using a broker to sell candles

[cwilliams]

A lady bought one of my candles and she loved it. Now she wants to broker them. Does anybody use a broker or sales rep. and how do you pay them. Do they receive a percentage of sales or do they receive a dollar amount for each candle they sell? Connie

[daniedb]

The professional sales rep that wanted to rep my candles was going to get a percentage of the order. She takes the samples around to the boutiques and then gets a % of the order, and usually a smaller % of each subsequent reorder.

However, if you're talking more of a home party kind of rep, where they sell to other individuals, usually the best way to do that is have her buy them from you at the wholesale price and then resell them.

[cwilliams]

Daniedb,

Thanks for the reply. This would be a sales rep. She would go to gift shops etc. I'm meeting with her in a few days and am curious what percentage I should offer her. Right now I do home parties and I am not looking to expand in that area. Connie

[daniedb]

Gotcha. That's great that someone is interested in helping spread your business! If you don't want to sell them to her at the wholesale price (which would require her having a resale tax ID for legal purposes), then maybe you could offer like a 30-40% percentage on them, if you're talking her just reselling them on her own. If you have to be there, like doing presentations and stuff, then I would knock it down to 20-25%.

[lindsaycb]

That's what I have! He just forwards his orders weekly to me, he receives 15% at the end of the month on what I shipped out.

If you're interested in adding more reps...place an ad out on www.greatrep.com You'll have the US covered in no time. It worked wonders for me, but also made me realize I'm not huge on wholesale. But its enough to get my business really going.