For a wholesaler, how one breaks into retail is something that continues to evolve, well, sort of. Today, we post new products on social media, create dedicated websites, place our line of goods on wholesale platforms like Faire, and look up buyers on LinkedIn. One might think that all of these digital marketing options may greatly increase the odds of reaching a buyer and getting an order. But wait, not so fast.
As it turns out, getting in front of a buyer—just learning who they are—is, as it has always been, the hard part. Then, with a name, being lucky enough to get a few seconds of his or her time to look at your products. Again, tough.
This is the part that’s unpredictable. What may work in one instance, may never get you off the ground in another. What does a wholesaler who’s just starting out to do? Everything: post, email, write, just show up, mail, and most effective? The phone.
There is nothing like a live voice on the other end that offers you a chance, in a few seconds, to get a buyer’s name, an email, and make an impression. More often than not—and because everyone else is mass emailing—a call directly to the source puts you in front of the line where there is not a lot of competition buzzing around.
Emails can end up in spam along with newsletters, and a generic approach can be a turn off, in spite of an attempt to personalize. Not that an email won’t get you a response, but my experience has been that calling and briefly chatting is one of the best ways to get in the door, time consuming as it might be.
Don’t give up on the phone. Call, connect, person to person, human to human. It still works. And you may be surprised how far you get with just one phone call.
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