Selling to other businesses, which is also called making B2B sales, means a lot more exposure and sales for you. If you manage to get into a successful whole sale contract with another store, a lot of extra work hassles are taken care of.
You do not have to concern yourself with marketing, advertising and selling as that is the role of the business you are supplying to. You can concentrate on creating and manufacturing your item.
However, in order to land with a successful whole selling contract with another business store, there are several important points you need to keep in mind.
The most important thing is to make sure that you business is ready to handle the increased number of orders you are likely to generate from the b2b orders.
Selling to other businesses is likely to give your business more exposure which likely to be followed by more orders. Nothing will hurt your long term reputation than being unable to meet the deadlines for your orders.
Once you are sure of your capability to meet the orders, you need to start identifying the stores are interested in selling to.
Do not apply to any and every store you can spot. You need to do a research. To begin with make two separate lists of businesses you can sell to. One list contains the business you are really keen on working with and the second should contain the ones that you are really not all that concerned about. I will explain the reason for this later on in this article.
Now you need to start contacting these stores.
Be ready for the appointment. You could get it anytime. Be prepared to go if the store asks you to come by the very next day. Have your very best samples to show them. They should be accurate representatives of what you are going to be supplying to them.
Match the paperwork to make identifying the products and the details about them easy for the store. There are two essential documents you will need to make. One will be a description sheet and the other will be a price sheet.
The description sheet should have the details about each item such as size, color, weight, material used or whatever else is relevant to your product. There should be a system where you can allot product codes to each product.
This is usually an alphanumeric string. This makes future reference to the product much easier and prevents confusion when it comes to placing orders.
The sales sheet should have the prices of all items and their variations according to size, color etc if they apply.
You should have you business information printed out on a business card. Make sure to leave a copy of all three with the businesses you interact with.
Prepare yourself with a presentation and potential questions that might come up. Be ready to prove the marketability of your product. If you have done some research for this, make sure you have it with you at this point. Common questions that you need to be ready to answer is:
- How is your product better than the rest? ( if it is something that is already there in the market)
- What makes your product different from the rest?
- What makes you think that it is going to sell? ( If it is a completely new product)
- How soon can you deliver the first order? ( This is usually a good sign as it means that the person has moved beyond doubting the credibility of the product and is thinking ahead)
In the beginning you were told to make two lists of businesses stores. Ones that you were not so keen on while the second of the names that you really wanted to work with. Here is the reason why. It is important to be confident of your product and presentation when you approach a business store with an offer.
You need to be convincing about your ability as a manufacturer. If you are starting out fresh and this is the first time you are going to be doing something like this you may feel shaky in the beginning.
It will be a good idea to practice first with the businesses on the first list, wiz, the ones that you are not so interested in.
I find it very interesting to note the number of things that can be referred to as ‘craft’. I am not sure if this a recent evolution or I have caught up late to this. For example, the word ‘artisan’ is commonly found in baked goods. You will come across Artisanal Bread somewhere for sure.
The word artisanal refers to something that is typically made in a non-mechanised way and involves more wholesome and maybe even a novel process of manufacturing.
Similarly, cosmetics made by small businesses that involve wholesome recipes and ingredients as well as loving labor by hand are referred to as crafts.
After visiting a few stores and getting a feel of how things usually go, you will feel much more prepared and confident of hitting the stores you really want a business tie-up with. Good luck!
