Branding

How to use your story to increase sales

Having a story behind your brand can be an important selling point when pitching your line. Think about why and how you came to develop your designs and weave that into your story to add interest and intrigue. When sales staff can tell your story and engage customers, they are more likely to close the sale.

Love to know your story……care to share below?

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    Written by Sarah Shaw

    There are 20 comments

  • Love this Sarah, telling your story and making sales and tugging on heart strings. My story is in 2002 I inquired about a business loan and was told to get a husband in Canada! Since then, I have dedicated myself to helping women led business and am seeking partners and experts committed to developing the First “ANGEL” fund for women-led startups with potential for high growth. This Canadian “Angel” fund will accelerate the funding and growth of women led businesses in Canada.

  • Hey Sarah – This really is some exceptional content. Just want you to know I enjoyed attending the event. Love having this recap available to look at. Thanks!

    – Mike

  • Sarah,

    Great video. In the 5 minutes you provided me with so much content and inspiration. Thanks for sharing.

    Angee

  • Cindy Hardy says:

    Thank you for another great video. This is the type of information I need.

  • Story does matter. I hear this all the time from sales and marketing people. Never thought sharing a story could help shop owners with their sales. I’ll start including my personal story with every order I send out. THANK YOU !

    ~Linda

  • Kiki Lynn says:

    Great video Sarah. My story: My idea of designing swimsuit cover-ups came to mind while sitting poolside at a beach resort and listening to the needs and wants of friends. They expressed their desire for elegant and fun cover-ups that are stylish, classy, and affordable. After much research, I realized there was a very limited selection of styles and colors offered to satisfy the fashion needs of women. My passion for design, and love of helping others, and being a body conscious woman myself, my vision was to create elegant and vibrant designs that make a woman feel confident and look their best while covering those tiny flaws. http://www.Kikidzine.com

    Thanks for such awesome information – you have really helped me in many ways. xoxo

  • Thank you for asking us to share our story! Great video!!
    Here is our story at Hoppers-bows for your toes!:

    We are friends who live on the same street, and are helping each other raising our little families.

    We both have daughters and we began to see flip flops with bows on them, but they were glued on. In order to get different styles you had to buy another pair of shoes. Any mother knows, that with growing kids you are very hesitant to purchase more than one pair!

    In early summer 2008 an idea was born: detachable shoe bows that don’t bother the little foot and can go on any shoe. After many prototypes, blistered fingers, and late nights, Hoppers were created and are now ready to be enjoyed by all. http://www.MyHoppers.com

    –Sara & Tanya

  • LOVE the video, Sarah! The story of Sugar Mama Designs: I had left a busy acupuncture practice to be home for the birth of my second daughter and was thinking of the What’s Next for my career. I dreamed of having a business that I could work from home & afford me the luxury to raise my girls. Incendentally I was on the hunt for a chic apron to give as a gift and couldn’t find anything noteworthy. As life progressed, I became a single mom and staying home with my daughters took on a new spin. All this gave birth to Sugar Mama Designs- a company specializing in kitchen textiles for the culinary chic (launching with a full line of aprons). The goal is to inspire women to spin traditions and community of their own through the art of cooking and entertaining- something that is important to my girls and me.

  • Hi Sarah,
    Thanks so much for posting this video, it’s a good reminder from that info packed afternoon. When’s the next one?
    When I moved from London to Los Angeles, I quickly discovered the importance of adequate protection from the sun. After having children, I realized the challenges of protecting them from the sun as well.

    My son hated sunscreen and refused to wear it, my daughter gets it in her eyes and mouth! So, rather than fight the sunscreen battle that is familiar to most parents of young children, and is of questionable benefit to begin with, I created Sunny Sleevez. 50 UPF Sun Sleeves featuring cool designs, that you wear with a regular tee shirt and “Slip on in the sun & Slide off when you’re done!”.
    see you next time
    Dash

  • Love your story Sarah!
    While trying to regroup after divorce, I woke up one morning to Kenneth Copland teaching – “Sew/Sow your way out of debt.” That message could NOT have been for me….I did not know how to sew, nor did I have any money to sow! Later, I watched Martha Stewart make a pillow out of a torn shirt, and I though “hey – that was easy.” Months, tears and 6 sewing lessons later, Keepsake Pillows was born. Funeral Directors gift my Keepsake Pillow to families they serve.
    I recent launched a Ringer Pillow – http://www.mykeepsakepillow.com and I am presently working on many other ideas.
    Yeah, Kenneth Copeland, I am Sewing and Sowing my way out of debt, one Keepsake Pillow at a time!

    Alicia Jalyne

  • Sarah Shaw says:

    I just LOVE hearing all your stories!!
    xoxoxo

  • When Tracy Wright, an Ex-Chicago Police Officer and a successful Real Estate Broker in Illinois began to see the real estate market take a nose dive, she decided to come up with a plan B. While viewing an episode of “The Big Idea” show featuring two brothers who were successful entrepreneurs in the apparel industry, she decided to start her very own T-Shirt Company in 2006.
    Executees was born, which highlights a professional, and high class line of tees. She focused on a niche of t-shirt items made with CRYSTALLIZED™ Swarovski Elements.

    Executees is the Exclusive creator of the Limited Edition Oprah 25 T-Shirts in Swarovski, in honor of Oprah to commemorate her 25th season, created for and As Seen On “THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW” Senior Production/Audience Team On Stage At The United Center Farewell Season 25 Taping On MAY 17, 2011.

  • Stan says:

    Sarah,

    One of your best posts to date, keep up the great video content!

  • I totally agree Sarah. My company, http://www.mom4life.com is based around stories. Each product we offer is mom invented and every mom has a story of how they were inspired to come up with that product. Therefore, we offer a “more about the mom” tab on each product page so that customers can read the story behind the product and meet the mom inventor. We also create many videos showing the product and allowing the mom to tell her story.

  • Laurie says:

    Love it cant wait for your LIVE event!!!

  • Excellent post!

    My business came around very slowly. I started writing wedding stories for friends and family getting married as gifts to them. After several years of occasionally doing this for my loved ones, I realized that it was actually a really good business idea.

    Brides love the idea!

    As a vendor or “professional wedding guest,” I show up at a wedding and begin writing immediately. Everything I see, touch, hear, and taste goes into my stories. The end product is a heirloom quality keepsake book for the happy couple.

    So going back to the story behind my brand….when I was married in 2001 I had a huge wedding–very costly. What I wouldn’t have done to have someone write my wedding story. I remember next to nothing from my special day, but all of my brides have their entire wedding day documented in words. Who wouldn’t want that?

    🙂

  • I was interviewed by Tres chic bellevue and she posted it to her blog.I have edited it a bit to make it a quicker read. Enjoy!

    Teresa took courage to leave her steady job in 2009 to pursue her dream. She started selling her jewelry online through Etsy.com. She also went to visit every store in greater Seattle area asking them to sell her design on consignment but that was slow. She endured one rejection after another. It was one of the hardest lessons to learn but it taught her to become skilled at selling on Etsy.com. She then convinced a dozen local stores to give her a chance….and they did.

    Finally, her hard work pays off. Earlier in 2011, she was able to sell her lines wholesale and hired a representative firm to sell her 12 plus lines wholesale to stores in the Northwest Territories and increased the number of stores that carry them. Her most recent accomplishment is to have Fireworks Gallery picked up her line to be featured in all 7 of their stores.

    The table has turned. Now stores started calling her so they can carry her line.

    Teresa taught herself to design, wrap, work, tool, and create jewelry from fine silver and re-purposed material. She uses everything from up cycled typewriter keys to hand-scuplted and tooled recycled silver. She specialized in initials, but also offers a line of precious metal jewelry in a multitude of styles and themes. What better way to show your own self love than with a piece of art that bears the first letter of your name?

    As of today, Teresa has three representatives selling her jewelry line across the West coast and throughout the Rockies, her own website and a part time assistant to help out with the growth of her ‘little jewelry business.’

    What’s her message to women out there? “NETWORK! Join your local women in business network like Seattle Crave. Most women do not see you as competition, as you might think, but as cheerleaders for your success. I am always flattered when local women in business look to me for advice”.

  • Yes telling your story helps you connect with the customers.They want to know about you and your brand.

  • Reading the comments is so interesting. Lots of good stories.

    Coming up with a story for a service business seems harder. My current story is “Create Your Own Fame”. I’m so tired of being a secret that I’m creating my own fame. I’m starting a web show, I’m creating more videos for myself,etc. But it’s challenging.

    Products have easier stories. I think.

    Great blog post. The family member comment is soooo true!

  • Love this. Telling my story has helped also. This is my story: After 2 years of being unemployed I found a job as a dishwasher at a very busy restaurant working into the wee hours of the morning. During one very particular bad night of washing dishes and my body aching all over, I was thinking I know I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in someone’s kitchen. That night i came home and thought about what I want to do. What gives me the most joy and I could go into business doing what I love?

    That was making aroma-therapeutic oils from my family’s century old African American Chickasaw Indian recipes passed down from my great, great grandmother Mamie. I would make these very same recipes with my grandmother growing up and I loved it. My company Wild Beauty has been in in business for about a month and a half and I wish I had done this sooner.

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