Special Handling Instructions

If your product has a shelf life, or there are other special requirements for how it should be stored/displayed, create a one-sheet detailing those requirements. Include this with every first order, and with occasional reorders as well.

This is particularly important if the quality of your product can suffer when handled incorrectly. If an end customer has one bad experience with your product, they’ll probably never try it again, and they’ll probably tell their friends, who’ll probably tell their friends…

No surer way to undermine your sales efforts than for your product to be mishandled after it ships!

Your special handing instructions go hand-in-hand with your product knowledge sheet, and should likewise be kept to one page when possible.

The spot checking bit is mission-critical for perishable goods. You really want to encourage your retailers to check quality of your products every now and then. Offer to credit them. Will the occasional retailer take advantage of this policy? Maybe, but in the grand scheme of things, it hardly matters. Compared with the damage you incur when customers have a bad experience with your product, it’s nothing.