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# Stop Treating Your Broker Like a Necessary Evil
- URL: https://www.cincinnaticpgedge.com/stop-treating-your-broker-like-a-necessary-evil/
- Published: 2026-10-05T09:16:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-05T09:16:35.000Z
- Description: Your broker is not a necessary evil. If it feels that way, the fix may start on your side of the table, with how you plan, own your results, and treat the team working your brand
- Author: Cincinnati CPG Edge

We have talked about brokers on this site before. We covered why [your broker is a partner, not your business plan]([PASTE URL: Your Broker Is a Partner, Not Your Business Plan]), and [what separates a good broker partner]([PASTE URL: What Makes a Good Broker Partner]) from the agency name on the contract. This one is a little different. This time, the mirror turns toward the brand.

There is a phrase that gets passed around this industry more than it should: the broker is a necessary evil. You hear it in brand meetings, at trade shows, and occasionally on a call loud enough that everyone pretends they did not. If that phrase lives anywhere in your company, it is worth asking where it came from. Sometimes the broker earned it. More often, the relationship was set up to struggle from the brand side long before anyone noticed.

## The Real Choice in Front of You

You know your brand front and back. The formulation, the story, the cost structure, the consumer. What you likely do not have is the volume to justify a dedicated retail team for a single large retailer. Very few emerging and mid-size brands do. That leaves two real options: go it alone, or hire a broker.

Going it alone looks lean on a spreadsheet. Kroger does not see it that way. Category Managers want a supplier who understands their needs and gets things done right the first time. They do not have time to teach you how to operate in their systems, and even if they did, that is simply not part of their job. They expect your brand to show up ready.

Ready means knowing the work behind the work:

- **DemandTec**, where promotional deals are built and managed
- **Market 6**, for sales and supply reporting
- **Stratum**, the 84.51° shopper data platform that shapes how Kroger sees your items
- **Vendor setup**, vendor numbers, and the paperwork behind new items, cost changes, and program enrollment
- **KOMPASS submissions** and the timelines that come with category reviews
- **Knowing where to go**, and who to contact, when something breaks and needs to be corrected

Every one of those has its own rules, contacts, and quirks. A good broker partner already knows them. That is years of working knowledge you are renting instead of building from scratch, one mistake at a time, in front of the Category Manager you most want to impress.

## Take an Honest Look in the Mirror

If your broker feels like a necessary evil, it is fair to ask whether the broker is the problem. Sometimes it is. Not every broker is the right fit, and we have said so before. But it is just as fair to ask how your brand shows up in the relationship.

Do you treat your broker partner like a partner, or like a servant? Like a member of your team, or like a line item you resent paying? When they bring you a recommendation, do you listen, or do you nod and do what you were going to do anyway? Do they only hear from you when something is on fire?

Those questions are not comfortable. They are worth answering honestly, because the way you treat your broker partner shows up in the work you get back. That is true of every working relationship in business, and this one is no exception.

## If You Are Small, You Are an Investment

Here is some Business 101 that rarely gets said out loud. Brokers mostly make money when you make money. Commission follows sales. If your brand is a startup, or your sales are still building, you are an investment brand to your broker. They are carrying the cost of your business today in the hope of earning it back later.

That often means your brand sits on the desk of a newer business manager with less experience. That is not an insult, it is how the economics work. If a newer broker partner makes a mistake on a smaller brand and that brand walks, the loss is manageable, and the broker partner has gained working knowledge that makes them better on every brand that follows.

That may not feel ideal from your side of the table. But think back to early in your own career. There was a time you had no idea what you were doing, and someone gave you a chance to learn and prove yourself. Newer broker partners are often the hungriest people in the building. They have something to prove, they tend to be responsive, and they have an entire agency behind them. Give them the same chance someone once gave you, and hold them to a real standard while you do.

## Do the Desk Math

Brokers make their money by placing several brands on each business manager's desk. How many depends on the model. Usually it is driven by the commission revenue on the desk, and in some cases it is simply a count of brands.

Either way, you are not the only brand in your broker partner's life. You are one of five, or fifteen, or thirty. A desk with five brands is usually carrying mid-size to large clients. The more revenue on the desk, the fewer clients it tends to hold. The less revenue per brand, the more brands it takes to make the desk work.

None of that means your business does not matter. It means your broker partner's calendar is shaped by every brand on it. The week your brand is quiet may be the week three of their other brands are deep in category reviews. Respecting that rhythm, and planning your asks around it, is one of the simplest ways to get better work.

## You Hired a Share of Their Time, Not All of It

Having a broker does not mean someone works your brand 40 hours a week, every week of the year. In most cases, you get a portion of your broker partner's time, and the desk math above decides how big that portion is. That is not a flaw in the model. It is the model, and it is the reason a broker costs a fraction of what your own dedicated team would.

There are exceptions. Very large CPG companies sometimes get dedicated support, a business manager or even a full team assigned only to their business. But even dedicated support has obligations to its actual employer, the broker. Internal meetings, training, reporting, agency initiatives, and company requirements all claim a piece of the week. Dedicated means focused on you. It does not mean owned by you.

Here is something brands rarely hear out loud. Even when a broker tells you, or tells the business manager, that the desk is dedicated to your brand, that does not always stay true. Once the dedicated business settles in and runs smoothly, leadership often adds another brand or two to that desk. It is usually not a bait and switch. It is simply how brokerage economics work, and it is part of life on the broker side of the table. Being a broker is not easy.

So build your expectations around outcomes and responsiveness, not hours. Make the time you do get count. Come to meetings prepared, send clear asks with real deadlines, and bundle the small things instead of firing off a dozen one-line emails. The brands that respect a broker partner's time tend to get the best of it.

## Your Commission Buys a Team, Not a Person

It is tempting to take the commission you pay your broker, turn it into an annual number, and compare it to one person's salary. That math misses most of what you are buying. With most brokers, you get depth a single hire could never give you:

- A **business manager** who works your brand with the Category Manager every day
- **Contract and administrative staff** who handle the paperwork, setups, and system entries
- A **deductions expert** who knows how to read, research, and dispute what comes off your check
- **Downstream contacts** across divisions and retail coverage
- A **leadership team**, anywhere from a few people to a full corporate staff, you can lean on when something needs escalating

Lean on is the key phrase. That team is there for support. It is not there to be beaten up when a quarter goes sideways. And if you do not know who those people are on your account, ask. A good broker will be glad to introduce you.

## Your Brand, Your Plan, Your Ownership

Ownership of your brand sits squarely on your company's shoulders. It is not your broker's problem, and shifting that ownership onto your broker is simply bad company management.

Listen to your broker partner. They know the retailer, they know how things actually get done, and they have earned the trust of the people you are trying to reach. They should be involved in your plan. They should guide it, challenge it, and help you make it land. But they should not write it for you. Your plan is exactly that, your plan.

The same goes for results. Brands struggle for plenty of reasons that have nothing to do with the broker. Challenger brands take share. The retailer has a soft stretch of its own. Shoppers change how they shop and eat, and GLP-1 is reshaping share of stomach in real time. None of that is your broker's fault.

Here is the honest test. When a big week hits your books, or you gain new items at a category review, the ownership is all yours, right? So why does it move when things start to slide? That is usually when fingers start pointing at something, or someone, that feels disposable. Own the downturns as quickly as you own the wins.

## Switching Brokers Does Not Switch Your Brand

Sometimes changing brokers is the right call. But be clear eyed about what changes and what does not. A new broker does not change your brand, your velocity, your pricing, or your thinking. If the problem lived on your side of the table, it moves with you.

Most established brokers have similar standing at Kroger. Some are a little better than others, which is true of just about everything in life. If you do make a change, lean toward a broker with real longevity at Kroger rather than a new entrant. That is not a knock on newer brokers. A newer name at Kroger simply has not had the time to build the recognition, relationships, and track record that come with years of doing the work.

## A Kroger Badge Is Not a Broker Skill Set

This one comes up often enough to deserve its own watch out. Plenty of former Kroger leaders have moved into brokerage, at the very biggest brokers and at the small ones just entering the Kroger world. Their perspective can be valuable. Knowing how a Category Manager thinks and where the company is heading is real insight.

But coming from inside Kroger does not automatically make someone a good broker. Brokerage is its own craft. It lives in the details, the forms, the system entries, the setups, and the fixes. Inside Kroger, most people asked for what they needed and a broker delivered it. Asking for the work and doing the work are two very different jobs. Judge the person by what they can execute for your brand, not by the badge they used to wear.

## What Actually Makes a Good Broker

A good broker is not defined by size, or by how many smiling faces fill an overloaded corporate team page. It comes down to two things: the broker's reputation with the retailer, and your business manager's knowledge of how the retailer works. Do they understand Kroger's ways of working, its needs, and its pain points? Do they understand where Kroger is heading, and how your brand fits into that road map?

If the answer is yes, you have something valuable. Treat it that way. Your broker partner should be an extension of your team, the expert at their assigned retailer, working alongside you. Partner with them. Respect them. Give them credit when they earn it. Not like you own them and they must obey, but like the partner they are meant to be.

| Partner Check: Seven Questions for Your Brand 1\. Do we bring our broker partner in before decisions are made, or only after? 2\. Do we actually act on their recommendations, or just hear them? 3\. Is our plan written by us with their input, or handed to them to figure out? 4\. Do we plan our asks around their review calendar, not just our own? 5\. When sales slip, do we look at our brand first, or at our broker? 6\. Do we expect outcomes and responsiveness, or do we expect 40 hours a week? 7\. When did we last thank them for a win, in front of their leadership? |
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If your broker feels like a necessary evil, the fix might start with a new broker. It might also start with a new mindset. The brands that do well at Kroger tend to share one thing: a broker they trust, and a relationship worth that trust.

*Found this helpful? Pass it along to a colleague who works with Kroger. Great insights are better shared.*

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*From Cincinnati CPG Edge, keeping you in the Kroger know.*