As a designer, you of course, will design. However, a large portion of your time spent will be marketing and selling your products. Sales may seem daunting at first, but it is something you have to do and with more time and practice, you will become good at it. Plus, who else can sell your products better than you? As the designer or founder, you bring the facts, emotion and overall story.
One way to tackle selling is to think of each product in your collection like a bullet on your resume. When you create a resume, every bullet should be an accomplishment that is proprietary to you. If you think about selling this way, you will have to say something special and succinct to say about every item. Plus, being able to articulate the features and benefits of your products will make you seem well-versed in your offerings.
When developing your sales pitch, consider answering these questions for each of your products so you are prepared with the information a buyer will want to know.
1. Price point – It’s important to talk abut the cost of your products with confidence. This includes the opening price point and range to the wholesale and retail cost of each item.
2. Materials and fabrication – Be able to talk about the fabric and materials used and what that means for the product. This could include benefits like a soft hand, durable or breathable wicking properties.
3. Care and wash – Whether you are selling apparel or accessories, tell how the product can be cleaned and treated because this does influence a sale.
4. Merchandising – It’s extremely important to show how your collection is cohesive and works together because you want to be able to sell multiple pieces within your collection and not just one item.
5. Styling – Show your customer all the ways it can be worn. For example, if you have dress, talk about how it can be worn with a jacket, a statement necklace, a sweater or leggings and in which seasons. If a retailer can communicate this to their customer, it makes that piece more attractive and an easier sell.
6. Colorways– Buyers want options and having a range of basic and seasonal colors is attractive because it means more choices for them and their customer.
7. Popular each season – Retailers like to know if a product has done well. If you’ve brought back a style because it had great sell-through or even enhanced the latest version with additional features or colors due to customer feedback, these selling points are important.
8. Construction – Be able to explain how your product was crafted. This includes everything from where it was produced, the type of craftsmanship used to create the item such as the type of seam finish because this information can justify quality and cost.
9. Signature item – Mention a signature item or feature because it starts to tells the story that you have items that you are committed to growing and how you are building your brand.
10. Trend -If your product is on trend this season weave that in to your sales story. For example, if you have a emerald handbag, Pantone’s color of the year, then leverage the popularity of it.
11. Target – Always be able to clearly talk about who your customer is and how and where she will use your products. This goes beyond the basic demographics such as she’s a 25-34 year old female, but know all the nuances of her lifestyle that will resonate with your products and the store’s customer.
12. Competitors – You must be able to talk about who your competitors are without a pause. It’s important because retailers will want to know who you hang with and where they can source volume.
Once you spend some time looking at each product and answer these questions, your “bullets will become stronger and selling will become a lot easier.
