Author: Karen Waksman

Karen Waksman, Founder and CEO of Retail MBA, is an Entrepreneur Magazine, MSNBC and New York Times Company go to retail expert on the subject of selling to retailers! Karen has sold millions of units of products to the world’s largest retailers and has taught 1000’s of product companies across the country on the subject of selling to retailers at places such as CES (Consumer Electronics Show), US Patent Office, Stanford University, International Home and Housewares Show and so many other places. Her goal is to empower and inspire companies to transform their businesses by providing them all of the necessary information they need in order to become chain store vendors.

Big Lots Vendor – How to Sell to Big Lots Stores and Become a Big Lots Vendor

New Training on Becoming a Big Lots Vendor – How to Sell to Big Lots Stores and Become a Big Lots Vendor

Big Lots Vendor – How to Sell to Big Lots Stores and Become a Big Lots Vendor

Transcript for this video listed below…

Hi Everyone, this is Karen Waksman, Founder of Retail MBA, and today I want to talk about a becoming a Big Lots Vendor. Now, the reason I decided to create this particular training is because I help tens of thousands of product companies across the globe on getting their products in retail chains. I love what I do, and people ask me about certain retailers, so I just like to support and give you answers and quick tips and strategies, and that’s what this video is all about. Let’s talk about Big Lots. Well, first of all, they have over 1,800 stores that they’re responsible for, which makes it a very massive retail chain, and they actually sell a lot of different products. The reason I like that is because it’s a mass appeal audience. They’re looking for products in every category and so forth, and because I work with so many of you, it does support in the … I deal with products, all sorts of products, and so forth.

Anyways, the thing about Big Lots is that people always think that they only sell overstocked items. What that basically means is deeply discounted products, excess inventory, and that type of thing, and they do. They sell a lot of those. Actually, it’s very, very common that you go into a Big Lots, and there’ll be some amazing deal for that particular store that literally won’t … Like the product will sell out in one day, so it’s really, really common for people to go into Big Lots and literally buy all of their products for that one particular day, because it’s just this one product, it’s a closeout item and so forth. They make a lot of money bringing in other national brands and so forth into their stores, excess inventory and so forth, dumping it in their stores, and then people buying that product because it’s a great deal.

That’s one way to sell to Big Lots. Definitely, if you have any overstocked items in the excess inventory, anything in large volume that you want to get rid of, Big Lots definitely wants to know about you, and they do have buyers and so forth who would be interested in learning more about your product. But a lot of people don’t know that they actually sell common, consistent products in their stores as well, so they don’t just sell overstocked products. If you have a product that you want to sell the retail chains, a lot of people don’t even think about getting their products into Big Lots. Again, they are looking for deals. Generally, they like the national brands and so forth, but they buy new stuff too, whatever their audience will be interested in, so definitely go take a look at a Big Lots, see what’s in store, see if your product can fit and so forth.

It could be a great opportunity for you, again, because they don’t … A misconception is that they only sell overstocked items, but they actually don’t. They sell consistent products as well. Again, the purpose of this video is just to get you to think about other retailers that you might not, never have thought of before. That’s why I create all these different videos. Again, Big Lots is great if you have a lot of volume, you want your products in stores and so forth, and you have a great price on this product, it’s a common mass appeal item, Big Lots would be definitely a retailer to consider, and/or obviously if you have some sell-out item, close out any excess inventory and stuff. I mean, you can go into the stores and dump product on them, and a lot of times they’ll take that product if it’s a great idea, it’s a great product and so forth. They buy on a national level. They tend to also buy regionally and so forth because of the fact that they do deal with closeouts in certain areas and so forth.

Anyways, if you want to know exactly how to pitch them, exactly what to say to them to get them to buy, take a look at my Retail MBA website, retailmba.com. I either have a free training program, which is really powerful. It’s a six-part training series on how to get into retail chains. All you got to do is add your email address there, or I have a full Retail MBA Training Program, 20 hours of content. In one weekend you can know exactly how to pitch a buyer, how to get them to buy, all the strategies you’ll ever know about retail, and you can start next week getting your products in retail stores. Either way, just take a look at the links below. It’s retailmba.com, and be on the lookout for the additional free videos that I create. Thanks so much. Hope this helped.Big Lots Vendor

BJ’s Wholesale Vendor – How to Sell to BJ’s Wholesale

BJ’s Wholesale Vendor – How to Sell to BJ’s Wholesale and Be a BJ’s Wholesale Vendor!

Transcript for this video is listed below…

Hi everyone! This is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA. Today, I want to talk about becoming a BJ’s Wholesale vendor. The reason I decided to create a video on this particular retailer is because some of you guys love the concept of warehouse stores, like Costco and so forth, and some of you might not have heard of BJ’s. So, I want to talk to you about that because there’s so many opportunities with retail to get your products into stores beyond the basic top retail chains and so forth.

BJ’s is a wholesale retailer. They’re kind of those warehouse type retail stores. It’s a membership only retailer, so you actually have to pay a membership to be part of this organization. People pay a membership, they can go to those stores, they’re a massive warehouse, and ultimately, they get great deals, right? ‘Cause they buy product in bulk and so forth. It’s a great thing, very similar to Costco and so forth. They have over 200 stores that they’re responsible for, so they can buy massive product. If you can think about a warehouse store, usually what you’ll see, is that they actually carry products in a pallet form. A pallet is a lot of products on one singular pallet. A lot of these warehouse retailers actually buy by the pallet, so can you imagine you get BJ’s interested in your product. All of a sudden they buy one pallet for one store, but they have over 200 stores they’re responsible for. If you can add the numbers up, that’s pretty substantial revenue for you. That’s why a lot of people like warehouse stores.

Some of the things to consider though, you definitely need packaging. That’s different for the warehouse stores versus other types of retailers. If you sell to just about any other retailer, you can create your own packaging, on a hanging card or whatever, however it is for that particular store. But, for a warehouse store, they actually require you to create really, really, really heavy packaging ’cause it’s on a pallet, there’s lots of products on there, it could get smooshed, and travel and so forth. They have a lot of different requirements. It does require you to change your packaging to ensure that you can handle, number one the volume, but also the fact that they’re gonna need you to create special packaging. It’s usually called “blister packaging”. It costs more to make, it adds to your bottom line. It’s like that stuff that it’s impossible to break through and so forth. You’re gonna need to create something like that in order to work with a warehouse.

Some people don’t like to do that because it requires them to create all new packaging and it’s a lot of work and so forth. Some people don’t care. They want that packaging, they want to get into that warehouse retailer. And so in your case, you’re gonna have to think about that if you want to go after a BJ’s or a Costco or something like that.

The other thing to think about is that BJ’s actually really talks a lot about the fact that they are very into private label. They buy a lot of private label goods. Basically, what that means, is they have their own brand names and then they buy products from manufacturers like you, and then, when they buy products from you they actually make you put it under their brand name. The packaging will be under your brand name and so forth, so people will not know that it’s coming from you. They’re actually purchasing your product, it’s called “private label”. Essentially, if you go into BJ’s and you see their BJ packaging, that doesn’t necessarily mean that BJ’s is creating it. It’s actually a company like yours that has created it, they just work with you to put their packaging on their product and so forth. If you’re okay with possible selling to BJ’s under their brand name, you don’t care about your name and your packaging all to be on that product, BJ’s can be a great resource for you, as well.

There’s so many things I can share with you about going after a warehouse retailer, like BJ’s. If you want to learn more, I actually have an extensive free training series at my website, retailmba.com. You just put in your email address and I have a six part free retail training series. Very, very powerful. I highly recommend exploring that. You don’t want to just go after these retailers unless you know more about how to actually approach them. There is some finessing that you have to do when you go after these stores. Sometimes I create these videos and I get nervous that you guys are just gonna go after them without knowing what else to do. There’s some things you gotta learn about retail, so take a look at my website, retailmba.com, for the free training. Very, very powerful. I’m not into fluff.

Also, I have a full Retail MBA training program that you can do in a weekend. And that thing, well, you’ll know everything there is to know about going after retail. Next week, you can go after retail chains and so forth. Both of those programs are on my website, retailmba.com.

Anyways, it’s Karen Waksman, Retail MBA. I hope this information provided value. Just a quick tip and strategy. Thanks so much!

BJ's Wholesale Vendor - How to Sell to BJ's Wholesale and Be a BJ's Wholesale Vendor!

Auto Zone Supplier – How to Sell to Auto Zone and Be an Auto Zone Supplier!

Auto Zone Supplier – In this quick training we will be discussing how to sell to Auto Zone and become an Auto Zone supplier!

Auto Zone Supplier – How to Sell to Auto Zone and Become an Auto Zone Supplier!

Transcript for this video below on….

Hi everyone, it’s Karen Waksman, Founder of Retail MBA. Today I want to talk about becoming an  Auto Zone Supplier. Some of you have products that are perfect for the auto aftermarket industry, and you want to get your products into those types of stores, obviously, so you want to know about becoming an Auto Zone Supplier. What can I tell you about Auto Zone?

First of all, I’d like you to know that this particular retail chain is massive. They have like 5,800 stores or more. That’s massive. That’s some serious buying power. Usually they have a corporate buyer amongst other things, but ultimately they can, if they are interested in your product, you can make a lot of money. The problem with these different auto retail chains is that they tend to be smaller, because they’re so massive, everybody wants to sell to them.

How do you differentiate yourself? What do you do? How do you get your products in front of them? One thing that most people don’t realize is that trade shows can be a magical way to get your products into retail chains. Now I teach all sorts of other ways to get into stores, but if you are interested in a retailer like AutoZone, and you are in a highly competitive market, you might want to check out a trade show called SEMA, S-E-M-A; SEMA Show. It’s, I think, in late October. I think it varies a little bit, but it’s in late October, I think. It’s called the SEMA Show. Basically if you have an auto product that’s, we call it the auto aftermarket industry, or there’s accessories, and all sorts of things for cars. This show is pretty amazing for that. They’re really, really well-known. They have a lot of amazing speakers.

Then, all of the retailers, who are interested in the space usually attend this show. I usually create videos with specific details about certain retailers and so forth, but in this case I felt really strongly to share that this trade show, if you’re in the auto industry, would be amazing for you to go. At least go just to walk through it, to get a feel for what the industry’s all about, because it’s only about accessories and so forth for the auto industry. Not everybody knows about that show, so at least definitely attend. Also, a lot of the retailers go there, so I highly recommend exploring that for this particular retailer.

Anyway, there’s so many other things I could share with you about getting your products into AutoZone. If you want to know exactly how to approach, pitch, and sell to AutoZone directly, not go to a show, not do anything like that, definitely check out my website RetailMBA.com. I have a free trading program that you can sign up to with just an email address. It’s a six part training program. It’s powerful, and that’s for free. You can take a look at that and I can spend some time with you. This is just a few minute video. Also, if you want to know how to get into retail chains today, and you’re ready to go, you can definitely check out my Retail MBA training program; the full program. That’s on that website, as well, RetailMBA.com. That program is 20 hours of powerful information. In a weekend you can go after retail chains and get your products in the stores.

Anyway, to take a look at those, there’s links listed below. Otherwise, I hope this provided value. Check out SEMA Show, and be on the lookout for the additional videos that I create on different retailers. I hope this helps. This is Karen Waksman, Retail MBA. Thanks so much.

Pitching Retail Buyers – How to Get Your Product in Stores

Hey, everyone. This is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA. Today, we’re covering the five things to consider when pitching retail chain stores. If you have a great product

New Training Video – 5 Things to Think About Before Pitching Retail Buyers

Transcript for this Video on Pitching Retail Buyers

Hey, everyone. This is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA. Today, we’re covering the five things to consider when pitching retail chain stores. If you have a great product that you think would be perfect for Walmart or Macy’s, Home Depot, Kroger grocery store, or whatever it is for you, we’re covering the five things to think about when you’re pitching them and when you’re reaching out to them with your physical product. Let’s talk about those five things.

5 Things to Consider When Pitching Retail Buyer

They Can’t Hear you

The first thing I want you to consider is that most of the time, they can’t hear you. So what does that mean? Often, people are reaching out to retail chains themselves without guidance. Maybe they got a buyer’s list, and they paid for it, or maybe they submitted their product online to retailers. They’re just following their own strategies, but also trying to cut corners and save on cost by going after retailers themselves. The issue is that if you don’t know how to pitch the buyer correctly, the retail buyer is going to look at your information, kind of skim it and either not reply, or you’re just not going to get your products in the stores. Why? It’s because you’re not saying the words or things that matter to them correctly, and so they just kind of ignore you.

I’ve seen some of the most amazing products not get into retail chains simply because they are not being heard by the retailer because they just didn’t take the time to really consider finessing the verbiage, setting it up correctly, learning about how to do that and so forth before they pitch retailers. Hence, they just can’t hear you. That’s too bad because you deserve to get your products in the retail chain. Bottom line, focus on creating the best possible pitch for your retail product. It will make a huge difference for your business.

Talk About Your Success

The next thing to consider is they want more info about what you’ve done in the past, and so what does that mean? Pretty much every retailer would love to hear about your retail successes. If you’ve sold anywhere before, let’s say you’re trying to sell to Walmart, they’d love to hear about any other retail chains that you’ve sold into. Why? Because they love to hear that your product is not too risky. You see, if you’ve never sold your product anywhere before, they may get concerned if your product works for their store and would sell.

What do you do if you haven’t sold your product anywhere before? Well, there are ways to express that in such a way to get the buyer to believe that your product will sell, that your product will make them money even if you’ve never sold anywhere before. You might be thinking “How can I say that?” I’ve taught tens of thousands of people across the globe on how to get products in the retail chains. I have so many clients who got in the world’s largest retail chains without any sales. They haven’t gotten their products into stores anywhere. They went from selling nothing to getting into the majors, and so forth, so I know it’s possible. Pitching your product without ever having sold to a retail store takes some extra work, but generally speaking, they want to hear what’s been done with your product because they want to make sure the product’s going to sell once they put it in stores. Again, all this is learnable, but you just have to consider that.

Buyers Care About You

The next thing that most people don’t realize when they are thinking about things to consider before or when pitching retail chains is that these buyers can’t ignore you. What does that mean? Well, most people have the common misconception that the retail chains don’t care about you, and have so many products in stores that they’re not really going to pay attention to you. This is absolutely ridiculous to think such a thing. Today more than ever, these chain stores are hungry for the next new product. I have friends who are Walmart buyers. Trust me, I talk to all sorts of retailers all the time. I do large events and so forth, and we partner with buyers and everything, so I know that these buyers are scouring the web, going to trade shows, excited about when people approach them in very specific ways. Trust me, they are looking for that next new product.

The reason that’s important for you to know is because you should not pass up the opportunity to sell in retail because you believe retailers are not interested in looking for new products. It’s not true. The other thing to note is that they don’t mind if you’re a small company, if you’re startup or whatever. As long as you present your product appropriately, they would be very interested in the product. The reason for that is because their customers are looking for that next new product, and these retailers know that they will lose clients if they do not get new products in those stores. It’s a very different game today than when I first got started. Back in the day, it was not a big deal if the big manufacturers ran everything. Today, small companies have the opportunity to get in retail stores fairly easily, and that’s because these customers want that next new product. The retailers know that the small guys have that product, so definitely are hungry for new product.

Know Your Product Inside and Out

Next thing to consider is they want more insights today than ever about your systems and your processes. What does that mean? These retail chains are really curious about who you are as a business because they are really afraid that if they do business with you, that you might not deliver right. If you don’t deliver, they lose …. They have nothing on the shelves. Every square footage is accounted for, so what that means is that they’re going to look into what you’re up to, make sure that you’re going to deliver on time, they’re going to look at your shipping, your deliverability. Sometimes, they’ll explore your manufacturing and make sure that you got everything figured out. They’re going to explore you and your funding, and whether or not you’ll be able to pay for these orders because they just cannot afford for people to mess up when they’re working with them.

The good news is all the stuff is learnable. All this stuff can be cost-effective. It doesn’t have to cost a lot and so forth, but it is something that you have to think through before you reach out to these guys or when you’re pitching out to them because they actually are going to care about your systems and processes because they want to make sure again that they have a great partner, and it’s worth their effort to work with you.

Don’t Annoy Retail Buyers

The next thing is, and the last thing is that they wish you wouldn’t annoy them. That’s pretty funny to say but many people reach out to retail chains, and they reach out directly to the buyers and so forth, but they do it in a way that’s really infuriating to a buyer, and so the buyer is not interested in their product. Now, that doesn’t mean that the buyer doesn’t want to hear from you. If you approach them in a way that’s effective, that’s interesting to them, you’re saying the right words, trust me, they would be happy to know about your product and happy to know about you.

The problem is a lot of people are sending out information to the retailers, long-winded information, lots of detail, lots of words. These buyers don’t have the time to kind of decipher code because you may think that you have explained your product perfectly but for a retailer, they don’t have time to read through everything to figure stuff out or they don’t have time to open 3D graphics or whatever.

People get very creative when they’re very excited about their products. My point in sharing that with you is that they would love to know about you but a lot of times, you annoy them, so you definitely want to learn how to actually approach them correctly because one chain store order could be 10x or 100x tons your business. I mean, it can grow your business exponentially.

Final Thoughts

I hope that these five things to consider when pitching retail chains helps you when considering selling your products to retail. Again, this is Karen Waksman, Retail MBA. If you are interested in learning exactly how to approach, pitch, and sell to retailers, we actually do a live event almost quarterly. Our events are called Retail MBA live. You can take a look at the link below. The website for that event is retailmbalive.com, and basically, not only do we spend a full day with you walking you through exactly how to make money with your physical product, we help you create a pitch, your strategy, everything. We also help you partner and get your products reviewed by retailers and so forth.

You’ll definitely want to come to one of our events because they’re amazing and magical, and people love them. Anyways, I hope this helped. By the way, please be on the lookout for more trainings that I create because I’m here to support you in actualizing your dream of getting into retail chains. Thanks so much.

Pitching Retail BuyersAbout the Author: Karen Waksman, Founder and CEO of Retail MBA, is an Entrepreneur Magazine, MSNBC and New York Times Company go to retail expert on the subject of selling to retailers! Karen has sold millions of units of products to the world’s largest retailers and has taught 1000’s of product companies across the country on the subject of selling to retailers at places such as CES (Consumer Electronics Show), US Patent Office, Stanford University, International Home and Housewares Show and so many other places. Her goal is to empower and inspire companies to transform their businesses by providing them all of the necessary information they need in order to become chain store vendors.

BI-LO Supplier – How to Sell to BI-LO Stores and Become a BI-LO Supplier

Do you have a product that you think would make you a perfect Bi-Lo vendor? Are you wondering how you can become a Bi-Lo supplier? The reason I decided to…

New Training Video – Tips and Strategies on How to Sell to Bi-Lo Stores and Become a Bi-Lo Vendor!

 

Transcript For This Video on How to Sell to BI-LO Stores

Do you have a product that you think would make you a perfect Bi-Lo vendor? Are you wondering how you can become a Bi-Lo supplier? The reason I decided to create this particular training is because I create a lot of trainings related to selling to retail. I like to talk about different retailers that are maybe more obscure, maybe most people don’t know about them, and so forth. My goal here is just to help you make money and tell you about opportunities with retailers.

Some of you may have a great food product, you want to get into retail chains, you want to go after groceries, but you’re only thinking about maybe the retailer in your local area. If you know about more retailers that are looking for new products, then you can expand your bottom line and start going after bigger stores, and more opportunities, and so forth. If you knew how many opportunities there were in the world to sell your product, you would never think twice, or worry about it at all.

Why Sell to Bi-Lo Stores

Let’s talk about Bi-Lo. Bi-Lo is a retail chain, grocery chain, and is responsible for 180 stores. They’re in the southeast region, so it’s a grocery chain in one region. Again, it’s likely some of you might not have heard of them. If you have a food product, one thing that I could tell you about Bi-Lo grocery stores is that generally they are always looking for new and interesting products.

For example, if you are going to go after grocery stores and you created, say, some barbecue sauce, or whatever it is that you’ve created, make sure that your product would pop off the shelves. This means your packaging is good and stands out. Packaging is really important for these grocery chains, because you’re dealing with so many similar products. You really want to make sure that your product stands out in stores, and that’s really, really important to think about.

The common way to sell your product in Bi-Lo Stores

With grocery chains they tend to buy on a national level, sometimes regional, and always local, because they’re dealing with perishable goods. If you have a food product, sometimes you could literally go and sell to the local store manager, and get your product into the stores verses other retailers where you only can go to the corporate buyer who buys for all of their stores. For example, the national buyer usually buys for all their stores. Regional or local buyers usually buy on a regional or local level.

With grocery, because they deal with a lot of perishable foods, they tend to have local buyers as well. That’s great for you because you could, again, you could conceivably get in your car, go to the store, and let the store manager know that you have this new product that you’d like to sell. That could be a possible way to get your product into one or more of their stores. Then you can grow store by store and so forth.

Want more ways to sell to Bi-Lo stores?

Now, there are very specific ways on how to approach retail stores like Bi-Lo and what to say to retailers to get them to buy, so this video is just a short video giving you some ideas about the fact that they do buy locally, and so forth. My recommendation is if you do want to learn more about how to get products into stores, please learn more.

My website, RetailMBA.com has a free video training series. It’s a six part training series, over an hour long, powerful content. It will explain to you about retail chains and how you can get your products into stores. Please enroll in the series to learn more before you go after Bi-Lo.

There is some finessing that you have to do when you go after these stores. My full Retail MBA Training Program teaches you exactly how to pitch buyers, and how to get them to buy, even if you have zero sales experience, or buyer relationships. You can learn all of this in a weekend. All of this is on my Retail MBA website.

Otherwise, please be on the lookout for the additional videos that I create! I love teaching on this topic of how to get products into retail chains. I truly wish you the best. Karen Waksman, Retail MBA, thanks so much.

How to become a Bi-Lo supplier and vendor

About the Author: Karen Waksman, Founder and CEO of Retail MBA, is an Entrepreneur Magazine, MSNBC and New York Times Company go to retail expert on the subject of selling to retailers! Karen has sold millions of units of products to the world’s largest retailers and has taught 1000’s of product companies across the country on the subject of selling to retailers. She’s spoken at places such as CES (Consumer Electronics Show), US Patent Office, Stanford University, International Home and Housewares Show and so many other places. Her goal is to empower and inspire companies to transform their businesses by providing them all of the necessary information they need in order to become chain store vendors.

How to Sell Products to Stores – #1 Thing Retail Buyers Want You to Know About Selling to Them

Hey everyone, this is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA! Today I want to talk about the number one thing buyers want you to know about selling to their stores

Transcripts for This Video on the #1 Thing Retail Buyers Want You to Know About Selling to Them

Hey everyone, this is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA! Today I want to talk about the number one thing buyers want you to know about selling to their stores. So, if you have a great product that you think would be perfect for Walmart or Macy’s, Home Depot, corporate grocery stores, Bed Bath and Beyond, or whatever it is for you, this information is about how to sell products to stores and what the number one thing that buyers care about will support you in thinking through the process of using retail chains as a distribution strategy. If you want to get your products in these stores, these are very important pieces of information that you need in order to ensure success.

You are responsible for your product

So, what’s the number one thing that buyers care about or want you to know about when selling into their stores? It is that they are not responsible for your product — you are. So, what does that mean? Well, most people think that if they get a product into a retail chain like Bed Bath and Beyond or whatever, that they are good to go once they get a purchase order, and the buyers will manage everything and everybody will be happy. Well, that’s not really how it works with how to sell products to stores. What actually happens is the buyer will give you a shot and test out some of your products in their stores. At that point, they’ll see if the product sells. If it doesn’t, they’ll move on or if it does sell, they’re going to stay and they’re going to continue to work with you.

More specifically, they don’t want to deal with making sure that your product got there on time, that your packaging was correct, and that it didn’t get squished in delivery. Or if you put your product on a clip strip, which is one of those plastic strips that has a bunch of your products on it, that when it is delivered to stores that the product is placed in the correct way or not.

Buyers can get so busy that they’re not paying attention to your product and so forth. If you go to stores and you see that your product is placed in the wrong section of the store by accident, sometimes it does happen, the buyers are going to expect that you handle it. A lot of times they’re too busy or they don’t even respond or whatever. And it’s like you had that one shot to get that product in stores and so you just want to make sure that things are managed and so forth.

Keep Track of Your Product Sales

These retail chains have a lot of systems in place for you to review the products in real time to see whether or not the product sells or not. For that reason, they’re expecting that you’re looking at the systems, making sure that the product is selling. If it’s not selling, if something looks strange, they want you to be all over it, seeing what’s going on there. Ultimately if that product is not selling, you need to get into those stores to see what’s going on.

Now it might freak you out and some of you might say, “Oh, then I’m not going after retail chains.” I’m telling you this not to freak you out, but to help you think about the process of the buyer’s giving you a shot, and how this could be millions of dollars for you and your business. Keep this in the back of your mind, learn what you need to know in advance about how to sell products to stores so that when these things come up you’re not going to be freaked out. That’s just the point in sharing this stuff with you. It’s really just to support you and helping you and letting you know that all of this stuff is easy to learn and totally manageable. And it is a lot easier than you think, and you can avoid a lot of these headaches, a lot of these issues in advance before you even deal with retail chains.

Get Your Product in Retail Stores with My Help

If you want to learn exactly how to reach out to retail chains, what to say to them to get them to buy, how to ensure that this is taken care of, that your product will be managed correctly so the product sells and everything converts, then you definitely want to learn more! We do amazing events quarterly called Retail MBA Live. RetailMBALive.com is the website. And essentially it’s a one-day event, we power through exactly how to get your products in retail stores. We help you create your pitch, finesse the buyers to make sure that they’re interested in your product and ultimately buy from you.

We explain to you exactly what’s going to happen to you in stores, how to manage issues, expectations, how to make sure that you do all this stuff in a very affordable and cost-effective way. You can do this the hard way and get into the retail chains and go through all these nightmares or you can learn it in advance. Have somebody walk you through it and ultimately just zip through and how to sell products to stores and hopefully make as much money as physically possible. That’s why I do these things. By the way, when I host these live events I usually partner up with retail chains so that you can have product reviews and so forth. So, we’re really trying to help you in every way possible to make money with retail chains.

I hope this provided value for you. Please be on the lookout for the additional videos that we create on selling to retail chains. Thanks so much. Do you have questions for me? Get in contact.

#1 Thing Retail Buyers Want You to Know About Selling to ThemAbout the Author: Karen Waksman, Founder and CEO of Retail MBA, is an Entrepreneur Magazine, MSNBC and New York Times Company go to retail expert on the subject of selling to retailers! Karen has sold millions of units of products to the world’s largest retailers and has taught 1000’s of product companies across the country on the subject of selling to retailers at places such as CES (Consumer Electronics Show), US Patent Office, Stanford University, International Home and Housewares Show and so many other places. Her goal is to empower and inspire companies to transform their businesses by providing them all of the necessary information they need in order to become chain store vendors. Learn more about Karen.

5 Reasons to Sell to Chain Stores – How to Get Your Product into Stores

Hey everyone. This is Karen Waksman, Founder of Retail MBA, and today I want to talk about the five reasons…

5 Reasons to Sell to Chain Stores – How to Get Your Product into Stores

(Transcripts for this Video Listed Below!)

Hey everyone. This is Karen Waksman, Founder of Retail MBA, and today I want to talk about the five reasons you want to sell your product into a retail chains. How to Get Your Product into Stores. The reason I decided to create this particular training segment is because I’ve taught tens of thousands of product companies across the globe over the last yet eight years on how to get products in the stores, and sometimes people are kind of stuck in deciding whether or not they want to sell to retail chains and so forth. So I want to give you five reasons to consider going after them. I obviously have a bias because I do this as a business, helping people get into stores, but I want to explain it to you so you can see why I believe and I do this for a living. Let’s talk about the five reasons you want to sell your products to big box retail chains.

Reason number one, they are hungry, hungry for new products at chain stores. One of the main reasons people don’t even consider going after chain stores is because they believe that these buyers, these chain stores are not looking for new products, that it’s super-complicated and it’s difficult, and they’re not even going to pay attention to my product. I’m here to tell you it’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s not true. They want to know about you. They really, really want to know about you. Let me explain that.

I do live events. I partner up with the world’s largest retailers like Walmart, CVS, and so forth. I know buyers really, really well. My dearest friends are buyers. For years all they ever say to me is, “Karen, we have a hunger, an insatiable need for new products. We’re always looking for that next new product because our customers have changed.” Today more than ever they want that next new and interesting product, that next product they can put in stores, so they’re constantly have to kind of changing up products in stores and so forth, just to make sure that that product converts, the product sells. Yes, they have a lot of established brands, but they’re always looking for new stuff. So please don’t not go after chain stores because you believe they’re not looking for you. I know for a fact that they’re scouring the web, they’re looking everywhere. Go after chain stores. That’s something to consider.

Now the next reason why you want to sell to chain stores is because one order can 10x or even 100x your business. Basically what that means is you can make millions of dollars just from one retail chain. I have clients who get weekly chain store orders from majors. I mean it’s like once they set up the account and the product’s selling, they just get reorders constantly all the time. Now it doesn’t always happen, but a lot of times it can be tremendous. I know people who sell to two different retail chains, and they are blowing up their business and they make millions of dollars just on that one strategy. [inaudible 00:02:28] a couple of counts. I mean it can be huge for your business. So please don’t ignore chain stores because they can explode your business exponentially and help you in any way that you’re working with your business. I mean if you have distribution strategies selling on Amazon and all sorts of things, this is just another great way to generate revenue.

All right, another reason you want to sell to chain stores is because it can explode your valuation for your company. What does that mean? If you ever want to sell your company one day you really got to think about this now, you understand? Basically I talked to one of my dear friends who is a merger and acquisition expert. He sells companies for a living. He was talking to me about the fact that an Amazon business, someone who sells a physical product and is already doing well, if they wanted to go out and sell their company today, obviously this varies and don’t quote me on this, but this is what I’ve been consistently hearing, is that you probably would make two to three times, whatever it is that your revenue is. So whatever it is that you are currently generating a revenue, when you sell the company you’ll sell it for two to three times that, if that makes sense. Essentially the valuation of your company is based on revenue and so forth and other things, and so typically it’s two to three points basically on average when you sell your company.

Now I was told that if you add on a few major retail accounts, you typically can increase that more like four to six points. I’ve heard even seven points. Basically your valuation of your company can increase tremendously. You can sell your company for way more money. I mean bottom line that’s what it really means, that a few chain store accounts will be huge for your business in the long run in terms of selling your company.

It makes sense. At the end of the day let’s think logically. You have all of your products being sold in one way on Amazon or something like that. That’s okay and that’s great, but what if Amazon changes their model? What if something happens and your business goes away? An investor is looking at that. If you put your business and add distribution strategies in other categories like retail and so forth, you now look like more established brand, more established business. They’re much more comfortable with buying your company because they know that you’re definitely more established and so forth. If you ever want to sell your company and also just to increase the value of your company, retail accounts can really help you. That alone should be the reason why you should build out your business.

Another reason you should sell to chain stores is because when you open up a retail account it can explode in terms of other opportunities. So many awesomely strange things have happened to my customers once they opened up that initial retail account. First of all, chain store buyers shop at each other stores because they’re looking at their competition, they’re looking at what’s going on and what they’re buying and so forth. They don’t want to miss out in that next new product, so they’re always looking at their different stores. The target buyer is always looking at Walmart. The Walmart buyer’s looking at this. The Macy’s buyer is looking there. They’re always looking to see what’s going on, which products they’re putting in the stores. They’re competitors.

It has happened many times for my clients where you’ll actually get a phone call from a buyer at another chain store because they saw your product in the store. Now it doesn’t always happen, but it has happened and it’s possible because once a buyer sees that the product’s in another store, you seem much more intriguing to them, it’s less of a risk, they believe that your product’s making money and so forth. Now if your product’s doing great, you’ll get even more calls. Now it’s also great because when you’re reaching out to retail chains about your product, you definitely want to let them know about the products that you’re currently selling at retailers and so forth. It really does help you grow your business.

Another thing that’s happened to my clients, they’ve gotten on Shark Tank, which is a TV show, because of the fact that they’ve had some successes. I’ve had clients who got on the TV show The Profit, all sorts of different things, The Today Show, all these reasons because they showed some success with their product, and also all the top reps and all the top distributors suddenly call you. Like if you have a product and you try to reach out to a distributor, they don’t always answer the phone. A lot of you guys have experienced that. I mean they’re kind of ignoring you until you start succeeding, which is very annoying.

The reason I teach this step is to help you guys move things along, help you open up a few accounts, and the top reps, the top distributors work for you and so forth, like the best ones, the ones that’ll make you tons of money, those are the ones what we like. Anyway, so that’s another reason why you want to sell to chain stores, is because these opportunities explode. Trust me. A distributor sees your product in the chain stores, all of a sudden you’re interesting for them because they don’t have to do as much work. You did all the heavy lifting. You got the product in the stores, started moving and so forth. So it’s very interesting to these top reps and distributors.

The final reason why you want to sell to chain stores is because you can sell more and new products. What does that mean? Well, let’s just say you got into a chain store and your product was selling. The buyer’s going to love you. Why? Because you’re making them money. Because their job is to buy. They’re purchasing agents. They’re looking for things that sell. Their job is to find things that convert for their retailer. They have a day job. That’s very important to them. You bring them a product that converts, which doesn’t always happen, they love you, they’re still paying attention to you. All of a sudden they’re like, “What else can I buy from you?”

It happens a lot. I’ve seen clients who got one product into that retailer and then all of a sudden the buyer’s like, “What else do you have for me,” and then they just keep funneling products through and stuff because they have that relationship, they have that trust, they believe that you’re going to bring them products that sell and all the sudden you start making way more money with different products. I have customers who got one product at a chain store and then they got another one and another one, and it grows that way.

Here’s the coolest part. Say you don’t have another product to sell. What you can do is think about future product options and eventually create those because you’ll be making money, or you can maybe bring in other people’s products and start selling those products because you have these relationships. There’s so many opportunities here with retail chains. Don’t be afraid of retailers at major retailers, please, because there’s so much opportunity here. I’ve seen people with zero sales experience, zero buyer relationships, zero patents get their product to the world’s largest retailers. I’ve done this long enough to see that it really doesn’t have to do anything with that. It has to do with some skill sets, some knowledge, some data, and then some execution. If you’re willing to do that stuff, you definitely need to go after chain stores because it could be a magical opportunity for you in your business.

Anyways, I hope that provided value for you, and I hope you got excited about the possibility of selling in chain stores. I am here to inspire millions of people to improve their lives through my content, through my education, through any means necessary in my lifetime. So by you hearing this and you be excited about this, you’re allowing me to experience my purpose. I appreciate you for that. Thank you so much, Karen Waksman, Retail MBA, and I hope to support you with my programs and services and my live events. Thanks so much.

If you want to know how to get your products in stores, Click Here!

QVC Sprouts – How to Sell Your Products to QVC and Become a QVC Sprouts Vendor


Do you have a product that is perfect for QVC Sprouts?
Have you ever wondered what it would take to get a product into their stores? If so, you will love this short training segment on how to sell your product to QVC Sprouts!
(For those of you who prefer to read this content, transcripts are included below!)

In this training, I will discuss some of the things to think about when approaching a retailer such as QVC Sprouts. Hope it helps! 🙂
To Your Success,
Karen Waksman
Retail MBA
P.S. If you’d like to learn the exact steps on how to sell a product to retailers or retailers such as QVC or HSN, then you will love my Retail MBA Program! This is the most comprehensive course available today on the subject of selling to stores.
P.S. I would love your feedback and/or comments, so please share below!
QVC Sprouts - How to Sell Your Product to QVC with the QVC Sprouts Program

Podcast: Download (Duration 3:29)
Transcript of This Training…
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QVC Sprouts – How to Sell Your Product to QVC with the QVC Sprouts Program
This is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA. And in this section, we’re going to address the question that always comes up in my workshops and classes.

“Karen, I want to get my product in QVC.”

“I want to get my product on TV, I think that would be fantastic there.”

“How do I make money and get my product on QVC?”

“I am new to this business can you support me?”

I hear this question all the time from people and I want to give you a quick tip and a suggestion to support you in getting your product on QVC. Here’s something that a lot of inventors and product creators don’t know about QVC. We can spend  of time and energy explaining how to get on TV. There’s a lot of nuances to get your product on TV but one quick suggestion to help you get started is to go to Google and type in “QVC Sprouts”. It’s the QVC Sprouts program.

Basically, what QVC has done is they have been reached out by so many inventors over the years who wants to get their products in the stores and QVC is always worried about getting that new product onto their site and on TV because they are not sure if it’s going to sell, or maybe the company does not have a lot of branding behind it or there are new products. That is why they came up with was the Sprouts Program. What they essentially did was they created a website specifically for new products, new inventions and so forth. The idea is it’s actually a contest, if your product is approved to be part of this contest, what you get to do is you put an awesome picture of your product and some information about your product itself and it goes on a site, and the best products are the ones who get the most votes. Get all of your friends and all your family to support you into voting. It’s free to vote. But then they go to QVC Sprouts, and they pick out your product and they vote for it.

“Why would I say that they have to consider that?”

QVC is looking at the products that are doing the best and if you do have a product that you think is going to do well, why not put your product down there to be a part of that contest because QVC will probably choose you if you get a lot of votes. The other reason why you want to consider it is because there is so much branding behind putting your product on a website because if you think about it, everybody else is getting their products voted on as well. There are lots of products on the site and they all get voted on. The idea is that all their friends and family are going there to vote, and they might be your potential customers. If you don’t get on QVC, you can still get lots of potential clients there, when I think there’s a way to redirect to your site or there’s some way where they can buy your product. The idea is, QVC gets to see what people think about your product and you potentially get to sell more product. It’s a great start of getting your product on QVC.

Now obviously, there’s so much more to it and there’s so many ways to make money with the product that doesn’t require getting on TV and so forth, but I just want to give a quick tip and suggestion because I know how much you guys want to know about QVC. It’s a really great start so check out QVC sprouts program and that should get you started.

This is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA,  and I hope these tips and suggestion will help you for getting your products into QVC.

Retail MBA Training Program
[04:22] __________________________________________________

Ace Hardware Vendor – How to Become an Ace Hardware Vendor

Do you have a product that is perfect for Ace Hardware?

Have you ever wondered what it would take to get a product into their stores? If so, you will love this short training segment on how to sell your product to Ace Hardware!

(For those of you who prefer to read this content, transcripts are included below!)

In this training, I will discuss some of the things to think about when approaching a retailer such as Ace Hardware. Hope it helps! 🙂

To Your Success,

Karen Waksman
Retail MBA

P.S. If you’d like to learn the exact steps on how to sell a product to retailers such as Ace Hardware, then you will love my Retail MBA Program! This is the most comprehensive course available today on the subject of selling to stores.

P.S. I would love your feedback and/or comments, so please share below!
1

Podcast: Download (03:17)

Transcript of This Training…

How to Become an Ace Hardware Vendor

This is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA. And I want to talk about getting your products sold at Ace Hardware.
Now, the reason I decided to create this particular segment is because I teach thousands of product companies across the country on the subject of selling to retailers and Ace Hardware comes up all of time. And I wanted give you some quick tips and suggestions to support you and your quest to sell on to Ace Hardware.
First of all, I don’t know when the last time you went to Ace Hardware but I find it fascinating. You would think that they only sell hardware products but they don’t. They sell gift items and some of the most random things. If you have a product that is not necessarily a hardware product, it could still be awesome for Ace Hardware. So, don’t ignore Ace Hardware because you’ll see how many different types of products they have in those stores.
The second thing to think about with Ace Hardware is that they have a very unique way of purchasing products. They tend to buy on a local level. What does that mean for you? Sometimes people want to sell to major retailers but they don’t have the money or the resources to buy or to sell thousands and hundreds to thousands of products to a major retailer, and that makes you nervous and worried, and it makes you think you’re not ready for that yet.
But Ace Hardware is a perfect place to start because they tend to buy in a local level. It’s usually either franchise-owned or somebody owns that store. It’s corporate but it’s also local level. What happens is that you can conceivably get in your car, go to your local Ace Hardware, bring your product with you and try and sell your product to them. Which is very different than other retailers where you actually have to reach out to the corporate office, find the appropriate buyer for your product type, and try and get products into all their stores.
In this case, you can start small, you can try from Ace Hardware to Ace Hardware and grow your business and ultimately support yourself that way until you get that story, that success story that your products’ doing well on Ace Hardware. Plus, you can also tell people that you have products on Ace Hardware which helps you get into other retail stores because you know you have a success story and you’re growing your business.
Now I had a student who really didn’t have a whole lot of money and wasn’t ready for the big chain stores. But what they did was, since they knew that Ace Hardware bought in a local level. They went in their car, went from store to store, and each time they sold to an Ace Hardware they kept the money and they saved it and they kept selling and they went to different Ace Hardware’s and they built up enough money to be able to pay for working with other retailers and also to build up their brand and so forth. And today, their products are in Walmart and other major retailers. It’s exciting. It’s a great opportunity for those of you who are just getting started.
Anyway, I hope that provided value for you. If you want to learn more on the exact steps, from start to finish on how to sell a product to Ace Hardware, please take a look at my Retail MBA training program. The link for that is listed below. It is the most comprehensive course available today in the subject “To sell to retailers.” Either way, please be on the lookout for the additional videos that I create on getting your products in the stores. I hope that helps. Thanks so much.

[03:17]