Once a year, the buyer opens the category, and everything is briefly negotiable: facings, placements, new items, delists. Most suppliers walk in with a brand presentation. Winners walk in with the buyer's own homework done for them — and the difference is decided in the ninety days before the calendar invite.
90 Days Out: Assemble the Evidence
Your velocity by item by store cluster (store-level, not national), shelf share versus market share, launch performance, and — the credibility play — your own candidates for rationalization. A supplier who volunteers a cut earns the right to be believed about an expansion.
60 Days Out: Build the Category Story
Buyers don't allocate space to brands; they allocate it to category outcomes. Frame every ask as category math: "moving X from two facings to four, based on its velocity per facing, adds $Y per store per week to the category" is a different conversation than "we'd like more space." If you can speak to the whole category's structure — segments over- and under-spaced against their sales — you're doing the buyer's job with them, which is what category captains actually get paid in.
30 Days Out: Pre-Wire and Prioritize
Rank your asks and know your trades in advance — what you'll concede (the weak facing, the delist you planned anyway via rationalization) to protect what matters (the core item's fourth facing, the new item's authorization). Reviews reward suppliers who make the buyer's decision easy and defensible to their boss.
After: The Review Isn't Over
Whatever was won exists only on paper until the reset executes — which returns the story to compliance: audit the new set in the first three weeks, while broken doors are still fixable and the agreement is still fresh enough to enforce.
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Our 30-day Retail Health Check delivers first dashboards, KPI baselines and 3–5 priorities. The review starts once agreed data and access are available.
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