After several months of posting about selling wholesale to gift shops, I thought you might like to know more about my business. Currently, I am a semi-retired sales rep – semi-retired because I have limited my road travel and moved most of my business on-line. I starting my rep business, Idaho Gifts Wholesale in...
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Tips from My Personal Experiences as a Sales Representative
After working for nearly nine years as an independent sales representative to the gift industry, I could share plenty of interesting stories about producers and gift shops. I doubt that I have “seen it all”, but there are some pretty interesting stories to be told! All and all, I have loved working as a...
Items to Address on an Independent Manufacturers’ Sales Representative Agreement
The first system to implement when working with sales representatives is a standardized or template sales agreement form. A template where you only need to change a few of the details is very handy when using more than one sales rep or rep firm. Here are some of the points you need to cover...
Tools for Your Sales Representative
Working with a sales rep or sales rep organization to sell your products will give you the freedom to work on your business and make more of your unique products. However, there are a few things you will need to provide your rep to help them sell your products. • Flyers or Price Sheets:...
Where to Find Sales Reps – Part Two
In Part One, we talked about different referral methods to find sales reps. In this part, we can talk about where we can find different sales reps and sales rep organizations. Most of these options allow you, the producer or crafter, to talk personally with a rep, see their current line of products, and...
Where to Find Sales Reps for Your Gift Products — Part One
The most frequent question I receive from producers is “where can I find a sales rep for my products”. Of course, finding where sales reps “hang out” is as illusive as it sounds. But there are places where you can find good referrals. In this article we will explore some of the simpler ways...
What is a Manufacturer’s Sales Representative?
A Manufacturer’s Representative, also called manufacturer’s agent, manufacturer’s rep, sales representative, or sales rep – or more commonly, just “rep” – is a self-employed salesperson who contracts direct selling and marketing services to one or more related, but normally non-competitive, companies in a particular industry. The job of a rep is basically to “represent”...
Who are the Different Entities Involved with Selling to Gift Shops?
Deciding to sell your products to gift stores can be overwhelming if you are not familiar to the roles and ‘players’ in the industry. For example, should you hire a sales rep or a wholesaler or a distributor to sell your products? And what is the difference between the three? So before we start...
Suggestions for when Buyer don’t Buy
If, after reading through these points, you find your handcrafted item does not seem to measure up, don’t give up. You have several options: • Ask for feedback from the gift store buyers as to what would make your product work in their store. You might be surprised at the advice you may receive...
When Gift Buyers Don’t Buy
Sometimes gift shop buyers don’t buy products! No matter how great and unique your product is or no matter how professional your packaging and presentation is, there will be times when you won’t even be able to interest a buyer in talking to you. Besides the tremendous competition with other professional crafters to get...
Matching Your Product to the Gift Shops Motif
Another way to make your products more appealing to gift shop buyers is to make sure that your items fit the particular store’s motif. Like I have said before, gift shops are all different. Some specialize in a particular type of item or theme, such as western products, local items etc. Most gift shops...
Make a Professional First Impression
You can make and sell some of the hottest crafted item on the market, but if you or your presentation does not look professional, you are not likely to sell your products. Sounds harsh, but true! Gift buyers are approached my numerous producers and over the course of time, they will eliminate some of...
How to Find, Recruit and Manage Sales Reps EGuide!
Complete E-Guide for Selling to Gift Shops
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