Committed To Massive Action Since 2015: Life Success Engineer Manifesto by Kev Blackburn

Wholesale, wholesale, wholesale. It’s a big, big world out there and can definitely become overwhelming when you don’t quite know where to start or what to do when it comes to opening the wholesale accounts you want. 

I’ve been there.

Back in spring 2018, after three solid years of hard work; after building and scaling my online arbitrage business, and finally being in our own warehouse, I knew that there were new challenges awaiting me. 

The truth is that once you reach six figures per month in online arbitrage, it becomes much more difficult to scale and grow your business even further. I was feeling this a lot. I knew that the next step had to be to tackle the world of wholesale – and although I had a vague idea, I didn’t really know where or how to begin.

In this blogpost, I’m sharing my journey of starting out in wholesale and how I got to the point where I managed to open THREE wholesale accounts with new suppliers in the space of just 24 hours!

It is 100% possible guys! Keep reading…

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The Journey Begins

My journey began in August of 2018, when I was invited to speak at Andy Lawrence’s FBA Academy Seller Conference. Before going, I was aware that Andy himself was going to be giving a presentation on wholesale – what I wasn’t aware of was the wealth of knowledge I would leave with after watching it.

The main insights I took away from Andy’s presentation in regards to opening new wholesale accounts with suppliers were the following:

• To create a static landing page for my business with the following:

1. brand name with its own URL
2. picture of the warehouse
3. contact details/contact form

• To create a business card and call myself the ‘purchasing manager’
• To find, book tickets and go to trade shows!

Wholesale Masterclass

Ready to succeed faster at wholesale? Click to access our Wholesale University for the best insights to building your business on Amazon FBA.

The NEC Autumn Fair 2018

After the FBA Academy conference, I was super pumped to go along to a trade show and implement the insights I’d gleaned from Andy.

Trade shows are great and I believe they’re one of the most important ways to build new relationships with suppliers. Rather than spend time searching online and liaising via emails and phone-calls, nothing beats a good face-to-face conversation; where you can get to know the supplier, they can get to know you and you can begin to build a base for a good, long-lasting working relationship.

So in September 2018, I went along to the Autumn Fair taking place at the NEC in Birmingham with the intention to start building fantastic relationships with suppliers from the outset.

I dressed smartly, had my landing page ready with the details of it printed on my brand new business cards, and went in with a positive mindset, knowing that this was the beginning of what would be an exciting and fruitful wholesale journey.

You might be surprised to read that I actually went along on the final day of the trade show; however, this worked out pretty well as I found that many of the suppliers were very keen to meet sellers, spend time with them and begin building great relationships, too!

It was an absolutely amazing day and I left feeling really enthusiastic about the future.

Here are three things I did that I highly recommend you do too, when meeting suppliers at trade shows:

1. Approach them with confidence and a smile – first impressions are so important, and you want to show the supplier that you are confident in yourself and your business first and foremost!

2. Ask the questions you want to ask – and the supplier will answer you outright. Not only will you receive the information you need, but you’ll also show the supplier how passionate you are about what you do and how keen you are to work with them

3. Don’t say that you’re an Amazon/Ebay seller straight away – this is really important. Mentioning this straight away could put the supplier off before you’ve even had the chance to have a conversation! I built the conversation up first, mentioning that I had a warehouse and that I was looking to build my businesses online. I mentioned the online selling part in passing – I did not make it the main focus of the conversation, and this fared very well with all the suppliers I met that day. Four of them even told me they wanted to come into the warehouse and have a meeting to talk further – in our very first conversation!

Next steps

In the week after the event – still feeling positive and excited about my future in wholesale – my team and I went through all the business cards, brochures and catalogues I’d picked up during the trade show.

One of the first things I did was call the suppliers I’d begun to build relationships with, asking them to send across electronic copies of their catalogues, making it easier for me to send them across to my virtual team. The suppliers were more than happy to oblige, and did so in a matter of minutes! 

In the couple of weeks that followed, my team and I finalised the wholesalers we wanted to work with and the products that we were ready to purchase – and then, dun dun dunnnnn,  I made the calls.

Three of our amazing suppliers sent over the account opening forms straight away signalling the beginning of three wonderful working relationships! And that, folks, is how I opened three accounts with suppliers in a 24-hour period!

Finally…

The feeling on that day was indescribable. It was the ultimate crescendo to an 8-week long journey; three phone calls in one day opening three different accounts was just amazing, and definitely got me started on the right foot on my wholesale journey.

And I wholly believe that you can do it, too.

Comment below what you took away from this blogpost and please share your own experiences too.

Here’s to your massive success

Ready to succeed faster at wholesale? CLICK HERE to access our Wholesale University for the best insights to building your business on Amazon FBA.