In Blog 81, I talked about how to maximized hot items. In this blog I wanted to talk about why Vendor Relations are Important.

Tony

So I called Converse and brought in a table of Converse All-Stars. I bought the high tops and the low tops and brought in an array of colors from bright pink to the basics. They were an immediate hit. The Converse reps name was Tony and he was a great guy to work with. He came out and helped me pick the best items.

Ed

Our Dr. Marten business was growing pretty  big too. We went from having just a few sections in the back to several sections. Ed who was the rep was also a great guy. He brought his Harley onto the floor for a trunk show one day and we had so much fun with him. He was really funny and super passionate about his business. The salespeople loved it. The front window display had his product too with a chain link fence background. It was really cool.

Joe

I had mentioned our western booties were on fire and the President of Guess, Joe and I quickly became friends. He was great to work with and kind of took me under his care to make sure I had enough product. We sold so many it was crazy. In turn whenever he had a new line to show me I tried my best to support him too. Even to this day we are good friends.

You can’t be friends with everyone but it sure makes everything more fun when you have people you like to work with. It’s especially fun when you have hot items and try to maximize them together to improve your business on both sides.

I have said before but its worth repeating, people make the difference. Whether its your employees or the vendors you work with, treating people the way you would like to be treated goes a long way. I’ve always tried my best to have great relations with my vendor partners. Vendor relationships are so important.

If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.

Zig Ziglar