The Unbottled Podcast: What happens after I sign a PO?

https://youtu.be/KoPr5mNmUqU

Episode Summary

Intro & Getting to Know Stephanie

Before diving into the topic, Mark, Stephanie, and Danny spend the opening warming up with an intro to Stephanie (a business development executive who joined Canyonside Labs to work with Mark) and a lively round of Two Truths and a Lie.

Main Topic: The PO Process

The core discussion breaks down what happens once a purchase order comes in, across three customer scenarios:

• New brand: Assuming formulation and onboarding are already complete, the customer submits a PO with a reference number, product details, quantities, pricing, and shipping/lead-time expectations. Canyonside Labs responds with a sales confirmation/sales order restating those terms for the customer to sign off on. For new products, a detailed product spec sheet is also created and signed, covering packaging specifics (bottle type, lid, desiccant or oxygen absorber, labeling, box counts) and any testing requirements beyond standard GMP testing.

• Onboarding & manufacturing agreements: Mark notes that a standard manufacturing agreement (covering responsibilities, expiration dates, label liability, etc.) typically precedes the product spec sheet and PO — three distinct phases — and flags this as worth its own future episode.

• Payment terms: Early orders usually involve a deposit plus payment at shipping; as the relationship matures, terms often shift toward reduced or no deposit, sometimes net-30, to support the customer's cash flow and growth.

• Brand migrating from another manufacturer: Treated essentially the same as a brand-new startup — most of the work happens in onboarding and formula dialing before the PO stage.

• Current customer, repeat product: Straightforward and "plug and play" since specs are already established.

• Current customer, new product: Requires going through onboarding and spec-sheet steps again, since details can vary even within the same brand's product line.

They close by calling reorders the most rewarding part of the process — signaling the brand's marketing efforts are working — and tease next week's episode on the art of crafting a dietary supplement with formulator David.

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Full Transcript

MARK: My name is Mark Bryant, and to my right is Stephanie.

STEPHANIE: Hi.

MARK: Today's show, we're going to talk about "What happens after I submit a PO, a purchase order".

DANNY: Uh, Stephanie, before we get started, we want to know some stuff about you. We kind of started the show last week. Didn't really give you a chance to tell us a little bit about who you are. First of all, you've joined Canyonside Labs. What do you do here?

STEPHANIE: I am a business development executive here, working with Mark. And we were connected through my sister, who also works in the industry. I've been married 10 years now. I've got 2 little girls, 2 dogs. Um, I've got some fish.

MARK: Oh! Fish!

STEPHANIE: One just died. Don't tell my daughter.

DANNY: Oh gosh, Don't let her watch this show.

STEPHANIE: I know, I know. It's just a little guppy, poor guy. I'm so sorry.

DANNY: Well, let's end on a more positive note.

STEPHANIE: Yeah, I know, sorry, that was negative.

DANNY: What are you most excited about working at Canyonside Labs?

STEPHANIE: I love working with people. You guys are all amazing. So I'm excited to collaborate with fun, smart individuals.

MARK: Oh man. 50% will have to work. Man, we are fun.

DANNY: If she was a food, I'd say she was dulce de leche ice cream.

STEPHANIE: That was a good one.

DANNY: Okay, so really quick, now we're going to do is we're going to do two truths and a lie. Just to get to know you even more and to help you get to know us better. I'll go ahead and start. Okay, I'm going to tell you 2 truths and one lie, and you guys have to decide which of these are the truth and which one is a lie. I am really into reading Louis L’amore books. I love Western stories. I'm kind of afraid of...riding horses. And the last is... ET terrifies me. So really, just 2 things that scare me and something that I enjoy. So which one?

MARK: So we're picking the lie.

DANNY: Yeah, you guys got to pick the lie. I feel like it's the book.

MARK: I don't know. I feel like maybe your dad reads Louis L’amour because you knew the genre and you knew the name that makes me kind of feel. I almost asked you what your favorite Louis L’amour book was, but I feel like that's an infringement upon the game.

DANNY: So. I mean, you could, I guess, ask as long as we get to ask when it's your turn.

MARK: Although, I do know ET terrifies you. So for me, that goes down to 50/50.

DANNY: Okay. That is true. I will give you that.

STEPHANIE: And I know that your wife rides horses. But I don't know that you do.

MARK: I'm going with Louis L’amour is a lie.

STEPHANIE: I think it's Louis L’amour too.

DANNY: That is that is a truth. I do love Louis L’amour books.

MARK: You're scared of of horses?

DANNY: I'm a little bit afraid of horses. Which is weird.

MARK: Yeah, just like Little Sebastian in Parks and Rec.

STEPHANIE: I know where to find a miniature pony for you.

DANNY: Okay, Stephanie, you ready? Two truths and one lie.

STEPHANIE: Okay. Um, I've been kayaking down in South America in Chile. I am also terrified of riding horses.

DANNY: Okay?

MARK: Yeah. Lie. Tell us the other truth though. Hahahah!

STEPHANIE: Okay, okay. Been kayaking in South America. I'm actually, I'm actually, uh, terrified of jumping out of an airplane. And I also, love Taylor Swift.

MARK & DANNY: Wait a minute. That was four.

MARK: So there's three truths in a lie? Or is it 2 truths and 2 lies?

DANNY: Let's recap. She said, she kayaked in South America.

MARK: She’s afraid of horses. She loves horses! She grew up with horses. That would be a terrifying childhood if you were afraid of horses.

DANNY: I think that is definitely a lie. But she added another lie as well, I think. Taylor Swift?

STEPHANIE: No, I love Taylor Swift.

MARK: So is that the only lie, the horses?

DANNY: No. And the and the plane. Jumping out of a plane.

STEPHANIE: I can't keep my eyes straight anymore. My only lie is I'm not terrified of horses. I am terrified of jumping out of a plane.

MARK: So was one truth and 3 lies?

STEPHANIE: I don't even know anymore. I don't know, I got lost in my lies.

MARK: I'm so glad you're honest. It would be really easy to know if she's ever telling a fib.

STEPHANIE: Yeah, I'm a bad liar.

DANNY: Okay Mark. Let's hear your truths and lies.

MARK: Oh my goodness. I'm trying to think of a good lie. Okay, so I won't start with...Well, I'm not going to tell you what I'm starting with. I think we're terrible at this. Danny was really good. Okay. I've been to almost all the baseball stadiums in the country. I was once in a meatball eating contest, and I ate 47 meatballs in 2 minutes.

STEPHANIE: Did you win? He can't say.

MARK: I can't elaborate. Not sure why I've chose meatballs.

STEPHANIE: I found the lie.

MARK: Dang It! And um... One time when I was a kid, we were at a church event and we had, I have 2 brothers and we had to sing We 3 Kings for a Christmas special and my youngest brother refused to go on, my middle brother threw up right before we went on and I had to sing We 3 Kings by myself.

STEPHANIE: Oh no. That's core memory.

MARK: There was way too much detail there for it to not be true.

STEPHANIE: Oh, I'm gonna go with the meatballs?

MARK: You saw right through me. Okay, what are we talking about today? Where are we?

STEPHANIE: Who am I? So today we are going to talk about what happens after I turn in a PO. So whether you're a new brand or an established brand or a current customer.

MARK: A new brand? So we're talking a brand new they've never ordered before type situation here. I guess what I'm asking is to distinguish, distinguishing between like a new brand in general terms versus a new brand to Canyonside Labs, because they may have gotten stuff somewhere else, right?

So a new brand would be where we've already, and I assume we're taking into consideration that we've already walked through the formulating process. We've already got through all that, and we know exactly what they're going to do. At that stage, it's probably going to be fairly similar between all 3 types of customer. Because now we've already done all the hard work and now we're doing the putting it together.

So they submit a purchase order and the purchase order usually comes over with a number from their accounting system that's going to align with our sales order. And it'll have the product that they're going to order, the amount, the number of units that they're going to order. It might have some details on those. A lot of the ones that we get just seem to have the name of the product, what we've both mutually agreed on the name of the product being. And then price, total price, some shipping details. When they requested it being due, but, um, which usually should align with your lead time, you should have already had that conversation advance, so you kind of know.

And then on our side, once that happens, we create what we call a sales confirmation or a sales order. And then we just, we send back to them. It's like they passed us a note and then we're going to send a note back to them that says, hey, we got your note, and this is what we think you said, and here's all the stuff on there.

And it should align. They should get that back. Sign it. Agreed that, yeah, you, yeah, this is we're all on the same page here.

Sometimes, uh, if it's a new product, and this could be for either a new brand or an established brand, just switching product, is we're going to go over a detailed product, specs page in advance to make sure we've got all the all the things. So this is the type of bottle, the size, the lid, we want an oxygen absorbing pack in there and some cotton, or we don't want cotton, or we don't want a desiccant in there, or we have this certain label, or we're providing the labels. No, you're providing the labels. We want it packed in a box of 12 and or we don't care. You can put as many in one of your standard boxes as you'd like. All those things are ironed out in advance.

And we put those all on a product spec sheet that they also sign that we sign. It can even have details on the type of testing we do because there's GMP testing, which we is kind of the minimum. Like this is, and by the minimum, I mean, they've already set a pretty high standard, but that's, you could go higher. You could really go into some other stuff. So, um, if there's extra testing involved, that would be included on there, right? We want you to include this or whatever that looks like.

DANNY: So what does the onboarding look like? Is there any onboarding that has to happen before we start?

MARK: Maybe we'll do a separate show on a manufacturing agreement which we kind of talked a little bit about that before this episode, but it would be good to do that.

We have those with several of our customers, but not all of them. But we have a standard manufacturing agreement that we put together and share. And it covers a lot of those things in a little bit more detail. Like you're outlining the nature of the relationship, so to speak, of, hey, here's what you're responsible for. Here's what we're saying we're going to deliver to you, and it goes over all those little things, expiration dates, label liability. Like all those other things that aren't going to be on your standard purchase order.

And then once you have that all in place, then you have a product spec page and then you have your purchase order. So there's kind of 3 different phases there.

I guess for the purpose of this conversation, we're assuming that that onboarding stuff's already kind of taken place. We've already agreed to all that stuff. Yeah, but we probably should break that down a little bit better in a future episode.

DANNY: How about payment terms? Do we talk about that during that time?

MARK: Yeah. Usually what we tend to do is on the 1st few orders, at least, it's going to be like a there's a deposit and then a payment at the time of shipping.

Once that relationship is established and there's some consistency and a level of comfort, then those terms tend to change to more of a, you know, gradually less of a deposit or in some cases, no deposit net 30.

Whatever is going to help, because ultimately once that relationship is established, we can kind of feel like, oh, the customer's cash flow is beneficial for their ability to spend more in building up their brand, which ultimately is a win for them and us. So we want to help there as best we can. But we still need to have cash flow in any business, right? So we gotta make sure the lights stay on and all the stuff.

DANNY: Is there a difference between a customer that has come to us with a new to us PO, but it's a product they've done somewhere else. So it's basically migrating over to us. Is there any difference?

MARK: Not really. We kind of treat that situation the same as a brand new startup company. Most of the legwork is in the onboarding and getting the formula dialed in.

STEPHANIE: Before the PO right?

MARK: Yeah, so that's all the busy work. Once the PO comes out, that's the reward, right And we're excited to be able to produce that and they're excited to be able to hand that off and to have get us working and producing a nice tangible product, but all that legwork has to be done in order to like, you know, at the end of the production time to make sure that we're handing them off the exact thing that they want. Because if it's slightly different that's disappointing for them. Right, exactly. And for us that we didn't get it exactly the way they wanted it, right?

Future orders, we haven't talked about that, future orders.

STEPHANIE: That was going to be my next question.

MARK: Oh, sorry.

STEPHANIE: No, you're good. Well, I was going to say, what about a current customer with a product we have run before? Does that change? That's probably more simple?

MARK: It's kind of plug and play then, right? Yeah, because it's like, oh, we've already done this. So... Thanks for that PO. We have seen something very similar.

STEPHANIE: What if it's a current customer, but they have a new product that they want.

MARK: That process is the same, right? Like, well, I mean, you still got to do all the onboarding and all the stuff like you would at the beginning of any product. Then the PO comes and we make sure product specs for every single product, all the stuff, and some of the things can vary a little bit even with the same brand, just by nature of what kind of product it is.

DANNY: Dude, I think this is probably the easiest show we've ever done.

MARK: This is the rewarding part, though, right? Like, this is the, oh, hey, all the hard work is done. Like, we're getting it. And then they're going to go out and sell and they get to do what they're going to be really good at. Just marketing and selling and being passionate about their product and we're just going to wait for the next reorder. And that's when it really is the exciting, especially new brand, when they get to place a reorder. That's a good time. Yeah.

DANNY: We want to thank you all for tuning in. We would love it if you would leave your questions in the comments. Or you can email us at info@canyonsidelabs.com Next week. We are going to talk about the art of crafting a dietary supplement. And I think we're going to try to get David in here.

MARK: David's our formulator and he's a smart guy.

DANNY: He's fun too.