Bigger Isn’t Always Better

 I know a lot of people’s dream is to see their products in big box stores like Bed Bath and Beyond, Costco, Target, Walmart and QVC……but the truth is, while you might enjoy gigantic orders from these behemoths, they can turn on a dime, throw you out with the trash, and cripple a company overnight if they are your biggest customer.  I have seen it happen to friends of mine…. and it’s not pretty.  It’s a lot of tears, and often bankruptcy.

Yes, I sold my products to big stores like Bloomingdales, Sak’s 5th Ave, Neiman Marcus and others……but these orders were always icing on the cake for me as far as the money part went.  You bet I loved the prestige they brought, and the doors they opened for me, but I was always careful to keep my eye on the small stores that really paid my bills.

So speaking of small stores, you know, boutiques, gift shops, apothecary’s, and the mom and pop type shops?  Well this was how I made millions….seriously!  Once we started to get into a few stores, we leveraged that to get into even more and soon we were in 100 stores.  Then once I got my New York sales reps, they got us into 300 more stores…..then we kept searching for more more and more stores and soon we had over 1200 accounts and were never selling to less than 800 stores per season.

These boutique-type stores brought in $1M a year and I knew my bills per paid…..

See the difference is that the small stores usually have one buyer (or owner) and it’s much easier to call them, and actually get them on the phone, and, they can make an instant decision.  They don’t have 3 levels of management above them, they don’t have plan-a-gram meetings, they don’t have to buy 9 month ahead, and they don’t need approval to place an order.  All you need to do is get them to see that the MUST have your products, and the sale is simple.

So while you dream about the big-box stores, continue to build your small store list and push those offers so that you can have consistent sales that you can can count on month after month…….believe me, you’ll sleep better at night.

Learn more of my secrets here……its free!

Written by Sarah Shaw