Julie Walker: Strategies to Turn Your Retail Business Scorecard Green Is your buyer’s scorecard green? It is important to add value to your buyer beyond the product you’re selling which will lead you to gain influence. In this episode of the Page One Podcast, Luke Peters speaks with Julie Walker, she is a seasoned executive with 30 years of industry experience spanning brand management, shopper marketing, sales leadership, and multiunit retail operations. Before starting her own strategic firm, she was the CEO of Shopper Events and spent 24 years at Proctor& Gamble. Listen in to learn how to validate your product and make the design stand out from the competition. You will also learn the strategy that will get you the attention of the buyer and fulfill their expectations of your business. Key Takeaways:  The importance of forecasting a product’s performance in the market rather than focusing on its distribution. The importance of hiring an agency to help your business get attention from a potential buyer. The major mistakes that happen in the top to top meetings and the right thing to do. Learning to align and support your buyer’s business culture. Episode Timeline: [0:34] Intro: [2:44] She talks about the situation with the companies that she helps during the pandemic. [3:39] How she’s helping struggling companies to understand the market and accessing their capabilities. [5:43] The industries that are unexpectedly doing better than it was initially anticipated. [7:30] How to evaluate the context of a product when designing to stand out from similar products. [10:57] How to avoid legal problems with competitors plus validating why your product would be buyable. [12:42] Learning to start with the end in mind before launching a product. [15:03] How to get a buyer’s attention when you’re a small company by hiring an agency plus when to know they’ll work for you or not. [17:05] How to add value beyond the product you’re selling to gain influence by going green on everything on the buyer’s scorecard. [18:13] Some of the things that are in the buyer’s scorecard that as a business owner you don’t think about. [19:32] The meaning of the top to top business planning and it’s relation to your business leadership. [23:31] The importance of understanding where you fit in the buyer’s ecosystem to better get an idea of their expectations of you. [24:28] How to fulfill the expectations of your buyer while aligning and respecting their culture. [27:54] Julie advises those in retail and or planning to join the retail business. Quotes: “Build a plan to add value beyond the product you’re selling, to gain influence.” - Julie Walker [17:11]