My first handmade business was a line of edgy, eco-friendly hats for kids. Early on in my business journey, I learned the perks of wholesale. I first spent years hustling for small, individual sales at markets and online, before I got in touch with my first wholesale buyer. After a quick chat about my product, she placed a $2000 order!! As a small business owner, this was huge! Suddenly I was hooked on a new business model: focus on wholesale and see my brand skyrocket in sales and popularity.
But, right as my wholesale started to take off, my 14-month-old daughter started having major health problems. The next few years were really hard. I focused on finding help for my daughter’s undiagnosed rare disease, while still trying to run my business on the side. I got my baby hats into over 100 stores, but I was still also trying to get online orders, attending craft shows, and working every moment that I wasn’t with my kids. It was exhausting and I almost burned out.
At that time I was also having new success with a new product – a simple headband for women, that could be worn many different ways. The headbands were outselling all my other products at markets.
One day after an exhausting market weekend, I knew I could no longer carry on the way I was. I was done. I was ready to throw in the towel and close my business, but I also felt that my new headband for women was very special and it could take this business to new places.
So, instead, I decided to close the baby line and give myself one year to focus on selling just the headbands. I didn’t have a lot of time or energy left, so I knew that I had to stop hustling for online orders, stop attending markets and focus just on wholesale. I had success with wholesale in the past and I believed that I could make more money doing less work, by focusing on selling to retailers.
I was right.
Before I knew it, my small handmade brand was sold in over 600 stores across the US, Canada, and Japan. My headbands became a retailer and customer favorite, and I was making more money than ever before! I was winning awards, being asked to speak at conferences, and getting regular media features. I finally had the money to hire staff to help me grow even further and I started paying myself properly. The business was bringing a steady and exciting income that allowed me and my family to go traveling and soak up life outside of work.
The Winning with Wholesale Method
As soon as my business started to grow, other makers and handmade sellers from around the world started approaching me, wanting to learn how I opened over 600 wholesale accounts in just two years.
That’s why, after selling my business in January 2020, I started a consulting business to help other product brands grow. I helped my clients with everything from branding and public relations (PR) to developing wholesale marketing campaigns, working on packaging and retail display projects, and creating wholesale strategies for growth.
As I was working with my clients, I realized that they were all having the same problems when it came to selling their amazing products to retailers, and I found myself giving them similar advice. No matter where they were in their business – from startups to fully established brands, the advice worked for all of them. That made me realize that my wholesale sales process is repeatable and I wanted to be able to bring this help and advice to all makers, designers, and product brands at different parts of their journey, not just those who could afford to hire me as a consultant.
So, I developed the Winning with Wholesale™ Program – the fastest and easiest path to more wholesale orders and less hustle! The program works for makers of all types of products including jewelry, beauty, fragrance, skincare, clothing and fashion accessories, baby products, food, pet products, home decor, stationery, art, candles, gifts, and more! My students have had amazing success stories with some of them opening 20 new wholesale accounts in one week or going from being in a handful of stores to selling to over 100 stores in under 12 months!
The good news? This strategy can work for you, too!
How You Can Get Your Line Into Stores
The way I see it, wholesale is the best and fastest way to grow a product business. So, if you want to take your brand to a whole new level of sales and brand status, keep reading!
Test Your Product
Before you start approaching buyers make sure you test your products elsewhere so that you can learn if your products, pricing, and packaging are truly ready for retail. The best way to test is to sell your product somewhere first. It can be your website, Etsy, an in-person market, or even through social media.
Pay special attention to feedback from your customers. They’ll provide valuable insight that will allow you to truly understand your product and you can use that information to showcase it as a unique, must-have best-seller.
Set a Goal
Setting goals for yourself and your business can be intimidating at first! However, it will keep you constantly propelled and moving forward. Getting distracted and losing momentum are some of the biggest mistakes that I see business owners make. Set expectations for yourself and celebrate them once you crush it!
Discover your winning pitch angle.
A lot of brands want to sell their products to stores, so you need to ensure you stand out from all that competition. Being able to demonstrate a deep understanding of your own products and present them in a unique manner makes a huge difference in engaging with buyers. I call this your Winning Pitch Angle. Figuring out your Winning Pitch Angle is an art that takes time and effort. It is also the most important piece of your success, so do not skip this part. In Winning with Wholesale™, I teach a 4-tiered approach to discover your Winning Pitch Angle:
- the Brand 360
- the Product 360
- the Marketplace 360
- the Wholesale Buyer 360
Make First Impressions Count
The truth is that marketing matters and buyers are busy. So, the first message to a retailer is the most important one. That’s why you shouldn’t send a long introductory email with your line sheet or links to all your socials and your website to a buyer. That’s information overload and they don’t have time for that. Here’s what to do instead. Take your Winning Pitch Angle and capture it in a gripping sales sheet that buyers simply won’t be able to resist.
Find your ideal stores.
To really increase your chance of making sales, make sure you are approaching the right stores – ones that are looking for products like yours! This way you won’t waste your time and energy reaching out to buyers that aren’t a good fit and you’ll avoid getting ghosted or rejected by them.
Implement systems for reaching out to stores, getting sales, and reorders
Don’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to communicating with your buyers. Create repeatable processes to save you time and allow you to pass this task on to someone else in the future.
Streamlining and automating your communications will save an immense amount of time and will ensure a great relationship with your retailers, which will in turn mean more orders for you. You will free up time so that you can focus on other tasks – we all know that your time is a very precious resource! Introducing your brand, following up with stores, and prompting for reorders should all be done strategically, with ease, and as much automation as possible.
Reach Out to Buyers
It sounds simple right?! But here’s the thing… with the right approach, materials, and tools, it can be simple. Make sure you’ve got a good understanding of your product, the wholesale buyer, and the wholesale landscape. Also make sure you’re pursuing the right stores, sending the right materials, and using the right tools and strategies for following up. You will get orders if you’re doing these things correctly.
Maintain and Grow
Always remember: It’s cheaper and easier to sell to an existing retailer than it is to acquire a new one. Nurture your relationships with your existing sellers (don’t forget to streamline and automate this process!), always address feedback, and continue to improve and grow.
More Tips and Tricks for Wholesale Success
Get help.
When I first started my baby hat line, I had the opportunity to get help from another entrepreneur. She had her own successful baby hat line and was selling her hats in hundreds of stores. This was exactly where I wanted my business to be and she was willing to coach me and show me the way. However, I wasn’t ready to invest in my business and ended up declining her amazing offer. This was a huge mistake. It took me years and a lot of money to figure things out on my own. Because I wasn’t willing to invest in my business, my growth was way slower than what it could have been.
Reaching out to industry experts that have a tried-and-true strategy can help grow your business and amplify your results! We can’t all know how to do everything in our businesses, so relying on coaches and industry experts will be a huge part of your success.
Even in my current business, I work with coaches that specialize in different business areas. I do this because I learned my lesson with my baby hats. I know that working with coaches and experts is the quickest path to growing my business. I don’t want to make the mistake of thinking that I don’t need help, and waste my time and my money trying to figure everything out on my own from scratch.
Mindset is everything.
I was years into my business journey when I recognized one thing: I was my own biggest challenge the entire time. I lacked confidence and was controlled by the fear of rejection. Because of this, I missed out on some opportunities and didn’t push myself forward as much as I wanted to.
Rejection isn’t the end of the world! In fact, it’s a part of doing business. I always tell my students, “You are not your product”. If a store owner doesn’t want to carry your product, don’t take it personally. Bounce back and move on to the next store.
Stay confident but flexible! Make changes when you need to, but have unrelenting faith in the product that you’ve worked so hard on. You should be your biggest fan! Don’t stand in your own way.
Ready to grow your business with wholesale?
If you want to grow your business with wholesale, make sure you sign up for my FREE Wholesale Masterclass, The Secrets to Making a Living Selling Your Handmade Products To Stores Without Hustling or Burning Out.
Have other wholesale questions? Send me a DM on Instagram.
