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Dealing with Wholesalers - Quick Tip
By businessbroad | March 18, 2007
When you contact wholesalers, remember that even though you’re the customer, many of them are as concerned about you as you are about them. While many companies will sell to anyone, some will actively interview and grill you before giving you access to their pricing and terms. For that reason, I’d like to offer a few tips from my own experiences.
-Never bring up the fact that you’re an online retailer. Even if you have a retail store, just don’t even mention the online retail thing. Tell them if they ask, but if you offer it, you’re just giving them a reason not to take you seriously. There are too many old-fashioned people in the world.
-When you contact them, do so by phone if at all possible. At least 50% of your e-mails will go unanswered, and plenty more will be answered verrrrrry slooooowly. It’s irritating, to say the least. In a perfect world, businesses would only offer e-mail addresses if they actually intended to answer their e-mails.
-Once you’re talking to them, sound like you’re on the ball. Tell them that you’re in the midst of ongoing shopping for new items to add to your product lineup, and that you’d like to know where to fax your reseller license and catalog request. Most of the time, they won’t even want your license. They’ll just take down your name, number, and address, and send the catalog. Because you’ve presented yourself as a true professional, you’re less likely to be subjected to the usual hassles.
If anyone else has any tips, I’d be glad to hear them. Understand that I’m not saying you should actively attempt to deceive companies. I’m just saying that you want to reveal information on a need-to-know basis. Employees are imperfect creatures with all kinds of issues, and life is a lot easier when people perceive you favorably.
Topics: Tricks of the Trade |