Retailers, Reps & Product Lines

CJ checks in on visiting retailers...

I visited my favorite store in DC to talk to two different toy inventors/company owners who came-in to the store to demo their products. 

***Ack...  since employers are finding it more difficult to have employees, they foist more of their work on their suppliers...  alarming trend...***

 Both inventors and the store owner said that the hardest part of the business is getting the sales reps to properly represent a small start-up or even an ongoing small toy company with a proven track record. 

***Yes, 80/20 ...  the stores need the new to interest customers (20) but the customers largely buy the standard (80)..  But the first question the buyers ask of the sales reps is “what is new?” since that is what brings in the customers, even if the customers do not buy “what is new” at a very high rate.., importers are rarely pleased with the efforts of the reps, but rarely can out-do the reps...***

 In fact, they said that by comparison getting a product to show was easy ("….anybody can go to China and have something made…")

***Very true, even if competing on design...but most people buy from china “off-the-shelf”... did they draw a distinction that design has advantage?  Where the importers' items of their own design, or “off the shelf”?  their comments are true either way, but the situation impossible if the importers are not competing on design.***

They argued that since the sales reps have limited time with the owners, they usually maximize their expected sales by showing the complete lines, including numerous new products, from large established companies (e.g. LEGO).  

*** Again, very true... LEGO of which stores MUST buy, but the first question is “what is new?” ...so they MUST buy “new” too... just in no where near the qty of the LEGO basics...***

They also felt that the large companies have so many new toys coming out that there was little niche left for small businesses in the sales reps' priorities.

***This is nothing new either. When “lego” comes out with somethign new, it is actually somethign they “stole” from a small business...  we see this more starkly in garment trade, but it happens there too... in every field...  these complaints are not new, they’ve always been the “skin-of-the-teeth” nature of the business...  (if insurmountable, how come they continue?)

Thats why we shop for our “ideas” as customers first, so we can see if retailers think it is a “good idea and does not exist”***

I asked if this was an artifact of the toy industry/toy stores and if I'd be better off marketing my products as gifts.  They didn't think so.  

***I agree...***

They pointed out the considerable overlap between the toy and gift industries.  Evidently their sales reps show their products "everywhere from museum shops to gas stations" so they believe the same holds in the gift stores.

***I agree, but only to note that the reps sell everywhere where they do not cross the line in the law of diminishing returns.***

I'd like to get your reaction to their assertions that it's difficult to get sales reps to represent your products well. I can guess some things you might say but if you don't mind commenting, I'd like to hear what you think.

*** It  is absolutely true, and I think (I hope) I say so in the book...   on the one hand the store owner wants to see new, on the other, the store owner does not want much new, because it is untested... so that ends up being a small part of the rep’s overall sale, but a critical part...the reps motivation is not big, more strategic... the rep is going to outsell you in any case, but specifically you do not have time to sell, and markups reflect this with the room for a sales’ reps commission in the markups...  Further,  getting back to your conversants critique, not only is it hard to push new items as a small business, it is counterproductive for you to do so.  Design is so critical that it is the only work for which the you actually gain compensation.  Everything else can be farmed out.  And even here the small biz importer owner is more of an impresario, since he brings people together, even designers to execute the solution. ***

...on a promising note, the store owner volunteered to e-mail her favorite sales rep to tell her I'd be getting in-touch with her.  

***And that is exactly why we go to the retailers ourselves, is to get the references of the reps they like best.  Expect to be discouraged, to have expectations talked down, it’s part of the reps services (almost all people think they will get rich with one item, not realizing the work is a lifelong integrated process)..

She said she's a "real New Yorker" and will tell me very clearly what she thinks.  Since I'm from a long line of New Yorkers, she sounds like a perfect match.

***Indeed...I’ll get popcorn and watch the show!***

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