Page 184 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

Step 9. Find and Sell to Buyers 1 77

Per sistence Pays Off

It may take you months or even years to get orders from some stores.

It took me four years to land a particular chain store where I knew

my gloves would fit in perfectly. I kept sending updated packages
every four months, and the buyer kept rejecting me when I called to
follow up. Then, one day I heard words that were music to my ears.
The receptionist said , "That buyer no longer works here." Yippee!
I was jumping up and down in my bedroom, er, office. I asked for
the name of the new buyer and sent her a package . It turns out that
she had bought our gloves at a competitor's store and loved them.
They are still a client today, ten years later.

So, you never know. Sometimes you have to wait for a buyer to
move on, and they do, occasionally. On the other hand, even if the
buyer does not change, sometimes it takes time and hard work to
land an account. Maybe the buyer wants to see if your company is
still around in several months. He may not want to do business with
a brand-new company if he is going to place a substantial order.
Also, maybe they need to wait for "buzz" to surround your prod­
uct, which you can get from your marketing and publicity efforts. If
you get good word-of-mouth advertising going, customers may even
begin to request your product. If you truly believe your product and
the store are a match, be persistent. Not annoying-just persistent.

If they can do it,

So � fOU!

When Estee Lauder was launching her perfume, she m et with
the buyer for a department store. The buyer rejected the per­
fume. As she l eft the cosmetics a rea, she i ntentionally spilled
drops of her perfu me so the entire a rea smelled of her perfu m e .
People liked t h e scent s o m uch they b e g a n asking for i t . The
b uyer had to call and order. " N o" doesn't have to mean " no."
Try creative responses.