Appendix B | BUSINESS PLAN FOR A MANUFACTURING BUSINESS | 239It is particularly important that we work with good sales reps. To this end, we have
contacted a number of people knowledgeable in the field (retailers, several small
manufacturers of retail products, and two major wholesalers) for recommendations. We
have received a number and plan to hold interviews soon. We also plan an aggressive
campaign of marketing at consumer electronics and related trade shows. To this end,
we have designed and built an attractive display booth that will effectively demonstrate
both products in operation. We plan to attend up to ten trade shows in the next six
months and will use them as a showcase around which to meet potential sales reps,
wholesalers, and customers. In addition, this will be our opportunity to introduce
our products to the consumer electronics industry press. To this end, we have hired
an experienced media consultant to work with us in developing a press package. She
has already arranged for several articles about the Kinet-O-Scroll to appear in several
popular electronics magazines.
DAY INTERNATIONAL, INC., anticipates expanding the principal sales areas toward
the end of the first year of operation. As part of doing this, we hope our higher
manufacturing volume will allow us to lower prices as well as to improve our products
based on feedback from buyers. In subsequent years, DAY will continue to use sales
reps and wholesalers as our main sales force, since they provide many advantages over
employee salespeople. The principal advantage, of course, is that these people are paid
a commission (sales reps) or fixed percentage (wholesalers) of each sale, but receive no
salary.
Wholesalers have been included in the overall merchandising effort because they
offer an established way to get our product onto the retailers’ shelves. Many have been
in business for years and offer retailers local delivery, computerized ordering, and other
valuable services. They are expected to play a supportive role to our sales reps, who
will have the primary responsibility to call on retailers, write orders, etc. Many of these
orders will be forwarded to the wholesaler to be filled (depending on the territory and
our contractual relationship with the wholesaler), while others will be processed directly
by DAY. It is important that the sales reps and the distributors work as a team. The
representatives will be brought on early enough to have a strong voice in distributor
selection.
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