WHOLESALE for HANDMADE - Marketing Your Product

You're going to need that LIST you made from our last past in this one, because I'm going to give you some selling tips and a few ways to market your product to make retailers and/or shop owners WANT your product in their establishment.

You already know from having done the leg work that there are certain retailers you want to approach to ask about carrying your pearl button cufflinks.  You have your LINESHEET ready, some business cards printed up, and maybe a brochure or two.  (By the way, you can get some great business cards printed here with photos from your Etsy shop.) Here is a list of one or two things you need to do to prepare BEFORE making your first in-person visit:

1. PREPARE A SAMPLE OF YOUR WORK.

You're going to be taking photos, of course, as these are a part of your linesheet.  But there's  no photo on earth that can do justice to the real thing.  You have to carry a sample of your work with you.  Package it just like you would a regular retail order from your Etsy or Artfire shop, ready for giving.  This DOESN'T necessarily mean that you're going to be giving it as a "free" sample to the proprietor, but I'll talk about samples in a later post. For now, just carry a sample with you as a demonstration.

2. WRITE DOWN SOME THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT THE ESTABLISHMENT.

This is going to server as an icebreaker for you when you greet the owner or buyer.  It'll help you launch an easy, smooth conversation that won't feel like selling.  This is a very simple approach to help you overcome any cold-calling shyness you may have.  We'll talk about some additional techniques again in a later post.

3.  MAKE A PHONE CALL TO THE SHOP AND ASK FOR THE BUYER'S NAME.

You may already have this information from where you made your in-person preliminary visit before.  If not, a simple call will do the trick - at some smaller retail locations the owner and buyer may be the same person. But you should always check.  Maybe the buyer is somewhere else besides at the store!  If you didn't know that ahead of time, you may be wasting your time visiting the store again, since the decisionmaker/buyer wouldn't even be there!


4. TRY TO SET UP AN APPOINTMENT TO SPEAK WITH THEM IN PERSON.

This is really a courtesy to them, since you want to make sure they can arrange a time to see you that works best for their schedule.  Some people  you talk with may just tell you to come on by any time you're in the area - and that's fine.  But this serves your own interests in a covert way, as well.  It gives the impression of busy-ness.  Meaning, the potential buyer/shop owner will think that YOU are extremely busy and need to budget your time by making an appointment, which may lead them to believe that your product is a hot ticket item which they definitely need to look at.

Your next step is to basically outline a script to act as a guideline for your upcoming conversation with the buyer/owner.  I will talk more about this tomorrow, but for now, you're one step closer to making your first sale!