← The Product Boss with Jacqueline Snyder
The Product Boss with Jacqueline Snyder
669. "I want to grow and expand my wholesale business- help!" | Coaching Session
00:41:32
Loading summary
Transcript102 lines
- [00:02]
A
Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is the Product Boss podcast.
- [00:06]
B
I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours.
- [00:16]
A
Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what mistakes they could have avoided, how did they turn their ideas into successful business, and what are the strategies that they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers.
- [00:38]
B
And this is what this show is all about.
- [00:41]
A
Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product.
- [00:44]
B
Boss, I'm here to give you the.
- [00:46]
A
Permission to chase your dreams, no matter how big or small.
- [00:50]
B
All you need is the right mindset.
- [00:52]
A
A little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product boss.
- [00:58]
B
Let's do this.
- [01:00]
A
Hey. Hey, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Product Boss podcast. And today is another coaching session. So if you're new here, welcome to.
- [01:08]
B
The Product Boss podcast.
- [01:10]
A
What we do is once a week we have a coaching session where you get to kind of sit behind the scenes and listen to how I work with so many of our students and our community. And I can't tell you how many times I hear from students and the community and listeners that are like, it feels like you're talk talking to me, Jacqueline. I feel like I could have just swapped my name out and it could have been to me. So welcome. Now the other episode of the week is a shorter episode, a strategic episode, something that has to do with your blended life, which is like that work life blend. There's just all different exciting things and special guests that are on the other episode. So if you're brand new here, make sure you just pause for a sec. Follow the show. No matter where you listen, follow, subscribe, like subscribe, you know, my daughter says on YouTube, but make sure you follow the show so, so that you know exactly when we've dropped our episodes. It's two a week and we have so many. There's been years and years of this. So you can just keep listening and listening and I hope to support you in going growing your product based business. Okay, so let's get with it. So today I'm chatting with Elizabeth of Brighton House Decor. And Elizabeth pivoted from selling event decor to watercolor illustrated map designs of Australia in tea towels, aprons, tote bags, greeting cards and postcards. I'm like, absolutely in love with her art, let me just tell you. And she has started to transition away from her event decor and move more fully into her palatable tea towels and other things that are bestsellers and what she's known for, right? Like the products that people know her for that are selling that actually would make it easier for her to grow her sales engine. But at this point she's looking to expand her wholesale business, but she's not quite sure how to do that or what she should be focusing on. So this is exactly what I'm going to help Elizabeth figure out today. And before I dive in, if you have not left a positive review for the Product Boss podcast yet, would you mind doing me a super solid favor pausing for a second and leaving us a review? Or you can do this at the end of the episode, but don't forget. And maybe you want to share a takeaway from today's episode that you wanted to share as a review. It really helps us reach more students or listeners and also it really helps us reach more small product based business owners around the world. And your reviews matter. So I just want to thank you ahead of time for doing that. All right, now let's jump into the coaching session. Oh my goodness, friends, if you are anything like me, you probably spend more time running errands than running your business. Am I right? Like, everything needs something, we gotta run around. And I knew that this was like a major issue for me back in the day, which is why I decided to get help where I could. And I decided to let Instacart handle all of my grocery shopping so I no longer had to worry about running all the errands and having to run out and get more almond milk for my lattes. Rather, I was like, you know what? We're just gonna let Instacart handle that. So I want you to imagine skipping the store and getting back to design packaging, orders, making, or maybe actually taking a break, even a nap. Remember those? Okay, so with Instacart, you can get groceries and essentials delivered in as fast as an hour so you can focus on growing your business without sacrificing a meal. Plus, less stress and more focus. And here's a tip. I've actually used Instacart before to order gifts from my daughter's friend's birthday parties because I haven't had time to run out and get presents.
- [04:12]
B
And I've been able to get the.
- [04:13]
A
Packaging like the gift bag and the gift like hello, Sephora, delivered to my house while I was in the middle of coaching sessions so that I could have the present. Right. It's like having a personal assistant without having a personal assistant. So if you want to do what I do and get the help where you can, you can try it now if you head to the productboss.com instacart.
- [04:31]
B
So tell me a little bit about, about your business. So what you're, what you make and sell and how you sell it.
- [04:38]
C
Okay, so I sell homewares and I also sell a wholesale range of map gifts, which are of three Australian cities and 15 Australian wine regions. So that's tea towels, aprons, tote bags, greeting cards and postcards. So I'm in a transition where I'd launched. It's a long story. I used to run a corporate event business and then when lockdown happened, there was, there was no business and so I had to start selling off stock. And then I created a homewares business and that was, that was doing really well during COVID And then we were locked down. Actually Melbourne was the locked at most locked down city in the world during COVID And occasionally we'd be allowed out, but we couldn't leave our own state of Victoria. So sometimes Andrew and I would jump in the car and we'd go away for the weekend. And outside Melbourne, there are three wine regions that are all about 90 minutes drive away. So we'd drive down there anyway. There were all the wineries there were just basically deserted. They were empty. There was no one there and the wine guys were desperate for us to buy something to help keep them afloat. So. So because I often buy a tea towel when I'm away as a souvenir, I came up with the idea to have a range of wine region map tea towels. So I'm in a weird sort of transition phase where I just closed down the event business two months ago and I'm gradually selling off the homewares in Brighton House Decor, which is the retail website for the map gifts. And I also have the wholesale website Palatable Tea Towels. So that's my current situation.
- [06:26]
B
So thank you for all of that. So right now, the revenue that you're making because you're close to 7,000amonth on average. What, where is that money coming from? So what are your sales channels that you're selling on?
- [06:38]
C
Okay, so I'm selling on Brighton House Decor, my retail site, Palatable Tea, to my wholesale site. I'm on a retail gift shop called Hard to Find. They're basically the. The main ones.
- [06:52]
B
So out of those. And so are you selling Wholesale to stores yet?
- [06:56]
C
Yeah. Oh, yes, yes. I've got about 120 retailers.
- [06:59]
A
Okay, great.
- [07:00]
B
Okay.
- [07:00]
A
So out of the.
- [07:01]
B
I'm just going to make this a bigger pie. So out of the percentages, if we were to slice this like a pie, how much of that pie, how much of what percentage of sales is coming from your Brighton House Decor website?
- [07:13]
C
A lot less and more of it from the wholesale. So of that tea towel range, which is obviously five products, five types of products in the range, that is taking up a much larger proportion. So for this year to date, and Brighton House decor have taken 18,500. And for the same period last year I took 63,000 for palatable tea towels. This year it's grown by about 4,000 more. So last year it was about 27,600 and sitting just under 32,000 right now. So that one's growing. It's. Yeah, I'm definitely getting more sales from palatable tea towels as I sell off homewares items in Brighton House Decor and concentrate on the tourist map range.
- [08:00]
B
Okay, so the tea towels wholesale, which is your site for that, is your wholesale distribution. Right. That's where all the wholesale orders are coming in. And it's the tea towels, the retail gift shop, what you're drop shipping. Wait, so wholesale, really the only thing you're selling wholesale is tea towels? No maps? No. Cards?
- [08:15]
C
Oh, no, no, I'm selling tea towels, aprons, tote bags, greeting cards and postcards.
- [08:20]
B
So really it's any. The map product?
- [08:23]
C
Yes, correct.
- [08:24]
B
Okay. And then retail gift shop, that you're drop shipping, how much of your business is accounted for in that customer?
- [08:31]
C
Very little.
- [08:32]
B
Little?
- [08:32]
C
Yeah, very little. It's, it's probably about, you know, 5%. It's basically mainly down to that I was running last year and, and you know that for a while I was running Google Shopping and then I just sort of like noticed that the, the cost of the, the ad and the cost of the agency doing it for me basically equaled out the, the revenue from the, from the, from the ads. So I sort of thought, oh, I'll just like cut it.
- [08:59]
A
Right.
- [08:59]
B
Yeah, I mean, that's why I don't recommend ads initially for smaller businesses, just because there's not going to be profit left over. So what you're saying to me is you actually were running ads last year, so your 63,000 that came out of the decor was partially because you had ads?
- [09:12]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also because I've, until, as I said, I've been selling them off to concentrate on the map gift business. I also was selling much higher priced products. So for example, I'd sell my until fairly recently until I basically almost sold the last of, I've got just one or two left. My best seller was a gold palm tree floor lamp which you know, I sold well over 100 of and probably 120 or something. So you know, I sold a lot of those and so I was selling Those at, at 1399. So you can sort of like see that there's, you know, there's a lot of volume you've got to sell like to, to make up to selling a, you know, a four digit, you know, floor lamp.
- [09:59]
A
Yeah.
- [10:00]
B
So thank you for reflecting on all that because what I want you to see and what you've said to me is that actually it's not your business that's not doing well. You're just doing things differently than the way that you were doing them. I know it doesn't feel that way but you told me you sold a hundred thousand dollar lamps. That's you know, not a gazillion, that's not a lot, a lot, a lot of sales. But the fact that you made a hundred orders at a thousand dollars, like that's a huge part of your compensation. The other part is that you were running ads. And so of course if now you're you know, 63,000 last year with selling higher ticket product was running ads and you're 18,500 this year so far it's not, oh my gosh, something's happening in my business, it's going down. It's more of you're actually just doing things differently. So a lot of times in these questions that I ask, it's to kind of do my investigative sort of work on like an understanding what has shifted. A lot of times people will say oh, it's broken, it's not working. Like, well what did you change? Like what changed? Because everything that we do that changes has a different result at the end. And it's okay that you changed it because you're, this business is evolving with you.
- [11:00]
C
Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So I was going to say, so I think my husband's a bit frustrated. He said, oh, you used to make so much more money. And I said yes I did. But the thing that he sort of forgets is that the reason I stopped selling the, the floor lamps in particular was I was importing them from China. And the first batch which I had product quality done on were fantastic. And then I, I thought, oh, the next batch will be Fine. So I didn't do product quality checking on the second batch. And of the second batch I had to either refund or exchange about one in five of those lamps. And anyway, I've sort of complained to the manufacturer, said you were costing me so much money. So then they said, oh, don't worry, don't worry, we'll fix it. And then they over engineered the packaging on the third batch and it came with like almost a refrigerator size amount of polystyrene. And so there was nothing wrong with the lamp. But then I started getting complaints from customers like there's so much foam packaging and it's so bad for the environment. And I went, oh, this is just a nightmare. So the, the palatable tea towels. I was looking at the, you know, the margin, you know, since right up to now and then the same period for last year. And when I launched the tea towels, I launched just with seven locations, just to start with seven maps. My gross margin was 388%. But I was also selling the tea towels at $35 each. And then I was making some sales, but retailers were like saying, oh, this is actually, you know, too high and bring it down to 29. That's kind of in line with the rest of our tea towels. And they said they're not linen so they can't be premium, you know, priced and everything. And so I started selling more. But my gross margin is now 319%.
- [12:53]
B
It is a nightmare. So here's the deal. When your husband says things to you like that. Yes. And right. Yeah, I was making more money and I wasn't as profitable. Because if we think about the time spent and the returns and the shipping and all that, sure, there's the vanity metric of revenue, but it doesn't matter. I'd rather you be profitable. Take more money home, more money to invest back in the company than the vanity metric. So if you could have a hundred thousand dollars business and take home 40% of that, it's way better than having a $250,000 business and taking home $10,000. I mean these could technically be sold for $18.40. So why. So why are you putting them at 30 to $35?
- [13:38]
C
The 30, they're 29 and they have been now for quite some time. My husband used to work in retail, so he was like saying, oh, you know, price them higher to start with and once they get more known in the market, you can bring the price down. And so he said try. And so he's all about me, my money Back as fast as I can. So I think I've, I've kept it at that, that price for, you know, quite some time. I guess. I, I didn't want them to be seen as cheap tea towels, so.
- [14:07]
B
But it's one tea towel, right?
- [14:10]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [14:10]
B
So I just, I just googled tea towels. Right. And this is a company called Geometry, which is a linen company. You know, it looks high end and they're about $18, obviously, like us. Okay. Um. Well, you either have a very, very, very good margin and you keep it at that or know that you have room to play if you want to be more competitive or if you're finding that price point is getting in the way. So I don't want you to think you're desperate or graspy, but rather, could you sell more if they were at a slightly different, like if they were 28 instead of 29 or, you know, it's just finding a sweet spot to a number. Now because you're. Your linen tea towels or the products that you sell are not necessarily being bought for functionality, rather they're being bought for souvenirs. So people are willing to spend more on souvenirs. They're probably, they may or may not use it. They may have it out like it's, it's a souvenir of like map sell really well. So. And on your website, at least for what I see, it's $30 that it's listed. So 28 or 32. 30 is kind of a, an interesting number.
- [15:15]
C
Yes, but the 30. 30 is kind of, it's the only place I'm actually charging at 30. I mean, I don't know what the other retailers are charging it. I mean, I've seen some of them do them at 29.95 or something, but I just sort of thought I would, you know, experiment and try and standardize the prices, you know, across, across the way with it ending in a zero and sort of like, you know, see, see what sort of an impact that had.
- [15:45]
A
Elizabeth is in a unique situation because she has a really great profit margin. I mean, way to go, Elizabet. This is something that I hammer into my students inside of my programs that we really want to be priced right and have great profit margins. And while I'm not going to share the proprietary information about her products, the fact that she has these great margins is the reason why I'm coaching her about the possibility of being able to bring her price down. I know so many times, you hear me when I coach product bosses, I always encourage them to increase their prices because they're not charging enough. But with Elizabeth, it's actually the exact opposite and that her prices might be just above where the what the market can bear, which is why she's not seeing as many sales as she wants to. Sometimes even decreasing your prices by 1 to $2 and being able to keep your profit margin, or profit margin that makes sense, can lead a significant increase in sales, which is what I want Elizabeth to play around with for her tea towels. Now remember, most of the time I will tell you all to raise your prices because you are underpricing, undervaluing. But with her, we've got the room to play. She's already got the data, she knows what she's doing here. So I want you to remember, if you have a really good profit margin and you're not seeing as many sales.
- [16:50]
B
As you'd like, you could still test.
- [16:51]
A
And try the pricing because maybe we've gone just above what the market will bear, or maybe the marketing isn't making sense.
- [16:57]
B
Right.
- [16:57]
A
There's lots of different things we can pull apart here. I know I'm not able to coach you in your business right here, but for Elizabeth, what we are looking at is seeing how this will help her business. And so next what we're going to do is we're going to help her come up with a sales plan.
- [17:11]
B
So the, the overall question I think that you have is you basically said that, well, you want clarity and you had your sales have gone down. But we're dealing with two different businesses here. So how you operated your business last year is very different than the way you're operating your business this year. So it's not a apples to apple comparison. So what I'd like to do with you in the remainder time that we have together is actually come up with a plan so that you know what you want to focus on. So to do that plan, I need to know from you, it sounds like your, we can call it the tea towel business, but it sounds, sounds like you're going into your map Australia map type products versus only tea towels. Would that be more accurate?
- [17:54]
C
Yeah.
- [17:55]
B
Okay, so you've got the map products and then from the data that you have so far, are all the products that you've come out with the maps like the aprons, the tea towel, the cards, Is that it?
- [18:07]
C
The three products and yeah, tea towels, tote bags, aprons, greeting cards and postcards.
- [18:14]
B
Okay, so out of all those products, would you say that they're all doing well or any of those that you're Just like, maybe I shouldn't do this.
- [18:22]
C
Of all of it, I would probably say the aprons, but the, the greeting cards and postcards, I mean, actually I probably shouldn't even listen to my husband. He was saying, oh, who sends greeting cards anymore? And when was the last time you sent a postcard? But they're actually being bought. But because they're so new, I'll be very interested what the repeat rate is from the, the wholesalers.
- [18:43]
B
So I agree with you. I think that the aprons are not necessary, especially looking at the visual of how it gets printed. It's not the most attractive version of that. And I think it's not necessary for you to do the apron. So if you were to stick with your tea towels, greeting cards, your postcards and your bags. Are people buying the bags?
- [19:02]
C
Yeah, they are. I haven't actually had any retail orders on my site yet for the tote bags, but I am getting them bought by the wholesalers. But again, it's also a brand new product that only sort of like just landed, only almost last week or so. So I haven't had any repeat orders on that. So it's hard to tell.
- [19:22]
B
I do think that bags make sense for the wineries, especially if people are going to buy it. It gives them something to put it in. It may not be your top seller. So if we compare it something cheaper for somebody to buy to, yes, they might not be sending it, but people are buying these things to remember something by. They could be buying it as a gift, but probably more so they're buying it touristy for themselves to remember. So thinking of that by having the postcards and the cards, it might be when I buy those, I put them into like my scrapbook so I can visually remember where I was at. Did I send them to somebody? Maybe like when I was around Europe, we had sent postcards home to family, but that was not typical for us. And some people do that more. The tea towels I see as being trendy and knowing that maps are something that works and I've seen this work for other people. If you stick to the idea of these maps and the illustration of what you're doing, meaning it's recognizable as your brand. I see it and I know, oh, I know that artist, right? Or like that company, this looks like their kind of maps. There's other products long term you could potentially get into. But I think right now it sounds like you've got a winning ticket with knowing who to sell to for wholesale. These wine regions, touristy type shops, these products And I would probably drop the apron. So it could be a good time to sell aprons during the holiday season and then be done with them.
- [20:40]
C
Yeah, and then just continue them. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, I was dividing up my revenue sources like to sort of like see where things were coming from. And of the map gifts, 34% are from gift shops and 30% from wineries, 11% from attractions and then visitor centers. And then, and then it sort of like just gets sort of like divided out, but into the other things like, you know, accommodation or news agents or gift hampers or things like that.
- [21:11]
B
Yeah, exactly. And there's business there. I mean, for now this, you know, because what you can end up doing is your maps could turn into something else. Okay. So by having like the major cities, obviously there's so many tourists, there's tons of places you can sell there. You're not going to run out of that realm. And then we don't have to worry about the future yet because let's just get through the now. So what you have has a lot of opportunity. So what would be helpful to you right now in order to help you get clarity on a plan to focus on? What would, what could I help you with?
- [21:43]
C
Okay, well, I've got 100, I've got 120 retailers right now. I've been putting on my big girl pants and actually calling them to do, you know, reorders and chat with retailers. But I think, you know, a lot of people sort of like worry about cold calling and it's not cold calling because they're already bought from me. But yeah, just getting back to, you know, my customers and sort of like saying, hey, would you like to, you know, place another order? And then if they, they don't then sort of like finding out what the reason might be. Like, you know, like it could be that, you know, tea towels didn't sell or that, you know, they want to concentrate on their own product or whatever. But you know, it actually I was surprised how much actually they don't mind being called, which actually was surprising for me because I was really nervous about calling them. But I've also been increasing my number of, of reaching out to, you know, brand new people that I've never spoken to before. But I'd like to grow my number of retailers to at least 500 across Australia. And as I mentioned, I don't know anything about exporting at this stage, but that would be great.
- [22:48]
B
And you don't have to. I mean, we've got a company right now just in New Zealand doing multiple millions of dollars, only selling to New Zealand. And so you don't have to spread out past Australia and probably do very well. Right. So yes, and I think let's, let's capture that 500. The 500 number. So if we were to say, okay, so I want to talk about the next 90 days, right, we're going through the holiday season. It sounds like you've got some Chris A Christmas market you're doing. You've got three wholesale gift shows. So let's think about what, let's think about what a customer would actually need from, from what you sell you. Sounds like all this other decor and everything else that's on Brighton House decor. Are you sitting on inventory for all of this?
- [23:29]
C
Yeah, I am, I am. I'm, I'm, you know, gradually selling it down. Thank goodness. But no, I still have stuff.
- [23:39]
B
Great. So let's think through the stuff that you have that you want to move that could you create. Like if you, when you go to market, and I'm not saying to go buy anything new, but if you're selling a tea towel, it could be the hostess gift.
- [23:52]
A
Right.
- [23:53]
B
So I want you to think through why someone buys something I would not want Three Melbourne tea towels. I don't need three of the same, so. And a lot of times towels are sold in a pack of two or a pack of four. So you could do offers of, you know, buy more, save more, you know, buy two, get the third 50% off, which ends up making like, you know, 20% off every product or 25ish. So you can do deals like that, you can do hostess gifts. So think about it. A lot of people are going to be going somewhere as a gift. So if there's anything in your inventory, like, I don't know, imagine there was like a spatula or wood spoon or something that, you know, you could take a tea towel, tie it with some twine and put a spoon on it. That's a cute gift to hand someone. So don't necessarily pick the offer that's. I could just stack this together, just to stack it together. But think through how, however you make these offers will solve a problem for your customer. So she's either looking for a gift stocking stuffers or for. Because it's a Christmas show. So people go to these Christmas shows to shop and they're typically not fully shopping for themselves, but if they see something they like, they will buy it as well. So you just need to think, well, what do they need? So it could be the three major Cities. It could be like the wino wine lover one where it has the wine region maps and it has like your most popular wine regions together. And do you have. And it can be for like the wine lover bundle and you call it that. So. So that they're like, oh, like my father in law, if I give, we got him wine for his birthday, he's a wine lover. So I'd be like, oh, that solved a problem for my wine person versus maybe my mother in law is an Australian and I'm like, hey, I want to get her tea towels. And cause one might be for his bar and then the other thing could be, you know, tea towels for her kitchen or for display. And maybe she's loves Australia and so she wants like the major cities, the greeting cards. So greeting card bundles, same thing. How people like to buy packs like sets of 12. But do they want greeting cards and the tea towels together? I don't know that that's the right fit. I know you have it up there, but they're two, they're different customers. You know, I don't know that they need all of the maps and the tea towel and the apron.
- [25:57]
C
Sure. No. Okay. No, I get that. So I've been wrestling with the gift market, the Christmas market. Sort of like wondering whether I just keep my offering really small with not, not, you know, too many sort of like things to choose from so they don't get overwhelmed. But then I also possibly have the option to try and sell some of my smaller things you can literally take away at the market that are my remaining homewares, Brighton house decor. So it might be, I think if.
- [26:27]
B
You make it that it feels, if I walk up and it feels overwhelming, then I'm going to probably walk away. If you could make it feel like a home or kitchen store where if you think about a beautifully curated home or kitchen store and you walk in and there's like the cutlery and plates or like the hostess serving stuff and you're able to integrate the tea towels draped over a hosting serving tray, a host serving tray or a bottle opener near the wine region maps. If you can curate and merchandise, then I think you can mix it. But I don't want you to treat it like a liquidation event because what's going to happen is they're not going to, they're not going to be clear on what they're buying from you. If you just bring all the things.
- [27:06]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Unfortunately, very little of the other things that I've got that might be a small Handful actually make any sense with. With the map details. It's like, you know, like separate separately. They, you know, some of them grouped together would be fine. Like, I've got like a small number of Hamptons type stuff that are, you know, blue and white things.
- [27:28]
B
Well, like you have the candle, blue mercury glass, etched world icons. It's 100 hours. That candle would make sense. By you saying this to me though, means you can see how. If you think none of them kind of go together, then you can definitely see how. How the website would be harder to buy from.
- [27:43]
C
Yeah. So do you think the retail side off. Do you think I should take the resale retail side off for a while?
- [27:50]
B
It's not even for a while. Another thing you can do is you could do a warehouse sale. So I'm not sure where it's all stored. So you can also invite people to come shop the warehouse sale. I'm just saying long term, to liquidate this inventory. You can do warehouse sales to liquidate the inventory. You can put things on ebay, Facebook, marketplace. You know, restaurants might want to buy. Like there's. There's ways that you can liquidate this inventory to get rid of it versus you trying to sell it still as your main focus for your business. But if you. You're seeing success is leaving clues and you're seeing that you're making $32,000 on tea towel maps, it's amazing. There's a whole market there instead of you having a chandelier of colored baubles and Christmas tree ornaments and dog beds. You know, it gets hard to sell all of these different things to all of these different customers. So I think if you go to the Christmas market and you just bring your tea towels, you could have the aprons there because you probably have inventory the cards and you think about bundles and if there's anything from your stuff that you want to bring that you feel like could be takeaways, but doesn't mess up the understanding of the booth. I think you can do that. So that's your market.
- [28:53]
A
Do you see where I led Elizabeth here? We recorded this during the holiday season and at which time she was signed up to do a wholesale trade show and wasn't quite sure what or how she should be selling. But what we did figure out was that she was sitting on inventory that she wanted to clear out. And the easiest way to do that. And when you're signed up for a holiday trade show, well, figure out what your customer actually wants or needs of your product and then create some type of offer around that. It's as simple as that. So while she could just offer three of the same tea towel in a bundle, that wouldn't really make sense because somebody probably isn't going to want three of the exact same towel. So when it comes to crafting offers.
- [29:27]
B
That will sell, just like I told.
- [29:29]
A
Elizabeth, you need to think through how your product or products can solve a problem for the customer and then create an offer or a bundle around that. And I want you to make it simple. The last thing you want is for your customer to like walk up to your booth, see your product in real life, get the offer, get the email, and feel overwhelmed by the bundle. Keep it simple and straightforward. Does that make sense? All right, now let's dig into how Elizabeth can expand her wholesale retailers to reach her goal of 500 retail stores. Hey, friends. Okay, so I don't know if you're anything like me, but sometimes it feels like my self care routine is slipping through the cracks. Because when I'm juggling and wearing all the hats in my business and doing all the things, I mean, the last thing I have to do is like really fulfill that self care routine that my daughter's talking about. She's like, mom, so listen. So when it comes to running a successful business, you can't really pour from an empty cup. And a lot of times that self care is like one of the first things to get yourself recalibrated. So that's why I want you to meet Glossy. Now Glossy is my favorite daily beauty supplement designed to transform your skin and gut health from the inside out. And I'm actually an investor in this business because I, I so believe in this idea of science backed ingredients for digestion and skin hydration. And Glossy makes it really easy to look and feel your best without that whole 10 step routine in the mirror. The thing I don't actually have time for, all I have to do is simply mix a stick into my water.
- [30:53]
B
And I'm good to go.
- [30:54]
A
So if you want to try this, because I so believe in this business, I think it's amazing. It's done so many wonders for my skin and my gut, which are two things that I need help with. And you want to simplify your wellness and your beauty. All you have to do is click in the show notes and you can use the code Jaclyn Snyder. So it's my full name. Use the code Jacqueline Snyder and I'm hooking you up with 15% off your order. So cheers to glowing skin and a thriving business. Hey friends. Are you unsure of what to say on social media or what to even send in your weekly emails? Well, what if creating content could be easy? Would you be looking for a shortcut to creating consistent content? Yes, consistent content. Because, you know, consistency is key. Well, let me tell you, you are not alone when you feel like you're struggling on what to post or what to write in emails. And we know that you have that product part of your business down. But as you're listening to this podcast, you probably already know that to get more people to your products, to buy your products, you need to create great content.
- [31:53]
B
Oh, I know, I see.
- [31:54]
A
I keep saying content, and that's the dreaded C word. And we can't tell you how many product bosses tell us that they want to create great content for their audience and their customers, but they don't know what to say, or they are so busy they can't find the time, or they really, really, really don't want to be the face of their brand. Well, no worries, because that's exactly why we created a year of content. It is your shortcut to creating consistent content that resonates with your audience and brings more loyal customers who can't wait.
- [32:23]
B
To buy your products.
- [32:25]
A
If you want to see how easy this is and how easy it is to create content for your audience and your customers, head to www.yearofcontent.com and then.
- [32:36]
B
Thinking about the 500 retail stores. How long did it take you to get the hundred ish plus that you have now?
- [32:43]
C
Two years.
- [32:44]
B
Okay, and how did you do it? Did you find them? Are you on just contacting them?
- [32:49]
C
So actually I had kind of a head start because I had to put together the maps of all the, the wineries, the hotels and the attractions on it. So because I had all their addresses, I was basically contact them and say, you know, hey, we've illustrated this, you know, for your read region to help boost tourism and you're on it. And so that actually helped get sales quickly because they were illustrated. And you know who doesn't like to be talked about? Although I did discover, which I suppose I should have thought about was like, for example, some of the fancier wineries, like say, you know, Chandon Champagne or whatever, they said, oh no, that, that, that's not our branding and we, we only sell our own product. And so I've actually run into that a bit that of the, of some of the wineries, some of them are going, oh no, no, no, no, we only want to sell our own thing. And so I think okay. But there's still, you know, the gift shops in, in the, the region itself. So out of the, out of the 15 regions, there's 45 locations on each, which is, you know, makes over, I don't know, 600 potential retailers before you get to gift. So I've got that.
- [33:59]
B
So in order to have a plan for you to get into the 500 retailers, we just have to basically create a plan. So what I want you to do for your current retailers, from what you said is what you did is exactly what they want you to do. They want you to call them, they want to be reminded to come by again. They don't have time. They're the same as you. They're busy. They're also trying to run a business, they're trying to make sales. They're overwhelmed. And by you popping into their inbox or making a phone call makes it one less thing that they have to think about. So I know it's more uncomfortable for you, but it's the way to actually like your retail partners are real relationship that you can create. So I want you to come up with a cadence. I want you to come up with a once a month, ish time that or maybe you take your list and you're like, every week I contact 30 of my stores and I check in and it's like every Wednesday you contact 30 of the stores. And whether it's an email, a DM, a quick phone call, like whatever you want it to be, you do a check in or, you know, you might also have a cadence. You're like, they place their first order and usually I can expect a reorder 45 days later. So then you might also have some sort of tracking system that you're like, they bought from me. And at 30 days later I contact them. Because if they reorder at 45 days, let me get a head start, contact them and then have them then have time to place the order. And then I can let them know if there's something new or if there's an offer or hey, let's get this stuff in your shop before the holidays. So the first part for you, feeling like you've got clarity and a plan is to set some sort of repeat cadence for you to follow up with your retailers and look at the metrics. So they reordered X amount of days. Great. Then I'm going to, you know, shorten that timeline by a bit. Because the thing is, is you don't have to do very much more. You just need them to keep buying from you and you'll increase your revenue. So if you can get your current customers to buy more, you don't need acquisition. So it's not that we have to double and double and double. We just need to tweak like small percentage points, get one more store to reorder from you again. And that's just in your follow up and follow through.
- [35:56]
A
You don't know how many are not.
- [35:57]
B
Buying from you just because they' busy and they forgot.
- [35:59]
C
Yeah, look. Yes, true, true. And, and there's another reason actually to keep contacting them because someone who may have rejected you originally could have left and the new person likes it. So I went back into a gift shop that specializes in Australiana stuff. Not, you know, stuff, koalas, but, you know, decent stuff. And she was actually one of my very first customers because I'd asked her advice on how to package and so on. And then she says, oh, you, they're not really moving. I'm not, I'm not going to, you know, buy any more. And then I went back in and showed her the new Melbourne one. She said, oh, no, I will actually get these. And she hasn't placed her order yet, but she'd, you know, said no after she placed her first order two years ago. So I've just, you know, got brave and gone back.
- [36:50]
A
Yeah.
- [36:50]
B
And I think, I think the other thing I want you to do is your best buyers. You can get feedback from them and say the current price point. You don't have to say that it's been whatever your margins have been. You can just say you're negotiating with suppliers and what price point do they feel like these would fly off the shelves more at? Because I'll be honest, I buy expensive things and $30 for one towel. The reason why I would buy it is again, the touristy keepsake part. Like, just to remember. So I want you to, you could start to get feedback from them and your new prices can take place in the new year if you want, or you can do them for the holiday season. But you have margin in there to find a number that has less of a objection or obstacle.
- [37:35]
A
This is gonna be exciting. Elizabeth really wants to grow her list of retail stores to hit 500. And while she's doing great so far, she's going to need a plan and a cadence to reach her goal. As I told Elizabeth, if you really want to grow your wholesale, you have to be willing to do the outreach to potential retailers. You just have to like, we're not going to sit passively by Anymore. And the best way to do this is by setting a daily or weekly goal outreach number and then actually doing it right. We actually want to do it like we don't only want to set the goals, we actually have to take action and set a plan to that. So while I know, I know this might feel uncomfortable, this is actually the easiest and quickest way to get your products into different stores. And when you start to outreach and you land these retailers, I don't want you to forget to have a tracking spreadsheet or system so that once they buy from you, you can follow up with them after a set number of days to help them reorder.
- [38:22]
B
Right.
- [38:22]
A
There's, there's a whole process to working wholesale and buying and retailers buying from you. But what we really want is we want to make sure that they're repeat customers. I want you to remember the more repeat customers you have, the higher your revenue is, which means the less new retailers you need to acquire. Now I go deeper into this inside of multi stream machine and I know so many students are in there right now, but right now I just want to share with you the basics of how you can start to successfully do wholesale outreach. Right now we're going to jump into wrapping up this coaching session.
- [38:51]
B
So I think you have a really great product. I'm excited to see what happens when you actually focus on this, this product category because I feel like you've struck gold with this. It's going to be way easier for you to wrap your mind around map products in Australia on different types of stuff and your expansion will be there versus the decor part of your business which was like costly to buy all of the stuff, different ways of shipping, marketing in different ways. It was like a lot more spaghetti at the wall than this, which will feel very clear and focused because you know who you're selling to, what you're selling. You're not get really good at that. And then you could think about expanding the collection when you have more data points.
- [39:28]
C
Okay. All right, great. All right, let's give me some things to work with. Excellent. Thank you.
- [39:33]
B
So for my friends in Australia, since you only ship in Australia, but how can we follow you and buy from you?
- [39:39]
C
If you go to brightonhousedecor.com you can order there and yeah, I can't think about wholesale right now, but yes, okay.
- [39:49]
B
Any Aussie shops can reach out and then you're also on Instagram and we'll drop that in the show notes. Thank you so much for sharing your coaching with everyone and for being Coached by me.
- [40:00]
A
Well, I really loved working with Elizabeth and I'm so excited for her because I think she has an incredible product that she's going to be able to scale and expand much easier than the decor part of her business. I'm sure you could see that, too. Now, the main theme here is that if she wants to grow her tea towel collection and make more sales in her business, then she needs to start first by looking at her pricing, then determine her offers for in person events so that they convert her inventory into cash and increase her wholesale outreach to get more retailers. Now, if she's able to implement what we discussed today, then I know she'll be able to expand her business in no time because she's already focused and clear on what she's selling and who she's selling to, which is absolutely amazing. So don't forget that you need to stay focused, my friends. Staying focused is the fuel to your sales engine. That is the very, very, very first part. We need you to stay focused in your business before you can expand. Otherwise you're going to just keep feeling like you're throwing spaghetti at the wall or you're filling the gas tank of a car engine with no engine inside of it. No, you're filling the gas tank of a car with no engine inside of it. Right. What's the point of putting fuel in there if there's no engine to get you going? And that's really why I want to help her build this additional sales engine. When it comes to wholesale. I know you can do this. I believe in you and I hope you believe in yourself, too. So come back for the next episode. Make sure you're following the show. And if I. Please, please, please, please, would you mind hopping over and leaving a review? Especially on Apple podcasts, It just really helps the show reach more students around the world so they can benefit the same as you. Remember, we're all about collaboration over competition here at the product boss. All right, my friends, until next time.