Tips on Selling Large Volume 

This chapter will deal with some ideas for selling in large quantities, once you have established your sources of supply. The main topics discussed will be setting up a network of sales reps, marketing through the mail, and selling to retail stores and other businesses. 

In this chapter, we will discuss how you can really profit from these new wholesale sources which you now have. We will show you how to turn this knowledge into large profits for your new business. At this point, you already have the information needed to set up your own business. You should start all the application procedures right away for your own business, but in the meantime you can already begin contacting your suppliers. 

The best way to test out the products from a supplier is to order their catalog, if they have one you can use, and begin showing it to your family and friends. This will give you a preliminary feeling about the appeal of the products. Some of the wholesalers (such as National Wholesale Company) will have un-imprinted catalogs that list the retail prices. This is a great tool for you in your testing stage, because you can show the catalog around and even offer discounts off of the retail price to see if anyone will actually purchase the products. It's one thing if someone tells you they like a particular product; it's completely different if they actually pay for the product. 

This technique of showing the catalog to family, friends and even co-workers and taking orders from them has another advantage besides giving you a good feeling of the market for these products: it also is a way for you to start making some money right away in your business. You can actually take the money from your new customers before you place the order. Then you place your order with the wholesale company, and have them ship the product directly to your customers, if they offer this service (National Wholesale Company is one that offers this service). 

The other important advantage to beginning your business with family and friends is that it builds up your confidence in running your own business. Once you see how easy it is to makes sales when you offer a good deal to people, you will have the confidence to proceed to the next step: marketing to the public at large. 

To generate a lot of sales, it is obvious that you must do more than just sell directly to individuals on your own. You must expand your market beyond your own territory of friends and acquaintances. It is a good idea to begin with your friends and family to get some initial feedback on your products. However, you must move into a larger market to really make your business worthwhile. 

Setting Up a Network of Sales Reps 

One of the simplest ways to expand is through a network of sales reps. you can offer to pay someone a commission of 15-20% for every sale they make. This allows you to keep anywhere from 20-30% for yourself. All you do is provide catalogs to the sales reps (you can even sell them the catalogs so that you don't have to take on that expense). They take the orders and give them to you, so that you can order from the supplier. Many suppliers will then ship the products directly to the customer, which means you don't have to handle the products yourself. You can see that even though you are making less money on each sale (about 25% versus the 50% you'd make if you sold directly to a customer), you are making more money overall if you have many sales reps working for you. 

To find sales reps, you can start with your family and friends. Many of them might be happy to show a catalog around to some of their acquaintances, if they can make some money on the side. After starting that way, you can branch out by placing some classified ads in the paper or magazines to find sales reps. Write something simple, such as "Need to make some extra money? Here's a simple way (telephone or address)". Or you could be more explicit: "Make extra money by selling a huge line of fast-selling gift items. Details, contact (telephone or address)". Look at some magazines and you'll get some ideas for how the ads are written.