Five Steps to Wholesale Business Success
While maintaining good relationships with retailers is one of the key to succeeding in the wholesale industry, there are other ways to boost business growth and turn your company into a business success story. From building relationships, to using great shelving systems, to watching margins, use these five proven strategies to enhance the performance of your wholesale business.
1. Commitment to Your Product
Finding products you can be passionate about helps you stay focused and motivated during the drive to distribute. Very few products actually do sell themselves. If you’re indifferent about your goods, then your lack of passion will show and it may be that much more difficult to demonstrate its relevance and potential in the retail market. To sell a product, you have to know how it can bring value to others.
Key questions to ask when looking for products that you’ll be able to sell:
- Why is there a market for this product?
- Why will people find it useful?
- Why will demand be enough to justify building a wholesale business around it?
- What are the margins likely to be?
2. Margins
If you’re completely new to wholesaling, then it’s especially important that you’ll be able to provide good margins on your products to retailers. Take into their overhead costs into account. The secret is to find a product that will attract consumers and that which has a margin that will please retailers.
Consider these factors which can influence product margins for you and your retailers:
- Freight and transport costs
- Season or cyclical demand issues that can affect consumer’s willingness to pay a higher price
- Other overhead costs, such as energy prices
3. Building Relationships with Retailers
Getting personal and building long term relationships is key to wholesale business success. Preserve your reputation and customer service even as you reach out and connect with more retailers.
- Reputation – some wholesale industries can be rather insular, with only a number of key players. Often it’s important to stay aware of your business reputation and proactively encourage a positive image by always delivering what you promise.
- Selling yourself as a partner – selling yourself as a partner to retailers is a positive way to build relationships. Let them know that you’ll work to meet their interests as well as your own where possible.
- Getting personal – a team of trusted sales staff helps put a personal face to your company. Great sales people know how to build good relationships by keeping in touch and getting feedback.
4. Stock and Delivery
Logistics is crucial in wholesale business success. Staying vigilant about lead and delivery times will ensure customers obtain their order on time. Improve efficient by using a warehouse management system for your stock as your business expands. Great storage solutions, such as pallet racking, can maximise your storage space and reduce unnecessary overheads.
5. Marketing
Consider lots of different marketing channel for your goods. If you’re in a niche market, trade shows are one of the best ways to reach new retailer clients. Some other ideas for marketing include:
- Periodic full product range catalogues that make it easy for retailers to see what you have and what they want.
- Different marketing strategies for different product streams can improve the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.
- Work closely with your sales staff for extra ideas about how to approach marketing for specific clients.