Posts filed under 'Sales & Marketing'
April was so great for sales that it has raised new manufacturing nightmares – ok, speed bumps; minor speed bumps. Mainly, the contractor needs more contractors. I have been questioning so much about going the specialized route (meaning with the personalized blankets). I love designing clothing, that’s why I started down this path – that is what I’m good at. I’m wondering if I got derailed by the niche offering of personalized items for the better or the worse. I hear negative after negative out of the contractor’s mouth, as I’m pouring more and more business their way. Yet when I ask if they are telling me it’s going to be too hard to grow, they say “no, no, this is a good thing”.
So we’re just pushing on. Is it perseverance or blind faith? I have no idea right now. I’m focusing on sales, sales, sales – especially to wholesale accounts. As I mentioned previously, it’s hard for everyone right now. And we’re all staying positive, trying to stay positive.
I’m reading the Bhagavad Gita right now and one of the main (life) lessons in there is to just put your head down and work. So I’m trying to do this as much as possible during work hours. It’s when I try to focus that I realize how flighty I let myself be with my time – check this email, check the news, blah blah blah.
And on that note, I will be blogging more; we’re growing so much, my time has been consumed. I’m working on getting our sales kit to our sales rep in the southeast – who is ready to hit the road! I’m very excited and nervous about this new development.
PS. You can now email me at info@startupkidsline.com if you have any questions. I’m behind on emails, so I’m hoping this will keep me a little more organized so I can get to all of them. And please, let’s help each other on the forums too!!!
May 20th, 2008
Crazy times right? Crazy times to be starting a business (we’re a year and a half past launch, I wonder when I’ll start referring to it as running a business???) It’s an economy thing and it has been crazy. We were building momentum like mad into January, and then everything just dipped. One of our boutiques that really sells our stuff well estimates traffic was down from 20 – 30 people a day to oh, about three!! THREE!!
But if this last month of business is any indication of things, then I think things are finally taking a turn for the better. We had a heck of a great show at Baby Celebration, online sales are up, and the boutique’s sales are picking up too.
We’ve been careful to keep up the momentum as much as possible, focusing on driving traffic to the site and also on keeping in touch with prospective boutiques and current accounts. It’s true that your current customers are your best customers – it’s much easier to sell to someone that already likes you and trusts you. So I’m trying to get appointments with current accounts to get in and show them the new stuff. And I’m really really trying to focus on being optimistic and putting the hard work behind it.
Time management is always a challenge, but my partner is going to take on some new project management tasks, which will help a lot. Imagine if we actually created project schedules for the mountains we want to climb? Miracles might happen.
I hope that all of you are seeing a pick up in business too!! Anyone out there have big trade shows coming up soon? Dallas? Mom2B?
We’ve got Atlanta in 9 weeks because we’ve picked up a sales rep!!!!! Right now we’re in the contract phase and I’m working on getting the first official salesman’s kit together. I can’t believe how much stuff you always seem to need when RUNNING a business.
May 4th, 2008
I just learned about twitter today. Do you twitter? It’s basically a social networking site where you can provide up-to-the-minute updates of what you’re doing. As a business it’s one of those sites that could become important , making it a good idea to reserve your business name as your username. Kind of like domains, it’s all up-for-grabs, so get it while it’s free.
We signed up in about five minutes, to reserve our biz name as our username. You can do the same by following this link to twitter.com.
If you’re launching an online boutique, you’ll learn quickly that SEO is very important. It’s also an ongoing process. One of my friends at mompreneursonline.com posted a link to this great SEO cheat-sheet:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-web-developers-seo-cheat-sheet
From personal experience, I’ve come to believe that two things are crucial in building your online boutique:
- Constant updating – whether it’s via blogging, new images, or constant little improvements to spacing, layout, content, colors, backgrounds, fonts, etc. – it’s important to always work on improving your site. We have an ongoing spreadsheet (which we actually need to revisit and update) that works to track all the changes we want to make to the site. We use google spreadsheets so that I can add to it from anywhere and web design can update it from anywhere.
- Perseverance and hard work – it takes time to build traffic, to get a good number of impressions, to build a valuable pr campaign, and on and on. It won’t happen over night, but it will happen if you I keep at it! ! ( I’m definitely writing this as more of a reminder to myself than anything!!)
Click here to view our latest (and only) twitter update!
April 30th, 2008
Isn’t everything a mixed blessing? Business is going so great that we’re really growing. Growing is painful. I remember reading some book way way way back when I first started about “growing your business”. I was REALLY curious about how I was going to make this happen – as if it was a real concern (little did I know it’d be years before I’d have to worry about that one!). But here it is – it is actually happening in real life. It’s a great, great, great thing – but I’m really scurrying to figure out how to make it all happen.
I know that we need more help. We’re even picking up more help – especially with production and sales. But the worse part is that I keep talking myself into getting “just a few more” things ironed out perfect before I seek out the help. I have to get over this glitch or it’s going to kill me. I have to be ok with where we’re at and just ask for help. I am lining up the jobs that will be easy to train on and pass off and I’m lining up the next level of suppliers. So, see, I’m working through it – even though I feel like a deer in the headlights.
I let my stress get the better of me today and had a totally uncalled for outburst. Shame on me. Lame of me. I even thought I had prepped myself for the day – I certainly prepped my daughter when she got out of school: “Mommy has a shipping deadline today and I’m already behind, so I’m going to need your patience for just a little bit.”
I didn’t make the deadline. WHAT?? I always make it. Even if I’m flying out the door at the last minute – I make it. But not today. And it cost me a pretty penny b/c it was a rush order that we promised would be there. It will be there, it just cost us for express shipping. Oh, and side-tracked my daughter’s homework for the evening.
I’ve landed a guest blog column on a business magazine site (ha ha that won’t make me busier) and since I owe them content, my first column will be about the real effect having our own businesses have on our families. Believe me, everyone in the family sacrifices to make it happen – but everyone reaps incredible benefits too.
***Have you checked out the forums? Sometimes I’m not able to get around to answering emails as quickly as I’d like, but I’ve noticed some of you are helping each other and asking questions on the forum. This is fantastic!!!
April 23rd, 2008
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about making cold calls. I think this was one of the most daunting things for me – before I got the first one under my belt. When it comes to making cold calls, it is one of those things I wish I had started earlier.
Here’s what you need to be successful when walking into a boutique without an appointment:
- Your sales kit!!! – Your sales kit should consist of your samples, line sheets, PO forms, and terms & agreement forms (new account form).
- Brochures / Product Literature to leave behind
When I first walk in, I walk up to the register and ask the person in front of me if they are the owner or buyer (as I write this, it occurs to me that it might be better to first introduce myself): “Hello, (smile smile smile) – are you the owner or buyer by any chance?”
If the answer is yes, I introduce myself and ask if they have a minute for me to show them a few of our items – as I’m asking this, I’m already pulling out the first item. My thinking is to capture their interest.
If they seem hesitant about time, I keep talking and saying “we have really unique ______ that would be great fit in your boutique. Would it be more convenient for me to make an appointment”
By this time, they have the sample in their hands and 8 out of 10 times will say “that’s ok, I can take about 5 minutes to see what you have…”
From there, I handle it like a normal appointment, showing product and sharing the benefits of carrying our line in their store.
If the owner is not in, the sales rep will usually share the owner’s name and the day and time the owner will be in the store. I’ll make a note and try to return at that time for another cold call.
One thing that helped my confidence walking into the boutique was getting a sample bag that I love. Sounds silly, but it’s true.
Let me know if you have any questions.
April 19th, 2008
Sales, sales, sales. I’m learning that I might actually like doing sales. I get a rush when I manage to really pick up the phone and make the calls I need to make. Oh, believe me, there is this whole big ordeal going on in my head before I make the first call each day. I can get myself completely discombobulated, but I’ve found that I can talk myself down with the good ol’ fashion fallback: “What’s the worse that can happen? They’ll say no? So what?”
I mean really, SO WHAT? There are so many boutiques out there that represent opportunity, it’s ok if a few say no. It’s a numbers game, you know.
The one thing that I can’t get is how in the heck I have better luck dropping in unannounced, aka “cold calling”, than I do making appointments? Today, I even had an appointment and got stood up (UGH!). So I stopped by a couple of other boutiques in the area, caught one of the owners in and was able to show my line. I would say I catch the owner or buyer at least 7 out 10 times when I cold call. And I almost always do some cold calling when I’m out for appointments, to capitalize on the trip.
I’m happy it’s the beginning of the month and I have fresh sales goals. I’m doing my best to consistently focus on sales everyday. Does anyone have tips for how they maintain a consistent schedule every day? The only way I can get one to work out for me, – that incorporates all I do with the kids, sales & marketing, and all the other little bits of all the rest of the business tasks – is to wake at 4:15 in the morning. Which isn’t to say I keep to that everyday, but really, it’s the only way to make it work when I figure it out on paper!!
April 3rd, 2008
I can’t believe I finally did this – I’ve uploaded a sample template of the sales cycle tracking sheet that I’ve been promising for so long!
This is the system that I’m using right now (template has generic names and private info removed). Of course, I just found a scratch piece of paper from when I originally had the spreadsheet idea and it has different columns. Now I can’t decide which is better, but I’m sticking with the one I’m already using for now.
The current system (which is a simple Excel file) works for me because it always has the next action I need to take for each prospect, and when that action should take place. As long as I visit, follow, and update the spreadsheet during my sales calls each day, then I’m keeping the pipeline full. There are always prospects to call, follow-up emails to send, and existing accounts to upsell to.
The scratch paper I found had each of the following bullet points as a separate column, in case some of you might find this way more useful:
- Prospect (store name)
- Contact Name
- Contact Number & Email
- Send Pitch (enter date occurred)
- Call (enter date occurred)
- Follow-up email (enter date)
- Appointment (enter y or n and date)
- Contact again on: (always have a date here)
- Signed PO? (enter y or n and date)
I hope that didn’t make it more confusing than not!
March 24th, 2008
Update 1/7 – Hi all – this is really a half-post, but I wanted to get it out there since I started it so long ago – I’ve been REALLY derailed by the holidays. I’ll finish my “sales scripts” post after our big event this weekend.
(12-21-2007)It’s been a busy week at Baby Fabulous, so I apologize for lagging on getting this information to you. I will say that I’ve fallen off the wagon a little this week – but just a little. When Halloween whalloped me, I wanted to write about the need for mompreneurs(R) to implement holidays into their project plans. This is no joke!!! The holidays are foreseeable and should be scheduled. But I didn’t write the post and I forgot to take my own advice. ha ha! But I digress…let’s talk about our FAVORITE thing in the world – making sales phone calls. Telemarketing right?
I used the sales script found in the “Selling Your Clothing Line” book from startingaclothingline.com. That script was a starting point only because I realized immediately that it wasn’t me – didn’t feel natural. I have two phone scripts – one for boutiques that are far away (all communication will happen via phone/email) and one for boutiques that are nearby, (I want an appointment with nearby boutiques). Face-to-face is always the ideal.
Then, once I started making calls, I REALLY simplified what I was saying. If I couldn’t get the owner on the phone, my number one goal was to get a name and direct email. I succeeded in this goal 98% of the time. I will say that making calls in this industry is refreshing. Most of the boutique owners are moms and everyone has been really friendly and willing to share their time.
To get to the point, here’s what I say when I call:
Hello, is (owner’s name if possible) the owner or buyer available?
response: Who’s calling?
I’m ……. from …… We specialize in high-end personalized blankets and unique baby clothes. I’m calling to see if I can come in and show some samples of our line.
- If they tell me owner / buyer is not available, I ask for the contact name and an email address where I can send follow-up information.
-If the buyer is available, then I give a quick spiel on our products and either ask for an appointment, or again, an email.
It’s the first couple of lines out of your mouth that are important. I try to quickly get to the point, keeping it as simple as possible.
(to be continued..)
January 8th, 2008
Training is going SO SO SO SO good. You know how when you first start working out, the first day is REALLY hard to show up for, but make it just a couple of days and you find that you’re almost looking forward to working out, and within a just a couple of more days you’re really breathing easier and lasting longer?? That’s how my week has been!
The first day was definitely about getting into marathon training mode- what do I need for a successful training session? What am I going to say? Who should I call first? (And of course the most nagging one that I DID NOT give into – “just start tomorrow when you’re more prepared”.)
The second day, I had a plan to break into it by calling existing clients. I spent some time working on my script for pitching new clients over the phone. I finished by calling a couple of boutiques I had visited before but had not sold to yet.
By the third day, I had a routine and setup – I have my coffee, my list of leads, my script, a working pen, my headset, and my notebook. I dial, take a deep breath and remind myself to smile and take it easy! I started making the cold calls on day three, and in the 30 minutes that I was really talking on the phone, I made two complete product pitches and got 7 direct emails and contact names to follow-up on. It felt so good, and each call got easier.
Today I was late for my training session because parent conferences at school changed our schedule. But I still showed up and I sat down and started making calls immediately. I got two more email addresses.
Jamie commented on my last post about me being too hard on myself (someday I’ll actually HEAR people when they tell me this, because it’s not the first time) but I really have to say that doing one focused hour on sales a day has enabled me to be a lot lighter on myself at the end of the day. I’m not beating myself up for what I didn’t do, I’m patting myself on the back for how much I did accomplish. Plus, I feel confident that when buying season gets here in a month, there are going to be a lot of new boutique owners who want to buy Baby Fabulous products – who wouldn’t have known about us if I didn’t start getting myself in shape for the sales marathon now.
This week I’ve created a phone script and a sales cycle tracking sheet, which I plan on uploading and sharing tomorrow so that anyone who wants to can use them as a tool!
Tonight I have to finish up my new wholesale / media kit so I can attach it to all the emails I’ve promised people!!
December 6th, 2007
That’s it – a new kind of discipline is necessary for me to increase our sales. Like a dedicated athlete who is training for a marathon, I am now putting myself into training for the daddy of all sales marathons. Just like an athlete would dedicate the same amount of time to pounding the pavement everyday, so shall I.
The first aspect to my training is going to be dedicating the 10 to 11AM hour to making sales calls EVERYDAY; and making appointments for Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. In addition, my training is to include sending 5 pitch emails every morning before the kids wake up, and writing a baby fabulous blog post at least every other day.
I realize that I can have all the “to-do” lists in the world, but they are useless without time constraints. I find myself saying “I need to call so-n-so” and then days will go by before I get around to it. No more, no more, no more.
Today was my first training session and let me just say that it was hard to make myself sit and focus on sales calls for an hour. Because I’m not organized enough yet. I need to have the list of leads ready to go at the beginning of the calling hour, along with a tracking sheet of what contact has been made, when, and the next action item – for each lead.
I also immediately realized how nice it would be to have a script. I kind-of-sort-of have a script worked out in my head, but I was stumbling over myself today. So I’m going to make myself practice that in the mirror, in addition to some standard responses to some typical questions and ‘nays’.
Sales is not my strong point at this point. I haven’t had formal sales training, but I still close the deal 80% of the time, so I know the goods are in me. Right now, I know little about setting sales goals and forcasting. So, I’m blindy setting a sales goal of a 20% increase in sales each month. I think I read that somewhere. I didn’t make it for November, which is what made me create my new plan of action and my new perspective on being a super-athlete training for the marathon of all marathons. I also didn’t FOCUS on making new sales in November, like I will now.
Next, I’ll find the hour to dedicate each day to designing!
Discipline. Focus. Action.
Discipline.
Focus.
Action.
December 3rd, 2007
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