This article was originally published on CEOatLarge.com on August 26th 

You’re about to meet with an exciting retailer, and you’ve heard from other small companies that they typically expect levels of slotting that you can’t afford. If you cover slotting at that level, you might not be able to pay for ingredient purchases. But you really, and I mean really, want your products in those stores. Now what? You create some exciting offers of your own, that’s what. It’s not a bullet train to brokeville!

As a retail category manager, my job was to negotiate for everything I could get from a brand: slotting (otherwise known as placement), ad and TPR dollars, demos, event support – you name it. If I could get it, that was my job. It wasn’t uncommon for brands to see these as my company “just feeding our bottom line.” But it’s really a bigger conversation than that: we had to drive traffic to our stores, create excitement about our stores when consumers weren’t there and when they were shopping with us. These endeavors were expensive, and retailers have charges to offset expenses and programs to encourage the consumer to choose specific products and build loyalty to them.

But understand: it was my main job to get the right items on the shelf. Having the best item selection to bring consumers through our doors and keep them coming back was always the primary concern. This is where small brands without deep pockets can find creative ways to negotiate.

Typical slotting (placement) is one case free for food/non-food grocery and 3 units free in HBC (health and beauty care). Some companies choose to equalize by creating universal policies: X number of units for each category, or X number of dollars per SKU. The purpose of slotting is to offset the expense of eliminating the product and inventory that will need to be replaced to bring in and set up a new product.

First, don’t be afraid to tell the category manager that your brand is small. Use this in your favor: “We’re thrilled that you are considering our products for your store. We’re not able to participate at the level of (insert giant company name here). We need to spend very carefully, in order to scale appropriately. It’s not our intention to be huge, it’s our intention to be thoughtful while we grow.”

1. Involve the category manager in the dollar planning. By bringing the category manager into the planning process, they’ve invested in your brand and have buy-in. It’s highly likely the category manager is going to prefer promotions to placement. Placement does not encourage the sales of the products: it goes straight to the bottom line. Promotions specifically drive sales of the product. They can manage how they close out the other product on their own.

2. Offer to give additional product as free fill – more than one case. That’s right, more. But negotiate the free fill on a delayed timeline after you’ve had time to run some promotions that encourage additional purchases. For example: you have a six-pack case and you’re running a TPR in March and an Ad in May. Offer two free fill contracts: one for 3 units free now, and one for 6 units free in July. By July, two promotions will have been completed, purchase orders will have been fulfilled, and payments made to your account.

3. Straight up offer an incremental promotion or more. If the category manager expects four promotions annually, propose five or six for your first year. Yes, that’s a lot: ask for reduced (or no) fees on some. Your job is to sell more than the other products on the shelf and create brand loyalty with consumers. Can you do two ads, two TPRs, and two retailer-specific coupon books? Do they have summer festivals or holiday events? What else is going on with that retailer that will allow you to get into as many shopping baskets as possible? Consumers purchasing and re-purchasing your products are the actions that keep them on the shelves.

All of these possibilities are expensive. The most important factor is partnering with a retailer so that you both sell more product. If the retailer is unwilling to create that partnership – is placement with that retailer the right move for your brand right now, or should you rethink it for another time when your brand is larger and can afford to cash bigger checks?