Your requests for meetings have been ignored for months and you are wondering if your buyer might have retired or gone on extended leave. Then suddenly, out of the blue, they e-mail with a JBP template Excel file attachment. You are expected, ideally by the end of the week, to fill out your investment proposal for the year ahead and return the template. How much money are you going to spend on floor stickers, in-store radio, shelf barkers and search sponsorship? And more importantly, how much more are you going to spend versus the previous year?
This is joint business planning at its worst. A transactional relationship between suppliers and vendors that looks only at cash investment. It makes no effort to grow together, share information, tackle issues or be creative. Both sides feel like adversaries, each trying to protect their budgets for the year ahead and minimise the effort required to get a JBP ‘signed off’.
For a supplier, being asked to contribute thousands of pounds for irrelevant co-marketing is insulting. For a buyer, focusing entirely on cash investment and wasting marketing activity on the supplier with the deepest pockets means missing out on genuine growth and differentiation from your competition.
Growth, in any category, is difficult. Joint business planning should be the moment when suppliers and retailers can work through the best and most efficient way to grow together. They should be playing into each others strengths, fighting for the marketing opportunities that deliver long term category performance, maximising consumer reach and building a stronger relationship.
A good joint business plan should look beyond the marketing and promotional teams. It should work out ways to improve availability, help cashflow, improve systems, co-develop products, share information and break down barriers to growth. The worst JBP’s are simply sending a marketing investment spreadsheet back and forth with the threat of de-lists.
To get it right, start JBP’s early, face-to-face. Don’t commit to anything until you have had time to talk together. Get to understand the constraints and desires or each side. Don’t accept that things are not possible, find creative ways to work together. This takes time, energy, inspiration and conflict but done properly, it will give both sides a competitive advantage.
When you land a JBP that rewards both sides, you have incentives to support growth. This will lead to more opportunities, more ideas, quicker commitment to short term opps and flexibility when the plan changes. Stop hiding behind spreadsheets and get in the car - the best JBP’s are made jointly, not through bank transactions.
Andrew Rayner is the founder of Hairetic Anti-Dandruff Haircare
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