How to Pitch Retail Buyers and Win Purchase Orders | Tia Ellis, Wildflower Insight

On this episode, we're joined by Tia Ellis, Founder of Wildflower Insight - the retail strategy and education company that teaches CPG founders how to pitch buyers and win purchase orders. Tia is a former broker who has helped brands sell well over $100 million worth of product into major U.S. retailers. Tia walks through the buyer psychology that drives purchasing decisions, including why buyers care most about category performance and internal KPIs, not whether they personally like your product. We get into her winning pitch deck structure, including the critical "retailer fit" slide that should change for every single retailer you pitch. We dive into the golden retail rule - a scaling framework Tia first heard from a Walmart buyer - that maps the path from local to regional to national retail. She shares a cautionary story about a brand that skipped steps, landed a 3,000+ store global account, and couldn't support past the fifth purchase order because of 90-day payment terms and cash flow issues. We also cover operational readiness, logistics gaps that trip up founders (FTL vs. LTL, carrier management, warehouse transitions), pricing strategy across different retailer types, when brokers actually make sense versus when founders should pitch themselves, and why starting with retailers that don't require a distributor can save early-stage brands real money. --------------- Episode Highlights:🏪 Brokers vs. pitching it yourself (and when each makes sense)🧠 Buyer psychology - why buyers are not consumers📊 The two pitch deck slides that matter most for data🎨 The "retailer fit" slide (and why it changes every time)🎯 The golden retail rule - local to regional to national🚚 Operational readiness and the logistics gap founders miss💸 Pricing strategy across Costco, Walmart, Sprouts, and specialty🛒 Why starting with retailers that skip distributors saves money --------------- Table of Contents:00:00 – Intro00:46 – Origin story and why Tia started Wildflower Insight03:09 – Two types of founders Wildflower serves06:05 – When it makes sense to hire a broker08:46 – Buyers are not consumers09:10 – Three pitches every founder needs to master12:00 – The role of data in buyer meetings12:43 – Growth, trends, and the brand sales slides14:16 – The pitch deck structure and retailer fit slide18:07 – The golden retail rule explained22:36 – Cautionary tale of skipping steps26:29 – Operational readiness and being shelf-ready27:22 – The logistics gap (FTL, LTL, carrier management)28:46 – Pitching Costco vs. Walmart vs. specialty retailers29:37 – Pricing strategy across retailer types31:37 – Starting with retailers that don't require a distributor33:52 – Trends Tia is watching (prebiotics and probiotics)35:29 – Where to follow Tia and Wildflower Insight --------------- Links:Wildflower Insight – https://wildflowerinsight.com/Follow Tia on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiaellis/Follow Tia on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thetiaellis/Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees.