Letter to Company

[Wasabi]

Basically, I want to write an email to tell a company that I am thinking of distributing their product. . I'm simply thinking of saying: 'Hello..., I'm considering distributing your product in Europe. Could you send me your price list. Also how would this vary in relation to how much stock I purchase... etc.

Would this be sufficient? I'm obviously looking too much into this but I want to make it sound professional. Obviously if they provided some information, I would commence with some market research.

Do you think this would be sufficient, or is more detail required?

Cheers

[Sven]

Well, not to be cruel, but I would not get warmed up that way. I can not figure anything out about you or your plans.

If you were to manufacture a product yourself and have a busy day, would you be tempted to answer an email like that?

[TimW]

Unless you are an actual business, manufacturers will not bother with you. Every manufacturer and wholesaler I have ever dealt with in my business required a copy of my Arizona business license to prove I was a business rather than just some idiot who was trying to get products at a discount.

The wanted that document before they would even consider sending me pricing information. Now, if I make an inquiry, it goes something like this:

"To whom it may concern:

I am interested in adding your products to my line of business and am requestig dealer information, including pricing and any available terms and conditions. I have attached a copy of my Arizona business license for your records. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
TimW
Phoenix
<contact information>"

I almost always receive information within a day to three days, and a follow up call within a week.

[sub8hr]

I've found that e-mail response rates for dealer inquiries are notoriously unsuccessful. Your suppliers are going to be an important relationship for you, so it's always better to just pick up the phone. It gives you a lot more credibility too.

The conversation typically goes something like this:

me: "Hi, I'm interested in sourcing your products for retail. How do I go about getting started?"

Transfers me to the person who handles these things.

"Hi, this is the guy who handles these things."

me: "I'm interested in sourcing your products for retail. How do I go about getting set up?"

"What kind of business are you running?"

me: "I run a web store specializing in the stuff that you manufacture."

"Okay, we'll need you to fill out these forms to get an account set up."

me: "Thanks, I'll fill them out and send them back to you."

You don't need to give a long, elaborated description of your business and your plans. They don't really care. The guy on the phone's job is just to sign up new vendors, not evaluate you as a business.

You don't need to justify them doing business with you as a startup either. Again, the guy on the phone's job is just to sign up new vendors. It's actually confusing to him and makes him wonder what the deal is if you start justifying the business.

Just state who you are, why you're calling him, and what you need to proceed. One sentence maximum each.

Even so, occasionally there will be some suppliers that just will not get back to you or will give you a hard time about not wanting to work with you until you are well established. Sometimes the people are just difficult and sometimes they are just geared towards doing business on a large scale. Either way, these probably aren't going to be the best partners for you anyway. Suppliers will typically either work with startups or not. The way you can be a star partner to them without being a big business is to be efficient, quick to the point in your communication, and not take up a lot of their time.

This is probably overkill for what you needed. I've been focusing on new partners lately and reflecting on the process a lot. =)

[Wasabi]

Thanks for the information guys, this has been really helpful. Even if this small venture is unsuccessful I am just enjoying the process of learning how everything works so that I will be more prepared for anything that comes up in the future.

[angelmask]

Sub brings up a good point that a lot of "entrepreneurs" (quotes for irony) fall into.

Ask an entrepreneur what they do:
I run a company called X which does Y, for Z types of people.

Ask an "entrepreneur" (quotes for irony) what they do:
Well...
I'm working on a couple different things at the moment, but I'm working on getting this one thing set up. I've been talking to a distributor in Brazil who is really excited about my ideas, so if I can just wrap up a few loose ends before the end of next quarter, I should be meeting him in Las Vegas to start discussing how all this fits together......


Um....
Yeah, no one wants to do business (buy from, sell to, partner with, or distribute by way of) someone who talks like that.