[Resource of the Day] – Working With Sales Reps

Today’s Article: “The Rep Route to Nontraditional Sales”
by Linda Carlson
via Publisher’s Marketing Association

As I said in Sunday’s article, one of the smartest things you can do as a small publisher is to look for a variety of channels in which to sell your product. In the article, I recommended finding four phases for your initial rollout, and then searching for a fifth, sixth, seventh, and so forth. But chances are good you felt daunted by the task, especially since the least obvious channels, such as independent bookstores, gift shops, organizations and book clubs, require the most work. But what I didn’t focus upon was the availability of specialized sales reps who will sell your books to these channels for nothing more than a commission. And today’s article is full of tips on how to work with a rep to reach those extra channels.

The article begins with a often-asked question, along with a practical answer:

How do you sell more books? You expand your market-to more bookstores, and usually to more retailers overall: cookware shops, baby boutiques, card and gift shops, maybe even neighborhood hair salons.Sounds good, doesn’t it? Especially when you know that nonbook retailers seldom get discounts of more than 50 percent, usually pay their own freight, and buy nonreturnable.

What could be better?

There’s only one catch: selling into these markets is often far more challenging than selling into traditional book channels.

Nonbook retailers seldom buy the way booksellers do. They don’t buy from book reps, from book distributors, or from book wholesalers. Instead, they usually work through gift, gourmet, or other specialty sales reps, independents working geographic territories on a commission basis.

Gift shops and other non-book retailers generally don’t buy directly from publishers; they just don’t have the time to keep up with what’s out there. And publishers, too, don’t have the time or the sales staff to contact each of these retailers and attempt to open an account. The advantage of reps is that they aren’t salaried, don’t require benefits, don’t require supervision, and often have years’ worth of contacts and experience. The disadvantage of reps is that they generally represent a large assortment of products, and won’t necessarily focus on your product when they’re making sales. Fortunately, this article is loaded with tips on how you can help your reps make your product more attractive:

Keep the quality high. Hardcover books that have attractive covers are the most likely to sell in the gift market.
Keep the price point low: below $19.95 for certain, but around $9.95, if possible. Books can be a great impulse item, but only if they’re priced to move.
Pay reps appropriately and promptly; at least 15% within 30 days, says the article. Reps pay a lot of costs out of pocket, and they need to make a nice profit to be the most enthusiastic about your product.
Give your reps some easy, established accounts to start off with. You might be giving up some profits, but you’ll give your rep some quick and easy sales that will build a momentum for them. They’ll sell more, and faster, too.
Package goods for the market. If you’re shooting for the gift stores, be prepared to offer gift store style merchandise, like t-shirts and stuffed animals, to go along with your products. If you’re shooting for book clubs, include free notebooks and pens with your publisher’s logo.
Keep your goods fresh and your lines deep. Only regional books or honest-to-goodness staple products can sustain sales for more than a season or two. Retailers want to keep their selections fresh; reps will focus on what’s new. And while reps don’t work with frontlist/backlist catalogues, they will want new products to pitch.

There’s a lot more in the article that’s worth reading, so you should definitely check it out. And while I don’t know of any place where you can find sales reps or groups, the last third of the article has many suggestions on methods that will help you track them down.

Writing Scraps

by Sean J. Jordan