How to make items and convince other people to buy them and sell them?

[Scarlett]

A friend and I have a small business idea. It deals with handmade items but we wouldn't want to be the ones selling the items but rather making them and providing them to other businesses to sell themselves as they wish. How would someone go about approaching this and finding people or businesses willing to buy handmade goods for resale? 

[Carson]

Not sure, but I imagine you would need to figure out how to sell the product to these businesses. I would start scheduling meetings with companies to share your products. You have to raise awareness on what you have, otherwise no one will pick up on it. 

What kind of stuff do you make? 

[Stacey]

I think you could probably approach smaller businesses that are local in your area. I don't think you can just walk into a Walmart or something and ask if you could sell your stuff through them. It is a lot more work to work with a giant corporation and you need licensing, branding, etc. 

[James]

The process of selling to other businesses is rather simple. It is the grind of the work that is hard. Get used to hearing the word no. 

So your friend has a product and the product is going to fit well in a certain kind of store. Once you identify the type of store you are looking for go out and find the contact information of these stores. 

Now pick up the phone and start selling. Call them all. Over time you will get used to hearing different objections and find ways around them. Always try selling how much money the store will make selling your product instead of focusing on the price of your product. 

Think like a business owner when making your sales. They want to make more money so provide a solution to do just that. 

For me when I am buying products for our Brick and Mortar based store I like vendors that can give me the following:

Can I be added to the manufacturers or brands store locator page? Does that page get any traffic?

Will the vendor by back inventory I can not sell through after 6 months or a year?

Does the vendor provide any merchandising support for their products? A counter top display? Window clings? Anything to make the product stand out in the store.

What kind of margin can I get when I sell the product at retail?

What is the return policy when a customer returns a product to our store? Can I return it back to the vendor for credit or do I the store owner need to eat that cost?

Do not try going after the big fish at first. A purchase order from them would likely drown you anyways and the contracts you sign if your product does not sell can put you out of business. 

Going direct to consumer is not that hard in this day of age either and should always be an option or at least a different sales channel. Yes consumers can be a pain to deal with but so are businesses.