Taking the Trial and Error Approach to Sales

Karen, Jackie and I all had a strong gut feeling that The Racktrap was perfect for television and would make a compelling direct response commercial. We had visions of the spot being spoofed on ‘Saturday Night Live” with a trio of cast members mocking our Nu Yawk accents. Cue Racktrap owner Kristin Wiig in a padded bra and long curly brunette wig chomping her gum and saying “Rememba, ladies, The Racktrap not only holds all of ya essentials, ya cash, ya credit cards, and ya money but don’t fuhget about tha safety factor. People don’t pick ya breasts, just ya pockets.” But it wasn’t happening at the moment so we were forced to put our ego and comedic skills aside and explore other options. 

We decided that our first plan of attack was to get The Racktrap into retail outlets to supplement our online sales. So, while Jackie placed an ad on Craigslist looking for experienced salespeople, I took to the streets of Los Angeles armed with only some Racktraps and my charming personality.

My first target was Shop Intuition on Pico Blvd. This store was the one that you read about in all the gossip mags, that catered to all of the celebrities fashion whims. The owner and the buyer both fell in love with The Racktrap and placed an order immediately. The Racktrap was featured on their website and sold out several times, with reorders coming in monthly. From a public relations perspective, the fact we could mention that The Racktrap was carried in Shop Intuition legitimized us with other stores and buyers. Opening an account was like a (legal) high and I knew we had to get it into the other celeb haunts like Kitson and Dash.

And so was born my patented pitch. I would hit the store, pretend I was shopping, start chatting with the store manager and casually mention I had invented a new cool product. The reaction was predictable, “Oh my G-d, I wish I thought of this! Let me give you the name of our buyer.” Those words sounded like a “done deal” to a seasoned salesperson. My follow up one-two punch of call and email combination yielded a similarly predictable response as well. None. How can salespeople be so into a product and then the buyer turns a deaf ear? As a New Yorker trying to make it in Los Angeles, no response is the equivalent of someone keying your new car. At least it is for this New Yorker.

But I love a challenge and I don’t give up easily. So I started networking like a fiend and soon I had more leads than Jesse James' bimbo has tattoos! I met the head of public relations for the LA Dodgers at a Grammy Party in Los Angeles and starting pitching The Racktrap. Score! She was totally open to hearing about private label options and actually called me a few days before the LA Marathon and asked if we wanted to get a booth at Dodgers Stadium and peddle our wares. Had we had enough time, we could have pulled it together. Good news though, she was open to the ‘private label’ option and was going to pitch it to her merchandising guy. As we go to print we are waiting with baited breath to “close this deal.”

Back in NY, Jackie thought it a good idea to hire a sales force in NY to start moving product in New York boutiques like Scoop, Neiman and Bendels. Her Craigslist ad specifically requesting people with fashion sales rep experience and sorted through a selection of resumes that were scarier than when she was hiring staff at the Spice Channel. But with a little effort and a lot of Purel, we managed to weed out the freaks from the performers and got the sales force in place.

I decided to ‘take the show on the road’ and start pitching The Racktrap while performing stand up all over the country. The women loved not only the product but loved being part of the show. After the show I would set up a table to sell The Racktraps along with my comedy CD’s. The Racktrap always racked up the most sales!

Karen and Jackie starting doing celebrity gifting suites and were the hit of the Soul Train Awards in Atlanta. Many of the celebs had already heard of The Racktrap and were excited to try it. Flying back to NYC, Jackie was stopped by a woman in line in back of her at security who saw her pull her boarding pass and drivers license out of her Racktrap and started screaming “Is that The Racktrap?  I saw it on Wendy Williams!  Where can I get one?”  So Karen handed her a handful to share with her friends.

And so it went. We were slowly turning women on to The Racktrap, one boob at a time…