Create and roll out your own perpetual sales machine
2012/07/19 6:00 AM
Even though you might have sales reps, it does not mean you should get lazy about continuing to sell yourself. Selling from the “home office” should be the easiest as you are the most excited person about your brand. Buyers hear this in your voice and are often attracted to that over the “drone” of a sales reps routine pitch. If you have developed your black book, it makes it easier to stay on a selling cycle.Here are some things you can do to keep the machine rolling.
1. Set up regular bi-weekly emails to stores
2. Follow up with the hot leads – those who “click and open” emails
3. Make follow up calls to those people
4. Call everyone on your list who has not purchased every 4-6 weeks and check in
5. Continue to look for more stores to add to your black book.
6. Comb magazines or the internet for stories about stores you want to be in so you can congratulate them when you call
7. Do as many trunk shows as possible
8. Do 4 home parties a year
9. Let stores know about good news (PR) and celebs
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There are 3 comments
Jason says: Hі there, just wаnted to mentіon, I enjοуed this aгtіcle.
It wаs inspiring. Kеeρ оn poѕtіng!
Hi Sarah,
When finding new boutiques to go after, do you suggest "cold" emailing stores/buyers (after I've called the store to get the name/email of buyer) through email service like MailChimp/Aweber/etc.? Pro: you can collect analytics on open & click throughs and then make more targeted approach Con: Spammy? Not personalized enough as first contact email and may mark me as spam.
What's your take on what's appropriate for targeting new stores effectively, yet efficiently?
Thanks!
-
Chante,
Yes to everything you asked and more below….
If you have called the store to get the contact info, most likely they won’t mark it as spam as they agreed to give you the info knowing they would get an email from you. But, what I suggest is to contact the “best stores you have on your list” by email first to intro yourself from your personal email. This can help establish a better direct relationship as well.
The mass email systems do allow you to reach more people more quickly and I recommend doing that 2x a month. But, the personal touch can really help. Or just calling is even better.
Sarah
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