If you’ve ever had a job you will probably have endured the task of working with people who aren’t very good at theirs. In fact just like at school, in the corporate world, the competency of people at their career is generally graded against a bell curve. That is, the majority of people are simply ‘middle of the road’ and there are increasingly few exceptionally brilliant and exceptionally awful cases as you reach each end of the spectrum. In instances where there is an overwhelmingly high performing industry / team / group (or poor performing, for that matter) sometimes you’ll get a skewed bell curve so that the ‘average’ is better or worse than right in the middle.
It’s not fair to place the blame for the current retail environment with buyers though – there are many other factors at play – however it’s very clear that some stores are still going quite strong and others, often in the very same street, are closing down. At the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival business seminar ‘Retail Detail’ earlier this year, renowned UK buyer Erin Mullaney (she’s worked for places like Selfridges, Browns and Harrods) said “I have in fact, met very few good buyers”.
Obviously the success or failure of a buyer is in large part down to one simple equation: the percentage of goods that they’ve bought that sell at full price. But a buyer that labels respect will get access to things that increase the likelihood of this happening, and making business that bit better - exclusive colours and styles, first pick of limited runs, flexible payment terms when required… you get the idea.
Anyway, here are five qualities we believe all highly respected buyers have in common.
1. They’re Responsive. Trust me, we know you’re inundated with lookbooks and emails and postcards and all sorts of paraphernalia from hopeful labels wanting to be on your racks. We get the same from photographers, stylists, models, hair and makeup artists, creative agencies, brand consultants and so forth. Here at Bento though, we take a lot of time to carefully consider your store, your stock and your customer before we approach you. Each email, phone call and visit is meticulously planned and thought out. With this in mind, it’s disappointing and frustrating when you just don’t respond. And it doesn’t have to be an essay – we’re totally fine with a simple ‘no thanks’ or ‘not this season’. Just let us know so we can move on. It’ll save you a lot more emails, calls, smoke signals and carrier pigeons down the track.
2. They Get Their Facts Right. Often, we have to travel to see a buyer. This is not a problem, but it takes a significant amount of time, preparation and often cost too. Should you make a buying appointment, do it only if you’re genuinely interested and you don’t have any superficial objections. By this we mean objections that you could have got out of the way without a visit. For example, price. When we’ve travelled over a thousand kilometres, paid hundreds of dollars to get there and left home at 4am in the morning, the last thing we want to hear is that our collection is more than you are willing to retail. A valid objection, absolutely… but one that could have been brought up earlier. All this means is that no one’s time is wasted. And isn’t that a good thing?
3. They Know Their Customer / Don’t Buy The Model. We’ll be discussing how to truly know your customer in an upcoming issue of The Boutique Broadsheet. What this really means though, is that most of the time, you are not your customer… and nor is the model in the lookbook. We see the best sell-through rates from stores where they know their customer well enough to buy an appropriate size range and colour palette and not get distracted by the age / height / skin colour / pose / whatever of the person in the picture. For that matter, someone who instantly knows what will work and what won’t is just plain impressive. This also means you can take more educated risks on labels with a lower profile, thus differentiating your store.
4. They’re Honest. We won’t lose sleep if you don’t like the collection. Really. If you don’t want to ever hear from us again, that’s okay too. If you’re just not interested, that’s also fine. What isn’t okay though, is lying. And trust us on this one – we can tell.
5. They’re Communicative. If you do end up stocking our label, great! But now we need you to talk to us. What’s selling? What isn’t? What are your customers continually requesting? How can we support you and your store? After all, we can’t solve a problem that we don’t know exists.
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” – Max McDougall
