Shownotes
Charlene has been selling wholesale a long time. A real long time! So here is a clue- listen close to someone selling for a long time. (psst.. she has figured out a few things!) Great conversation where we talk vendor relationships, trade show planning and general business common sense.
Mentioned:
Charlene’s previous episodes:
Charlene’s Group: Wholesale Sourcing Experts
Sponsors
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00:00] I’m excited to talk about my sponsors today, Gaye Lisbey’s, Million Dollar Arbitrage Group. Amazing, amazing group. This is a teacher. This is Gaye, she was a teacher. She is a teacher. Still. You need to learn. This is the type of environment you want to be in because she’s going to help you understand why, and I think that’s the hardest part of this business is understanding why. Why is the red one popular when the green one isn’t? Well, there’s usually a reason and what gay does is probably parse that better than anybody and she’ll explain the reasons for those things. I think that’s really powerful. Yes, she puts out a list. You’re going to get a good use of that list if you get in the group. Now here’s the deal. The group isn’t always open, right? So you get on the waiting list and you can join the waiting list through my link.
Stephen: [00:00:46] Doesn’t cost anything to get on a waiting list and if you like her service, which I find that most people do that, that’s why there’s not so many openings. Um, you’ll be with her for a long time. And so it’s amazing freedom.com. She’s part of Andy Slam group, amazing freedom.com. Forward slash momentum. And you’re going to get in the waiting list. That’s all I can get you on right now. You can use my name and see if that gets you anywhere. But what I like about in the uh, what I like about what they teach in that group or the things that are going on, you know, the current things. I’ve seen a lot of stuff going on about stores going out of business. Well here’s where an opportunity is, here’s why you want to do this. Hey, be cautious about this, you know, with toys r US coming out, you’ve got to think about this and that’s the learning that you need to do.
Stephen: [00:01:30] And Gay is better than anybody else I’ve seen. So I’m amazing. Freedom Dot com. Forward slash momentum will get you to the waiting list. Then hopefully we can get you in the group and then you’re going to see me in there. And uh, we can chat anytime you’re ready. Karen lockers, group solutions, the number for ecommerce solutions, four ecommerce.com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you 50 bucks. Karen’s our account manager. We recommend her to everyone because she’s done so well for us. I mean that’s quite frankly the reason we’ve been paying her for last few years, but she’s become an important part of our team. Her and her team are so involved in our account. I just see the emails coming back and forth, hey, we did this for you. I just saw two listings today. I’m like, wait a second. Why did they show up?
Stephen: [00:02:09] I didn’t put any listings up. They got a. They got a set off to the side by Amazon and they reactivate them for me. You know what I mean? That’s the stuff that just happens when you have a strong team and I can’t recommend Karen enough if you use my code. Momentum. Karen pays me. I don’t want to hide that. Of course we all know that, but you’re going to save $50 and it’s a great opportunity to really, really build out your team with somebody you can trust. That’s why I recommend them. So solutions four ecommerce solutions, the number four e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50. Oh, and by the way, she’s going to do an inventory health report. Why is that important? Well, guess what fees are going up. Is your inventory health number declining like ours is?
Stephen: [00:02:57] Well, here’s why and what they can do. What I like is I get a spreadsheet from them and it says, Hey, here’s a bunch of inventory. Here’s what we recommend. And I’m like, Yep, read refund. I mean delete a return to us, blah blah blah, whatever it is and it’s or destroy and it just happens. That’s what I like. The other thing that I have Karen helped me with a lot is creating new listings. We do a lot of the research ourselves. We upload our images and then boom, magically the listing goes live and I don’t have to worry about it. Those are the services that Karen offers. Can’t recommend her enough solutions. Four ecommerce.com forward slash momentum. Save 50 bucks. Use My code. You save $50 a month every single month. And it’s a great service, plus you get that free inventory health report. I think it’s a really powerful way.
Stephen: [00:03:45] So I can’t, I’m so excited how many people have been joining her because I see it and I’m excited because the messages I get from people saying, hey, this is great. I finally feel like I can focus on something else because Karen and her team are watching this for me and I highly recommend her. Next up is scale sellerlabs and scope and we’ll set it rolling. It’s, it’s amazing. I mean, it really is amazing when you sit back and think about, hey, I want to get this product up and it similar to this product and that’s what that product does well. Well therefore, if that product does well, they have the right keywords, they’ve chosen things correctly. So guess what, you scope and you could see all that stuff. And that’s what the most powerful thing in the world is to copy somebody who’s done it right.
Stephen: [00:04:28] That’s what you want to. You want to take advantage of that, right? I mean, it’s fair, uh, to see. And so therefore you can take and apply it to your listing and immediately get that same benefit. That’s what scope does for me. Sellerlabs.com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50 on the surface. Oh by the way, it’s free to try. So sign up, try it and say, oh, this is how it’s done. Boom. And then you’re going to. The light’s going to go on and you’re going to be like, man, I can get my products out there. I just can’t wait. Can’t wait. So are labs.com forward slash momentum? The other day I bought in another domain. Yes, I bought it the other domain. It’s almost like A. I’m admitting guilt, but it’s because I had an idea and it was something that was a pretty good idea I think is going to go pretty far.
Stephen: [00:05:18] And so what do I do? I go to try Godaddy.com forward slash momentum and save 30 percent. So domains aren’t very expensive. You get a few services, it adds up a little bit. And I usually buy three years. I usually by privacy, by the way, I recommend that to buy that, you know, it’s not that much money, but when you can save 30 percent it makes it that much sweeter and it makes it easier when you’re buying domains and especially if you buy a bunch of domains. I am a domain collector and so I do tend to do that, but that 30 percent makes it a lot easier and I use godaddy because what I like is I can pop in and address, I’m thinking and it’ll say, nope, nope, could try this version or try this extension and then boom, there it is. Hey, you better hurry before it goes away and the right, you know, and so try Godaddy.com, forward slash momentum save 30 percent.
Stephen: [00:06:07] Also want to mention about grasshopper. Who was that? Just talking to somebody the other day and they were like, Oh yeah, use this company called grasshopper. I’m like, Dude, did you buy it through my link and save 30 percent? Hello? No, they missed that. So save 30 percent. It’s try grasshopper.com. Forward slash momentum. No surprise there, but you’re going to save 30 percent and what the real cool part about that is they’re using it for their private label business and it gives them virtually a second phone on their current phone without having to get another number. They can make up a vanity number. They don’t have to go and do all the grief and sign loan contracts. Pretty easy stuff, and so if you’re creating a brand that you want to identify, you want to look professional, you want to look like a real company. Grasshopper is a great tool. It’s an app you put on your existing phone and boom, you now have a customer service to. You now have a sales department. You’d have a manufacturing division. You could forward it to somebody else. You can have it go to different voicemails, different departments, and it’s all included. So try grasshopper.com, forward slash momentum. Save 30 percent.
Cool voice guy: [00:07:13] Welcome to the ecommerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of ecommerce selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [00:07:26] Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 310, Charlene Anderson. I love talking to Charlene. This is our third time on. She was previously episode 76 and [inaudible] 97 $76 or story one 97 is a very cool discussion about her and her husband and they’re separate businesses both on Amazon, um, and the places where they crossover and the value that that brings. And that’s a very cool one too when you’re ready to get there. But when I, she’s like an artisan in this business, like a crafts person, somebody who’s just that, you know, where I could put in a door, but she puts it in with fine details. I think that’s the best way to describe Charlene g really is an expert. I’m very direct, very matter of fact, uh, pulls no punches, but you know, you know, you’re going to get a straight answer and I just think it’s valuable.
Stephen: [00:08:16] Um, she gives so many great tips here about wholesale and in her world wholesales not to add wholesales, thriving. As a matter of fact, she believes it’s the only business to have on Amazon. And so she has a group and I let her pick your group. Um, I don’t benefit other than, again, if you find success there, I, when you know, that’s my theory on life and I’m so excited about it. I think she just brings so much value. Let’s get into that story. All right. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. Very excited about today’s guests are return guest. One 97 was the episode that’s a long time ago. Back in 2017. So I guess it was more than a year ago. Charlene Anderson. Welcome Charlene.
Charlene: [00:08:59] Thanks. This is my third time on the show. This is your third time. I’m sorry, number 76. I’m sorry, number 76. I apologize. That was. I love it. It’s like we have an annual update because,
Stephen: [00:09:13] you know, it’s funny. In our pre show we were talking about it, things are changing so quickly. Your description is you wake up every morning and you don’t know what shoe is. Gonna drop. And it’s not only from Amazon, right? I mean it’s from your vendors. It’s the announcement today that sears is closing another 72 stores. That’s going to impact somebody somewhere that we know in some.
Charlene: [00:09:35] Exactly. Exactly. It is interesting. I’m in a fortunate position that my fear of the change doesn’t come from my vendors because I have vendors who have been smart enough to realize that selling to anybody and everybody doesn’t mean they’re going to sell more product. So they, most of them have limited who they’ve taken on as their wholesale sources for Amazon and are very good about controlling that because face it, you know, if you’re going to sell 100 widgets, it doesn’t matter if you have two people selling number 20 people, you’re still only selling 100 widgets. It’s just spread out over a whole bunch more people, which means more paperwork and more collections and more hassle.
Stephen: [00:10:16] And, and you know, worry about other companies you know, need money so they’re going to drop the price when they know you, when you have a few people that you know, they know that relationship is deeper and you could work out things right? You could go to them saying, Hey, I’m having trouble moving this product. You know, can we work something out when you have a real sales rep and I love that we have real sales reps.
Charlene: [00:10:37] you are totally correct because I just had to do that. I had one bit of a line. I’m one of my suppliers. I carry like 600 skews from them, but I had one product that just sat here and no matter what I did, I couldn’t move this one product and only had 10 of them, so not a big deal, but they sat here for like a year. So I recalled them from the Amazon warehouse and called rob up. I said, rob, can you just take these back? They aren’t selling. He’s like, sure, no problem. Like, isn’t that great? You know?
Stephen: [00:11:06] Well I was thinking about your world too because you sell in the craft world and when I think about sears and Kmart and a um, some of those kinds of companies, they touch into your world. No, no, no. We’re deep. I mean they have, you know, what, 100 skews or something like that. But does those closes affect you?
Charlene: [00:11:27] You know what? No, I’m going to say no because my craft niche is a slightly higher end stuff than you would find at Walmart or kmart or anything. It’s probably an on the whole, a notch above what you’ll find at a michaels or Joanns, which are the big craft. Big Box stores up into way ahead. So I’ve made a concerted effort. I don’t sell the brands you can find at big box craft stores because they are...