Pricing Compression: The Importance of Building Budtender Confidence

We’re taking a look at the importance of building budtender confidence to avoid price becoming the only key feature or benefit.

For example, many of you remember when CBD hit the market and budtenders weren’t quite sure as to how and to whom they should sell to. Not only did they have to deal with the confusion around a new category of products -  but navigate the perceptions surrounding the hemp and legacy market with their potentially more ‘potent’ products. 

Take a look at the Headset chart to the left - it shows the Average Item Price and Unit Share of CBD sales in ONT.

Without confidence in knowing about the product or how to differentiate the brands that came to market, we can see the cliff-like drop in price prior to January 2020 before it even starts to level out.

You often leverage what feels like the fact when selling, this is because that information is what we feel confident is a truth. When you aren’t confident, we revert to price as a fact and use it to sell.

How did we get here? Too much noise. 

• Too many products highlight the same feature and benefits 
• Poor product knowledge at the store level 
• Poor product knowledge with brand reps 

Budtenders revert to what they feel confident in, which is often the products they like, or the price. It's not their fault. They aren’t trained to sell but are often trained in product knowledge. Product knowledge is the beginning of building confidence, but the next is knowing what information to share and when. We have done a horrible job, supporting our budtenders with selling as an industry.

So what can we do to build that confidence and avoid price becoming the only key feature or benefit?

Retailers

1. Support budtenders with emotional intelligence  training (which will result in better authentic selling) vs just product knowledge
2. Selling is about connecting the customer with the right product for them, budtenders are the funnel
3. Never present more than 3 products at a time to a customer
4. Run roleplay exercises where your team sells a product and the price can’t be mentioned

Brands

1. Keep your features and benefits simple (no more than 5, preferably 3)
2.  During your product knowledge training sessions, include workshops on how to sell the product. 
3. Determine your core customer, and how the product relates to their life