Learn everything you need to know to become an office supply vendor
Do you have office supply inventions that you want to sell into retail chains? Have you ever wanted to sell to Office Depot, Office Max, Walmart or any other chain store retailers?
If so you will love this new training on Office Supplies Inventions – How to Sell Your Office Supplies Inventions to Retail Chains! No Experience Required!
In this video, we explain what to do and how to get started today!
Do you have a product that is perfect to sell to Office Supply stores?
With that said, let’s talk about getting your office supply products sold at retailers like OfficeMax and more! So if you have a great consumer product in the office supply category, and you’re looking for quick tips and strategies, this little training, we’ll walk you through how to do that. And just to give you some ideas and suggestions on what that world is all about.
A little background about me before we begin.
My name is Karen Waksman. I’m the founder of a company called RETAIL MBA Brands. We help consumer products companies scale into retail chains, online retailers, catalogs, small retailers, HSN, QVC, and so much more. And the purpose of our trainings are honestly to just help as many people as possible generate the most amount of income for their products. I personally sold millions of units of products to the world’s largest retailers as a manufacturer’s rep, started my career out back in early 2000s and since then, I’ve taught close to 100,000 companies across the globe on getting their products sold at retail chains and beyond.
What You Need to Know About Selling Your Office Supply Products to Retail
Let’s talk about what I would do if I was selling an office supply product. The first thing I would do is I wouldn’t do what everybody else does. What everybody else does with office supplies is they’ll go after Office Depot and OfficeMax, and start there. And basically, those would be their top hitters. Those are the ones that they really want to sell to.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with selling to these retailers, but every single office supply company is trying to sell them. Why does this matter to you? Well, it is a problem because when a buyer sees the same products all day, every single day, and she’s looking to purchase something new and she’s office supply retailer and very niched out, all she does is see your competitors’ products and better and bigger and working with bigger brands and so forth.
And so she’s more inclined to say, “No.” It’s just common in our industry where it’s common to say no when the buyer is actually looking at every possible angle of an office supply product.
Once you become a office supply vendor other retailers will accept your products
Whereas if you sold to a retailer like Walmart or Target or anywhere that sells, even Michaels stores. Whatever it is, retailers that can buy office supplies that are not totally niched out, they’re actually more intrigued by looking at new products. You would think that the niche retailers would be their first go-to move, but as a sales professional, I’ve found that those ended up being the ones that were harder to convert initially, and the ones that were a little bit outlandish. Not exactly what all your competitors are thinking about going after are the ones that generate the most amount of revenue.
Selling Office Supply Products to Office Depot and OfficeMax
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go after Office Depot or OfficeMax. You should, but just recall that I said that if for some reason they’re rejecting you, it doesn’t really matter because all you need is one “Yes” from one chain store. And the more obscure the chain store, the better, meaning, you know, maybe Ace Hardware can buy your product or 7-Eleven can buy your product or some sort of retailer can buy your product. That is not something that most people think about in your industry. And you get them to say yes. Their retailers are actually looking for products that are not risky. And for them, when you are selling a product at any chain store, you tend to be less risky in their eyes because somebody took a chance on you.
And that’s usually when they decide to start working with you.
So my recommendation is, don’t get your heart broken.
If they say no to you, go to all the different retailers, find one to say yes, and then it becomes a domino effect. And then you go back to the Office Depots and the OfficeMax’s of the world, and theget what you want.
It can be to tricky to sell your office supply products to retail chains
I see it all the time. People kind of cower away after they didn’t get what they wanted initially and they think that there’s something wrong with their product and so forth because the retailer said no to them. It’s not really that. It’s just usually your strategy and you don’t quite understand how retailers operate and so forth. Obviously, there’s so much more to say about that, but the essence is, don’t stick to what everybody else is doing, which is to reach out to the only few retailers and so forth.
So one thing to consider also with chain stores is, they don’t always have a lot of room for office supply products.
And so one thing to think about … If you go to an aisle at a chain store and they only have one section for office supplies, that concerns people and makes you wonder whether or not you should sell to them.
Sell Your Office Supply Products to Gift Buyers
One other thing to consider, is there anywhere else in this store your product could fit? Is it a gift item? Because there are gift buyers who can buy your product. Is it back to school? Could it work in that section of the store? Could it be for college kids? Some retailers focus on the college market. Could you change the coloring and design elements to match holiday seasons? There’s a lot of different ways that you can sell your product beyond what you’re currently doing.
If you become an office supply vendor for big retail chain it is a tremendous opportunity for your business
And you’d be surprised at how many angles. You can go after the seasonal market, the retailers that sell holiday stuff. There’s a lot of possible ways to slice and dice this to make your product sell into other retailers and so forth. Bottom line is that there is a lot of opportunity there and all you need is just one hit, one retailer to say yes to your product, and then you’ll see that there’s a nice domino effect that occurs.
And when I say domino effect, I mean, other retailers start suddenly being interested in selling your product.
Happens to my clients all the time. They start with no sales and then they get that one retailer and all of a sudden they’re in five, six, seven stores. It doesn’t always happen that way, but it can happen that way. And I want that for you because one chain store order can mean millions of dollars to your business and your bottom line. If you want to learn about your industry and your category as a whole, there are trade shows that you can go to. One example is the Office and School Supply Trade Show, ASD, is an option for you. And the reason you want to do that is just to kind of take a look at your competitors, what’s going on, who’s selling a lot, who’s not, how they’re packaging, what they’re doing.
Creating a community
And just start talking to people and getting involved in your local community of people who sell similar products with trade associations and so forth. There’s a lot of things you can do to generate and grow your sales. But I just want to give you some ideas to think about, that it’s nice to have community and especially people who are like-minded, doing similar things. It’s good for you to get involved and see what’s going on in your industry and your category.
Learn how to approach, pitch & sell to office supply products to stores
If you are interested in learning more, we actually have a full training that’s 90 minutes long. All you have to do is go to retailmba.com/free and sign up for an upcoming webinar event, where we basically walk you through how to approach, pitch, and sell to retailers in much more detail. I’ll have time with you. Otherwise, take a look at what we’re up to if you’re interested in getting support on how to approach buyers, how to reach out to buyers, how to get them to buy, how to work with reps, what words to use to cultivate the best message possible to support you in actualizing your dream of generating revenue with physical products.
We work with companies with no experience, no buyer relationships, and they’re scaling. You can take a look at what we’re up to. We have do it yourself programs, done for you programs. We have all sorts of stuff on retailmba.com. And you can also take a look at our testimonials page. You’ll see how many success stories we’ve had in all sorts of niche retailers and major retailers and so forth. So anyway, thanks a lot for listening to us.
Karen Waksman, RETAIL MBA Brands. Please be on the lookout for additional content that we create. Subscribe to this and share with your friends and like, and do whatever you got to do to keep in touch with us because we’re always creating new content. Thanks so much, hope this helped.
To your success,
Karen Waksman, Retail MBA Brands
Step-by-step training on how to sell your inventions today!
We explain exactly how to do that and how to get started today. I’ve taught 100’s of thousands of companies on how to get products into major retailers, online Retailers, Catalogs, Small Retailers and Much More! . And so we’re here to support you.
We are here to expedite the process of making money with your inventions and that’s what we’re all about. Take a look at our advanced trainings and so much more.
In this training, I will discuss some of the things to think about when approaching a retailer to sell your products and become a vendor. Hope it helps! 🙂
Karen Waksman,
Inventions.org
Questions? Contact Us!
1-833-7-Invent (Call or Text)
Email: karen (at) Inventions.org
Inventions.org provides a step-by-step formula on How to Sell to Major Retailers, Online Retailers, Smaller Retailers, Catalogs and More. No Experience Required! These solutions continue to convert for clients year-over-year! These are Time-Tested and Proven Strategies that we utilize ourselves when going after stores! Everything we teach, we test. Want access to these formulas? ANY one of our programs and coaching systems gives you access to them now. With that said…
Here are 4 Easy Ways to Work with Us:
1) Free Training – If You Would Like to Join Our Next FREE Webinar Training Called “Retail Chain Store Secrets – How to Sell to Major Retail Chains. No Experience Required” Then Sign Up NOW To Learn All About Selling into Retail Chains By Clicking Here! https://inventions.org
2) Retail 4 Week Challenge Intensives – Want to Join our 4 Week Elite Masterclass Intensive? These Intensives Are EPIC for people who Love Fast Paced Learning – Homework, Retail Coaching, Developing Your Strategy, Buyers Contacts and More! These Events Are Held Every Quarter. This if for people who have products ideal for Major Retailers. It’s part of our Sister Companies Retail MBA systems! Join us by Clicking Here: https://www.retailmbabrands.com/masterclass
3) Done-for-You Program – If You Want Karen Waksman and Her Team to Pitch Your Top Dream Retail Chains On Your Behalf – And You Have a Retail-Ready Invention, Check Out our Epic Done-For-You Service (Retail MBA) by Clicking Here: https://www.retailmbabrands.com/done
Thanks so much.
And…if you like this training, you will love these new short training sessions as well! Click on the links provided to watch and grow your consumer product business TODAY!
