Liz Robert Rides to Market
August 11, 2011.....

Liz Robert, CEO of Terry Bicycles, is trading in her business suit for bike shorts and turning into a new kind of traveling sales rep. Robert is loading her backpack with samples and sales catalogs and riding from bike shop to bike shop in metro locations around the country to meet shop owners and managers, learn about their business, and introduce them to the Terry line of cycling gear. All the while, she is testing Google’s beta Bike Maps and the developing bike infrastructure of our cities and towns. 
 Robert recently pedaled through San Diego and neighboring coastal towns and along the Rail Trail of Westchester County, New York. Her current bike tour is set for the greater Boston area on Thursday, August 11, and Friday, August 12. She plans to ride from Natick to Cambridge and then along the Northshore from Marblehead to Manchester, visiting independent bicycle dealers. 
 “My goal is to get out and really learn this market,” says Robert. “After years at Vermont Teddy Bear capitalizing on mass marketing mediums such as radio, print, TV and catalog, I recognize that grassroots marketing is the marketing method of our time. Whether selling direct to consumers or to other retailers, you’ve got to get in there and talk to the people buying. When the owner of the company shows up on her bicycle, the shop owners take me seriously. They give me the straight scoop about the challenges and opportunities in this market.” 
 Robert, who is often seen pedaling near her home on Greenbush Road, was the CEO of Vermont Teddy Bear in Shelburne for 11 years. In 2008 she acquired Terry Bicycles and in 2009 moved it from Rochester, New York, to Burlington. Terry Bicycles was founded in 1985 by Georgena Terry, who pioneered women’s specific bike designs with geometry proportioned to a woman’s anatomy, including the Terry saddle, the original bicycle seat with a cutaway that improved comfort for women first, then for all riders. Today, Terry is the only brand dedicated solely to women’s cycling. Terry distributes its cycling products nationally via catalog and the web, and through a channel of retailers, including REI and independent bicycle dealers.

Information for this article was provided by Terry Bicycles.