Empower your manufacturing business with more products more sales for manufacturing

How to create outlook signature

how do I get my product into mainstream stores for a lot of entrepreneurs that is the Pinnacle of success they want their product on the stores at Target Walmart everywhere that's how they want to get known they realize that you know you don't have the distribution you know you have a great product and you want to get it out there how do you do it so it's a great question I got it came in from um one of my Facebook readers Avery and Avery is a 17-year-old artist she's got some Mad Skills and she wants her art to be sold in stores like Target and be seen in lobbies of stores and she wants to know how do I get in how do I get into the stores there's a few ways to do it okay I'll share some of the experiences that I've had the first way is you connect with a buyer okay all of these stores have buyers and they are out there looking for products to feature on their shelves you can find the buyers online if you use websites like jigsaw or if you see that any of the buyers are commment M uh in any news articles you're basically doing your research online through Google and through websites like jigsaw to find out who the buyer is two you can go to trade shows and events that are industry specific because you'll have the buyers walking the floors looking to find new products and three a lot of times these uh buyers will have open calls so you go to a hotel room or their location and you pitch them what your product is all about I've been to one of those I had a um a salsa DVD instructional salsa DVD for one of the businesses that I've invested in and there were I don't know a thousand people there who lined up to try to pitch their product it was a crazy day and I got to speak to one of the buyers who was in kind of the lifestyle fitness category and he loved it and the thing here is you want to be prepared cuz most of the people who pitch to these guys have no idea about the business side they just say hey here's a great product what do you guys think you have to have a story why did you start this business what do you stand for what do you about and you have to have done some market research who is interested in this product and why is it a good fit for that store you're creating a little mini business plan for them Nobody Does that if you've done that and you show you understand their target audience you're way ahead of most of the people who are coming you're going up against inventors and artists who have a a capacity to be business people but it's not ingrained with them they don't have any skills or experience or training and it's not how they think and so you you give yourself an edge by being more prepared so that's the first way is going out and and finding the buyers and connecting with them to help get you in okay the second way that you can do it is to find somebody who's already done it and have them help make introductions for you I remember when I started my first business I didn't know anybody I had no no connections no network nothing it was me and my business partners and and my family wasn't in the entrepreneur you know they didn't have their own companies and so I talked to my Bank as a way to get started and they put me on to somebody who put me on to somebody who put me on to somebody else and I eventually found somebody who became one of my best mentors and made a lot of introductions for me and it's starting with the intention of you want somebody to help you get into these stores if that's your goal you'll find a way to make it happen and everybody you talk to you're looking to find somebody who can help you do it there are Consultants who help rep Brands and help them get in they may take either a fee or they may take a percentage of the sales that are coming in basically a Hired Gun and again if you're going to talk to these guys and you can find some of them online you can also find them by just starting to talk to people in your community you still need to do the same research cuz these guys are getting approached all the time too by artists and inventors who want to get in but have not done any of the research or background information on how your product is going to help that Target store how that it's going to help Target you got to have that information you have to be prepared it makes all the difference in the world and if you have some momentum any momentum you need to bring that to the table if you've been in any kind of media if you've made any kind of sales already a lot of people have made zero sales they just have a a concept right show that you've made sales show that you can ramp up if target comes in and says I want 50,000 of these pieces how are you going to ramp that up are you making everything by hand or do you have a process that can be replicated right these are the important questions you need to be able to answer and answer quickly and have thought out because if you're unprepared the buyer is going to say no and the person who can help make introductions for you is going to say no too so have it thought out show some momentum show that you've made some sales show that people will are following you on Twitter and YouTube and Facebook you have some momentum you've got something because that's how you need to stand out against your competition when I was in the Venture Capital world and people were pitching me their business plans most of them again just had an idea they had nothing they had no track record they just gave me a business plan that wasn't well thought out they couldn't back up any of their numbers they had no management team they had no advisers on board they had no media they had no customers they had nothing but an idea and that's what these guys are used to getting pitched so you have to come to the table with more than an idea you have to have some momentum and that's going to help make you stand out and bring that right front and center so they know from the beginning this person is professional this person is a business person this person has thought this thing out they have a product that fits my market and I want to do business with them that's going to help you stand out believe for those of you watching like the video give it a thumbs up below it always makes me want to do more and please leave a comment under the video I love seeing the come in they really make my mour every day when I'm eating my lentils and checking out what's going on leave a comment if you have a question leave it below I'll make a video response just like I did today for Avery thank you so much and I'll see you soon