Sometimes you CAN negotiate a great deal from a very unlikely supplier…
Welcome back to my series on “Just ASK!” — a collection of real world experiences where “just ask” was at the heart of the success.
Just ask for what you want even if it sounds outrageous or an overreach. Ignore the naysayers and your inner self who fears failure or rejection. Your chances for success are directly related to your knowledge of the person, company, and industry you are asking and your offer of something of value to them, which is based on this knowledge. Please check back each week and I will share more true stories that prove how this principle has worked time and time again.
RUBIKS CUBE SOLUTION BOOKS
The Ask
Publisher to sell me their best selling book for sale to the toy industry at less than half the price they sell their biggest customers. Also to drop ship under my label to my customers.
Circumstance
Discovered from the Macy buyer, who bought for the toy and book departments, that for every three Rubik Cubes sold, they sold two solution books when the books were displayed in the toy department adjacent to the Cubes.
The Knowledge
* Books are sold to retailers on a guaranteed sale, and a high percentage are returned.
* Publishers have no relationships with toy retailers.
* Cost of printing books greatly diminishes with volume.
* Retailers love to sell related products of a hot selling item.
The Offer
Bought all books on final sale in contrast to book buyers who buy for their stores on consignment. No returns on my part.
Helped bring their cost of books down as they combined their print runs with ours.
Introduced their books to a new channel of distribution—Toys.
We would place minimum orders for 1,000 books for them to drop ship to our customers.
The Result
We were successful in selling over 600.000 books in a six-month period. Further, publishers began to approach us to sell their game and puzzle books to the toy department on a similar arrangement. We never touched the books. We found a distributor to whom we passed on all orders of under 1000 books.
Next week…how this worked with the VALDAWN WATCHES…
Photo by Jean-Louis Paulin on Unsplash
