6 Proven Steps to Get Wholesalers to Want to do Business with an eBay Seller - Wholesale Part 5

By Tom | Jun 8, 2008

If you sell on eBay you not only face the challenge of finding wholesale sources but also the challenge of getting them to want do business with an eBay seller. Before I talk to you about how and where to find wholesale sources lets discuss how to get them to want to business with you . Here are some Powerseller tips and tricks that will do just that..

1. Get Legal

True wholesalers want to do business with true retailers. If you haven’t done this yet get going. You will need a sales tax number and or a business license. This is usually very inexpensive and in some cases free depending on the state you live in. It’s not that hard and will open up a whole new door for you on eBay. You will also want to decide whether you are going to be a corporation, sole proprietorship etc. I would suggest getting in touch with your states Small Business Development Center or SBDC. Many of their services are free and they will be able to help you get you business going in the right direction legally. http://www.sba.gov/localresources/index.html

2. Get a Special Business Name

If you don’t have a business name you will need one to contact wholesalers. Be careful when picking a business name because you do not want one that is too specific. If you were starting a brick and mortar store I would tell you just the opposite because you would want the name to say something about what you sold. With an eBay business you don’t want the name to say something about what you sell and the reason is simple. When selling on eBay you want to be able to sell what sells and sometimes what sells is not going to be within you particular niche. Here is an example: Let say your business name is “Pet Toys” and you find out that designer sunglasses are selling like hot cakes on eBay and you want to get into that market. You contact a wholesaler of designer sunglasses and want to start an account with them. Once they find out that your business name is “Pet Toys” what are the chances that they will take you seriously? Lets put it this way. It might be hard for “Pet Toys” to get an account with a wholesaler of designer sunglasses. Now lets say your company name is “XYZ Company” and you contact them. The sales rep for the wholesale company isn’t going to make any presumptions about your business because for all they know “XYZ Company” could be a large retailer and you are more likely to get an account with that wholesaler. (Tip: Do not use your own name as your business name.) Remember you can do business under as many names as you want. So in this example you would have your main business name be “XYZ Company” and could still be Doing Business As (DBA) “Pet Toys” but for contacting wholesalers you want your main business name to be generic. Having a generic business name will not only increase your chances of getting wholesale accounts but will also allow your business to be more flexible and flexibility on eBay is good.

3. Get a New Business Card

Even if you already have a business card it may be a good idea to get a different one. You may be just starting your company or you may have had an eBay business for some time either way there is a good chance your the only employee in your company. If this is the case you wear many hats. You are the owner, manager, sales department, purchasing, marketing, accounting and anything else you can think of. You can have a business card for any or all of these but for contacting wholesalers you want to put on you purchasing hat. You want a business card that says you are a “purchasing agent” for your company. A purchasing agent buys the goods the company needs to resell to customers. Having a purchasing agent helps to make your company look professional and established to a wholesale representative and they will be more likely to want to do business with you. Your business card doesn’t have to be anything fancy. I would suggest taking a look at VistaPrint for free to low cost business cards.

Purchasing Agent Business Card

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4. Letterhead Stationary

This is a must when looking for a wholesaler. Many of them will ask you to fax them a copy of your business license or tax id and some will want it on your business stationary. If you have a picture or sketch of your company’s building put it on your stationary as well. Some wholesalers want a picture of your building or store so if it is already on the stationary it will save you some time. If you decide to get your business card through VistaPrint.com you can get matching stationary through them as well and I believe you can download a picture of your building to put on it.

5. Get a Company Website

When picking out your generic business name make sure the domain name for that name is available. You don’t want to get stuck with a business name and no website to go along with it. Having a website is very beneficial because it will make you look much more professional. Not only will the website make you look professional the email address that goes along with it will make you look professional as well. Who would you take more seriously a company that has an email address like this xyzcompany@hotmail.com or a company that has an email address like JoeSmalts@xyzcompany.com.

Your company website only needs to have a real basic statement of who your company is, which doesn’t really tell them anything except that you purchase items for resale, and a couple of pages such as a career page and a contact page. On the careers page you can post positions you are hiring for once you get to that point and on the contact page you can place links to email the different departments including the Purchasing Department. Most website hosts give you lots of email addresses so you can have a different email address for each department. I would recommend DotEasy.com because you can get a basic site for FREE without any banners which comes with a website building tool so you don’t have to know any html and up to ten free email addresses. You will have to pay for your domain name but that is it. I have use them for years for this purpose and I am very happy with them.

6. Telephone Answering Service and Fax:

A telephone answering service will round everything out. If your doing business from home this is especially important. Now that you have a professional company image the last thing you want to do is blow it with a phone call. Imagine a wholesale representative calling and your son or daughter answers the phone and yells: “Mom / Dad some guy is on the phone for you!” and then sets the phone down so the representative can listen to the TV going in the back ground. All the work you have done to establish a professional company image has just gone up in smoke. This could have all been avoided if you had a good answering service. The best is a 1-800 answering service that maintains a professional image, gives you the option to answer the phone, for when everything is quiet, as well as the ability to send the calls to your voice mail. I have tried out some very inexpensive and free options but would not recommend them. Many of the free services announce that they are free when someone calls or gives the caller a short commercial before they send them to your voice mail. The really inexpensive ones sound like an answering machine which doesn’t give the professional image you want either. The best one I have found is GotVMail. GotVMail isn’t the least expensive but isn’t the most expensive either. I would suggest starting out with their basic plan and then working up if you need to. All their plans also come with a virtual fax which allows you to send and receive faxes. Their may be other services but this is the best one for the price that I have found.

Presenting your best image when contacting wholesalers is very important. The more professional and established your company looks the more the wholesalers are going to want to do business with your eBay business. If you follow the steps I have outlined above your will no longer have to beg a wholesaler to give you an account. The wholesalers will “want” to give you an account and many times will be stumbling over their feet to give you an account.

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