If you have been thinking of becoming a supplement rep, then this article will serve as a guide to help you become successful in this field.
As people start becoming more health-conscious and seek healthier lifestyles, nutritional supplements have become an essential part of everyday diets. Supplements such as protein and vitamin drinks, powders have niche markets where you can target easily, including those that cater to athletes, health aficionados, athletes, and bodybuilders. However, becoming a supplement rep isn’t as easy as you might think; anyone interested to step into this field must do some homework beforehand.
In this article, we’ll provide you with some effective tips to become a successful supplement rep for big brands. But before that you might want to know:
About Dietary Supplements
Dietary supplements are products to supplement the diet and to support good health. It contains a variety of ingredients, including amino acids, herbs, minerals, or vitamins. These products are taken orally and usually come in the form of capsules, pills, powder, liquid, or tablet.
Spurred by heightened interest in a healthy lifestyle and geriatric population, sales of minerals, vitamins, herbal, and nutritional supplements have increased over the past few years. The dietary supplement market is expected to reach over $349.4 billion by 2026(1).
When it comes to revenue, the vitamin segment dominated the market globally in 2017. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be a significant contributor to the global supplement market revenue throughout the forecast period.
In the US, the use of dietary supplements has grown over the last 30 years(2), and currently, almost half of the adult population uses one or more supplements(3).
The industry can be broken into five significant subcategories and their shares; Vitamins/minerals (38%), Herbal (18%), Protein (15%), Weight loss (10%), and Specialty and sports (10%). The industry has grown to an annual revenue total of USD 30.6B, a steady 52% increase over the course of the last decade. IBISWorld is projecting a steady growth, similar to the last few years, and 3.2% annually(4).
Factors Driving This Growth
Below are some of the key factors driving this increasing interest in a healthy lifestyle and the products associated with it.
Increasing Geriatric Population
A lot has been made of the way that the aging of baby boomers will change the U.S. economy. Their sheer numbers will shift spending in healthcare and realign markets, creating significant new opportunities. The phenomenon is already visible in the Vitamin & Supplement industry, where purchases have grown by six percent annually from 2007-2012, much of this coming from the eye, bone, and joint supplements. As of 2012, consumers 65 and older accounted for 36% of U.S. V&S sales, a trend that is expected to continue in the years to come(4).
Increased Interest In Preventative Healthcare
Increasing awareness of the consumers for preventative healthcare is another key driver of this growth. A glance at TV lineups, news articles, and magazine stands reveals more and more people are keen on information related to preventative healthcare.
Rising Self-Directed Customers
Nowadays, people rely on alternative channels to self-diagnose and to determine targeted health needs. The reason for this is partly because insurers today are raising co-pays and are incentivizing their consumers to take preventative healthcare measures. A vast majority of people seek the internet both pre and post visiting their doctors, to both inform their conversations with their physicians and validate medical advice after consultations.
Ways to Become A Successful Supplement Rep
Now that you’re aware of what the ins and out of the supplement industry looks like let’s focus on how to become a successful supplement rep for big brands.
Know Your Goals
When you’re learning to sell, you should focus on the end and work backward. Identifying what your goals are and measuring your results against them is the first place to start with.
The number of customers the brand you’re representing needs and within what time span, the number of leads you need to gain that many customers, the number of connections needed to acquire that many opportunities are some of the objectives you need to be focusing on. Multiply your customer objective by your brand’s average sale price to determine how much revenue you need to be aiming for.
Also, make sure you set some personal goals too. Always try to be the best in your organization. You can always spot a great sales rep. They command attention, works on their craft, offer a consistent experience, and execute.
Know That Sales Is Nothing But A Process
Sales are evolving rapidly; however, some things will always remain the same. For you to get customers, you need to first make sure that the products you’re selling address the needs of your target customers, then address inactivity in their business, and set a timeline to sell.
Also, make sure that you treat all your sales process differently; otherwise, you might miss something easily. Acknowledge that all business comes with its own playbook. Therefore, before making calls to prospects, make sure you sit down with your managers and try to understand your company’s process thoroughly.
This includes learning the right way to position your products, acquiring tactics for communicating with prospective customers, knowing your main value propositions, and determining your target audience. These are all some factors that make for a successful sales process.
Identify Business Pains
As a supplement rep, your main priority is to build confidence in your prospects for your products. Your buyers want to be assured that you acknowledge their problem and that your resources can help fix it. Remember, your relationship with the customers doesn’t end after selling the product- you’re required to keep your promise. By preparing prospects for transitioning to your supplements and offering every help they need, you’ll have a satisfied customer.
Measure Every Step
As mentioned earlier, it’s imperative that you measure your performance against your set goals. See if you’ll be able to reach the numbers you set by the end month or if your closing strategies will help convert prospects to buyers. If you feel that it’s not working, make necessary changes.
Don’t wait for the last minute to make sure you reach your month’s goal. By measuring your every step, you’ll be able to solve issues as they arise. With a plethora of coaching resources available in today’s day and age, a simple search on the internet and you’ll find tons of material to help you in areas you’re struggling with. Also, the managers of the brand you’re representing will be pleased to help you if you seek guidance from them.
Sell to The Right Audience
As a supplement rep, it won’t do you any good by reaching out to people who aren’t interested in your products. Instead, try to reach out to the audience that is interested in what you have to offer. Practice inbound marketing methodology. By curating or creating helpful and high-quality content, prospects will come to you, thereby saving your time and maximizing the chances of closing sales.
Conduct Call Reviews
Identify the salespersons who do exceptionally well at different things in the company you’re working for. If you know someone who excels in closing difficult prospects, make sure to sit and listen to some of their calls. Also, have them review your most recent call with a challenging prospect. If you know a rep who’s excellent at negotiating, request him to review a negotiation you conducted recently. In doing so, you’ll be able to identify what you’re missing out on and thereby work on them.
Some Important Things to Remember
As a supplement rep, your primary responsibility is to manage and boost sales within your organization by focusing on certain markets at all levels to maximize the brand’s revenue and profitability.
Main responsibility includes:
Here are some of the responsibilities you’ll have as a supplement rep:
Sales performance:
- You’ll be making sales calls, conducting customer follow-ups, and managing relationships at assigned shared accounts.
Company Knowledge:
- Global coordination of specific markets
- Cooperate with and make use of internal resources like technical service, customer service, manufacturing, logistics, credit, etc. to accomplish sales goals.
- Support efforts and objectives of local sales activities within the target market.
Customer Account Management:
- Active involvement and membership in industry associations/organizations.
- Establishing interpersonal and friendly business relationships and developing a good rapport with high-level management, customers, and prospects by getting to know intimately customers’ way of doing business, culture, requirements, problems, financial situation, products, responsibility lines, and so on.
- Conducting market share analysis.
- Introducing and following up on new products, providing product samples, and handling distributor target account programs when applicable.
- Identifying and communicating customer requirements, solving problems, and also identifying and pursuing new growth opportunities.
Bottom line
There is no sure-fire way of becoming a successful supplement rep but following certain helpful tips from experienced industry members will surely be helpful. The supplement industry is very lucrative and the above-mentioned tips will certainly aid you in establishing yourself as a success supplement rep for major brands.
Manufacture Your Supplements With SMP Nutra
Before you get are able to sell supplements, you need a product that is going to sell great along with being affordable.
SMP Nutra offers a wide variety of stock supplements that you can start to sell for your brand today! Check out our stock private label supplements now!
We also offer design services to make your supplement look professional and attractive.
References:
- https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/dietary-supplements-market-size-share-growth-forecast-to-cross-3494-billion-by-2026-2019-12-30
- https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.nutr.23.011702.073349
- https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/141/2/261/4743341
- https://investmentbank.com/vitamins-supplements/