How To Land The Sale

People want to buy but they don’t want to be sold.

Words to live by for a sales person. You want to establish a customer base but that takes time. You have to nurture customer relationships because that’s how you become successful long-term. You don’t want to sell one product to one customer. You want to sell lots of products to a return customer for many years to come.

But how do you do that? How many times are you supposed to keep banging your head against the wall, trying to make contact with influencers? Surely a few unreturned voicemails means they aren’t interested, right?

Wrong!

There is nothing personal about a few cold calls and voicemails. Make yourself stand out if you want to command attention. That takes a bit of creativity and a lot of perseverance.

So say I’ve got a handbag business. I want to sell buyers on the quality and marketability of my products so they want to feature the collection in their stores.

These people get sold all the time, so how do I set myself apart as a newbie designer with no brand recognition or footprint to speak of?

The first step is establishing contact. Pretty difficult to do as buyers are usually MIA. But I don’t get discouraged. I leave a message, introducing myself and my goal. I say I’ll follow-up with an email. Surprise, surprise, after a week, no return call.

Time to execute phase 2. I call again, only this time I don’t leave a voicemail. I stalk my prey over the course of a couple of weeks. But alas, the buyer is still MIA. So I finally leave a message letting the buyer know I’ll be following up with a package including some marketing and press materials and a sample handbag. I need to create a hook with this package to give the buyer a reason to call me back. But beware, this whole process can get rather expensive quickly so make sure you pick your targets wisely. Choose the ones where you might have a shot if you’re sending product as a sample. Make the packages personal – include handwritten notes, unique trinkets, anything to set you and your company apart from the competition.

About a week afterward, reach out again, via phone and email, and so on until you’ve exhausted your efforts or you get a return message.

This process won’t work all the time. Nothing is ever guaranteed But if you plan out your roadmap effectively, you have a real chance to make inroads with the people who can put your product in market and help you create demand that will hopefully translate into sales. And then maybe you can land in InStyle magazine too! =)