Start Roto #8 | Sales channels in rotomolding — B2B or B2C: where to start? — LIVE

What you gain by watching

• You learn to compare margin per channel before pricing and avoid burning product on the wrong counter.
• You understand how fees, freight, and reverse logistics change the math on marketplaces, distributors, and direct sales.
• You walk away with a practical step to validate channels: list three options, compare margins, listen to five buyers, and only then move forward.

Episode chapters

1. 1

   Selling at the counter or on the marketplace: the hidden cost that changes your pricing

   Choosing between the counter, distributors, and marketplaces seems like just a channel decision, but each one carries a different cost that goes straight into your margin — and the price that works at the counter isn't the same as the one you list on Mercado Livre or Shopee. We closed the ideation phase of the eighth Start Rot episode showing that you can dilute part of that cost, but never ignore it: the safest path is to focus first on who will buy your product and the type of audience you're going after, before moving on to the reverse engineering of machine, warehouse, and logistics.

   The price you sell at the counter won't be the same as the one you'll put into one of those… marketplace, right?

   ▶ Watch at approximately 4:08
2. 2

   Selling to everyone: the mistake that burns you right out of the gate in rotomolding

   We opened the episode with a question that stalls many people already in operation: is it worth outsourcing production and also outsourcing labor? We showed a real case where the service provider charged from R$ 45 to R$ 50 per kilo, and another company did it for half that amount — only because the customer didn't know the product or research the options. From there we got into the central theme: whoever sells to everyone sells to no one, and it's by mixing product and sales channel that many companies price poorly, validate wrong, and burn out right out of the gate, without seeing the potential of what they have in their hands.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 9:27
3. 3

   Why your company needs the right price for each channel

   Many people think it's enough to start selling through a new channel and deal with the consequences later, but each audience buys for a different reason — while the distributor fights over pennies and lives on turnover and volume, the end consumer wants it for their own use, and cooperatives shorten the path to a better margin. We told the case of a company that sold almost everything through a distributor and saw profit tighten until it realized the focus was in the wrong place, redirecting sales to those who truly valued the product and unlocking a healthier margin — and without forgetting that there are things that simply don't pay off inside a distributor.

   You have to be very careful. You're thinking about the distributor, so do some research on whether your price matches the distributor's needs, because just like you, there are other companies in the market.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 14:38
4. 4

   The Dependency on a Single Client and the Emotional Appeal That Makes End Consumers Pay More

   We've already taken a close look at the risk of tying all production to a single buyer — and the case of the dairy giants that split the country among themselves, migrating region by region, shows how big the trap is. But when the sale is direct to the end consumer, the logic changes: they buy based on emotional value, like the mouse that Fallen used, and that's where the margin shows up. The response also comes back faster, because whoever tests the product is the one giving the feedback.

   Man, do you know they're dividing up the country? Because Nestlé started pulling out of some regions and another company moved in there.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 19:41
5. 5

   The Perfume That Turned Into a B2B Communication Lesson

   Have you ever stopped to think why that perfume salesman on the street can convince you, but the same approach would never work inside a company? We tell the story of the salesman who pretended to know us just to strike up a conversation — and we ended up buying the bottle, even without using it. The takeaway is that the game changes completely when the client is a company: they want numbers, they want to understand the risk, the margin, and the turnover before deciding, and that's where communication needs to be different.

   If this perfume salesman were selling to a company, that pitch would never land, right?

   ▶ Watch at approximately 24:48
6. 6

   Why an Impeccable Workshop Sells More Than a Big Supplier

   In a chat about trust between supplier and client, we stopped everything to tell the story of that tiny little workshop that left us jaw-dropped: painted floor, labeled drawers, every bolt in its place — while large companies we visited didn't convey the same confidence. The lesson we take from it is that it's worth opening the door of your production for the distributor to see up close, because organization and transparency weigh just as much as the product when closing a deal.

   There's no point in having the right product in the wrong channel

   ▶ Watch at approximately 30:44
7. 7

   Why selling a kayak and a fishing box through the marketplace can be expensive

   The temptation to push everything through a channel that squeezes prices and doesn't take the product back is strong, but we talked about how reverse logistics can become a giant headache when the item is a kayak full of details that the consumer only understands by touching it. The way out we described was that of the distributor who stands face to face with the customer, exchanges on the spot, provides support, and still holds your margin without turning quality into an adjustment variable — like the milk lid that cracked because the price had eaten into the design.

   But if the other one, if the competitor, could handle the weight, then he thought it was another one, but it was actually a product that becomes a product requirement because of its use, right?

   ▶ Watch at approximately 36:11
8. 8

   Why does the same fishing box cost R$ 150 in one storefront and R$ 50 in the one next door?

   We started with that question everyone has asked themselves while looking at a storefront: why does a fishing box cost R$ 150 if there's an identical one next to it for R$ 50? Direct contact with the customer, the salesperson, the right display, and the right channel — storefront, catalog, showroom, folder, or social media — are what reveal these points that the naked eye doesn't see. And when we got into the marketplaces, with the example of our fictional route selling the plant pot for R$ 149, it became clear how fees, shipping, and reputation change everything: on Mercado Livre an added R$ 26.82 can take the product to around R$ 175, while Shopee charges 14% plus a flat R$ 20 per item, showing that the final price is a channel choice, not

   Where are those extra hundred reais there, right?

   ▶ Watch at approximately 41:48
9. 9

   How the marketplace changes the equation when selling your rotomolded product

   When Shopee adds 14% plus R$ 20 per piece, the R$ 149 pot reaches R$ 189.86 for the end consumer — and the shipping subsidized up to R$ 30 still weighs on the seller's pocket when it exceeds the limit. It was at this point that we put the three paths side by side — resale, direct sales, and marketplace — and showed why the distributor and the reseller negotiate case by case, squeezing the price in the haggling, while the marketplace calculates shipping for you and simplifies the payout, definitively eliminating the challenge of pricing shipping in a country with rising fuel costs.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 46:54
10. 10

    Your own website or Instagram: where does your resale sell more?

    A lot of people ask whether it's better to sell through Instagram or build your own website, and the difference lies in control: on your own site you build a tailored funnel for each customer's pain point, like Júlio who needs volume, price and reliability and arrives through a landing page made for him. When each campaign has its own flow and its own messaging, the result stops being luck in the feed and becomes a process — and that's what makes us think about structuring a real resale operation in our region.

    Each customer is a different communication

    ▶ Watch at approximately 52:11
11. 11

    Choosing the right channel so you don't become your own competitor

    Before spreading the product across every possible channel, we stopped to think about what happens when direct sales compete with distribution: the customer checks the price on Mercado Livre and Shopee before closing, and you end up delivering the same product with a smaller margin. The solution we discussed was to start focused on garden centers and specialized resellers, valuing those who distribute, and only then expand as the operation matures.

    You have to choose your sales channel well so you don't create competition for yourself

    ▶ Watch at approximately 57:34
12. 12

    Companies in any segment can save hundreds of thousands with strategic accounting

    A director at Parker Hannifin spent nearly a year building a distributor network that prevented the manufacturer itself from competing with its partners, a lesson that showed in practice why it pays to seek specialized knowledge. It was exactly this logic that we brought to the episode when Ivan, from CX Contábil, told the case of a transportation company that billed 2.54 million in the quarter, would have paid around 625 thousand in taxes under the presumed profit regime, but with a tax adjustment saved 480 thousand in just one quarter — money that stayed in the cash flow to invest, generate revenue and jobs.

    We look within our network, we have a very large network

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:03:26
13. 13

    Before validating your product, find out where and for how much you will sell it

    Everyone thinks their own idea is brilliant until they put the margin on paper and realize it might not be worth it — and that is why listing sales channels and comparing margins must come before product validation. We left the episode with a clear lesson for the week: list three possible channels, compare the margins of each one, talk to five real buyers, and only then choose where to attack, because without knowing how much you earn on the product there is no validation that holds up.

    Every idea is a very good idea when it's in our head, but when it leaves paper and goes into reality, it may not be so good after all

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:08:42
14. 14

    Validate before getting worked up: the end of the ideation stage in Start Roto

    Before moving on to real market tests, we talked about the importance of imagining the entire prototyping path and modeling costs even before validating the product — because the market will not always absorb what we think is beautiful, and the margin needs to make the numbers work. We closed the ideation stage with this warning and already announced the next step: the following Wednesday, at six p.m., we will start guiding how to do real validation, gathering the first feedback from the market. And we opened the doors of the Start Roto community for anyone who wants to learn about topics such as recovering porosity in aluminum molds and building partnerships with us.

    The market will not always absorb what you think is beautiful

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:13:43
15. 15

    Resin at R$ 20 per kilo: what to do when costs tighten

    The price of resin is approaching R$ 20 per kilo and this is leaving many people pulling their hair out on the factory floor — and you cannot pretend the problem will not come knocking. In Rotocast 30, which airs Friday at noon, we will show the real impact of these increases and bring concrete options to protect the operation, without promising miracles: products and paths that reduce cost and give your material room to go further.

    People are talking there about resin close to R$ 20.00 per kilo

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:19:05