Selling to Stores Is Still a People Business

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In the world of wholesaling and manufacturing, things can be amazingly, expansively great or downright threateningly awful. It all depends on winning, servicing and keeping those supply contracts - and in turn that depends upon developing an interpersonal relationship with the person who’ll decide whether things go well or poorly for you.

Two main points for sales reps of wholesale vendors:

1) Find the human being person (or even more than one) at the retail store’s headquarters who can actually decide in your favor. Scour social media and websites to determine who to speak with, then do telephone legwork to get your message to them. I like the ninth recommendation on this page - launchgrowjoy.com/how-to-sell-to-retail-stores - that says “It doesn’t have to be the right person. If you ask politely, often someone will tell you who the right person is.  You can even use that “wrong” person as a reference.  For instance, ‘John in accounting told me I should speak to you.’” Exactly! Anything to get in, then anything to stay in.

2) Be persistent without being a pest. This is a fine line, but it means making a phone call to get ahold of them (or leave a short, solid, confident message), and then if needed following back up with another phone call. For example, you represent an international cosmetics conglomerate and you’re prospecting Sephora or Bluemercury to splash into the U.S. makeup market.

One large cosmetics chain’s COO Barry Beck says in this interview - modernluxury.com/los-angeles/features/bluemercurys-barry-beck-expands-his-empire-eye-la - that it could take as much as three years for a product to be vetted and see his store’s shelves (and therefore his affluent customers). So, the wise course of action is to get your product into the decision-maker’s awareness and hopefully into the store’s extensive vetting procedures with as much haste as possible.

Selling is and has always been a people business, because every decision made by a corporation or other organization with purchasing power is in truth a decision made by a person or people. Gain whatever influence you appropriately can in helping them see reason to decide in your favor.