Revenue Journal®

Kimberley Deane makes beautiful, reasonably priced jewelry. Her photography skills are top-notch. Her website and printed materials are stunning.

The only problem is, Kimberley hates to sell. She'd rather spend most of her day creating her wares, not "selling." Most artisan entrepreneurs, especially those who open up one-person shops in order to sell what they love to create, hate to sell. Selling is a distasteful, intrusive activity. It grosses them out and causes them to break out in a cold sweat.

Kimberley wants to increase her sales, but she didn't want to have to sell in order to do it. Once I understood her problem, I was able to tell her that she doesn't need to "sell" in order to increase her sales. She just has to make it easy for people to buy from her. That was a comforting thought for Kimberley. Then we started working on exactly how she would do this.

Kimberley has two outlets for her work: boutique gift shops and her website. We focused first on her gift shop sales, since she's well-equipped to handle more of that type of business.

Her work is selling well in two local gift shops. She has a positive track record she can leverage.

She lives in the Cape Cod area, so there are plenty of small gift shops she can approach. I asked her if someone could "case out" the stores in the area to find those most appropriate. "Yes, my mother helps me with my business," she said. "She could do that." I suggested that her mother check out the stores that would be most likely to carry her jewelry.

Most boutique gift shops have the owner's business card near the cash register; if it's there, her mother should pick it up. If it isn't there, and her mother is feeling brave, she could ask for the owner's name--by just telling the truth ("My daughter makes beautiful jewelry, and we might want to send you a sample."). But it's also ok for her Mom to simply spend time in the store, looking at their wares, then walk out and take notes about the store. The owner's name is a bonus, but it isn't required for the next step in the process.

Kimberley then needs to send two samples of her work with a letter and a color flyer that shows her other work. The letter should say that her mother recently visited the store and thought that they might be interested in carrying Kimberley's jewelry.

She should offer to have them sell the first 5 items on consignment, and see how they do. "Consider this a marketing expense," I said to her. In the letter, she should also say that if the items sell well, she would then offer the items on a pay-up-front basis. This solved a major problem for Kimberley, who hates to pester store owners for payment, but at the same time, can't ask for a money-up-front arrangement until she has proven to the store owner that her work will sell.

If she hasn't heard back from the store owner in a week, she should call. This is not a cold call--the owner will have seen her work. "Hi, this is Kimberley Deane. I sent you a couple of samples of my work recently [describe if needed], and wondered what you thought of them."

The owner's response will determine where the conversation goes. Perhaps the samples are out on the floor already. Perhaps they liked the samples, but wanted something a little different. Kimberly can gently inquire, in a conversational way, until she understands what this store owner wants. She can then follow up with two more appropriate samples, if needed.

Of course, she'll have to keep track of this activity, but it's manageable. She can send out 10 letters at a time and use the next few weeks after that to secure at least one of those ten stores. She can keep track of her activity on a simple spreadsheet with columns for each step in the process. She can put an "X" in a column/cell when she's completed a step. She can open the spreadsheet every morning, and be able to tell, at a glance, what she needs to do that day to follow up. Her goal will be to secure at least one new retail store from each batch of ten inquiries. If she goes after the right types of stores, however, her success rate could easily be higher.

Kimberley was relieved. She could see that she wouldn't have to "sell" anymore. She could select appropriate stores to approach, and then make it easy for them to prove to themselves that her jewelry would sell.