How to ask a business to sell your product

How to Ask a Business to Sell Your Product

Introduction

Are you an entrepreneur or inventor looking to get your product on the market? One effective way to expand your reach and increase sales is by partnering with already established and set-up businesses to sell your product. However, approaching these businesses can be intimidating, especially if you are new to the industry, and your brand isn’t well known. You may wonder what to say, how to approach them, and what to expect. It can be tough to overcome your fears.

This article will guide you through the process of asking a business to sell your product, and ensuring a successful partnership. With these tips and strategies, you’ll be well on your way to securing partnerships, growing your business, and getting your product in front of more customers.

Table of Contents

Conduct Thorough Research and Preparation

The first step to securing a good partnership with an established business, is conducting research. This research ones you up to all the possible businesses to partner with, and further research will help you narrow your options.

Understand what you want, and which of them are best suited for partnership. Most times, the issue may not be the business’ lack of exposure, or their incapability. It could be the lack of tally. If your product does not align with what they sell, and what they are famous for, the last thing you want to do, is build a partnership there.

Secondly, you must understand your target audience and product offerings. Understand where they often come in, and project your product towards that angle.

It is important that you are able to abide by this, and effectively narrow down your options. It might take a while, but it is definitely worth it. Partnering with a business which supports your product type is the best route to take.

Building Relationships

To approach the business of your choice, you must test the waters first, by creating a network, and establishing connections. This way, you will not seem too forward and entitled. Morally, it would be wrong, if you simply just barged into their business, requesting a partnership, without acknowledging their work, first. Based on your thorough research carried out on the business, you should have learnt the connections between you two. Leverage on this, by expressing the mutual interests and benefits. This way, you will be building trust and credibility in your brand’s ability to represent them.

Once they begin to show interest in your product, you can start scheduling meetings and presentations, bearing in mind that you are still in the review process.

In any business transaction, you should learn than building a connection and rapport is important and required, if you have any intentions of a long term partnership. This connection has to involve trust, which is your responsibility to create.

Crafting a Compelling Pitch

The introduction of your product, whether in a physical meeting, presentation, or however it may be, should be carried out with the utmost importance, as this is the most sensitive part of creating this partnership. It is where the business is either convinced, or not. Here, they can decide to walk away from your product, if your presentation and product itself isn’t worth their investment.

Develop a clear and concise product presentation, where the benefits and selling value points are properly highlighted. You want to let them know that your product will, not only fly off their shelves in no time, but will promote the credibility of their business. Be sure to also highlight the competitive advantages of your product, stating why any potential customer would rather buy it, than search for other brands of the same product, elsewhere. Be ready to showcase your product’s functionality through demonstrations, where necessary or out rightly required by the company.

Addressing Concerns and Objections

As with any form of sales, there will almost always be objections and concerns, as customers’ values will not always align with yours. In the case of asking a business to sell your product, they might be the ones with these concerns. Bear in mind that all they want, is to be certain that it is a worthy investment. When these objections arise, from either the business or potential customers, you should always be ready to offer solutions and alternatives where necessary.

For people in doubt, always have case studies or testimonials from people who have used the product and had positive results. Provide these as proof of your product’s validity, in cases where the product sales pitch is simply not convincing enough.

Negotiating Terms and Agreements

With the business, the time will come, when your product passes all of their evaluation, and you will be required to negotiate sales terms.

The right product will boost your confidence when discussing pricing, commission, and profit-share structures. With the value of your product in mind, you should price competitively. Do not price too high or too low compared to other products in the same category. Also, when discussing sales territories and distribution channels, open up about your willingness to partner on that, if you want to. You can discuss a distribution plan, where you take care of delivery, on receiving orders. If it isn’t convenient, you might as well let them do it, discussing this in your pricing terms.

Providing Marketing Support

When it comes to providing market support to the business, be open to suggesting to offer marketing materials and promotional resources, as you are building a partnership. Assisting with these things will boost and promote your credibility and trust.

You can decide to collaborate on social media and advertising campaigns, offering your support wherever it is required. This is not just for your product alone, but theirs too. Remember that your product will become a part of their business, therefore, any support you provide to their business is extended to your product. After conducting market research, it is advisable to share customer insights with the business. This strengthens your partnership, while keeping them up-to-date.

Tips to Ensure Successful Integration and Maintain a Strong Partnership

Be open to providing product training and support for their sales team. Teach them what you know about your product, as they already have all the required knowledge about theirs.
If it is possible, try to monitor sales performance and collect customer feedback which will help you improve the quality of your product accordingly. This way, customers will keep visiting their business because of your product, hence, a strong partnership.
Do your best to keep in touch with them, communicating any distresses and addressing any issues that may come up.
Always improve and expand your product offering, as this will only attract more customers.
Finally, as a business partner, you can express your genuine concern for the business by celebrating successes and milestones together.

Conclusion

Realizing that building partnerships with already established businesses is a way to expand yours, may come as a relief to so many struggling businesses. It is. And this opportunity, if taken seriously, can be life-changing.

These discussed strategies will significantly help you to break free from the fear of what to expect. By following them, you will have a chance to build the best partnership with a business, and have your products sold out, in no time.