The 5 Things You Can't Google About Selling Wholesale.

After over 20 years in Wholesale there are just things you can't google.
These 5 are on the list.
You don't know what you don't know right. IKYYK.
One of the most common comments I get from my Transform Your Wholesale program is- 'Wow I did not even realise that and had no idea. Thank you for sharing all your insights'.
So here are a few things that no-one else is talking about when it comes to Wholesale.

Want to know how you can Build a Wholesale Sales Machine for your brand??
Register for my FREE webinar on the Essentials to Wholesale success.

Register here: https://www.thelotco.com/buildingawholesalemachine

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00:04) - Welcome to thelotco Business Podcast, a show all about helping you as a retailer, brand or creative understand the actual business side of running your business. I have a straightforward, practical advice about the nitty gritty of making money from your creative passion. We will be covering bite size, business and marketing lessons, as well as interviews with experts and trailblazers in the fashion, homewares and design industries. My name is Melissa Robbins. I'm a business coach, colour loving, non coffee drinking melburnian. Let's get into it. Hello and welcome to today's episode. My name is Melissa Robbins. Thank you so much for being here. Giving me your ears, your attention today, your time. I hope that I can share some insights and tips and knowledge that's going to help you in your product based business. I love sharing, you know that wrap up of all the different people I speak to, different clients that I work with. Taking that knowledge from 25 years experience and really trying to give you insights that, um, you know, maybe you don't know, that you don't know.

Speaker 1 (00:01:02) - So that's what today is all about. What I'm going to share with you today is five things about wholesale that you need to know. So let's get into it. Number one is thinking that it's going to be fast and easy and it's quick. That is not what wholesale sales are about. Wholesale can be a really slow build. It takes that little bit of time get going. It's like the snowball analogy where you take that little while to sort of push off, get all your marketing materials right, get your point of sale right, get, you know, range right, get your pricing right. And then once you've got those things and you start to get your first, you know, two, three, five, ten, 15 stockists, then it can start to snowball. And the more you put into it in terms of your marketing and all those sort of things too, which we'll get into then it can be really exponential growth. So it's not fast and it's not quick, but it is going to be a really good long term sales strategy for building your product based business.

Speaker 1 (00:01:55) - Because once you get stuck us on board, they can be worth a lot of money to you. Which leads me to my next point, which is that you should treat every stockers that you come across, or that you potential stockers that you could get as a 50,000 $60,000 customer, not a $300 customer, which may be your minimum order. So minimum orders, everyone should have them, I believe. Um, they could be lowest, you know, 2 or $300. Depends on your price point or, you know, 1000 to 2000 or $5,000 depends again on your price point and what range you have and how much demand you have for your product. But you should have a minimum order. But don't treat your stock as your buyer, as if they are a $300 customer. What you need to treat them like is if they're going to become a 50 $60,000 customer for you, how would you treat them differently if you knew that that was what they were going to be for you? What would you do differently? How would you manage that account? How would you service them? What would you do for them if you knew that they were going to be a big account for you? So viewing your success as a $50,000 customer, not a $300 customer, is something you should do from the very start.

Speaker 1 (00:03:04) - Now, that doesn't mean you go over and above for every single person, but it means that you view them that what could you do? Or what could they be if you treated them in a certain way? So viewing your success as $50,000 customers, not $300 ones is a great starting point there. With in line with that is that number three, break the rules occasionally. So I want you to have things like a minimum order. You should have payment terms. You should have, you know, how long it takes to get your delivery. You should have certain pack sizes. You should have minimum order quantities per style or packs, as I said, selling in sizes. But you should also occasionally break the rules for your stores. So have all these things in place, have all these terms and order terms, but break the rules for certain customers so that you're servicing them and going above and beyond for them. And again, you're not going to do this for every customer, but you should have it in mind that occasionally you might, you know, expedite a delivery so that they get it faster because they really need it for a certain function that they're having or a sale that they're having or something that's going on, or, you know, that they're really good.

Speaker 1 (00:04:11) - Customer. So you might change the pack sizes and they get a different size to other people, or you may only take orders at certain times, but for them you'll take it, you know, an extra one in between as well. So what can you do for your customers that breaks a rule slightly, so that they feel like they are that 50, treated like that $50,000 customer and not a $300 one. So break the rules occasionally for your customers. Number four is thinking in a scarcity mindset. So I see this quite a lot as well where brands, they look at their sales and they think, well, I want to get direct to consumer sales, DTC because they're going to give me so much profit on the top line. So per product, are they going to give me so much more profit? Great. That's really good. Um, you want to get retail sales, but remembering that your wholesale store is going to doing the selling for you, they're, you know, maybe they have a physical store that they're actually managing and running, and they have staff that tries to sell your product.

Speaker 1 (00:05:10) - They actually have their own customer database. So you've got to make sure that you don't. You're not competing with those those two, like you're not stealing customers off each other most of the time, the physical retail stores or online stores that you know are wanting to sell your product, they have their own customer base. They have their own niche of customers. You're generally not stealing from each other. There's such an abundance of customers out there that you shouldn't feel as if by selling to a store, you are taking away customers from your own website. That is generally not the case because they're quite different sorts of customers and your service in, you know, a different type of customer as well, because those who buy from a physical store or buy from a local area or buy from this particular store because it's going to mix their products, probably aren't going to buy from your store anyway. And often what could happen, though, is that they buy as an ongoing from your store after they've purchased your product from one a physical store because they've found it there, but then they might go on to become a customer on your own store.

Speaker 1 (00:06:10) - I see this with marketplaces too. So in Australia, the iconic is a big brand. They are a great way to market your product and to get brand awareness about your product. And what you often see is a trickle effect is that your online sales increase as well. Because of that brand awareness, and because people might not find the whole range on that particular store. So they come to your store and have a look as well. So don't assume that you're stealing customers from each other. You have an abundance mindset where you know that there's enough customers for everyone. It's not about stealing. You know, Peter, to pay Paul, there's enough out there for everyone. They're servicing a different customer base, so you're not damaging your direct to consumer sales just by having your product in stores. So thinking with an abundance mindset as opposed to a scarcity mindset there. Number five is assuming that your buyers will, once you've got stockers on board, assuming that they'll reorder when they run out of stock. No, I don't know if any of you have had your own retail store or you've got your own retail store, but buyers in retail stores are most of the time doing 100 things, even if they're a buyer.

Speaker 1 (00:07:19) - And that's the only job that they have. They're probably buying a huge range of categories. If they actually the store owner and they're running their retail store, they are doing so many different tasks. It's not funny that I have so many emails that's not funny. They can't literally keep on track. Keep on top of all the stock of all the products that they have. So it's up to you as the seller to contact your stores regularly to service them, see what they need, make phone calls, make, you know, send emails depending on what your buyer likes and what's their preferred method of communication. But keep in contact with your buyers and your stores and the stock stockers that you have to get them to reorder more often. So the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Um, when I had my retail store, those who kept in contact with me the most were the ones that I reordered from the most because it was just the easiest, because they would call out and be like, yes, send me another 50 of those, I need them.

Speaker 1 (00:08:09) - Can you send them to me this week? That would be awesome. Or I had a brand that I ordered every fortnight from, or sometimes got every week at certain busy points. So if they, you know, said to me, hey, send an email, they'd send me an email on a Thursday, send me through your order, we'll get it out to you for Friday or whatever it might be. So making sure that you follow up with your customers, you are not annoying them by doing that. And believe me, they'll tell you if you are. So you're not going to send an email every day and say, hey, do you want order? Hey, do you want to order? Hey, do you want to order? That is not the way to do it, but making sure that you keep in constant communication with your stockists, with the buyers that you work with and getting them to reorder more often and, you know, hopefully getting them to buy more each time they reorder as well.

Speaker 1 (00:08:52) - How can you help them, whether it's, you know, having a certain pack or giving them a bundle? I even mentioned something the other day to a customer that I was working with, a client that I'm working with for their customer, you know, even sending an email and saying, hey, do you just want to repeat your order from last time? Or, you know, one, two, three, what do you want to do? One you're good for stock right now. Two you want to reorder? Three you want to have a look at the order form or the catalog. Again, like if you can make it easy for your buyers just to send you a response, one, 2 or 3. Believe me, they'll way more likely to send you an email response back than if you ask 17 questions and you make it hard for them to actually reply to that email. So how can you simplify it? How can you minimize the time that they have to spend reordering and make it simple for them? On that point, just talking about stock levels and reordering.

Speaker 1 (00:09:39) - One thing I used to do when I was in store, if I had a customer and I had a brand that I sold and I wanted to, you know, service, that customer that I had coming into my store, I would often if I didn't have something in stock, I'd say, hey, I can get that for you. Why don't I just check if there's stock in stock and I'll order it for you now and I can get it, you know, next week or two days, whatever it might have been, I knew what I would work with particular brands. And so what I would do is I would go on to this while the customer was waiting, I would go on to the store's website, see their real time data if they had stock or not. So this is why it's so important and. Great feature. If you can do this, have it be available that your stores can order online from you. So that I could then go, yes, it's in stock. I can get that order for you.

Speaker 1 (00:10:23) - Take their details, take your deposit. Most of time I'd do that as well. And I would take that order directly for the customer. And most of the time, because someone had a reorder minimum, I would order more things. So it make me order more every time I ordered from that particular store or brand. So, you know, can you do that? Can you have it set up so that people can reorder from you easily? You might still make that phone call and say, hey, do you need to reorder? Hey, you know, email. Do you need to follow up? Do you need any extra stock? How's it going if you sold through all of those things? But being able to order online is a great method that they're going to increase their order sale orders as well with you other things in line with that, what can you do to increase those sales because you wanted to help your stores sell through more product? What what I mentioned there, number four, that scarcity mindset, if you promote your stores, if you tell your customers where your products are, what they just had delivered, you know, what other great brands that they have in the store you're promoting that store then way more likely to sell through your product.

Speaker 1 (00:11:24) - So you're better off selling, promoting your stores, promoting the stocks that you have to try and get them to sell more because then they're going to reorder more from you. So definitely trying to do that, promote them, talk about them, celebrate them, do a blog celebrating one of your stockers. That is a great way to get that increase in sales. How can you help them? You know, promote? So do you give them new content regularly? New imagery, new user generated content? If you've got some that you you're okay that you're allowed to share, how can you give them more and more information so that they can share and they can, you know, do a feature on you? They send out a newsletter with all the products that they've just had in delivery of yours, because you've sent them this amazing new imagery. What story can you tell them to help them sell that product? What story can you tell them, whether it's in your point of sale or in the marketing material that you send out to help them sell more of your product? All of these things help with wholesale and help get your help.

Speaker 1 (00:12:22) - The stores that you have sell more, more, help them reorder more often, and stay with you a lot longer as well. Even things like, you know, can you help them? Merchandise. Is there a way that you can do that? Or can you do a special window for them with all your products? If you're local to them, can you offer them a giveaway for, you know, they might have a gift with purchase coming up? Can you give them a mini sample or an item that you could? I could get 50 of them that they could use as a gift for a gift with purchase. What things can you do that just above and beyond what are different? So I mentioned there five things about wholesaling you need to know a little tips and tricks. Let's just go summarize those again. So number one is thinking that's going to be fast and easy. It's not. It's a slow build like a snowball. All right. So keep that in mind. Number two is that you need to treat every stock as like a $50,000 one not a $300 one.

Speaker 1 (00:13:09) - Number three is break. The rules occasionally have terms in place but be you know, okay to break them where it's going to help your customer. Number four is have an abundance mindset. There's enough customers for both of you and, you know, promoting them and sharing them and celebrating them is going to help you with your business. It's not going to take away customers from you. So don't get afraid of that. Number five is assuming that buyers will reorder when they want more. They won't. You need to follow up. Squeaky wheel gets squeaky wheel. Get it all right. Yeah that's right okay. So I hope that's helped. And I hope that you can get a little bit of insight about wholesale there and some things that, you know, over time that I've picked up and I know that work with the stockists that you have and will help them become longer term clients. Being a retail buyer and being a wholesaler, like I've been on both sides of those things. So I really got to see those perspectives of each and knew what I could have improved my wholesale if I'd known about those things after being a retailer really made a big difference to me, to have that perspective of being on both sides of things, and how all the different companies that I worked with, how they worked, and what sort of things that helped me sell more of their product.

Speaker 1 (00:14:16) - So that was really helpful for me as a brand later on, to then work with clients and help them with their wholesale as well. So I hope that's been helpful. I have got a special webinar coming up in the next couple of weeks all about wholesale again, and the essentials to Wholesale. Make sure that you register to come along to that. The link is in the show notes. I'm really excited to share that. And I love talking about wholesale and how it can be such an amazing sales channel for your business, and how it can really help you scale your product based business. And I'd be in addition to your direct to consumer sales, whether you sell, you know, three marketplaces or through your own website, through markets or any other thing, the way to get more sales in your product business and the way to get more profit is have a long term plan and to have multiple sales channels and multiple ways for people to find your product. So I hope that's helped. I look forward to sharing more with you soon.

Speaker 1 (00:15:07) - And yeah, I'll speak to you soon. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for listening to thelotco Business Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe to receive future episodes as they are released. And I'd be so, so grateful for a review on Apple Podcast. If you would like a copy of the show notes or any of the links mentioned today, please jump on to my  website at www.thelotco.com.au/podcast . Have an amazing week and I look forward to chatting to you again soon.