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Bonus Lesson: Approaching Retailers
This lesson is for you if and when you are ready to grow from only using e-commerce or social media, to start selling your products in retail stores.
There are many benefits to selling your products via retailers. They give you brand exposure, they provide social proof to back up your own online sales, and they enable you to expand - to sell bigger orders, gain new customers, and start selling your products in places they’ve never been before.
But how do you approach retailers, and convince them to sell your product for you if they’ve never come across your product, and they’ve never heard of you?
“People still prefer to see and try a product in person before spending their money.”
— Alex Thompson
The 7 touch-point strategy
Common wisdom says it takes seven touch-points to make a sale. What this means is that someone generally needs to come across you or your content seven times before they internalise your message, or take action (such as buy from you).
That doesn’t mean you need to hit them over the head with an advertisement seven times - it means they need time (whether consciously or sub-consciously) to get to know you, remember you, and learn to trust you. Then they buy.
Of course, the best strategy is to form personal connections with retailers, either through spending time in their stores, or meeting them at wholesaler and retail events. But if you can’t get there in person, you can still connect. That’s what this lesson is about.
Our goal is to try and build genuine relationships with the decision-makers at each retail outlet, while also showcasing exactly how your products will benefit the retailers you’re targeting, and encourage sales.
We want to give the retailers many different ways to get to know, like and trust you. And lots of non-pressure, gentle invitations to buy.
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Before you start...
Create a list of all the retailers where you’d like your products to be sold.
Start close to home as you’ll know these better, then move further afield.
Look for retailers that share similar brand values to yours, have similar (or crossover) audiences to yours, and stock other products that complement yours.
Do your research to find out who the decision-maker is in the business. Most likely the owner or the manager. Find out what their name is (and be sure to spell it accurately!)
Also make a note of their opening hours, and factor these plus the traditionally busy times of day into your decisions when you later on choose when to call or send emails.
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Contact 1: Social media
Follow them on social media. Start by commenting, liking, and responding to comments, and by starting conversations. (Not writing “nice pic” then moving on - the idea will be to make genuine connections, and hopefully you’ll be able to feel friendly and refer back to these chats in later emails and calls).
Respond to any questions or comments they direct to you as soon as possible, and dip back in to each account a couple of times a week - enough for them to start to know and remember you, but not enough for it to get overwhelming or take up too much time.
NOTE: social media engagement should continue throughout all of the other processes to follow. Once you’ve initiated email contact, continue engaging on social media at a minimum of once a week, and make sure you quickly respond to any comments or direct messages they send.
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Contact 2: Email #1
After you’ve built up a rapport on social media (you know their names, they know yours, you’ve got a feel for their shop), send them a gentle email.
This will be just a short message to say hello, reference your chats on social media so they remember who you are, and to say you admire what they do and you’d love for your products to be part of it. Include a couple of key selling points and some testimonials, and end with a promise that they’ll shortly receive some snail-mail from you.
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Contact 3: Snail mail
Post this snail-mail missive on the same day that you send the previous email. Obviously it will arrive later, but this timeliness will ensure that things remain ‘warm’ in terms of their memory of you.
In the letter, remind them that you’d really love to be part of what they are doing. Briefly touch on where in the store you think they’d look good (eg. “on the table with the tea-towels”) - not to be prescriptive, but to help them imagine your products in their store, and enclose a sell-sheet (see below).
Bundle the letter together with a nice, hand-written note (addressing them by name) to say you’ve enclosed some gifts for them, that you’ll touch base via ‘phone shortly, and that you’ll see them on social media in the meantime.
Sell-sheet checklist:
Product photos (including some of them on display, in shops)
Sizes & product information
Pricing information
Ordering information (and timings)
How you support stockists (e.g. X number of social media posts and your current following; features/interviews in the newsletter; display options, etc)
Newsletter sign-up option
Testimonials (mix of retailer and direct)
Contact information
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Contact 4: Phone call
About a week or two after you’ve sent the snail-mail (try to time it according to what we know about how long the post is taking at the moment), give them a quick call, at one of the times you know or think they might be in the shop or office (for example, choose a time when they're normally posting and engaging on social media).
This call is simply to reinforce that you’re a real person, and to further establish your connection. No need for hard sell.
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Contact 5: Email #2
On the same day as the 'phone call, send them a quick email once you’re off the 'phone.
Just to thank them for the chat, give them a digital version of your sell-sheet, and remind them of the link to opt in to your newsletter.
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Contact 6: Newsletter welcome
If they opted in to your newsletter, tag them as a potential retailer and send them one or more automated welcome messages. The idea is that you create some welcome copy that reinforces how great you are and how you and your products can help them, with an added incentive to get started.
The incentive is to break the ice and encourage them to place that first order with you: since you are easy to work with and assuming your goods sell, the subsequent orders will be less work to obtain.
Give the 'welcome incentive' a time-limit (usually two weeks) in order to create a sense of urgency, and encourage people to take that leap and place that first order. Some ideas are:
A few extra items for free
A two-for-one offer
A first-time buyer's discount
Some features of their shop on your social media
An interview / feature on them in your newsletter
Special co-branded display material
Note: there is the potential to tailor the incentive to the interests, needs or aesthetics of each retailer, knowing what you do about them from your research, social media conversations, and phone conversations: try to creatively address a need or pain-point in your incentive offer.
This is a more personal and therefore probably more effective approach, however, being tailored means it cannot be automated. It’s appropriate if you’re targeting a handful of stockists at a time, but not if you’re doing a concerted, bulk recruitment.
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Contact 7: Email #3
Every six months, send a “just touching base” email to both your existing stockists, and any you’ve been engaging with via the other contact points above.
Say hello, reference something they’ve done recently on social media that you enjoyed, and let them know of any new products / designs etc you have that might interest them.