Matt Hornbuckle, founder of the shirt brand STANTT, spoke at the 2019 pro:Americas Annual Conference earlier this week in Miami.
Matt shared with us what is one of the cardinal rules of selling - when you ask for the order, the first who speaks loses. His ask-for-the-order was, "In order to sell our shirts, we are asking you to buy 99 shirts from us you can not sell. Do you agree?". Wow, that is some offer. Why did he make it?
The reason is Stantt initially created 99 sizes of woven shirt that fit virtually all men. They then produced these 99 shirts for customers to try on in-store. In my case, I went to my local (AAPN member) Nordstrom, tried on sample shirts from (AAPN member) Stantt, picked the size I like, the fabric, collar, placket, pocket and cuff, paid for it, then my order went to (AAPN member) Kattan Group in Honduras where it was cut and sewn and arrived back at my store for pick up the Friday of the same week I ordered it.
There were others in the audience who were doing variations of the same business model, including factory members making their own brands. Matt also proved another rule of speed - in order to be fast, somebody in the chain has to own something. in his case, the fabric is sitting in Honduras in the factory waiting for the order.