Get to know the product line where your product best fits. If it isn't clear, ask someone on the retail floor where a product like yours would best fit. Build a case for your product. Show how, where and why your product fits. If you don't have enough information to do this, you are not ready to talk to that retailer.
Buyers abhor three things customer complaints, empty shelf spaces and slow moving products.
The first of these is their chief nightmare. Opportunities are often quickly passed by or dropped when customer dissatisfaction surfaces. For example, a buyer recently called a vendor after the second customer complaint reached his desk. He got excuses rather than solutions and dropped the product with the fourth complaint. Buyers, at least most of them, were born skeptical.