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Contacting resellers

Marketing, social media, advertising

Décio Costa

Contributor
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Apr 15, 2019
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Hello!
In continuation to my previous thread (How do you find resellers?) I'm now here asking for advice regarding on what to say in a first contact email.
I sell beach towels and blankets and I want to start to have some presence in some physical stores so I'm sending emails to them.
Should I say I relate to their store? Should i send a priced or non priced catalog? Should I send a catalog at all?

Any advice is welcomed!
Thanks!

Décio
www.gwerystore.com
 
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alexkuzmov

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Sep 20, 2019
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Bulgaria
Hello!
In continuation to my previous thread (How do you find resellers?) I'm now here asking for advice regarding on what to say in a first contact email.
I sell beach towels and blankets and I want to start to have some presence in some physical stores so I'm sending emails to them.
Should I say I relate to their store? Should i send a priced or non priced catalog? Should I send a catalog at all?

Any advice is welcomed!
Thanks!

Décio
www.gwerystore.com
What about contacting them through FB or linkedin?
Surely the some of the business you want to contact have FB pages.
Why not offer your services there.
If I were you, I`d send them the prices.
 

WestCoast

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Rhode Island for now.
Companies get pitched new products *constantly*
I used to get regular emails how this new product would sell really well in our store!

Mostly someone just wants to dump a bunch of junk on us.
They have no idea what we care about, or what we need. They don't seem to care.


So, maybe you can discuss the marketing program you are doing to drive demand.
How you would help them merchandise.
How you will give above average margins.
Co-op program
What makes your product special
Why you want to partner with THEM
Exclusivity to a certain area or region.


I never cared about YOUR goals.
I wanted you to know my business, be informed, and tell me how you were going to help me achieve MY goals.

Then, we would look at it.
Maybe buy it.
But if we bought it, we were damn sure it was going to sell.


So, I guess, no one cares about you here.
SHOW these people how you care about THEM
 

alexkuzmov

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Read Rat-Race Escape!
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Sep 20, 2019
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1,318
Bulgaria
Companies get pitched new products *constantly*
I used to get regular emails how this new product would sell really well in our store!

Mostly someone just wants to dump a bunch of junk on us.
They have no idea what we care about, or what we need. They don't seem to care.


So, maybe you can discuss the marketing program you are doing to drive demand.
How you would help them merchandise.
How you will give above average margins.
Co-op program
What makes your product special
Why you want to partner with THEM
Exclusivity to a certain area or region.


I never cared about YOUR goals.
I wanted you to know my business, be informed, and tell me how you were going to help me achieve MY goals.

Then, we would look at it.
Maybe buy it.
But if we bought it, we were damn sure it was going to sell.


So, I guess, no one cares about you here.
SHOW these people how you care about THEM
Very helpful info.

Say that you make hand made cosmetics and you want to sell in bulk.
How would you go about contancting a business in the niche to sell them your products?
Assuming that we care about their business and their needs, but this is the first time contacting them.
How do we figure out what their needs are? How to best serve them.
 
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WestCoast

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Jan 20, 2008
506
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Rhode Island for now.
Very helpful info.

Say that you make hand made cosmetics and you want to sell in bulk.
How would you go about contancting a business in the niche to sell them your products?
Assuming that we care about their business and their needs, but this is the first time contacting them.
How do we figure out what their needs are? How to best serve them.

If you care about the product you make, you only want certain stores to sell it.
If you care about your brand, you want to *partner* with retailer who will learn to care too.

So, I'd probably start by making a list of 10 retailers in 10 cities.
Do my research, dig in.
Learn how they started, who owns them.
Who are there customers?
What niche do they serve.

Then, I'd write a personalized email to them, how I like their business (be 100% honest) and how you are looking for stores like theirs, to represent your product in a unique way.

I'd follow it up with phone calls until they blocked my number, or I talked to their operations person (they might be too small to have a buyer).

And I would have an educated guess of what market they were going after.
I would know how MY product, could make them stand out.
How I'm trying to own their CITY, and I chose THEM to get first crack at it.

How I'm going to make their life easy. That you understand all the non-sense that goes on in the industry.
That you are different.
You are going to give them payment terms. You're going to highlight their store in your marketing.

All the ways you're going to provide THEM value, so they can provide customers value.
And you're going to infer (since you've done your research), that this is a product their customers will be buying, so you'd like those customers to buy it from them.

No minimum order quantity.
No big push.
Just be legit, be knowledgable, be honest and direct.

We didn't get many reps like that, many inquiries like that.
And when we did, something in our brains said.... huh, this guy is different, this product is different. Let's hear what they have to say.


The bar is set pretty low here.
Heck, you could potentially just call them and ASK THEM what they need.

If you'd researched the right stores you want to work with, hopefully it's the start of a conversation, and eventually that turns into a relationship, where they consider trying your product out.


10000 ways to do it, but starting with research is how the best companies got my eyes and ears.
Being different, understanding our industry, and they got my attention.
I didn't buy from all of them, we were picky - but they should 100% know that and expect exactly that.
And they should still want to work with us anyway.

That's how some of our best relationships began.
 

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