Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!: Make Your Million-Dollar Idea Into a Reality (33 page)

When you’re pitching to a buyer for a TV shopping channel, be passionate, show your product come to life, and be as appealing as you hope your product will be. TV sales are a visual medium, so make sure the buyer falls in love with you and your product. For example, the beanbag is an easy pitch. “First, it’s a beanbag, and then you unzip the outer cover and it transforms into a bed! Give your guests a comfortable place to rest when they arrive without having to store a large bulky air mattress in an overstuffed closet when they leave. It’s fun and practical furniture that solves a problem.” And the size of the product wasn’t an issue. QVC (and HSN) ships a large percentage of what they sell, but some items, especially large ones or food, are drop-shipped directly from the supplier’s own warehouse or factory.

Passion and enthusiasm are infectious. People always tell me that I come across so passionately about my products. I genuinely love them, and it shows.
You have to be genuine
. If I don’t like it, I’m not going to sell it. Some inventors do go on and sell their products, but not everybody is comfortable on TV or wants to be on TV. A lot of the people who sell products on TV are called “on-air demonstrators.” They did not create the product, but they are
hired by the company to be the pitch person or demonstrator on air. You’ll see them more often than an inventor selling his or her product. That’s because more large companies and brands make products than do individual inventors.

Consider yourself lucky to get in where you can, and do your very best to make your time on the air so successful that the network can’t wait to invite you back. That’s how you make more opportunities happen. In fact, that’s how I finally got onto QVC. Once I started successfully selling on Home Shopping Network, I called QVC UK in London, and told them that I had this great product that was selling like gangbusters on the Home Shopping Network in the United States. I gave them my sales numbers and sent them a sample, and they agreed to let me on the air.

So I flew to London and sold my earring organizer on QVC UK, where it sold out. Then I called the shopping channel in Canada and followed the same script. They let me on the air, and it sold out. By then I had started developing more products, and within months I was selling all of them in the United States, the UK, and Canada. I kept rolling over the money, putting it back into the business so I could keep making new products. The pressure was intense. On TV, you’re only as good as your last performance, and it was nerve-wracking because I never knew whether I’d meet with the same sales the next time I walked out in front of the cameras. I proceeded with confidence, but I never took anything for granted, because things can always change. Fortunately for me, when they did, it was decidedly in my favor.

I was extremely happy working with Home Shopping Network and felt extreme gratitude and loyalty to the buyer who had made my career there possible. But then she was moved to become the buyer of accessories, and we no longer worked together. Her replacement took a long time to get settled in and didn’t
return my calls or reach out to me. This is not unusual. Buyers are busy. She was getting familiar with a new position and I just had a few SKUs, so I probably was not considered very important. But I had no idea when I was going to get another purchase order, if ever. I hung in there for at least three months, but then I decided I couldn’t stay there in limbo forever.

So I called Laurie, my original Home Shopping Network buyer, and asked if she would be upset if I tried to sell to QVC. She told me that she understood my position and that I should do what was best for my business. I called my QVC UK buyer and told her I’d like to go on QVC USA, and could she make the necessary introductions? She did, and the buyer ordered three thousand units and scheduled an air date. I was terrified, because I was suddenly faced with a big choice: stay with Home Shopping Network where I knew the ropes and felt I could continue to enjoy success (assuming the buyer there ever got back to me), or try selling on another channel and risk falling flat on my face and losing everything. That’s because as soon as Home Shopping Network knew that I had sold on QVC, they would terminate my product there.

These channels are very competitive, and it is not often that you would sell on both at the same time. Also, there are better and worse time slots and days of the week, and there was no way to predict which ones the QVC USA buyer would give me. What if I tanked? In TV sales, if you don’t sell well you rarely get another chance to present. The bottom line in airtime is money, and you need to do the dollars per minute required for your assigned time slot to stay on air and be reordered. Fortunately, when I went on QVC, my product sold out. Funny, though. Within minutes of going off the air my phone rang. It was the director of my product category at HSN, who must have just seen or heard that I was
selling on QVC. And she was NOT happy. I formally switched and began selling exclusively on QVC. Sixteen years later, I’m still there.

HOW TO SELL SUCCESSFULLY ON TV

I was completely unprepared for my first performance ever on the air, for the Home Shopping Network, and it was not quite what I expected. I thought I’d arrive at the studio and get a crash course on television sales, maybe even a dry run. No such luck. Nowadays networks prep presenters and there’s an on-air guest class, but at that time they just threw you on the air. Dan accompanied me to Florida, and as soon as we arrived at HSN, they sent us to the green room, where Billy Mays of OxiClean fame was also waiting to go on air. I sat down and asked him what I was supposed to do, and he said, “Just go out there and demo it. It’s no different from showing it to a friend.”

Next thing I knew, an assistant called my name, escorted me to the set, and clipped a mic on me. Luckily, I was not standing there all by myself. Next to me stood a lovely woman named Chris Scanlin, who, right before the cameras started rolling, whispered reassuringly, “Don’t worry! This is a really cool product.” Then she went on to do 80 percent of the talking. Thank goodness for that, because I wasn’t sure what to do or how it all worked. She asked me so many questions about the organizer that it was almost like an interview.

Recently I looked back at the video, and it’s so funny—how I just stood there barely touching my earring organizer, which is hilarious, because if there’s one thing I’m known for, it’s constantly moving and demonstrating my product. As I stood there, thoughts were running through my mind:
Oh, my God, I’m not sure what happens next … they just threw me out here—what do I do??
Then Chris looked over at me with a big smile and informed me that we just sold out. It was over in a flash.

We had just sold three thousand units in eight minutes. Not only that, we actually oversold by 30 percent. That was a big deal! I was stunned, but so incredibly happy. This was a sign we had made it. The product was going to be a success. Next thing I knew, my buyer was asking me how fast we could get more product and was scheduling me for another airing before Christmas. I headed straight to my factory, made more product, and got right back down to Florida as soon as possible. I made regular appearances every four to six weeks for a year. And as anyone who watches me on TV today can tell, I got more comfortable and a lot better at talking about and demonstrating my product. Now it’s second nature.

I think about that moment—what a big deal it was to Dan and me, how nervous I was, how excited I was, and how thrilling it was when I sold out. Every time I bring one of my new entrepreneurs’ products on to QVC, I try my best to make sure they’re not nervous or worried, and that we’ve covered everything we need to ensure the product’s success. I want them to experience what it feels like to see the “sold out” sign come up!

Trying to beat me out of a deal, Kevin O’Leary once told a
Shark Tank
contestant that “TV ladies” are a dime a dozen. That’s like saying that any investment banker can get the same results as Kevin. No, to stay alive and relevant on television takes a tremendous amount of hard work, sharp instincts, and guts. There’s an art to knowing your business inside out. Not every airing is a hit. There are so many factors involved that are completely out of your control, such as what time of day you will air, what day of the week, and so on. But then knowing how to navigate
the system, knowing how to present a product on TV, knowing all the minutiae of TV sales is something I’ve been learning my entire career.

First, you have to know what’s a good product. Next, you have to know what’s right for TV. Then, there are the best demo techniques, the perfect price points, and navigating your way through the ins and outs of the business. There are so many facets to selling successfully on a TV shopping channel. I’ve seen so many vendors and representatives come and go. Even just to get on QVC your product has to move through their quality assurance department, pass their eleven-point drop test, be compliant with all their rules and regulations—and that’s just to be able to get a purchase order. Then you have to be successful. The majority of products last less than a few years on QVC. So believe me, getting on TV and staying on TV is a lot harder than it looks. Kevin and some of the other sharks know this, because their products have been on QVC and then disappeared.

As many times as somebody may hit pay dirt, somebody else will fall in the mud. There’s never a guarantee.

To sell successfully on television, you must do the following:

Find the Right Formula

The truth is, just getting on TV is often the easy part. No item is ever a shoo-in, even those sold by celebrity endorsers; the customers are far savvier than to buy a product just because it bears the name of a famous person. You have to make magic happen, and you have to have a great product if you’re going to get asked back. Successful television retail requires no less than an ideal combination of great demonstrable product sold in the perfect
way by the right person at the right time on the right day of the week. The formula really is that precise.

Earn Your Dollars per Minute

To get a reorder and a new airing, you have to earn at minimum whatever number of dollars per minute have been set for that day of the week in that time slot, and for that time of year. For example, an item sold on Monday at 3 p.m. might be required to sell $5,000 per minute. If you don’t reach that goal, you might not be reordered and your product could be returned to you. Brick-and-mortar stores will give you a longer chance to find your audience; your product can live forever on your website. But on TV, the first time your sales don’t keep up with expectations, you’re probably done, because QVC has to find another product that will.

Of course, if you exceed your goal—say, you sell $6,000 or $7,000 per minute—you’ll quickly get a reorder and a new airing. But you have to sustain that number each time you appear. If you start to slow down, it will appear it has had its day, and the channel may discontinue selling the item. It is probably more difficult to succeed in television sales than in any other sales medium. On the flip side, if you do succeed, it can be huge! You can literally sell hundreds of thousands of dollars in minutes. You might be able sell the same number of units and earn the same amount of money in a retail store if it is a chain with a large number of stores, but you’ll still have to do it over a much longer period of time.

Time Your Product Right

Timing is extremely important in TV sales. You can kill a great product if you launch it at the wrong time or during the wrong season. I should know; I did it. I had created a 22-piece centerpiece collection that could be configured in all kinds of ways
to hold flowers, floating candles, taper candles, shrimp, nuts, dips, or whatever struck your imagination. It did everything but cook your meal for you. QVC had selected it as one of my first “Today’s Special Value” items. The product was glamorous and beautiful, and an amazing price. I knew it would be a perfect pre-holiday sales item. But my buyers at QVC needed a pre-Mother’s Day TSV and needed someone to fill it. Although I felt it was a pre-Christmas item, I went along. At this early time in my career I’d only been lucky enough to get a few “Today’s Special Values,” so I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. It turned into one of my biggest failures.

Unfortunately, once something doesn’t work on air, the TV networks lose interest in it, and you have to work incredibly hard to get them to let you try again. Fortunately, though some product was returned to me, QVC still had some left in stock that they needed to sell. The network let me put the centerpiece back on the air during the pre-holiday season, where it did great. But by then none of us had the enthusiasm we should have had for the product and once it sold out, it was never to be seen again.

Another time, I went on the air just as President Bill Clinton held a press conference and delivered his infamous statement, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” No one was watching QVC that day, and my product hardly sold at all. It just goes to show how unpredictable the television retail environment can be. I remember walking out of the studio thinking, “I’m dead.” But I did get a second chance.