Advice needed on business letter to retailers.

pinky 06

Hello,

I was hoping to get a bit of advice on a letter I'm sending to potential retailers of my items. I have spent a lot of time on it and sent it out to a few retailers and I got a bit of business which is great, but I'm not sure it sounds businesslike enough or that potential retailers of my stock will take me seriously. I was wondering would anyone be able to take a quick look at it if I could pm it to someone? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Pinky.

sawdoubters

its better face to face with product in hand and display case

Bandara

sawdoubters wrote: »

its better face to face with product in hand and display case

Better you do both

Send the letter and call in soon afterwards.

pinky 06

I've gone in face to face with my products to the shops in my town and a couple of the smaller towns around me, but for the ones down the country I wanted to send a good letter that sounds professional.

jimmii

As a retailer we get stuff in the post all of the time and I can remember us actually ordering from one of those companies once. Just go in we don't mind people coming in like that sometimes people call ahead to check if its ok but often people just walk in and more importantly we REALLY want great new products so if you have something you think is great we want to know about it! Do try and make it a Monday or Tuesday so its a little quieter and try and give yourself a good bit of time with each person and don't just talk about the product talk about the general idea and your inspiration for it etc people aren't just buying products any more they like to know the story to go with it too.

Peterdalkey

OP, please send me a copy by Private Messgae and I will have a look. I also have a couple of other maketing ideas that I am happy to give you.

Peter

pinky 06

Peterdalkey wrote: »

OP, please send me a copy by Private Messgae and I will have a look. I also have a couple of other maketing ideas that I am happy to give you.

Peter

Thanks a million!

sandin

As bandara said, letter - possibly with a slight;y different twist such as snazzy envelope along with tea bag and Kit-Kat and opening line

"Take a break and have a quick look at what I am doing" - give a very brief outline of what you are selling, just enough to arouse interest and say, "I will be in contact over the next few days and if you are interested in know more, I'd appreciate if you took the call - If its not of interest, thanks for reading and enjoy the treat"

Very simple and cost effective and will at least bring a smile - obviously it will also help as a business will see that you market yourself to them well, and this would mean potentially you market your product just as well to the consumer.

pinky 06

sandin wrote: »

As bandara said, letter - possibly with a slight;y different twist such as snazzy envelope along with tea bag and Kit-Kat and opening line

"Take a break and have a quick look at what I am doing" - give a very brief outline of what you are selling, just enough to arouse interest and say, "I will be in contact over the next few days and if you are interested in know more, I'd appreciate if you took the call - If its not of interest, thanks for reading and enjoy the treat"

Very simple and cost effective and will at least bring a smile - obviously it will also help as a business will see that you market yourself to them well, and this would mean potentially you market your product just as well to the consumer.

That's a great idea! Even just using a different coloured envelope to make it stand out. Thanks.

BillyBoy13

Pinky. Im a business owner and see quite a few letters coming through the door like yours. I get some stuff thats related to what I do but I get a lot of stuff that's completely unrelated- advertisements for new revolutionary blender someone is trying to launch, hand made model figures from your favourite films and built to your spec etc

Anyway if you want me to have a quick read of your letter and let you how it fares out amongst the others I see/get then work away.

Peterdalkey

I have seen the letter which begged the following observations and comments. Pinky has kindly given me the nod to post here as some may be of use to others going down the same road.

Firstly I don’t think you are ready to send out the letter yet!! You will only get one opportunity to make a great first impression, you need all your ducks in a row to give yourself the best fighting chance.

Please understand the following is all meant to be a helpful critique and not negative feedback. The letter needs a rewrite but we can get around to that later.

Some basics:
Are you registered for VAT? If not most retailers will have to add VAT?
Do you have a minimum order quantity/value?
Are you offering credit, if not how are they to pay?
Have you included for delivery charges and costed- in transit packaging?
Do you have a structured price list for your products? With volume discounts for larger orders? s

Your FB page may be fine for retail type users but is a far too unprofessional for a business seller.
I hate the tablecloth display on your main pic!!
I hate the competitor product JEWEL thingy being on your site!

You need to set up even the most basic website, Take at look at this http://www.gettingbusinessonline.ie/. Find some web savvy whiz kid to help with a bit of layout and design using decent quality images. You may need a new name !! http://www.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com/contact-us.html

Are you working with your Enterprise Board?

Are you tuned in with the Irish Craft Council http://www.ccoi.ie/ & https://www.facebook.com/craftinireland?

I think that is more than enough to be getting on with!! You can email me directly with any questions and I will do my best to help.

mneylon

I haven't seen the letter, but like a lot of others I get sent plenty of marketing material unsolicited.

You need to catch the recipient's attention long enough to get your message across.

Think out of the box

At a recent event I was at one of the vendors was offering $1 off. Instead of opting for the "simple" route of providing a coupon code they had stuck a $1 note onto their literature.


Obviously you're going to be limited to a certain degree by your budget, but if you can invest some time and effort in tweaking the wording and the design then it's worth it.

Remember the first impression you make is key. If you give a bad first impression it's going to be a lot harder for you to turn things around later

pedroeibar1

Reading between the lines of PeterD's post suggests that you have much to do on ‘image’.

You do not mention if you have costed the exercise? Assume a 4% return rate and say a 25% conversion rate (obtaining an order). So you mail out 100 shots, four responses are received and 25% i.e. just one actually buys (fairly average figures). If that sale is worth €1,000 at a profit margin of 45% per sale, you will make €450. If the costs for the mailing exceed €450, you will fail to break-even. However, you are getting your business name/product range out there and in front of people, which has a value.

If you decide to go ahead, when everything is ready, if your operation is small, I would send out small batches in a targeted way (plan to have the shots arrive Tuesday or Wednesday when people are less busy) and state in the mailshot that you will telephone as a follow-up. Then do that, but do not call at a busy time if dealing with retail. That should increase the 4% response figure.

Code the letters. In another life (in USA) I sent hundreds of thousands of B2B mailshots every year with a coded response coupon. A couple of years after each mailshot we were still receiving responses - reason being recipient said 'that looks interesting' and left it to one side; a couple of years later when they needed the product they dug out the mailshot and responded. (Amazing what people will keep in a tray /on a shelf in the 'must read that properly sometime category!) By coding the shots you can build up an efficiency profile that can be used to modify/tailor newer shots.