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Preparing For a Gift Store Sales Presentation

INTRODUCTION

Preparing the materials and systems needed for your first gift sales presentations is the most important task you need to accomplish before visiting your first potential retail store buyer. Most people assume the hardest work goes into making the product, but if time is not spent developing and setting up the systems you need to wholesale BEFORE you visit your first buyer, you will find yourself in a confusing and overwhelming mess! And you will look very unprofessional to your potential buyers!

RETAIL/WHOLESALE PRICE STRUCTURE

As a general rule of thumb, your wholesale price should be 50% of your retail price. If it is less, you will have a difficult time selling your products wholesale. Often, it will take some work to make sure there are adequate margins for you both and the gift retailer.

Here is a formula to use when determining pricing for your products:

First step is determining your cost per unit. Costs include the following:
o Ingredients or raw materials
o Processing or assembly of raw materials
o Packaging and labeling
o Shipping of raw materials to your place of business

Second step is to determine the retail or selling price of your item to the consumer. Using a competitor’s selling price is a starting point to ensure you are in the same price range. From the selling price, you work backwards to arrive at the wholesale price you should charge.

From the retail or selling price, subtract the retail and distributor or sales rep margins. Most retailers in the gourmet foods industry use a margin of 40%, whereas gift retailers use a 50% margin. Distributor margins are generally 25-35%, and broker or sales rep commissions are general 15%. Even if you currently do not use distributors, brokers or sales reps, these margins should be included in your pricing. As you grow and add these services, you want to have your pricing in place.

As a manufacturer, you should aim to retain a 40% gross margin. This gross margin must be large enough to cover overhead, administrative costs and marketing expenses.

Example:

If the retail or selling price is $5.00, total manufacturing costs per unit are $1.40 and the manufacturer pays shipping costs of 5 cents per unit, you would sell your product to the distributor for $2.20.

PAYMENT TERMS

Typical standard payment terms for selling to gift stores are Net 30 days. In other words, you deliver or ship your products and in 30 days the retailer will pay for the order.

Credit card payment is another standard payment method which is becoming more popular with gift store buyers.

Other payment terms which are not as common are as follows:

o Pay via PayPal. In the eight years I have been a sales rep, I have not seen a store use this option, but it is available if you have a PayPal account
o 2% Net 10. If the store pays their bill in ten days rather than 30 days, they can deduct 2% from the total due.
o Net 60 or 90 days. In the event that you wish to get your product on the shelf quickly, but have the cash flow to wait longer for payment, this is a good option. I used Net 60-90 to promote early sales during a very slow season.
o Pay half the invoice amount when the order is shipped or delivered and pay the balance due in 30 days. I used this option with a store that was historically late with their payments.
o COD or cash on delivery. If you deliver your products, this option will probably work, but I don’t recommend it if you are shipping.

Which ever terms you decide to use, remember to investigate all your options and be well prepared when offering payment options to your potential buyers.

SALES AND ORDERING MATERIALS

Sales material for the retail store buyer is very different from the color brochure you may hand out to consumers. Gift store buyers want to know five basis facts about ordering your products:

1. What does it look like?
2. How much does it cost?
3. What is the minimum order?
4. What are your terms?
5. How do I re-order?

Your sales material should answer all these questions.

Simple, but effective, sales materials can be created on your computer. Start with a picture of your products and make sure you include all the information that answers the five questions above: List unit and case costs, minimum amount for orders, ALL the terms you will accept, and your contact information (phone, fax, email and website). Sales sheets can be copied and left with buyers.

Write your orders in sales order books which can be purchased at any office supply store. Two copy sales order or general order books work best as you can use the top for your records and a second copy for your buyer. Rather than having the sales books personalized (an expensive process), you can print a small label to adhere to the buyers sales order copy that includes your name and contact information. Leave this copy with the buyer.

If you are able to buy or create business cards, give one to the buyer or store manager. Business cards make your company look more professional.

DELIVERY SYSTEMS

Determining how you will get your products to the retail outlets is often an overlooked point in the wholesale sales system. You can give a perfect presentation to gift store buyers, but if you don’t have a delivery system, your products will never make it to the shops!

Listed below are a few options to getting your products into the store.

1. Deliver the products yourself. If you have a small territory to cover, delivering your products is not a bad idea.
2. You can hire a distributor to handle your products. Often, with this scenario, you would sell your products to a distributor at a deep discount who would warehouse and distribute them via their system.
3. You can ship your products to the retail outlets. This is the most common way to get your products to the shops. With this option, it is customary to bill the retail outlet for the shipping while you pay for the cost of packing your products.

If you decide to ship, make sure to check out the shippers available in your area. UPS, Federal Express and US Postal Service are three very reliable shipping vendors. Each company has their own requirements for packaging, insurance and delivery time. You should acquaint yourself with the specifics of all the companies you plan to use. Most freight companies have websites where you can open an account and print labels right from your computer.

BOOKKEEPING AND DATABASE SYSTEMS

Setting up a good system to track your gift store buyers and your sales is necessary to maintain your sales records.

Bookkeeping Systems: QuickBooks is the most commonly used computer bookkeeping system available. You can use QuickBooks to invoice, track sales, expenses, accounts payable (what you owe people) and accounts receivable (what people owe you!).

If you decide to use QuickBooks, you have the option of using QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Premier for Manufacturers. Pro version is the standard basic bookkeeping system whereas Premier will allow you to track inventory and cost of good sold (cost to manufacture your products).

Or if you wish to use just a very simple system to keep track of sales, Microsoft Excel gives you the option to list each sale and payment dates.

Database Systems: Depending how intricate of a system you want, there are several different options for database systems. Microsoft Access has many field options depending on how much information you wish to retain and gives you the option to print mailing labels if you want to send newsletters to your buyers.

QuickBooks has an add-on program called Customer Manager which can manage more advanced customer information such as recent contacts, phone messages, calendar notes, and TO DO lists.

Lots of customer management systems are available, just like there are more bookkeeping systems you can use. The important point is to use what will work best for you and meets your business needs.

FOLLOW UP AND RE-ORDERING SYSTEM

If you have followed my suggestions so far, you should have the beginnings of your re-order system in place.

One of the first places a buyer will look for re-order information will either be by referencing your invoices or your order receipts. Including your contact information, email, phone, address, and website (if you have one) on these forms is critical to ensure the buyer will be able to re-order from you. And if you have left your business card with the buyer, even better!

So you set up all these systems… left all the appropriate products and materials with the buyer… and now your wait to hear back from the buyer….. WRONG!! Buyers are very busy people and will seldom call you with a re-order (although, I have been wrong about this!). Often times, your product will sell out, be filled with another product, and the buyer will forget your product was there originally!

Keep in touch with your buyers. I recommend that you call about 30 days after they receive your order. Check to see if your products arrived promptly and in good condition and that they are satisfied with the order. Buyer’s answers will give you some clues as to how well your products are selling. You might ask them when you should check back with them. Or just call again in another 30-45 days depending on how well they tell you the products are selling.

If you have added each customer to a database such as Microsoft Access or Excel or one of the customer management software programs, you can tract and schedule when you should follow up with each account. Personally, I use a mix of Microsoft Access and Outlook to remind me.

Follow up is very important, like I said, as buyers can and will lose track of your and your products if you don’t!!

CONCLUSION

Simple planning and implementing systems BEFORE you make your first sales presentation will aid you in keeping accurate records and keeping a professional profile when visiting gift store buyers.

Sandy Dell is an experienced independent sales representative for the gift industry. Having operated her own business for over eight years, she has gain valuable knowledge in working with gifts store buyers and producers. She is also co-owner of Gourmet Innovations which makes gourmet foods and gifts. “I have been on both sides of the counter”, she tells her buyers. More than that, she understands the needs of the producer and the gift buyer and knows how to communicate to both groups!

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Win More Negotiations By Not Fearing Compromise

When you negotiate, do you fear compromise? Do you know the best way to compromise in a negotiation?

Too many times, negotiators lose deals either because they don’t compromise, or they don’t know how to do so in the right way. Read this article and you’re sure to pick up some tips as to how to compromise in your negotiations.

Test Compromise Request:
Negotiation Tip: When you’re asked to make a compromise, first question the intent of the request; you really need to know why it’s being made. If you believe it stems from greed, physically display contemplation. Then ask why you’re being asked for the compromise. In so doing, you’ll gain insight into the mental thought process of the other negotiator, which will allow you to make assumptions about his future request (i.e. you can prepare for them). If you feel the compromise is unwarranted, deny it, give a reason if that’s appropriate, and move on. If you do grant it, find out what else might be associated with the request before doing so. You don’t want to make one compromise after another, not knowing when the requests will end.

Compromise Slowly:
When compromising, do so slowly. First, by doing so, you slow the pace of the negotiation. Second, you display non-verbally, that you’re ‘weighing’ the perspectives of your contemplation. In essence, you’re sending the signal that you’re not being flippant per the request and you’re giving it the thought process so do. By not compromising quickly you also send the signal that the other negotiator should be cautious about making too many requests.

Leave Room for Compromise:
When making compromises, consider alternatives to what’s being asked for and the impact that such will have on the negotiation. Just because the other negotiator ask for ‘x’ doesn’t mean he really wants it. He may be testing you to see what he can get from you. If that’s the case, in some situations you may want to make the concession (compromise) as a setup to a request you dearly wish him to grant you. In such situations, use compromises statically. Regardless, don’t be haphazard with them and always leave room for compromise.

Never Fear Asking:
When it comes to seeking more of what you want in a negotiation, don’t fear asking for it. Some negotiators feel, if they ask for too much, they might lose what they’ve already received. That can be true, but if you preference your request with humility, you can take the potential sting out of your request. The way to do so might be saying something like, ‘I appreciate getting to the point of where we are, might you be able to give ‘x’ to slightly improve the deal?’ If you make your request in this manner very few negotiators would assess you as being belligerent.

Fear not when it comes to compromising during a negotiation. There are a myriad of ways to position your request such that you gain more by doing so, while leaving the other negotiator in a positive frame of mind. Implement the thoughts above during your negotiations and more of your requests will be granted… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

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Sales Presentation Skills Tips – Selling Techniques to Increase Sales of Insurance

Sales presentation skills and selling techniques are only valuable to sales of insurance if the agent knows about them. Revealed will be some insurance sales presentation skills, and also tips and selling techniques on how they should be applied. Read on.

New insurance agents are given minimal training. The exception is learning how to attempt setting up an appointment and what the company wants them to say when they are on a presentation. Both are “century old” scripts that their sales manager requires agents to learn without any variation. Of course, because a few agents before them progressed using these same identical rehearsed techniques then old logic says they must be effective. That is fine if you have exactly the right type of people you are trying to make presentations with.

Unfortunately, this is the real world with all kinds of people with a wide variety of reactions.

Insurance sales presentation prospecting can be a career ending process without the necessary skills. If you learn selling techniques using a pre-set script for prospecting, you are setting yourself up for failure. Even though you have learned responses to almost every objection, you have not learned the key lesson for successful sales presentation making.

When to stop talking

Every person is a suspect, very few are potential prospects. Of the potential prospects, occasionally you will have a person to set up an appointment with. Therefore sales presentation skills become priceless.

Talking and talking will get you nowhere. You were instructed how to talk, but the best insurance sales representatives are very keen listeners. The majority of people do not want to suddenly agree to immediately consider buying more insurance. Look at a 20% closing rate by seeing 8 week prospects a week. That translates to about 34 presentations monthly and around 7 sales. An experienced agent chooses by careful listening, the correct style of prospect to meet. Therefore, maybe only 6 to 7 quality prospects are seen, but applying selling techniques 50% are closed. The final results are drastically different. 28 monthly presentations and 14 sales. Less time was exhausted by professional insurance presentation skills, and not being afraid to risk being fussy. Double the sales were made.

The easy solution.

First realize that everyone is not ready to make a commitment to listen to you give an insurance sales presentation. Next, understand that getting objections after objection means you are letting the person wear you down with excuses. Bad sales presentation appointments and long conversations will only lead to defeat. Keep remembering there are countless people who need your service. Listening carefully will quickly tell you, which ones.

Sales Techniques Advice: When to Close

So many lost insurance sales occur because the representative will not stop talking. Increase your sales of insurance by not feeling that you always have to give your entire presentation. This also goes for describing the 101 benefits people can derive from purchasing the plan you are presenting. Here again, the culprit is less talking and more listening and looking for buying signals. Go to the presentation with the idea that the prospect already wants to buy from you. You do not need to battle, over sell, or talk on and on.

Back when I was an insurance sales person in my prime, there were many times when I was finalizing a sales application within 10 minutes. There were also quite a few, when I decided to leave after 10 minutes. As a sales manager watching a newer agent attempt sales presentation skills, often I had to kick the agent’s foot. The person had already given the buying signs, it was time to quit talking and start writing out the application.

Best Sales Presentation Skills Advice: Convince your prospect that you are trustworthy and reasons how that prospect’s particular emotional needs will be filled. Then stop the presentation!

Adapt your prospecting and sales presentation skills to each individual person. Only say or ask what you need, and you will quickly know when you have spoken enough. In sales of insurance, remember that an 80% closing average beats a 20% closing ratio all the time.

Too much talk will get you balk. Listen, learn, and earn.

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