5 Sales Tips for Gaining Lots of Wholesale Accounts

                  When it comes to running a product based business, like selling handmade goods, you need to always be selling. So if you are lucky enough to have a business that can turn over a high amount of goods in a short amount of time, such as handmade soap or art prints, you can take your business to places you never dreamed about with wholesale.

                       Before you begin wholesaling, you’ll need to do a proper competitor analysis by going into local retail stores and boutiques you think are a good fit for your customer base to see what your competitors are selling their products for. Do not look to Etsy for this information because often times competitors on Etsy will have a much lower price range for their products. Once you have a good pricing idea and get armed with a wholesale line sheet, you’re ready to start wholesaling!

But how exactly do you go about gaining new retailers day after day? Read on for all the fabulous tips:

1. Create and continually expand on a master retailers list.

Every time you come across a retailer you think is a good fit for your product line, add them to a master list. Spend some initial time setting up the list to house as many contacts as possible, a hundred plus is ideal, and then as you start to contact retailers, continually add new ones to the list. To keep yourself organized you could create the list in an Excel or Google Spreadsheet and then mark notes when you have made contact so you don’t waste time contacting retailers with the same pitch more than once.

2. Get a butt-kicking sales rep

If you feel your company just doesn’t have the time to make weekly time for sales or you really dislike sales work, why not get a sales rep to handle a specific geographical area. For instance if you live in New York City, you can get a New York sales rep who handles all stores in the state and performs duties such as showing off your goods in a showroom, going to shows on your behalf and pitching many boutiques to get your line picked up or reordered.

While having a sales rep can be amazing for a small company looking to grow, there are a few downsides including:

- They get a commission on everything they sell
- They get commissions on whatever you sell in their territory
- You have to give up your complete line of products to them in order for them to showcase it to other stores.
- You’ll have to take time to pay out commissions on a monthly basis
- You can’t limit the number of products they sell because they want to earn as much as they can so they may not be the best choice for a company that can’t produce a lot of products quickly enough.

3. Create a mailing list of existing retailers

Once you start adding retailers, you’ll need to be able to communicate with them on a monthly basis in order to gain reorders continually. What’s great about reorders is you already have a relationship with the retailer so it’s very little work, simply fill the order and you’re done.

Instead of calling retailers up or even sending out individual emails, simply use a service like Mail Chimp or Aweber and send a monthly broadcast with some featured items and a big call to action telling them to go place a new order asap. You should include your line sheet and order form or a link to your online wholesale area in every email to make it super easy on them.

4.  Get organized with High Rise

When you start to build a list of existing retailers and find you need more out of your simple spreadsheet, move to HighRise and watch your business accounts explode. HighRise, from the 37 Signals, is an incredible online contact management tool, with a great free plan for those on a shoestring budget, that allows you to keep track of all your contacts online so you can access it anywhere, anytime.

To get started, add in every existing retailer into your account and start logging all the notes associated with each contact, such as the last time you contacted them or the last time they placed a reorder. From there, start adding in new retailers you want to pitch and even go beyond retailers by adding media contacts, business associates and your best customers to the site.

The very best thing about High Rise is it gives you a daily email with a list of tasks you’ve created in association with your contacts so you can stay super organized and on the ball for every new sales email or call you need to make.

5. Tweet potential retailers

Even with all the steps above, there’s always more you need to do to get the attention of retailers who may just not be responding to your emails. For those retailers that use Twitter, create a list and make it a point to tweet at least a couple of them every day.

Don’t be annoying in your tweets, just simply let them know you love their store, would love to be considered or even just reply in a friendly way to their tweets to make it look like you just want to chat.

By following the tips above, you’ll find the number of wholesale accounts you get on a monthly basis will shockingly improve in a flash.