How Run Shops Can Prepare for Better Brand Conversations at The Running Event

Start with your own business, not the brand's

Most of us in run specialty run lean. In plenty of shops the owner is the buyer, the marketer, the coach and the person the reps text, so preparation has to be simple. Before you book a single meeting, answer a few questions: What are our priorities for the next six to twelve months? Where do we want to grow? Which customers, categories or programs matter most? Where do we want brand support?

I asked Rick Wilhelm, VP of Specialty Sales at Brooks and a seasoned industry veteran, what he actually wants to hear from a store at TRE. His answer:

"There are really three things I hope to hear. First, are you planning to grow, and if so, what does that look like for you? Second, what are your invest, maintain and divest initiatives? Every store has categories it is leaning into, categories it is holding steady and categories it is moving away from, and it is so much more productive when we hear that directly from the retailer rather than piecing it together from orders. Third, what are your objectives with each brand? When a retailer can tell us what they want from us specifically, we can go back to our team with something real to work on. Retailers who walk in with those three answers allow us to identify areas to collaborate and disseminate opportunities quicker and cleaner internally."

If you can answer those questions, you can explain where your business is going before you ask a brand to help you get to the next stage. If you can't, the brand will fill in the blanks, and their version will be about their priorities, not your store's.

Get the brand calendars before you go

Ask your reps now for launch calendars, marketing calendars, campaign dates and key initiatives for the year ahead. This is the easiest thing on this list and the one I see skipped most often. When you know what a brand is putting money behind, you can find where their plan and yours overlap. If high school running is a priority for your store, look for the brands investing in younger runners, team programs, spikes and cross country. The meeting stops being "what's coming for spring?" and becomes "here is what we are building, here is what you are doing, where do these connect?"

Pick two or three tentpoles. Not eight.

Do not walk into TRE trying to build eight new partnerships. Pick two or three priorities that matter most: high school, women's, apparel, community programming, trail, racing, new customer acquisition. For each one, know why it matters, who you serve, what data you have, which brands align and what support would actually help.

Then make it real. If medical is the play, bring the number of nurses, residents and hospital staff you have fit, the health systems or practices you have relationships with, any employer or benefit programs you run, referral volume and the relevant sales trend. You will only need three or four of those numbers in the room, so pick the ones that prove the opportunity is real and keep the rest in the deck for later. Put it in a short deck and leave it behind. Tools like Claude Design make it easy to turn those facts into a few polished slides that match your store's branding in an hour, not a week, and a rep who walks away with something in hand or something in their email is a rep who can walk it into their next internal meeting.

Rank the brands. Then list the people.

Sort brands into three buckets. Must meet: critical to current business or major future plans. Want to meet: important relationships with opportunity but no urgent agenda. Explore: emerging brands and companies worth a closer look. Otherwise your schedule ends up lopsided, heavy on whoever asked first and light on the brands that actually matter to your priorities.

And make a people list, not just a brand list. Reps, regional leaders, marketing contacts, product people, sales leadership. You may not get a formal meeting with a VP, but if they are on the floor, walk up and say hello. Who do I want to know? Who do I want to know our store? Sometimes the whole objective is familiarity, so that when an opportunity comes up in March, the brand already knows what your store stands for.

Protect the white space

Do not schedule every minute. Leave room for emerging brands, unexpected introductions, walking the floor and the relationships that deserve more than a thirty minute slot. Plan your priorities without planning out every minute.

Know what you want. Bring a little data. Sell the store.

For every priority meeting, finish this sentence before you sit down: "By the end of this conversation, I want to understand or accomplish ______." Pick one or two objectives, not the whole list.

Bring just enough data to back up your story: what is selling, what is not, category growth, community reach, the programs that matter. Not a spreadsheet dump.

And remember you are being evaluated too. Brands are deciding where to put limited marketing dollars, samples, event support and staff time. Be ready to explain who you serve, what makes your store distinctive and what you are building. The question is not only what the brand can do for your store. It is what your store can help the brand accomplish.

Stay aligned and pick your battles

If more than one person from your store is going, align before you leave on what is fine to share, what is still confidential and which issues belong only to the owner or buyer. Know your story. Know your numbers. Know your boundaries.

And know which conversations do not belong on the show floor. A service complaint, order issue or pricing dispute is legitimate, and it usually deserves its own call with the right person. Save face-to-face time for strategy, future plans, introductions and alignment.

Leave with next steps

Do not let a good meeting evaporate on the flight home. For every key conversation, write down what you learned, what you agreed to, who owns the next action and when follow-up happens. Same format, every meeting.

None of this takes a big team or weeks of work. Two or three priorities, a ranked brand list, a people list, the brand calendars, a few relevant numbers, a clear objective for each major meeting, some white space and a place to capture follow-up. Nail that and you can walk in with confidence and a strategy that should yield results.

The goal of TRE is not to have the most meetings. It is to leave with stronger relationships, clearer opportunities and a short list of priorities that can actually move the business forward.

• Kathy Dalby, President + CEO, Pacers Running

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