A DIY Guide on Sales & Selling with Lisa Smyth and Emma Johnston
On the 5th of May, we had the pleasure of having our 8th Womenfolk event ‘A DIY guide on Sales & Selling with Lisa Smyth of Shesaid.Design and Emma Johnston of Hunter Paper Co.
In this workshop, they covered:
Getting in front of Potential Customers
How to present yourself as a business
Techniques in confidence
Navigating money
Building relationships with clients
Getting ready for wholesale
Wholesale pricing
Confidence in selling
Pricing your work
This project is kindly funded by Ulster Bank.
This project is brought to you by Blick Shared Studios & Creating A Space.
If you are looking for the detailed presentations created by Lisa Smyth and Emma Johnston, please click the box below to download the free resource.
Video 1 - How to get in front of a potential customer
In this video, Lisa talks about how to get in front of potential customers that you want to work with.
Identify clients you want to work with
What’s your point of difference?
Have your selling platforms branded and ready to rock Get out there and sell yourself.
Call, DM, email, write, tweet, network
Video 2 - How to present yourself and your business
In this video, Lisa talks about the different ways on how to present yourself and your business in front of your customers.
Put your best foot forward
Educate yourself in your clients’ businesses
Talk the talk
Walk the walk
Video 3 - Techniques for becoming confident
In this video, Lisa gives us some tips on how to be confident within ourselves and our businesses.
Knowledge + experience gives confidence
Training gives confidence
Peers give confidence
Belief gives confidence
Video 4 - Navigating money
In this video, Lisa goes through different things to consider when dealing with clients and finances.
What is the budget? - asking the client what budget they have to work with
Work out your rate: Hourly/daily rate = Desired wage + overheads + operating costs + taxes
Tier your rates: low/medium/high (per sector or per level of work)
Value your work, value yourself
Video 5 - Getting Paid
In this video, Lisa talks about the importance of getting paid for the work that you create for your clients.
Set up a good accounting system
Set out your terms of payment
Send reminder at 30 days
Ring client or call in person and don’t leave without being paid. You’ve worked hard for it
Video 6 - How to get in front of customers (retail & wholesale)
In this video, Emma talks about how she gets in front of her customers from a Retail and Wholesale perspective.
Wholesale -
Trade shows
Relationship retention over email, Post - sending catalogues/ samples. show mail outs
Online wholesale marketplaces eg. Faire, Abound
Retail -
Social engagement - stories, DM's, building relationships & reliability
Ads - Google, Facebook/Instagram, Pinterest
Organic traffic from brand recognition for wholesale, NOTHS and Etsy
Weddings -
Wedding shows
PR
Video 7 - Getting ready for Wholesale
In this video, Emma talks about the things you need to put in place when you are preparing to sell wholesale.
Catalogue/ line sheet
Clear photography
Samples
Wholesale pricing - in the UK there's usually a 2.4x markup, the USA is 2x
Minimum order values (MOV's)
Minimum order quantities (MOQ's)
Shipping costs/carriage paid
Tariffs
Presentation
Products themselves - are they shop-ready, consider packaging
Trade show set up - shelving, displays, catalogues
You - know your stuff / confident in your pricing etc
Whole Sale Pricing
General rule - take cost of materials, double it = wholesale price
Wholesale price, double it or x 2.4 = retail price
Consider your place in the market/ competitors
We would appreciate it if you could fill in a short feedback form that will take less than a few minutes. It is for us, and our funders so that we can put more events like this on. Thank you in advance.
Thank you for watching this online workshop, we hope you were able to get the value of it and feel confident in selling and generating sales for your creative business.