[PeeWeeMan]

So I have reached a bump in the road in terms of making sales and progress with my T-shirt company. The sales rep that I hired haven't made a sale in 4 months. In fact, he haven't made a sale ever. I find this strange since I have 4 brands that caters to a wide audience. I'm about to cease my relationship with him since he is unable to make one sale and go ahead and become my own sales rep. I have been out and about in Orlando, Florida to various skate shops,etc but had not had luck as yet. I recently launched a national commercial for a dating site of mine. One of the brands that I am selling is the name of the site. It is mostly for girls and women. I am hoping with the release of the national commercial this can help me sell more shirts.

Question:

What advice would you give someone in my position who does not have the capital or time to attend trade shows and who is having a very difficult time acquiring sales rep and making sales online?

I do sponsor local MMA fighters but market is just not big enough to get exposure. I contacted Zappos, Hot Topic, Zumies, and other online stores but have not heard back from them. I guess my brands are not HIP enough.


Anyhow, the market for my brands are as follows:
1. Action Sports - like Volcom
2. MMA - Like TapOut
3. Women Clothing
4. Street Gear - Like Young and Reckless

See Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/user/dateolicious

 

[roadcaptainjimmy]

Seems to me like you might have too much on your plate. If you don't have the time or capital I don't think you should take on 4 different brands. I have enough headaches with the one brand I own, I couldn't imagine 4. Maybe you should pick one you think is doing the best and focus more on building that one, doing all the work and sales yourself. Once that one becomes popular and generates good profits then roll some capital into another one. Eventually you'll have the time and capital to run all of them efficiently.

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[ryan barker]

what has this guy been doing for four months? does he understand his job is to, you know, SELL THINGS?! ostensibly, you hired him because he has the knowledge and skillz to put your brands where they need to be, and if there's a problem with the design he need to convey that to you so you can hire a designer/buy designs.

then again, four months for an upstart, from what i've gathered here, is hardly a minute. give it more time.

it's hard to say why no one is buying, but there are always reasons... and usually more excuses, lol. your pricing, web site, designs, approach, marketing, production method/rate/quality... if one of these is off, it's going to cost sales, right? maybe if you put up some links to your site/s, someone with more brain power than i can assist on that level, at least.

i think the first thing to do is realize that four months isn't that long. a little more time is warranted, imo. then, i would ask my sales guy what he's been doing with his time. who has he called? what was the response? did they give any feedback? what are his ideas? maybe i'm off base here, but imo he should be working on some seo and marketing, too ~ i think that's implied in a small operation, that one person wears many hats, eh? if he disagrees, fine, maybe start looking for someone a bit more well-rounded and not just being a salesguy.

and maybe jimmy is right, you have too much going on at one time. maybe by focusing on one or two brands that have the highest earning potential, you can concentrate your efforts, marketing and advertising towards that. that may also give your salesman more time to really hit on one market instead of spreading himself too thin.

 

[roadcaptainjimmy]

Ryan makes very good points, with 4 brands is 4 very large markets you can only tackle a small percent in 4 months. Take a look at all you're brands and see what can be improved and talk to your sales rep on what his actual approach is to selling and how he can improve his efforts.

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[PeeWeeMan]

Thanks guys for the advice given. The reason why I hired him was because of his background and experience. I place numerous ads on Craigslist and indeed.com and he was the only sales rep interested.

Yes, I might have spread myself somewhat too thin. My perception was that I only needed to get the shirts in stores and from there I can work things out accordingly.

My shirts are not only hip and cool in terms of design,etc. But they are also of good quality.

I will give him more time as I will also take up more effort to sell my shirts myself as well.

There is no easy road to success in the clothing industry so I have to keep on keeping on. Thanks again.