I have a new web address - see below for details

Since I'm not clever enough to re-direct your request to my new website, I will simply say click here and you will be taken there magically.

When I decided to update the design of my blog, I also changed its name to match my social media and email accounts. 

The new blog retains my posts that were not specific to a vendor since this one has gotten weighed down with info on vendors I no longer represent.

Thanks for your business and support.  I will see you at jeffthesalesrep.blogspot.com!

One Word: Reset

I look forward to sales meetings because I always leave with a refreshed perspective, new ideas to provide more value to my retail partners and info on new product introductions.

Oh....and also gifts.

From the Knack sales meeting last month, my favorite gift is a book called "One Word That Will Change Your Life" by Dan Britton, Jimmy Page & Jon Gordon.   

Book cover of my favorite gift from last month's sales meeting

I'm always looking to add to my collection of books that offer tips to improve professionally or personally - often both - and this one does not disappoint.  It's a short read that guides you through an exercise to identify one word to provide focus and get you closer to your goals.  Your one word will change over time as you reach goals and change priorities.

My word for the remainder of 2017 - RESET.

June took a hectic turn with a schedule heavy on meetings, travel, sales appointments as well as some lingering automobile drama.  My focus was scattered because I'm easily distracted by shiny objects, and I wasn't happy with my results.

July commences with a more settled routine and a new set of wheels - as well as the awareness that I need to take a step back, sharpen my focus on my business and recommit to my goals.

Sometimes in business - and life in general - your instincts tell you something needs to change.  It's such a relief to figure out you can correct your course with a few adjustments and attention to detail rather than a complete overhaul.

In wholesale terms, it's already Q4 and the most important time to be focused on reaching sales goals, building relationships and bringing top-notch, profitable ideas to my retail partners.

Preview Fall 2017 - Compendium

Summer is here (unofficially), but all of us in the retail world understand that means it's time to make plans for fall buying.  It's exciting both to see what your favorite vendors have created and to discover new vendors.

Here is the first in my series of Fall Preview posts, and we're starting with an inspiring new introduction from everyone's favorite - Compendium.

The Girl Who Ran is an encouraging new book for people of all ages, written about the first female to run the Boston Marathon.

“She said she would do it, she wasn’t a liar; she’d show them by running like the wind in the fire.” When Bobbi Gibb saw the Boston Marathon her mind was set—she had to be a part of it. She trained hard, journeying across America to run on all kinds of terrain. But when the time came to apply for the marathon, she was refused entry. They told her girls don’t run, girls can’t run. That didn’t stop Bobbi.

This picture book tells the true story of how she broke the rules in 1966 and how, one step at a time, her grit and determination changed the world. The energetic and bright illustrations capture the emotions of Bobbi’s journey and the fluidity of running. Created in collaboration with Bobbi Gibb, The Girl Who Ran is perfect for would-be runners, kids of all ages

Don't forget that Compendium is one of the most retailer-friendly vendors in the marketplace.

• $5 flat-rate shipping on all orders within the continental US
• Risk-free returns mean you are never stuck with merchandise you aren't selling
• Bonus Buy & Super Buy programs increase your margin on books

Let's make plans to meet so you can see this and many other new introductions from Compendium to add to your shelves - and cash registers - for the fall.

Heat up summer sales with FinchBerry

Are you looking for simple ways to light a fire under your summer sales?  Then we should talk about Finchberry.

Whatever your shop's focus, soaps are a smart addition to your product mix.  Scented soaps are interactive, inviting your customers to smell each one and identify their favorites.  FinchBerry's bright colors and unique 3-dimensional textures excite the senses and will keep customers in your shop longer, increasing the chances they will make additional purchases.

Whether your business relies on locals or tourists, here are some features that make selling Finchberry soaps a good idea:

• Impulse item
• Functional (you never have to answer "what do you do with it?)
• Self-purchase as a vacation treat that can be used at once
• Gift purchase as a souvenir to take home for the dog sitter or neighborhood teen who mowed your lawn
• Retails under $10
• Consumable item that will be used up, encouraging repeat business
• Merchandising options that give your display focus and keep it tidy

Promote multi-unit sales by pricing them at $9 each (which allows you some extra margin) and then offer 3 for $25.  All soaps are sold as individual bars so you don't spend time slicing and packaging them separately.

FinchBerry soaps are handcrafted in their North Florida studio which is filled with piping bags, baking racks and dough mixers.  It looks as much like a bakery as the soaps look like baked goods!

Each individual bar contains natural, food-grade ingredients, sports a unique and decadent appearance, and produces a lush gentle lather.  All soaps are gluten-free, vegan-friendly and made without any harsh chemical preservatives. 

FinchBerry soaps are not just cleansing bars but a sensory experience your customers can savor daily.

So let's get these in your shop right away.  Ordering is simple - order 9 different scents with a free set of display trays OR choose 12 scents for a free 2-tier tabletop display with FinchBerry signage.

You'll want to see and smell before making a decision, of course. Just say the word, and I'm glad to come see you with samples of all the soaps!

Welcome summer with galvanized metal ornaments from Finding Home Farms

Anchor galvanized metal ornament - Finding Home Farms

As summer approaches, your entertaining expands to the outdoors - and you find ways to bring the outdoors inside.

Add charm and authenticity to your décor with galvanized metal ornaments from Finding Home Farms.  Choose from shapes such as an anchor (pictured above), a starfish (pictured below), a mason jar, a vintage truck or a whale. 

Each adornment is strung on a white ribbon with a backer card for ease of merchandising at retail.  The ribbon also makes it ideal for embellishing gift packages or hanging as a simple, sophisticated home décor enhancement.

Starfish galvanized metal ornament - from Finding Home Farms

Ornaments are not just for specific holidays.  Use them as small favors when entertaining or as courtesy gifts for fellow garden club or book club members.  They can make any occasion more festive and make excellent mementos to mark celebrations or any memory-worthy event. 

Each piece is made in the USA and is refined by an "aging" process that creates the look of a vintage piece and adds character. 

Laura Putnam (half of the husband-and-wife team behind Finding Home Farms) is a published practitioner on metal crafting with her book Rustic Modern Metal Crafts (pictured below).  You can be sure her work is well-designed and high quality.  

Laura Putnam's book - Rustic Modern Metal Crafts

I've focused here on the company's galvanized metal décor, but they also offer maple syrup products from the farm they own as well as a wonderfully-fragranced soy candle collection.

Lavender Evergreen soy candle - from Finding Home Farms

"Finding Home Farms is a family-owned, lifestyle brand that brings the best of the farm with our maple syrup products and the perfect ingredients for a welcoming home with our home décor offerings.  From hand-crafted maple syrup to soy candles and decorative home accessories, we proudly source and produce all of our products in the USA."

Independent retailers gain when department stores close

In college, my career plan was to enter the management training program at Thalhimers department store and work my way up into merchandising.  My 18-year-old self knew what I wanted and everything made sense - like being an English major at a polytechnic institute.

Yeah.  Those days are long gone. 

The retail industry has changed in ways no one could fathom in the late 80s.  My college years coincided with the wave of department store consolidations.  Thalhimers ceased to exist and was eventually absorbed into R. H. Macy & Co.

Thalhimers grand opening at River Ridge Mall in 1980

Macy's recently shuttered its location at River Ridge Mall in Lynchburg, Virginia, which hit close to home.  This location was originally a Thalhimers location and was the one I visited often in the 80s, anticipating a career that would make me a decision-maker at the company.

Even though that career never materialized, I still pursued the retail path - and even worked for Macy's for a year and a half at another location.  In 2004, I opened a retail store of my own and loved every minute of it, but I made too many bad calls and decided to close up shop after only 2 years.

That experience made me a wealth of information on what not to do.  For instance, I wasn't properly in touch with the customers in my market and didn't do enough research before building my product assortment.  The lesson became crystal clear when I returned to the wholesale side of the business and went out on the road again.

My point in sharing that humbling bit of information is that I suspect department stores are suffering for similar reasons.  It may not be the only problem (just as it wasn't my only problem), but it is a significant one.

The news also reminded me of an article I read earlier this year.  If you don't follow Bob Phibbs at The Retail Doctor (and you should), he wrote about How to Find Strength in Being a Brick & Mortar Retail Store back in January.  You can rely on Bob for useful and actionable insight to improve your independent brick-and-mortar business.

Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea (or a Diet Coke, if you're one those people - like me) to read the whole thing.  Below are some bullet points directly from the article to remember when you feel frustrated or unfocused.

"To own the fact you are a physical store, lead with your strengths.  Here's how to start:

• You offer curated variety so shopping doesn't feel like work.
• You offer immediate satisfaction so customers don't have to wait for its arrival.
• You offer a personal touch so they get what's right for them, not just what's on sale.
• You feature displays that show how seemingly unrelated items work together.
• You remove frustrations from shoppers' lives in a human way online and chatbots simply can't."

You're a locally owned merchant with your finger on the pulse of your customer in a way that large stores and digital businesses cannot match.

You have the ability to personalize your service. 

You can adapt to changing trends quickly.

You know that Sarah has a weakness for a certain food item or scented candle so you can suggest it when her Secret Santa co-worker is in need of  gift for her.

It's not impossible to compete in the digital world, but it's not always obvious how to compete.  Earlier this week I posted about one way to stay in the game.

Recognize that these are your store's strengths and exploit them to continue growing your business and building customer loyalty.

Why not a subscription to your shop?

How many times has a customer told you "I could just live in your store?"

Be ready the next time you hear it.  Moving them in probably isn't an option, but you know what is?  A monthly subscription box from your shop.

Hand crèmes from The Cottage Greenhouse

You strive to create a unique merchandise assortment to make your store unique, so why should local shoppers be the only ones to have their lives enriched by your efforts?  Think bigger!

Offer customers a monthly subscription box program from your shop.  It's already a proven success for businesses without a brick-and-mortar presence.  Why let them reap all the rewards when you're equipped to offer the same service while adding another dimension to your existing business?

Depending on your market, you should be able to target these customers:

• Local customers
• Out-of-town shoppers who fall in love with your store on a visit
• Former customers who have moved away but still want to do business with you
• Customers who admire your business from afar via your active social media presence
• People who love surprises
• People who love surprises - but hate to shop
• People who are looking for personalized gift ideas

Does the idea scare you?  Does it sound like more work than you can handle?  Think of it as creating custom gift baskets for someone each month.  Also, think of it as planned, recurring business that can provide clarity to your buying - and increase your bottom line.


Candle & matches from the Brim & Bright collection by Illume

Promote your program in the shop, on your website and on all your social media.  Print up a flyer that you include in the bags for shoppers who are visiting from out of town.

When a customer signs up, ask them to fill out a brief survey of their likes (and dislikes) to give you guidance on how to assemble their subscription boxes.  Make sure anyone can sign up and fill out the survey on your website, as well.

If monthly still sounds like more than you handle, try a quarterly program instead.  Each package can reflect the current season.  If you sell higher ticket items, quarterly is likely to attract more participants than monthly.

Create your program with multiple price ranges - say $10, $25, $50 and $100 - so that everyone can find an affordable option.  Give each level a clever name that reflects your store's specialty, like naming each package after a flower or a spice or a wine.  Avoid hierarchical names like silver, gold and diamond so that no one feels like they are purchasing the "cheap" option.


Variety of perfect items to include in any price range - from Knock Knock









Make sure your store's name, website and contact information is included on every package you send out.  It's an important marketing component that will allow customers to easily refer their friends and acquaintances to your establishment.

If you are a retailer in southern Virginia, I am eager to share other ideas with you so that you can launch your own program.  It just so happens my line package offers dozens of perfect ideas to get you started, and you no doubt already have numerous items already in stock that are perfect.

If you want to meet up and work on putting a program together, please get in touch by phone or email (contact info in sidebar) and let's get you started!

Neptune & the Mermaid

Brand spanking new from Tokyo Milk (a Margot Elena company) is the Neptune & the Mermaid fragrance collection.

Your customers will discover surreal fragrance notes in the Eau de Parfum (pictured above) in gilded bottles and housed in a keepsake storybook box. 

There are 3 fragrances to this collection:

• Song of the Siren No.49
• 20,000 Flowers Under the Sea No.31
• Anthemoessa No.21

The collection also includes Margot Elena's signature shea butter handcreme, perfumed mini soaps and a lip balm.

It's a beautiful addition for current Tokyo Milk retailers.  Early best-seller buzz is for Anthemoessa!

Creating ILLUME Fragrances

(Reposted from Illume's Burn Room blog)

Fragrance is often described as a unique language used to communicate a story and evoke emotions.  That's where the scents we create begin: with the stories they tell.  Each candle has a unique personality and our fragrance experts - or "noses" - are trained to develop that story by combining raw scents to create a complete fragrance.

Gen and Greta (our noses here at ILLUME) start with visual inspiration to develop the personality and fragrance story, putting together a mood board for each fragrance.  Once the story is created visually, a fragrance wheel is used to determine the scent's category.  The wheel consists of different scent families and helps us create well-rounded collections that offer fragrances from a wide range of scent categories.

We often look to fragrance trends as a guide when developing new scents.  Similar to a fashion expert following trends on the runway, knowing which fragrance trends are on the horizon is important when creating new products.  Current trends include:

• Super fruits and globally-inspired spices like turmeric and saffron
• Cuban-inspired scents like tobacco, leather and exotic fruit
• Gender-neutral/genderless scents

Each fragrance we create consists of raw materials that make up top, middle and base notes.  For example, the raw materials that create our Blackberry Absinthe fragrance are:

These raw materials are carefully considered and putting them together successfully is a combination of expertise, as well as trial and error.  Our experts know how each element smells individually and if those elements can come together to create an interesting, beautiful scent that reinforces the story.  Perfecting this comes with practice and there are often multiple rounds of revisions to ensure the scent is exactly how it should be.  The end result is always worth it!

Preview 2017 - Lollia

Did you think you'd heard the last from me about what's new for 2017?  Think again - we're just getting started!

The Margot Elena product collections are an exciting addition to my package for the new year.  I'll post about each one separately, but today's focus is Lollia.

Lollia is an elegant library of fragrance stories with romantic names like Wish (the top seller), Dream (pictured above), Breathe, Relax, At Last and others.  Each collection consists of classic, beautifully designed boudoir luxuries made from superior formulations in the USA. 

Handcremes in Wish, Breathe & At Last

Lollia is known for its iconic look that is decadently luxurious while feeling sweetly familiar with signature mix-and-match patterns and fresh-picked color palettes.  The packaging attracts attention, and the quality of the product has created proven customer loyalty that brings you high repeat business.

In each collection you will an eau de parfum, a shea butter handcreme (pictured above), perfumed shower gel, bubbling bath and a beautiful fragranced luminary candle.

Make sure you are stocked for Valentine's Day gift giving and then beef up your inventory more as we approach Mother's Day.

Preview 2017 - Red Oak Press

Red Oak Press may look familiar if you have worked with me for many years.  I represented the line several years ago until my business moved away from paper and the rest of my line package just didn't support it.

In case you hadn't noticed, my portfolio grew heavy on paper goods in 2016, and I'm thrilled to partner once again with Rick at Red Oak Press.  It's a fun instance of how our business runs in cycles and sometimes reunites us with former colleagues.

What distinguishes Red Oak Press from my other card lines?  These are the only letterpress cards in my portfolio, with multi-color designs that are charming, witty and beautiful on high-quality card stock.

You can retail each card for $5.00 (a great price for the quality) and choose from many occasions and sentiments.  Let me bring you my sample deck so you can see for yourself and choose the ones that will sell best in your shop.

Preview 2017 - Illume

Sweet Hibiscus - one of Illume's new fragrances for 2017

First things first - I'm your new sales rep for Illume starting in 2017.  I'm sorry I couldn't tell you earlier, but professional courtesy still means something.

Having said that, Illume is rolling out its collection-based business concept for the new year.  There are now five distinct collections - each with its own buy-in.  The company has also worked hard to create a new shipping infrastructure to improve on-time delivery.

Sweet Hibiscus (pictured above) is a new scent for 2017.  It joins 9 existing fragrances in the Essentials collection - Illume's core group.

Coconut Milk Mango is a best-selling fragrance in Go Be Lovely

Go Be Lovely is the other collection continuing into 2017.  Both the fragrances and packaging are unapologetically flirty and feminine, and there are 2 new fragrances - Sugared Blossom and Golden Honeysuckle.  Also new is a demi hand cream as a companion to the best-selling demi rollerball perfume.

New collections include Brim & Bright with fresh, vibrant patterns paired with best-selling fragrances - including fragranced citronella candles! 

Narrative is another new collection that includes both home fragrance and body care items.  It's a premium collection with sophisticated packaging that incorporates some best-selling fragrances as well as 2 brand new ones - Copper Rose and Magnolia Blossom.

Grey Lavender candles from the new Collectiv collection

Collectiv is a new collection that includes home fragrance, body care - and new home care products!  It has 4 new fresh and simple fragrances with Scandinavian-inspired packaging.  There are 2 candle options pictured above, both in Grey Lavender.

Candles and body care remain strong categories for independent retailers, and I know you're always looking for something new and fresh to offer your customers.  Illume is a veteran player in the business, and you don't stick around this long unless you know what you're doing!