July 28, 2014

Of course! Any exposure on national media is always welcomed by buyers. It drives foot traffic to stores, which converts to sales. Plus those reruns are known to drive additional sales lifts when they re-air.

But just landing Shark Tank is not enough. You need to squeeze every ounce of opportunity out of it.

Here’s a handy dandy checklist.

After you have taped your show and your air date is assigned, there will be much to do and very little time to do it. With that air date in hand, quickly do the following:

Announce to your current retail accounts your air date. Check their inventory levels to make sure they are set up to capitalize from your appearance.
Ask past Shark Tank entrepreneurs what their average store sales lifts were. Cite this data (don’t use company names unless you have permission) to retail buyers. This helps retail buyers determine how many additional units they need to stock to fulfill demand.
Tell retail buyers you have been courting about the upcoming Shark Tank feature and the date. Give them ship dates (hopefully you heeded Romy’s advice and stock-piled your inventory levels) and order lead times. Tell them what date to send the PO for product to arrive prior to the air date.
–For retail buyers who are “on the fence” about your product line, I would call or send a personal email.
–For retailers where no relationship exists, send them an e-newsletter blast or post card. Don’t forget to inform retailers of their deadline for when they need to send their POs to get shipments in time.
After your appearance airs, measure the sales lift. Look at your sales on Amazon or your company website. Ask your retailers what sales lifts they got. Measure, measure, measure. You will be citing these results to future retailers as you court them.

To those of you pursuing Shark Tank, good luck!