Successful Sales Calls II Embroidery Project

The process begins by carefully selecting your prospective client. (By the way, that’s one of the truly unique things about embroidery: everyone’s a potential customer, so you have a huge selection of prospects to choose from). You should start by identifying a group of related customers, rather than just one prospect at a time. For example, car dealers, landscapers, plumbers, etc. In this way, you will be spending your time developing a single sales presentation that can be used multiple times. The next step is to profile the group as well as the individuals within the group.

People are different! We all know this, but when it comes to sales we need to focus on this. These differences can make or break your efforts to reach a given group of people. These traits are referred to as demographics, and include age, sex, income, ethnic background, race, level of education, employment, etc. By grouping people based on their shared characteristics, you are able to better understand their needs and define their buying habits.

Once you know whom you’re going to pursue, it’s time to do a bit of research, so that you can adequately plan your sales presentation. Learn everything you can about the customer. Knowledge is power! You must also realize that your customer might not be the final end user. For example, if you are heirloom products to a gift store, then their customer is the real target. Thus, you may need to research your customer’s customer in order to target them correctly.

After you have identified the customer, it’s time to analyze the customer. Make some observations and do some research. Use this information to create a list of attributes that describes the target customer.

Now it’s time to brainstorm. Using your customer attribute list, begin thinking of every possible item and/or service you could sell to this customer and create a second list. Review it for practicality. Now develop some real product ideas. (Think of designs as well.)

Once you are comfortable with your choices, decide what you will need to take to show the customer. It’s usually not practical to take everything on your list, so choose carefully the items that you feel are the most important. In regards to the other items, be prepared to show catalog pictures. Take the time to mark the pages you wish to show for easy reference. (Also make sure the manufacturers name and contact information is not visible, nor the wholesale prices.)

Along with choosing sample garments and merchandise ideas, be sure to develop a price strategy. You’ll be much more effective if you can quote while you show. Pulling out a calculator and digging through a distributors price sheet in front of the customer is not a good thing. Go one step further and develop a printed price sheet to go with your samples.