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Posted: Fri 8th Sep 2023
One of the fastest ways to grow your brand's sales is by having your product in front of more customers, and you can do this by getting stocked in more places.
However, aside from trade shows, how else do you get in front of buyers? Well, it's a combination of email, visiting the stores in person, phone calls, and exploring wholesale websites like Faire. Let's deep-dive into pitching on emails specifically.
The first step is to research and identify the right stockists for your business. This involves really knowing and understanding your customer.
Where and how do they shop? Is it online, or do they prefer the in-store experience? You need to get specific here and really start to think about your customer's profile.
Doing a market positioning exercise will give you an insight into where your brand sits within your desired market. For fashion and jewellery brands, I always recommend a simple X-Y axis, plotting prices from low to high on the X axis, to aesthetic on the Y axis, classic to trend.
Once you've identified your stockists, it's time to write your email. Keep the initial email short, sweet and to the point. As much as you might be tempted to, don't add large attachments. And line sheets and lookbooks aren't necessary at this initial stage.
Instead, embed product images into the body of your email. This is important as it will make the email look much more interesting and create visual appeal.
Begin the email with a short bio about your brand, including your unique selling point (USP). This is your opportunity to let the buyer know within the first few seconds what it is that sets you apart and makes you unique, compared to the other brands approaching them.
Always address your email to a specific person, using their name – never address it to 'Dear Buyer' or 'Dear Sir/Madam'.
Do your research and find out the buyer's name. In boutiques, this is usually the owner-proprietor. Continue personalising by referencing how your brand would fit their store offering. For example, it would make great adjacency to X, it would really add Y to your offer etc.
This shows them you have taken the time to do your research and aren't forwarding the same email to 20 other buyers.
Show proof of concept. Why should the buyer stock your brand? Well, it's because you've sold out your first collection within five minutes of launching, or you've been picked up by the best stockists in Abu Dhabi, or you've been featured in X many magazines.
Proof of concept can cover your marketing and PR achievements as well as your sales success. Your aim is to show the buyer that you're already successful and that it's a no-brainer to have you in stock.
This point leads nicely into your social media presence and how successfully you're representing your brand values, niche and USP across your social media content.
Looking up your Instagram profile will be one of the first things a buyer will do within minutes of opening your email.
Be resilient and be prepared that you may not hear back on the first email. This has nothing to do with whether they like your brand. Part of the sales process is that you're likely to be doing/saying/repeating yourself and this applies also to any email pitches.
If you do get a response with the first email, that's a bonus. Prepare yourself that it might take up to seven tries. Resilience and persistence are key.
