken along the way.
The research is clear: the farmer's share of what the customer pays can range from a tenth to nearly half, depending on the product and channel. Direct sales – farm shop, market, subscription – usually give the best margin but ask more of your time. Selling through wholesale or retail takes less time per deal but leaves less for you. Neither is right or wrong. The point is that you should know what you're choosing.
Six steps – at your own pace
You can see the steps right here. Just like the marketing section, they build on each other: understand the channels, set your price (step 3 is an optional numbers deep dive), train the sales conversation, sell to restaurants and stores – and make the farm shop your best channel. Every step leaves you with something finished in hand.
Steps 1–4 and 6 are ready to use today. Step 5 is in progress and will be filled in over time.
Start at the kitchen table
If you only do one thing today: draw the channel map in step 1 together and choose a main channel. Then calculate the floor for your best-selling product in step 2 – almost everyone who does the maths honestly discovers the price is too low.
One piece of advice to carry with you: you don't need to do everything. You need to do the right things for your particular business. This material helps you see what they are.