I’m selling more flip-flops this fall than I did this summer.

This may seem strange, but it is simple.  I had a fairly large surplus of flip-flops in stock at the end of the summer selling season and had to face a difficult decision.  Either I hold onto my inventory of flip-flops and begin delivering them to stores next spring, or sell them at a steep discount now contingent upon a business taking delivery and paying for them right away.

I have decided to sell them now rather than hold onto them. Have I made the right decision? Lets explore both sides.

Yes – Sell the Inventory Now!
As far as cash flow goes, the answer is a no brainer.  It is better to sell them now at a steep discount (still making some money) than it is to hold onto them for 6 months and sell them at full price.  Inventory is death.  Holding onto any quantity of product for 6 months means that all the money invested in that product has no way of making me more money.  Money needs to be continuously moving in and out of a company in order to make money.  Without that money moving, I don’t make more money on that money for 6 months.  So, if I sell it now at a steep discount, I can use that money to make new money – and 6 months from now I will have probably made more money off of that money than if I had waited to sell the flip-flops at full price.

No – Don’t Sell Now!
Although selling inventory at discount has obvious cash flow benefits, it may not be the smartest decision for the health and longevity of the brand.  When I sell my products at a discount, the stores who buy it will sell it for a discount.  These discounted prices may be interpreted in a variety of different ways – and how people perceive your brand depends on where the discounted products are sold and how it is merchandised. Unloading excessive amounts of discounted merchandise may undermine your relationships with your customers who purchase your product at full price – meaning they won’t buy your product at full price, or at all, next year.  I have strategically unloaded my inventory in a manner I believe will not harm my brand. Furthermore, the products I am selling will not be available for purchase next spring, when the discounted products will be on sold.  But only time will tell if this was the right decision.

Recently, many brands have reluctantly discounted their merchandise.  Those that have not discounted their merchandise during the recession risk losing fans to brands that offer discounts – and when the economy improves, they may not be able to get their fans back.

What are your thoughts on discounted merchandise? Am I a making the right move?

In the past few weeks my company has taken two fairly large orders for our merchandise totally approximately $40,000. Although these orders are great for us, they have brought big headaches to Sand Shack.

After getting over my excitement of making some fantastic sales, I quickly realized the apparent difficulties with handling large orders for a small business.  One reason these orders have been troublesome is that these accounts don’t pay until 30 days after delivery (net30).  Large orders take a week to prepare and a few days to be delivered to the customer. Therefore, it may take up to 6 weeks from the time I take an order to the time I get paid.

Another reason that large orders deliver big headaches is that occasionally I have to invest a sizable amount of money in order to make the product that I sold.  For one of these orders I did not have the product on hand, and therefore, needed to make it. This required a sizable investment in product that I will have to wait 6 weeks to be paid for. Luckily, I had the needed inventory on hand for the other large order.

In essence, these large orders have drained me of cash.  I run a high expense business and having to wait so long for such large payments spells big trouble.  I personally have not paid myself for the past month, and some larger bill payments have also needed to be delayed.

These large orders would be ok if I had a line of credit or a lot of cash on hand, but this economy has allowed neither.  The good news is that these large orders will allow me to show a bank a solid source of revenue for my business and a decent profit for a turbulent 2009.  These two things will hopefully allow me to secure a sizable line of credit in 2010, which will help alleviate some of the problems that come with large orders in the future.

Photo by Kazeeee

As businesses embrace blogging, Facebook, and Twitter at an ever-faster rate, the clutter and garbage being put out there is increasing exponentially. Many people believe that using social media will increase their company’s sales, but few companies are seeing a positive ROI on social media use.

I see two problems in how companies are using social media.

1. They are too focused on sales

Everyone can sniff out someone who has joined the ‘online conversation’ just to make a quick buck.  Oddly enough, some companies actually think Internet users are dumb, or dumb enough to fall for some cheap online marketing strategy.

2. They build a fantastic community, but don’t sell

All companies that participate in social networks online expect some form of return on investment.  Companies are not throwing cash at developing and maintaining social media strategies because they want to build a community of admirers who don’t buy their products.   If a company is incapable of discretely selling to their followers they will eventually abandon their social media strategy due to a lack of return on their investment.

The above two problems are easily solved by first looking at what businesses wish to accomplish.

Businesses wish to build a community of admirers who eventually become paying customers – who eventually attract other people to their business.

So, in the end, proper use of social media for business is about sales, it’s about making money.  And therefore, proper use of social media is a form of sales.

Sales is still king no matter how you look at it.  And despite the advent of the Internet, online social networks, and other modern technologies, the sales process remains largely unchanged.  And thinking that you have to change your sales process when using social media will lead to confusion and ultimate failure.

Businesses need to remember to approach the use of social networks with the same approach they would in making any sale.  That approach is as follows.

1. Join a conversation within a group of potential customers
2. See what people want, need or crave
3. Show that what you offer adds value to their business or life
4. Make the sale

Remember
People don’t like to be sold to but they still like to buy.

Pushy salespeople are sure to be exposed but salespeople who are incapable of ‘closing’ are just as bad.  Business is about making sales, making money, and if social media is used properly, it not only has the ability to add tremendous value and contribution to a community, but it can make a business a lot of money as well.

The sales process is not ‘pushy’ and proper use of social media for business should by no means appear pushy; instead, proper use of social media should follow the same strategy as all great salespeople – expose what your potential customer needs and offer a product or service to fill that need.  Add value to a community before attempting to sell to that community.  But in the end, companies must sell something, because that’s what business is all about.

This weekend I had an old high school buddy visit me in Philadelphia and we spent this weekend hanging out with my girlfriend in New York City.

In NYC, we took him around and did all the normal touristy stuff. It was fun.  But being an obsessive entrepreneur I couldn’t keep my mind off of entrepreneurship, and one of the things I am recently obsessive about, and annoying my girlfriend over, is observing how the economy is affecting life and commerce wherever I am – (annoying my girlfriend by wanting to always talk about it).

While in Times Square outside of Nasdaq, I took a picture of an ominous sign of the times; that is, an ailing stock market.

A view of Nasdaq from outside in Time Square.

However, at the same time, while in the upper west side, the quintessential New York neighborhood where the TV series Seinfeld was filmed, I was passing somebody’s garbage pile outside their row house and saw a pair of black leather shoes that even I deemed new enough to wear myself.  Although I didn’t take them, as I just bought a new pair last week, I did take a picture of them.

If people in NYC are throwing out "new" pairs of leather shoes, people still have money to spend.

To me, these shoes represent the bright side of a dark economy.  The shoes tell me that there are still people who can be sold to, there are still people who want and need to buy new things, and if you can create a product people want or need it doesn’t matter what the state of the economy is, you can still flourish.  The bleak picture that the media paints of the world economy should not scare you from starting the business of your dreams.

Times are tough, but people still have money.  People are still buying, albeit less, but they are still buying.

If someone in the upper west side of NYC can throw out a pair of leather shoes he only wore a few times, either he is really dumb, or there is hope for the economy.

What do you think? Are you scared to start or grow your business due to the current economic conditions?

I know you have already watched this weeks episode of The Entrepreneur Road Show.

But if you haven’t, Watch It Now

My desk after a few hours of making calls. I have all my contacts logged in my computer, but I still have over 1000 business cards I regularly go through.

Any free moment I have I try to make phone calls to the hundreds of stores I do business with.  I call either to sell product or simply to check up on them and let them know that I am thinking of them. Recently I have been on the phone a lot following up with the leads I got at the various tradeshows I have attended recently.  Therefore, today I wanted to write a short tip I think all entrepreneurs should take to heart. It is as follows:

Communication is so important.  Not to underscore the importance of person to person interaction, we communicate more over the phone than we do in person, therefore, it is so important for you to have excellent telephone manners and react quickly to any complaints or problems you or your company may face.

You or your employees telephone manners have the ability to make or break certain deals, and once you come off bad over the phone it will take much more than a simple phone call to change their opinions about you or your company.  Therefore, train your employees well and never underestimate the power of being nice, especially when on the phone.

Have you seen this week’s episode of The Entrepreneur Road Show yet? You should.

Today we are going to try something new. The below video is a summary of the content you will find in the following article.  I know a lot of you are lazy and would rather watch a video than read an article, so I have made this video as an experiment. So please let me know what you think of the addition of video to a normal, everyday post in the comment section.  Let me know if it was useful. Oh, and I still recommend reading the content! Thanks!

So you have a great product, now what?

You need to either open a store of your own (or website), or find stores to wholesale your products to.  The problem with starting your own physical store is that you have to spend a lot of time and money to operate it, and if you only have one or two different products, your store will be pretty boring. Wholesale entails selling your products at a discounted rate to established stores whom then turn around and resell your products with a markup.  My expertise is in wholesale, and I think establishing strong wholesale accounts with retailers is one of the best ways to grow your company.  This article refers to my experience selling products via wholesale, however, if you are selling something different, like a service, the lessons here still pertain to you.

So how do you get your first wholesale account?  Well, the first sale is the hardest; there is no doubt about that.  And the sad truth is, even if you don’t like sales, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur you better be able to sell.

So let’s first focus on how I made my first sale for Sand Shack, my environmentally friendly brand of resort apparel and accessories.

I started Sand Shack in 2006 and made my first sale that summer, and that sale is still the most exciting sale I remember making.

I had been working on and developing the company for three months prior to trying to sell any Sand Shack product.  Needless to say, the anticipation and nervousness of whether or not I could even sell the products was at it’s peak by the time I was ready to start selling.   Although I was only a freshman in college, 19 years old, I was determined to succeed.  However, on my first day of trying to sell Sand Shack products to stores in Cape Cod, MA I came back empty handed.  Nothing. Needless to say it was demoralizing.  How was I going to build a company if I couldn’t sell my own products?  I felt like I had a good plan.  I was putting myself out there.  I was offering a product of value that a store a store could make profit from.  Why didn’t I sell something on that first day? BECAUSE it was my first day! I was inexperienced, not to mention a nervous wreck.   I had sold things before, but this time it was different. I was trying to start a company.  Anyways, I regrouped my thoughts and controlled my emotions and the next day I went out with a little more confidence, and what’d ya know, I made my first sale.   Since then I have also started a coffee company, and I am proud to say that I sold to the first store I ever pitched to after planning and developing the company.  But there is more to the story than what I just laid out.  Here are five things I think you need to do in order to get your first customer.

1.  Plan Plan Plan

• If you don’t plan you can’t sell.  If you don’t have a well thought out product, you don’t have anything to sell.  And if your product is not of value to people or fulfills a need, nobody will want it.  Great businesses don’t develop overnight; they require months if not years of planning. Like I mentioned, Sand Shack was in the planning stages for three months before I tried selling anything. Another example of this comes from a company that was exhibiting in the booth across from me at the recent SurfExpo in Orlando, Florida.  The owner of that company had been planning and developing his T-Shirt company for three years before launching it in August of 2008.  Guess what? His products are already being sold in Bloomingdales and Nordstrom.  If he hadn’t taking those three years to carefully plan out his company do you think he would be where he is today?

2.  Do it on your own

• You are going to make the first sale for your company, the sooner you accept that the sooner you will make the sale.  You are the most passionate person there is about the product your company is selling.  If you don’t get out there and pitch your product, nobody will.  This is especially true for a small startup.  Not only are you the most passionate person about your products, but you don’t have the funds to pay a team of salespeople to sell for you (unless they are strictly on commission).  If you do, 99% of other startups hate you.

3.  You’ve GOTS to get out there.

• It’s not a typo. GOTS – Get Out There Stupid.  This is self-explanatory.  If you don’t get out there and start selling, nothing is going to happen.  Once your product is developed you just have to get out there and start pitching to your market.  You’ve GOTS to attend tradeshows, networking events, and social gatherings where your target market will be. Selling can either be the most exciting or daunting (or both) part of starting a business. But if you don’t get out there and start selling your product, your business has failed before it even had a chance to succeed.

4.  Plan out your introduction

• You have about 30 seconds to make a good impression on your potential customer.  If you come off the street without a clear, concise message about who you are, what you’re selling, and why it is good for them to buy your product or service, you will not make the sale.   My initial pitch is always the same.  Knock them out at the beginning and then you have more wiggle room to improvise once you have captured their attention.

5. Ask for the Sale

• If they seem interested, ask for the sale.  It’s as simple as that.  You have a greater chance at making a sale if you ask for it. There are two reasons for this. Number 1: The person wants your products and is just waiting for you to ask. Number 2: The person is not sure, but when you ask for the sale they have difficulty saying no (some people don’t like to say no, why not take advantage of that??!!).

So, now you’ve got your first customer. Congratulations! You’ve gone through all the trouble, time, and money to acquire a customer, and you probably didn’t make much money on the initial sale.  Don’t despair, however. The key is not in acquiring customers it is in retaining customers.  Keeping your customers happy is essential if you want to grow your company and start making serious profits.

How to retain and keep your customers will be discussed on a deeper level in a future segment of this site’s How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur Guide.

So, how did you get your first customer? If you haven’t gotten your first customer yet, how do you plan on getting one? Do you have anything to ad to the above list? Let’s discuss this in the comment section.

I love to sell.

In fact, I love sales so much that I am selling something every chance I get.

In fifth grade I was selling yoyo's I bought for $10 for upwards of $70.

When I was in 4th grade I bought Ty Beanie Babies in China and resold them for profit on the school bus in Singapore (where I grew up).  Then, in 5th grade I was the school’s ‘yoyo champion’ and was able to leverage my ‘champion’ status to sell foreign yoyos for upwards of $70 a piece! I’ve been a waiter, so I’ve sold food. I’ve sold candy, t-shirts, wine, cake and coffee!  And now I primarily sell my company’s, Sand Shack, products.  I love to sell.  There is something so fulfilling about selling, and it’s not so much about the money, but about the challenge and fulfillment of making a sale.

Selling is so important for success in business, and the ability to sell is the most important skill a successful entrepreneur must have.

I’m even selling something right now, and no, I’m not selling Sand Shack products.  I’m selling myself!  Writing here at Brianlinton.com is my way of selling my experience and knowledge on entrepreneurship.  Although I am not making money by developing this site, there are long-term benefits that will generate income for me.  In the future, I will be able to make money from my personal brand, which I am building right now through the development of this site.  But in order to make money off of Brianlinton.com I have to sell myself first!

Are you buying me?

An article in Brianlinton.com’s How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur Guide titled ‘How to Get Your First Customer’ will be posted tomorrow.

Have you seent The Entrepreneur Road Show yet?

Consider watching The Entrepreneur Road Show Episode 1.5 – Persistence to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of being persistent for sales success.

It may be an uphill battle, but persistence pays off.

Need it be said that being persistent is a big part of being a successful salesperson?  In the last month I have made numerous sales based largely upon being persistent.

Recently, I made a sale at SurfExpo in Orlando that was based on three months of persistently pursuing one potential customer.  I first met the Hawas at the Ocean City, Maryland Gift Show and pitched my products to them there.  I knew they had a lot of stores in Virginia and was determined to sell them my products.  Well, in Maryland I pitched as best as I could and got good feedback from them, but no sale.  Then, the next month I was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at another tradeshow, and while walking down an aisle I saw the Hawas.  I approached them and asked them if they had thought more about buying Sand Shack products.  They said they had, but the cost was an issue.  I assured them that we could lower the cost and make it a good deal for them if they came by my booth later on in the show.  They said they would, and although they probably truly did intend to stop by, they didn’t.  Well, earlier this month while at SurfExpo I saw the Hawas once more.  This time they walked briskly past my booth…and, quickly realizing who they were, I chased them down the aisle, pitched my products to them again, gave them a favorable discount, and then invited them back to my booth to look at the products once more.  They came to my booth and within ten minutes I sold them 100 belts.

Being persistent really does pay off.  The example I just gave is one of many sales I can attribute to being persistent.  In fact, I have made some sales after three years of persistently pitching my products to a potential customer.  This past summer I acquired a few customers who I had been pitching my products to ever since I started Sand Shack in 2006.  Constantly making yourself visible to your potential customers instills in their mind that you are the real deal, that your products are good and that they will make money if they sell them.

So, my word of advice to anybody who is an entrepreneur trying to sell a product and is discouraged by lack of sales is…Be Persistent.  It may take days, weeks, months, or years to make a sale to one customer.

It pays to be persistent.

Have you watched the latest episode of The Entrepreneur Road Show yet?  This week’s episode is actual footage of me making a sale by being persistent.  It is entertaining and may be of inspiration to you. Check it out now!

Ever since the tradeshow in Orlando ended a few days ago I have been on the road in Florida exploring countless coastal towns and finding new stores to sell Sand Shack products to.  The last few days have been a lot of fun and somewhat productive.

Yesterday I explored the town where NASA spacecraft take off from, Cape Canaveral.  Although I didn’t get any accounts there, it was fun to explore.  Then later that day I was at the International Speedway in Daytona…again, fun, but no accounts.

These are the days that make being an entrepreneur exciting and fun.  The freedom to do what I want when I want makes running my own business more than worth it.

So for the next few days I will be on the road working my way back up to Philadelphia.  I’ll be getting new accounts for Sand Shack and filming for The Entrepreneur Road Show as I go.

Tomorrow expect to see another addition to Brianlinton.com’s How To Be a Successful Entrepreneur Series.

Well I have been absent from brianlinton.com for too long! For those of you who have noticed my absence, I offer my profound apologizes. Now that the bulk of preparation for all of Sand Shack’s upcoming tradeshows is over, you can expect a post every couple of days again. And sorry, no pictures from the tradeshow yet; I’ve misplaced he USB cable for my camera so I can’t put them on my computer yet!

Today’s article is a short reflection on the pros and cons of tradeshows compared to the pros and cons of store-to-store selling.

The hours I spent sitting and waiting for customers to walk by my booth at this past tradeshow in Maryland got me thinking about the value of a tradeshow compared to the value of store-to-store (STS) selling.   STS selling has been something I have had a lot of success with in the past.  Sand Shack is primarily built on accounts acquired by STS selling, not tradeshows, however, I am still planning on attending 6 more tradeshows before spring 2009.  So, if STS selling has been so successful for me, why I am I spending so much time, money, and energy traveling around the country to exhibit my products at tradeshows? In an effort to find the answer to this question, I have prepared the pros and cons of both attending a tradeshow and STS selling.

Tradeshow Pros

Customers come to you
-A good show will attract thousands of potential customers

You have a place to display your products exactly the way you want
-Unlike showing your products in a store, at a tradeshow you have the time and space to display your products in good lighting, on nice displays, etc.

Tradeshow Cons

Expensive (booth, travel, and lodging)
- The expenses of an upcoming tradeshow I am attending in Atlanta are over $6000.  This past show expenses was about $1500.

It takes a few years of attending the same show to build a customer base
-As I am relatively new to exhibiting at tradeshows, I have not built up a customer base that goes to the show with plans of stopping by my booth

Store-to-Store Selling Pros

Relatively cheap
-If you are in the area and you feel like stopping in a store to pitch a sale it doesn’t cost you a dime.  However, STS selling does cost money when you have to travel a far distance and stay at a hotel.

You set your time and place
-You can either cold call a store and just walk in off the street or try to schedule a meeting at their store with them.  Either way, you are not confined to standing around a 10’ by 10’ booth for 4 days.

Store-to-Store Selling Cons

Your potential for sales is directly limited by the number of stores you visit.
-A tradeshow may attract thousands of potential buyers, unless you have a huge sales team you will not be able to visit all the stores that attend the show in a reasonable amount of time.

STS selling is hit or miss
-If you are cold calling stores you may not always be able to find the person in charge of buying.  In this case you may have to make multiple trips back to a certain store before you even get in front of the decision maker.

The truth is that a company needs to find a balance between STS selling and attending tradeshows. In order to increase traffic to your booth at a tradeshow, you will probably need to first increase your customer base through STS selling. Customers acquired through STS selling can then be invited to your booth at a tradeshow.  For instance, once you have established 100 accounts in a certain area, you can then invite them all to the nearest tradeshow you plan on attending.  In those 4 days at the show the majority of your 100 local accounts can come directly to your booth to see and place orders for your new products. In addition to that, you will also probably be able to pick up a few new accounts.

Most buyers go to tradeshows with a good idea of what company they are going to visit and what they are going to buy.  Simply exhibiting at a tradeshow does not guarantee windfall sales.   Although I have learned this the hard way, I now realize the importance of letting people know who you are and what you are selling before the tradeshow even begins, because once you are at a tradeshow you are surrounded by competitors; it is an environment your voice and product are easily lost in.