When you are going to a job interview you cannot go unprepared, can you? Why don’t do the same while approaching a wholesale supplier? You need to understand that for a wholesaler working with you (setting up an account etc) means time, paperwork and money. If you don’t look like a credible retailer, you might get turned down immediately.

Charlie Hall, the owner of Charlie’s Woodshop, comments:

“I spend a lot of time helping online retailers get going with my product, but they may not go anywhere if they’re not doing the follow-up work.”

But, of course, a coin has two sides. It is not only you who has to be reliable in the eyes of the wholesaler, but the wholesaler must be a trustworthy one. Here, at dropshiparea, we do out best to supply you with the most reliable and trusted wholesale suppliers. By using the services provided by us you are not likely to end up with a middleman or get into any kind of financial fraud.

If you create a favorable impression you are not likely to get a point-blank NO. So let’s find out what is a good way to ask a wholesaler for an account:

First of all be professional

Any wholesale supplier wants to see how are you going to position their products.

1. Take your time to check the presentation (it includes grammar, your punctuation, capitalization etc.). If you are not sure whether the grammar is correct use any kind of spellchecker.

Hall continues:

“These are little areas that tell me whether or not I want to do business with a retailer. If they’re not doing all the work, they’re last on the list.”

2. Provide the wholesaler with credible info

• Give them you full name, the name of your business, address and full contact info
• Bother to include the tax ID. In fact, without this kind of information you are not likely to be given pricing information. A wholesaler needs this info to check if your business is legal and some other procedures.

Be aware

1. Come prepared

Before making a contact give a careful study to the companies you are abut to get involved with. While mass mailing is a working way to set up multiple accounts, it cannot ensure the quality of wholesalers. And remember that stuff with multiple email addresses.

Have a look at the web-page of the company, its policy, services etc. In your letters try to avoid asking questions the answers to which can be found on Help pages and in the FAQ.

2. Realize what to expect from collaboration

Remember one important thing: a wholesale supplier is not your guru. They don’t have time (and even if they do, it is not their responsibility) to answer your questions and teach you how to sell their products.

One more crucial aspect of mixing up with wholesale suppliers:not every supplier is willing to work with eBiz. Some of them are working on larger scales. But some of them are ready to supply you with products. So, once more the problem of choosing the best wholesale suppliers seems to be the vital one for your home-base business.

eBay selling might be a pleasant, fun and profitable experience. But when you have got reed of every single piece of rubbish in your house where can you go for product ideas and sources?

When you are done researching eBay you might need reliable sources of products. Here, at dropshiparea, we are doing our best to help you find the best wholesale suppliers and help you sign up with them and thus get access to the services they offer.

Plunging deeper into eBay Sources

In fact, eBay is itself a powerful product sourcing tool. For instance, it is a great place with inbuilt traffic which is a real goldmine for those seeking for the products to sell. I uncover a great secret to you: one of the best tools to learn what the traffic wants is the Seller Central Page (www.EBay.com/SellerCentral). Moreover, there are other tools which can be very useful plus not many people are aware of their existence.

• The merchandising calendar

It is great place to learn what products will be promoted be eBay next few weeks/months. You also learn under which categories you need to list your goods to be given a place on the home page of the service.

• The hot items section

It can be called a monthly report. You can learn which products are moving, producing more bids, and getting higher final prices. Here you can learn where the demand is at the moment.

Janelle Elms advices:

“Print this report and keep it with [you] at all times,” She explains, “People don’t know what to look for… This will really help direct and keep your mind focused to what’s moving on eBay.”

• The hot categories section

This section gives you an idea about the top categories and moreover how to sell products in those categories. Each category features the section “In Demand” that gives you clue not only about the hottest selling products but also about the keywords users search for the items with. You see that eBay tells you what to sell and how to do it!

Listen to your clients

When users come to eBay they already know what they want. You don’t have to offer anything to them. All you need to do is listen carefully to what they’re saying. The tools help you to learn what they are looking for. You simply need to come up with the things they are in search of. Simple, but believe me it works!

With the growth of your website and amount of your online projects you will need some help. You can hire full time employees, but it is not common practice with Internet marketing (I refer to independent web entrepreneurs, not companies). As a rule, website publishers hire contractors. Yes, training your independent contractors is important, but there are other aspects of your relations with them. I have a sort of the system of cooperating with my contractors.

All described stages are an ongoing process. Some contractors disappear, new hired – yes, it is quite different to manage remote staff compared to full time employees in the office.

Where to search:

You have two options – search for local contractors or go to the freelance websites and outsource your work overseas. Both approaches have some advantages.

- Hiring local staff – better communication, no language/ time zone/ mentality barriers.
- Outsourcing overseas – get your work done cheaper.

Hiring process:

- Have a list of your requirements. A sample: questions to ask when hiring a web developer
- Talk over the phone and get a general impression about the man
- Meet in person, interview
- Ask for references
- Ask to complete some simple trial tasks

Independent contractor management:

- Assign time for daily management of your contractors (I do it in the morning): completed work reviewed and tested, new tasks e-mailed, new training articles supplied, etc
- Communication ONLY through e-mail, phone and monthly in-person meetings (if there is no some emergency). Tried Instant Messengers – a great way to waste contractor’s and your time.
- The contractors send me their daily reports. It is a must.

Payment issues:

- All new independent contractors are hired for a trial period of two months.
- Some contractors work for a fixed amount of money plus a bonus depending on the results of their efforts.
- Developers are another story. Each task or project is appraised separately.

Summary: Is the described system perfect? Certainly, not. But it works fine with me and it enables me to control the situation. I know what is going on with every project; I analyze the stats and can make changes on the fly. I have time to think, to start new projects and to shut down the inefficient ones.

With time, your copywriters and online marketers become more experienced and need less and less attention on your part. The websites operating on autopilot – that is my goal. It is not likely to work with web developers. But there should be a way also – for instance, if you start a new website similar to the one in your portfolio (from coding point) you can tell your web developer to do the same with the new website.

[tags]contractors, independent contractors, coders, designers, copywriters, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]