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
I have four days to prep for the next event. This lightbulb is hitting me right now, at this moment. It’s a one day cash-n-carry show right here in San Diego (first in-town event - I can’t believe I don’t have to travel!). I’m ok with the product we have to take, but I have to get my head around other issues.
I’m happy to announce that my sales marathon is going GREAT, although my training sessions are no where near what I envisioned they would be…I can’t put nearly the hour a day into that I want to, but I am accomplishing that hour, or more, on many more days than I was previously.
The thing is that the sales stuff is going so great, and is thus so consuming, that I don’t have time to focus on the other things - like upcoming events. The surge in sales has presented all kinds of new juggling fun - which is why it’s good to grow; every new level presents new challenges.
Being a mom in business is pretty much craziness. I know I’m supposed to be sick right now, - my daughter came home with a fever today and I can feel that achiness, the hot / cold spells, the urge to sleep - but I don’t have time for that. I’m behind on things as it is. Like planning for upcoming events.
This weekend’s event is thrown by Appel & Frank. It will be held on Sunday, March 9, from 11 - 4 pm at the Abbey. I’m excited to be there - it looks like there are a couple of other children’s designers there, but I’m excited to see all the HOT, new, and fun women’s wear and accessories. How great for me, since I never ever get out shopping for myself, I can see some of the trend-setting stuff. FUN. I should also mention that I don’t really like shopping, so something like this is perfect - all in one space and all the good stuff.
If you are in Southern California and want to get an exclusive preview of San Diego’s newest and hottest upcoming designers at the Spring into Style event, just email me.
March 4th, 2008
I was researching fashion advertising last night and ran across what I think is a REALLY cool site, both for fashion advertising samples and fashion designing inspiration. The site is:
Fashion Ad Resource: http://www.fashionadresource.com/
Here’s what I think is great about the site:
- You can view past advertisements by designer brand or by type.
- She has a great section on magazines - which preview images from the decades of the last century.
- You can zoom in on the images twice, so you can actually see them!
Her homepage has her bio, so you can read a bit about her by clicking on the link above.
Enjoy!
February 19th, 2008
Where did Amber go? It’s been a crazy time in my business-owner life since I last posted. We had a fabulous celebrity gifting event in January. I will do a post soon on what a difference our “spinning cake” display made for exposure during that event. (You can see the display cake pretty good in the photo to the right, follow the link above to view more celebrity photos).
I did a great follow-up job of coming home and writing up a press release. I even stayed up late to perfect it and get a bunch of images together to send to one big-traffic site. I got that sent and it paid off. We were featured the next morning.
Then I tweaked it a little for the other media outlets, put my computer on stand-by and never saw its happy face again. That was it, my computer crashed completely. I did an ok job of backups, except for my emails and email lists. Oh what a mistake that was - what a nightmare it has been catching up.
Get an external hard drive and set up automatic scheduled backups for all of your files. That’s my big duh-I-should-have-already-known-that lesson for the day. And I wanted to say I’m back and I really have a lot of posts coming up to share about press releases, affiliate programs, preparing for the next cash-and-carry events, creating a “wow” display, and all sorts of other things I’ve learned since the great crash of ‘08.
February 15th, 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
I’m so incredibly happy to announce that our online boutique finally has the functionality for you to create your own personalized baby blankets. We’re now busy adding the new prints we have, but there are already a ton of new options. Plus it’s F-U-N to play with the different designs.
This is going to be a big advantage for online sales because:
- We’ve increased the selection tenfold. We’re learning that selection, selection, selection is very important for your conversion rate!
- We’ve increased the interactivity of the site - you can now ‘play’ with the fabric combinations until you find something you love!!! People are already spending at least an extra 10 minutes on our site, and the hands on “fun” will “stamp” our brand in their minds a bit better.
- It’s cleaned up our site, all of the blanket images are standard sizes, and we have more “calls to action”.
- We’ve standardized the templates so that it will be easier to offer new fabric options at any time.
So, check it out and let me know what you think!! We’re always open to feedback. And I have to give kudos to my husband who did all the graphic design work and functionality tweaks to make this possible.
I’m absolutely giddy with excitement, we’ve been wanting this functionality for our customers for a long time!!
** I haven’t forgotten about the sales tools, I WILL upload them soon.
December 8th, 2007
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
My husband emailed me this link to Mind Tools-Essential Skills for an Excellent Career. Specifically, he sent me to the “Time Management” pages (I won’t get into whether or not that was a hint ! ha ha), which is the section I’ve gone through.
I found the site to be an incredibly great reminder of ways to ’stay on track’. I’m already great about To-Do lists, but now, I’m applying the priorities and then re-writing the list so that only “Important” items are at the top. And then I work down the list.
What I saw immediately is that some of my most important tasks have stayed on my To-Do list the longest. By having them buried somewhere in the middle, I’m able to excuse them by not really ’seeing’ them. Now these things are at the top and have to happen first. I can also see that I “skip” over them lightly because they are tasks I don’t like doing.
We’re working on tracking how long all of our tasks take, and that’s also a real eye-opener. I spend a lot more time dilly-dallying during the day than I thought I did. But this is good news (and not to be mistaken with IMPORTANT brain breaks and kid-time). It’s good news because it means I really DO have more time in the day to get stuff done. A lot of emails can be accomplished in a “found” 15 minutes.
The best by-product of this is that by the time I reach my night, my stress levels are down because I know I took care of the most important stuff for that day. If I keep working after the kids are in bed, it gets to be on some of my more enjoyable tasks - like DESIGNING!!!!
By the way - Project Runway is back on Wed. nights!!
November 30th, 2007
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