How to Make the Sale: Basic Selling Tools You Need !!!

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Often the excitement, exhaustion and expense of putting a line together leaves new designer/manufacturers with little creativity, enthusiasm or money for developing the basic tools required to actually sell the line. Line sheets, samples and hang tags are the three tools essential for making sales. You will want to develop this set of selling tools which are usable by everyone, are complete in and of themselves and can be combined easily and smoothly with other tools in a variety of selling situations.

Line Sheets

Line sheets come in many forms and provide information about your product.  Any person selling your line will utilize them to answer questions about your products.  They can be handed out in showrooms, at trade shows or market days, used in direct mail sales and sent in response to inquiries.  A line sheet can be an order form which contains all the necessary information or an order form on one side and a line sheet on the other.  It can be one sheet per product or many products per sheet.  Generally, a line sheet is developed for a specific selling season, such as Spring or Fall.  What is available to sell on that line sheet may also have a specific delivery period.  In the case of items which are sold year round, indicate turn around time from order to delivery—“Allow six weeks for delivery”—for example.

 

Line Sheets should always include the following information:

·       company name, address, phone, fax, email and web site information

·       style names

·       style numbers

·       sketch or photo of each style

·       short verbal description of items, if appropriate

·       fiber content of bodies and trim

·       colors and fabrications

·       sizes

·       prices

·       country of manufacture and origin of fabric

·       effective date of line sheet

·       delivery dates

·       minimum orders

·       sales terms

Samples for Selling Purposes

Samples for selling purposes are used by any person selling your line—you, your sales reps or other salespeople in showrooms, at trade shows, market days and on the road.  They are your front line of selling tools:  an exact example of what the buyer is ordering and will be shipped.  Not only should your samples be perfect, they must accurately represent what you are actually producing and shipping.  Samples for selling purposes should:

·       be one of each style you are selling

·       be of the best materials

·       be perfectly sewn

·       be the most attractive color way of the color ways which you are offering

·       be the size that best shows off the design of the item

·       have a swatch card of other colors, prints or fabrics in which this item will be produced 

·       have a sample tag which lists fabric content, sizes and colors offered and price points

Hang Tags for Samples

·       your logo

·       company name and address

·       style name

·       style number

·       size range

·       color range

·       fiber content

·       country of manufacture and country of origin of fabric

·       price points (the selling price)

·       minimums per style

·       There should be a separate swatch card of available fabrications—this can save you fabric and production costs in sample making by allowing customers to see the full range of colors and fabrics.

With your sales tools in hand you are now ready to make those sales!