Episode Details
Back to EpisodesEp 236: How to Tell If a Boutique Buyer Is Real: 2 Questions to Ask
Description
A boutique owner walks up to your booth, says “I love these, send me your line sheet,” and then goes silent for three weeks. If you’ve been there, you probably decided the silence meant your product wasn’t good enough. In this episode, Andee shows you why “I love this” is a social signal and not a buying signal, and gives you two questions you can ask any store owner, at a market or in your DMs, to find out in under a minute whether she has a real place and a real time for your product. You’ll learn exactly what a real answer sounds like, what a polite answer sounds like, and what to do with each one so you stop pouring full effort and full hope into buyers who were never going to order.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• “I love this,” “do you wholesale,” and “send me your line sheet” are things a nice person says when she likes your work. They are also sometimes the opening line of a real buyer. You cannot tell which from the words, because the words are identical.
• A real buyer has a shelf and a calendar. If she has both, she’s real. If she’s missing one, she’s a maybe. If she’s missing both, she’s a fan, and fans don’t get a line sheet and three weeks of your attention.
• The shelf question, “Where do you see this in your store?”, does two jobs. It qualifies her, and it gets her picturing your product next to her register before you’ve sold anything.
• The calendar question, “When are you bringing in new product next?”, turns follow-up into an appointment. When she’s given you the date, checking back is professional, and you’re no longer guessing at timing.
• Most of the emotional damage in wholesale comes from unqualified hope, not rejection. Two questions let you decide how much of your time and heart to hand over before you hand it over.
Resources & Links
👉🏼 Apply for the Faire Accelerator
👉🏼 Grab your seat for the Retail Ready Wholesale Challenge.
👉🏼 Join the waitlist for my signature She Sells Wholesale course – doors open soon!
👉🏼 Best SEO Tool to drive organic traffic to your website
👉🏼 My favorite email marketing platform
** Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you buy—at no additional cost to you. I only share what I genuinely use and love.
Connect with Andee Hart @ She Sells Differently
🎥 Youtube