Gift Rep Sandy

“Theme” niche markets are very popular, and a good way to position yourself in the industry. Often this represents your area of product emphasis, rather than exclusivity. Gift stores are looking for that unique line that no other store carries.  While meeting this preference is difficult to accommodate across a large area, the idea is more feasible if you work in niche markets.  Examples of niche market specializations could be cowboy-themed products, or perhaps themes such as chocolate, huckleberry, “in-state”, gold jewelry, or woodcrafts.

If you do offer a specialization, make sure you communicate that fact, to take advantage from a reputation standpoint. Often, the narrower your niche, the more potential success you will experience – especially if you find a popular consumer market that is not addressed sufficiently in the marketplace.  Trying to be everything to everybody ensures that you will appeal at a high level to almost no one, although that is the more traditional model for reps. Remember that if you take the wide spectrum approach, each mini-niche you offer among your lines, is competing against a rep that might be SPECIALIZING in that niche area.

As you spend time with your lines and your customers, you will find under-represented specialty markets.  These are great opportunities to change and refine what product lines you are selling.  Not all the answers or directions come at once when you start, so allow yourself the option of changing with your themes, as you become more knowledgeable about the opportunities in your territory, and as markets change.