How to Get Product into Gentex
Gentex Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets products that use electro-optic technology. The Company’s product lines include automatic-dimming rearview mirrors and fire protection products. Gentex’s Night Vision Safety Mirror automatically darkens to the degree required to eliminate rearview headlight glare. The Company sells its products around the world.
Founded in 1974 in Zeeland, Michigan, the company also provides commercial smoke detectors and signaling devices to the North American fire protection market, as well as dimmable aircraft windows for the commercial, business and general aviation markets.
The Company’s business segment involves designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing interior and exterior automatic-dimming automotive rearview mirrors that utilize electrochromic technology to dim in proportion to the amount of headlight glare from trailing vehicle headlamps. Within this business segment, the Company also designs, develops and manufactures various electronics that are features to the interior and exterior automotive rearview mirrors, as well as interior visors, overhead consoles, and other locations in the vehicle. The Company ships its products to all of the automotive producing regions across the world, which it supports with various sales, engineering and distribution locations across the world.
The company’s automotive applications consist of interior and exterior electrochromic automatic-dimming rearview mirrors and automotive electronics. The Company manufactures interior electrochromic automatic-dimming rearview mirrors that darken to reduce glare and manage visibility for the driver. These electronic interior mirrors can also include electronic features, such as compass, microphones, HomeLink, lighting assist and driver assist forward safety camera systems, various lighting systems, various telematics systems, integrated toll module (ITM) systems, and a range of displays. It also ships interior non-automatic-dimming rearview mirrors with features.
It manufactures other automotive electronics products both inside and outside of the rearview mirror through HomeLink applications in the vehicle, including the rearview mirror, interior visor, overhead console, or center console. It produces rearview mirrors and electronics for automotive passenger cars, light trucks, pick-up trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) across the world, tier-one automotive mirror manufacturers across the world, and various aftermarket and accessory customers.
In the early 1990s, Gentex introduced a smoke detector equipped with a strobe light designed to alert the deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Today, Gentex manufactures a complete line of photoelectric detectors for fire alarm systems, standalone, and interconnect systems. Gentex also manufactures its Commander series horn/strobes, along with other notification appliances including speaker/strobes, mini-horns, bells, and weatherproof devices.
The industry is wide. A lot of cars are placed on mass production and custom orders by the years and you don’t want to be a stub in the industry. Look at your market offerings and see what you can offer differently. Improve on your current product offerings and make them more attractive to customers. You can always carve a unique point for yourself by trust and superb customer service. Once your customers can have trust in your products, it won’t be difficult for you to get more customers out of recommendation by current customers.
Submit Your Product to Gentex Foods
Skip the cold outreach. Mr. Checkout presents products to corporate chain buyers and also works a network of thousands of independent retailers that build real reorder proof. Tell us about your product below and a real person will read it.
How to get your product into Gentex
- Understand you client: Before you spend a lot of time and money creating a product, you should know if anyone will want to buy it. Learn more about Market Research
- Learn if it’s protectable: Know if you can defend your product against cheap copies if it gets knocked off. Learn more about Copyright and Patent your product
- Test your product: Make sure that there’s a demand for your product and the customer understands what you are selling when it’s on the shelf and nobody is there to explain it. Learn more about Product Testing
- Perfect your pitch: Before you speak to decision makers, know your numbers, know your retailer and know your logistics in and out. Learn more about Pitching Your Product
- Don’t do it alone: If you haven’t been successful in retail before, a secret of success is that you can’t do it alone. Having great sales staff, customer support and marketing partners can take you from zero to success faster than if you tried on your own. Learn more about Retail Partnerships
Contact Gentex Buyer
Do not trust any “list” of buyers.
Typically retail buyers change either companies or positions every few years. This strategy helps retailers know that their buyers are not taking “kick-backs” and are selecting the very best product for the very best position each time.
Buyers are typically held to a very rigorous standard of sell-through volume that they must hit and because of this they are risk averse. Your job as a supplier or vendor is to convince them that the buyers going into the stores not only know about what you’re selling but are actively seeking the product in the store currently.
How to Submit a Product to Gentex
There are several ways to get a product placed in Gentex. However, most entrepreneurs only dream about getting their product distributed to major retailers, few actually do it. We have experienced a significant rise in interest since the show Shark Tank started airing on NBC. Mr. Checkout has had the pleasure of working with a few Shark Tank success stories such as KISStixx and 180 Party Cups which are now currently being distributed around the country to stores like Walmart, Target, Kroger, 7-Eleven and more.
If you envision your product would be a good fit for Gentex, we have a few steps to help you get your product on their shelves.
Here are the 6 steps you need to take to have your product placed in Gentex.
1. Start with the right questions.) Before you try distributing your product to Gentex, you need to ask yourself a few basic questions. Do you need to build demand for your product, or is there already a demand for it? Do you know that Gentex would be interested in selling your product? If you can strike a deal with Gentex can you handle the production volume? Do you want to sell directly to Gentex, or do you want to license your product to a manufacturer that will handle Gentex?
2. Be prepared to profit.) Does your product offer enough of a profit margin for Gentex? Can you sell your product at a reasonable enough profit to cover the packaging, shipping, commissions, marketing and wholesale distribution? Check Gentex guidelines for other fees that you will have to build into the cost of your product in order for you to be able to turn enough of a profit to make the effort worth your while. If you work with a discount retailer, they will try to strip your profits down to zero in order to keep their prices as low as possible.
The typical breakdown of margins are: If a products costs $1 to produce, that product will retail for $4. That product that retails for $4 will wholesale for $2 to distributors and stores that purchase direct. Big box retailers like Gentex may offer to pay $1.25 to the manufacturer if the product costs $1 to produce. That is the typical profit margin.
3. Determine if Gentex is the right store for your product.) The relationship between you and Gentex starts with you browsing their store for competing products. If Gentex already has a similar product, it is going to be very difficult to get your product picked up. Spend some time at your local Gentex to see what kind of products they are selling, speak to the manager and see if he thinks your product will sell well in their store. Picture in which zone your product would best fit on the shelf and keep in mind that the most precious asset that these big box stores value are their shelf space. Keep this information in mind when you are preparing your presentation to Gentex.
If your company is minority or women owned, check Gentex and see if they offer specific opportunities for those designations.
4. Pitch your product to Gentex) Decide whether it will be you or a representative to present your product to Gentex. Your presentation depends heavily on your strengths as a businessperson as they will most likely ask financial questions and logistics questions.
It’s common for companies to hire a broker to pitch their product to Gentex, as it will be more likely that your product will make it to the next stage if the individual pitching your product has industry knowledge or a personal relationship with Gentex. The percentage of commission verses, however generally a broker will take around 5% to represent your product to Gentex.
We at Mr. Checkout have experience dealing with brokers and know that there are several retail brokers that have poor business practices that can potentially damage your brand. If you are seeking a legitimate Gentex broker, please give us a call for a recommendation. It could save you a huge headache and a lot of money.
5. Complete the required Gentex paperwork.) Often Gentex will have you go through an application process. However, before submitting the paperwork required by Gentex, you should contact a buyer at Gentex and let them know your intentions. Having a contact inside of the company will potentially move your application more smoothly through the process.
6. Anticipate the need for increased volume.) Having Gentex agree to stock your product will most likely mean a significant increase in volume. You should be prepared to ramp up your production and informing your manufacturer of this opportunity.
Having production, logistics and distribution to sync is not only difficult, it requires a significant amount of time invested in customer relations. Also, Gentex may have stipulations in the contract that may penalize you for delays in shipping and production. Have an attorney explain all contracts to you if you don’t understand the terms.
If you’re looking to sell your product to Gentex, be sure to thoroughly assess the marketplace, carefully prepare for production growth, and take full advantage of resources available to help you grow your business.
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