How Griffin Spolansky Got Mezcla into Its First 100 Doors

How did you get into your first 100 stores?

In the beginning, we went door-to-door in Boston and sold to small bodegas and retailers.

Eventually, we secured 50 doors. These initial doors were a strong core for Mezcla that helped us land a small, Northeast distributor. This distributor enabled us to continue growing and land more accounts.

What was it like getting into your first 100 stores?

This is a really interesting time for any CPG startup. As you look to get into more stores, you need distribution partners, and as you search for distribution partners, you need to secure more accounts. It becomes a chicken or egg problem.

Candidly, it’s a very painstaking and difficult process for any CPG startup, but pounding the pavement in the early days helps you understand what stores are looking for and how to communicate with them. It also enabled Mezcla to build a really solid base of core accounts in a specific area, which was very helpful.

How do you monitor store-level performance?

We use SPINS data, but in the beginning, we didn't because SPINS is very expensive. Instead, we reached out to buyers and asked how we’re doing, what we could do better, and how we can be the best partner possible.

Now through SPINS, we pull monthly reports and do a deep dive into store-level performance. If an account isn't performing well we'll invest in store demos, shelf displays, etc,. We want to implement sales and marketing tactics that will move the needle. If our initial tactic doesn't work, then we'll try something else.

How do you approach winning the best shelf space?

That's a tough one. The reality is sometimes you just get stuck with shelf space that isn't ideal. There isn’t always a clear path forward on how to get that prime shelf space.

At Mezcla, we’ve found that in-store demos and educating consumer on where they can buy our product is the best way to overcome subprime shelf space.

We also push very hard on secondary displays. I think secondary displays are great.

How did Mezcla break into larger accounts like Whole Foods?

Honestly, a lot of it was luck . We reached out to a Whole Foods buyer five years ago and she wasn’t interested at the time. A few years later, that Whole Foods buyer was in her local juice store and bought one of our bars.

She loved it and reached out to us. It was a very lucky situation. For other stores like The Fresh Market, we partnered with a smaller distributor in the Northeast who brought us into that account.

Now we use data to pitch retailers.

How do you manage relationships with small retailers like bodegas vs. larger accounts?

We utilize DSDs like Rainforest, which are great for managing smaller bodegas in the city as well as some of the larger stores in the tri-state area. For the smaller stores, we manage brokers or distributors who, in turn, manage those accounts.

For large grocery accounts, we have an in-house sales team that is highly focused on providing the best client experience and being strong partners to our larger retail accounts. That involves a lot of one-on-one conversations with buyers at those stores.

It's very important to us that we're great partners to everyone we work with.