Posts filed under 'Sales & Marketing'
I’ve had this topic come up a few times in a few different conversations - the fear of getting out and selling your own product. I can tell you 100% for sure that my own fear of selling held my business back. And of course, once I did it, got the first boutique sales call over with , I realized that it really isn’t THAT bad at all. I’ve since had a few learning experiences, can tell you I have definitely said the wrong thing at the wrong time, but chalk it up to learning and move on.
I get all this stuff going in my head and what I’ve found is that it’s best if I chill out and make it just a conversation instead of a presentation. And what I really have to learn to do more and more is talk less, listen more. Each time I complete a sales call, I feel a little more confident.
And no, not everybody has loved my stuff. But this is an easy one to solve in your head because it just takes one look around to see how many different styles and tastes there are out there. Not everybody is going to like my non-traditional stuff. The one who really didn’t care for my designs had a very traditional store - a whole heck of a lot of light pink.
This gets into qualifying your sales leads and calls, but all in due time. All in due time. It’s just good for me to be getting out there and making the sales calls. It’s incredibly good to hear the feedback first-hand from the people who face the customers all day.
One more thing I’ve learned quickly is that almost everyone will have a “if you could design it this way” or “you should do this” or “you should make one of these”. Well, after concenting to one custom request for a boutique, I’ll think long and hard about doing that again. It’d have to be really really worth it. The reality is if they think an idea is so great, they are more than welcome to go off and create it themselves. This isn’t to say don’t listen to their requests, because it’s invaluable feedback on what type of stuff they like, and even if you don’t have something along those lines right now, you might in the future; and then you have a very targeted sales call to make.
What started this whole post was my brother recommending an article in Inc. Magazine that has to do with entrepreneur’s learning to sell when they don’t see themselves as, or don’t want to be, a salesman. My brother just made a valiant leap into sales, which believe me, if he can do it, anybody can. And remember too, just by our very entrepreneurial nature, we’re used to pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones. I strongly recommend to entrepreneurs that you just get out and get the first one out of the way. Definitely don’t go to your favorite boutique first, or the boutique you want your products in the most; pick a random one and go for it.
Here’s a link to the article in Inc., on tackling a fear of sales - I’m sure you’ll find some of it insightful.
March 18th, 2007
Good morning, good morning, good morning. Man, this has been a tough month for me (wait, is it only the middle of the month? yikes). And it all comes down to being disorganized. And then getting overwhelmed because I’m disorganized. Even yesterday, I lost yet another important paper. OK, OK, enough slaps in the face to get organized. I get it.
My how overwhelmed you can get as a small business owner. Sometimes it just feels like total insanity, like you’re going a hundred miles an hour and getting nowhere. There are so many things I want to do with, and for, the business and I think the hardest lesson for me to learn is all in due time.
I somehow need to take a step back and re-evaluate everything. Especially our marketing and advertising plan. I thought I had a plan, till I got into it and realized how much I don’t know about the whole thing. Now, I want to sit down and make a real plan, now that I’ve floundered around in the murky waters for awhile.
I do already know that I’m going to start though with 10 sales contacts a day. This can be touching base with existing customers, pitching new customers, dropping ad postcards in the mail, it doesn’t matter. But I need to make the 10 contacts a day. I need to focus specifically on getting customers, which means I need to chink away at the seven impressions it takes for someone to buy. And to do this, the marketing and advertising has to be very targeted and managed.
Right now, I feel like we’ve tried a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and really, it’s just too scattered in this big big world. Yes, we need to create a brand image, but we need to grow the brand through getting customers. I dropped a couple of display blankets in a very popular boutique yesterday and this exposure is going to be huge. Better than some random ads on some random kids sites.
So, at least now I feel like a woman with a mission. When I say it’s been a tough month, I’m not kidding. Tough business-wise and emotionally because of it. I’m so far into this business and here we are, finally launched and finally getting good press and finally getting business and I feel like crumbling. Because it isn’t as much business coming in as I would have liked by this time, and it’s stressful. But getting down to crumbling made me re-evaluate what’s going on and how much it comes down to me being reticent to go out and get the sales.
So, making 10 contacts a day, getting organized, and focusing on revenue-increasing activities ONLY during business hours is going to make a huge difference, and will put the pieces of Amber back together again.
March 18th, 2007
Wow, where’d I go? This week was so crazy. My husband has started up his high-school season (he coaches volleyball in the afternoons / weekends), and I’m doing a couple of side writing jobs, so the balancing act is just awesome. But, it works. We’re keeping it up, and one of us is still with the kids at all times. My daughter has had to miss a couple of days of school in the last couple of months, because it’s a parent participation pre-school. But, my neighbor has offered to take her with her, her daughter is in the same class. So, that’s incredibly helpful.
We got a surprise review on celebrity-babies.com this week. That sent us a lot of unexpected traffic and
has already led to a few good and flattering offers; these sorts of things are like little blessings, and they seem to come when they are needed the most. 
Another blessing has been finding an amazing local pattern maker / and grader who got our cutie-pants (TM) pattern crafted in 12 months and graded into all the sizes we needed. Now we have cutie pants outfits to ship this week. And then, we have our fall fashions in boutiques- YES!! Going beyond the blankets.
So, this is when it’s up to me to “ship on time”. We’re on it. We’re so on it.
Delivered a blanket set to my dream boutique yesterday. And they were impressed by how well we had the whole process put together. It’s easy baby! That’s the whole point. We’re creating demand. We’re actually creating demand for our only-on-of-its-kind product. It’s amazing to start experiencing the plan working. Actually working.
Back to it. Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today.
March 10th, 2007
I didn’t accomplish anywhere near what I wanted to this week. Feels like a wash, but it shouldn’t. It only feels that way because the last few weeks have been so over-the-top insane trying to accomplish the projects we committed to; but it WILL pay off. We can issue a press release and say all these big A LIST stars have our stuff. We can’t say what they think of it, until we get feedback, but we can say they HAVE it. And we will, especially on our website, and I think I might actually get around to discovering the power of a press release.
Press Releases was one of the hot topics on the “Mommies with Style” message board the other day. Here’s a link to the topic; the ladies that jumped in with info on that thread gave a lot of REALISTIC information on press releases. You might find it helpful too.
So, my big goal for this weekend is to make a sales plan for next week. I’m doing tech writing jobs on the side and now juggling my time is even crazier. But the extra money will be nice while we’re working through the start up phase. I know in my heart of hearts that the business is finally, finally on a roll, and that if we stick with it and keep on pushing, we’re going to see this blossom into something amazing.
I talked to a lady a couple of years ago, when I was first starting down this path, and she had thrown in the towel. I was picking her brain, but the thing she said that stood out was “it’s impossible to do your own business if you have young children”. She was selling in about 6 local boutiques and had more inquiries when she said decided that it was all just too much.
I hate the word “impossible”. So maybe just hearing her say something like that motivated me to prove her wrong. Don’t get me wrong, there have been many days when I’ve felt completely overwhelmed; but the thought of giving up on my dream, no matter how rocky the road, turns my stomach. Which should indicate that I have those “give up” thoughts; more often than I’d like actually. I think I’d be inhuman if I didn’t though. Sometimes you hit walls, -like our whole set of salesman’s samples coming back looking like crap and completely re-designed-, which make you question if you’re doing the right thing, or if you’re even on the right road. The key is to look for all the good signs, -like finding our angel of a contractor who manufacturers our personalized blankets-, which tell you that YES, you are definitely on the right path.
or; I just think of going back to working in a cube 8 hours a day (which ends up being 10 hours away from home & my family w/ the commute and lunch); that thought alone pretty much scares me back into overdrive for the business.
So much so, that I’m off to do some tasks I still have left over from contacts I made at the trade show two weeks ago.
March 2nd, 2007
The three day weekend is over and it’s time for us all to get back at it. Does anyone else feel like staying in bed all day? But I can’t!!! Not even an option. I’m starting a contract job this morning for some extra cash, so I have to get a lot more done in the wee hours of the morning than I usually do. And I’m writing instead. But this writing keeps me sane, I highly recommend it as a start to your day.
The theme for today has to be about contact. I have to start following up with the people I met at the tradeshow. I have to contact my (clothing) sewing contractor and get a production plan in place. I have to find a pattern grader NOW. And I have to keep the blanket production in full-swing. So, with a new job, I think that’s plenty for me to focus on today.
As far as a plan for tradeshow follow-up, I need to get all the addresses into my business contact manager. I need to get everything backed up. And then, I need to craft the initial email I’ll send - make a PDF of our final catalog (must be attached); update our press kit and then start connecting with people.
That’s it, I’m stopping the “to-do” list there. I’ll be happy to be back home tonight. I guess I already said I wish I could stay in bed all day.
February 20th, 2007
So, now that I’ve had a day off from KIDShow, a breather from our first tradeshow, I feel like I’m ready to start figuring out what I learned. The biggest new experience for us with this event was setting up a tradeshow display. There were things we didn’t think about, things we tried to do - but ran out of time, and things we did right. I think we did great for our first time out - we took up the booth space and we had all of our products on display.
Here’s what I think we did right:
- We had mannequins so that our clothing could be well-displayed.
- We ordered the grid walls so that we had a good display for our silkscreen onesies, blankets, and some bibs.
- We scurried at the last moment for enough hooks and hangers but pulled it off.
- We brought plush covers for the tables; we had our signs.
- The booth looked nice and uncluttered.
Here’s what we didn’t even think about:
- Special lighting for certain areas of the display
- Carpet, carpet, carpet. (We have a carpet for photo shoots and I considered it a month ago, but forgot all about it. It wasn’t apparent to me just HOW much of a deterent the “default” carpet was at the show until I saw the picture. But no doubt it detracts.)
- Custom backdrops. We had a drape and pipe booth and it would have made a world of difference to have custom drapes.
Here’s what we tried to do but just ran out of time:
- Print custom posters of some of our models in our clothing.
- Get a few more samples of each design.
- And we ended up not getting two of our designs to the sample stage.
Image is everything; a picture is worth a thousand words. So, the display is incredibly important. The display will be a big consideration for us at the next event. We actually have two whole months to prepare for the next one. Now isn’t that something miraculous?
February 17th, 2007
It’s the last day of KIDShow and what an adventure it’s been. Yesterday was slow, slow, slow. I know there were a few vendors that did good - but for the most part, everyone was just trying to keep themselves awake. Where have all the people gone? Here’s the theories I heard:
- Trade shows suck now because of the internet.
- No body could make it out of the east coast because of the storm and cancelled flights.
- Too many shows going on.
- Did they advertise?
I met a lot of vendors yesterday though, so that’s cool to me. I’ve had a chance to meet some people who own companies I admire, which is super-cool to me. And most importantly, I have learned a world of information from some of the more experienced exhibitors. I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded by happy and helpful people, because not everybody at that show is so friendly (I will save it for another post, but it will be another post).
We have picked up new customers and it’s been exciting. But getting here and getting set up was the craziest experience of our new-business lives. We couldn’t get a babysitter to save our lives, so the kids had to come with us. I was going to come alone, but my husband was kind enough to come up for a couple of days to help with setup. I would never have made it without him. Not for our first show, no way. But it is really difficult to function with two rambuctous youngun’s in -tow.
And I have to give a shout out to my husband who spent the entire day yesterday doing stuff for me. And it was stressful for him because I know where all the stuff is back at home and he hung in there and did the whole darn project after driving our kids back home in the morning. That was our Valentine’s day. An early-morning good-bye and lots of stress. But we’re going to get some time alone after this journey. We need a break!!!
February 15th, 2007
Setting goals. My new theme. I actually set realistic goals for us in January and we soared past them. Double our December sales; simple goal, right? It did push me onward. (Imagine that, what a concept). Between the wholesale boutique sales and online sales, we actually did great in January. And I like the feeling.
February is already on its feet, and it’s a short month. But still, same goal this month - double last month’s sales. Tradeshow had better do this alone. We have a couple new reviews coming up, and a big PR event, so we’re keeping it rolling. Getting into a rythem at least. I know we’re getting the exposure. Exposure is good at this stage.
But that’s not even to mention the fact that we’re about to bring on a motivated & cheerful sales rep…which really makes me so happy. So so so so so so happy.
February 2nd, 2007
These days are so crazy busy, but this is a *good* thing, we’re on the upswing. We have this last week and a half push to the Vegas tradeshow. But what’s cool is that all the stuff we’ve had to do for other deadlines in the last month has pushed us to get it together, really together. Most of the print materials are done, just waiting for a few new pictures. Including the catalog. I want to shout from the mountains; that thing was hanging over my head forever. Now, it’s done. And I’m actually happy with it. If you have these print materials when you walk into a boutique, you’ll have enough information to walk out of there with an order, signed and sealed:
- Catalog / Line Sheets - I put these together because you can get away with the line sheets if they have good technical sketches - but the catalog adds some pizazz and imagery. The line sheets contain:
- Technical sketches
- Style#
- Colors available
- Useful name (maybe just my opinion but it helps to say “the retro flowers” instead of “BL2-8998-99″, better reference point)
- Price List - These can be really simple - just tables of the item#; brief description; and wholesale price.
What I don’t have here is bulk pricing, which I want to add.
- Purchase Order - I use the PO form to gather all of the store information; the order form, payment options, AND the terms & agreements. This keeps it all together and helps me stay focused long enough to gather all of the information. This is important because you’ll find that there’s a lot of chatting going on and it’s easy to get distracted.
We’ve made a few boutique sales this week and it’s been a great experience. I can’t get over how much I learn at each appointment. I get so much feedback on our product, what’s selling in the market, what sells well in that location; how many items they’ll purchase, and most importantly, their personal style.
It’s cool to visit all the boutiques and see how they set up their stores, you really get a feel for how each is unique, even though they are all baby boutiques. Some are edgy, some are frilly, some SO pink, some not pink at all - it’s pretty cool.
Back on the topic of getting it all together for the tradeshow; a lot of people are jumping through hoops to make it happen and to make another project happen on top of that; both now with a one week deadline. That’s amazing. And we’re so grateful - really, really, really grateful. There’s still A LOT to pull off on this end, but we’re in motion.
February 1st, 2007
This article on TIME.com was incredibly interesting to me as a small-fry clothing manufacturer / retailer. It gives anyone thinking about going into this industry a lot of food for thought. Mainly how important it is to remain new and innovative, you have to always keep the momentum going, right? It also points out how difficult it is for the big manufacturers to turn on a dime.
Here’s a couple of things that are of importance to us little fish clothing manufacturers:
- Retail stores (esp. specialty boutiques) refresh their floors every six weeks. This means you’ve got to be in there all the time with new stuff to show.
- Don’t fall into the pitfall of too small of a core offering. I think we were in danger of slipping down this slope with our blankets. But, we’re small enough to react and get a fashion line out in time for fall instead of just accessories.
- Pay attention to trends; get out and get inspired!!
There is a lot more you can get out of the Time article if you’re interested. In my opinion, it’s definitely worth a read.
January 30th, 2007
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