After you find the catalogs you want your product in, and you get their contact information, you then need to contact them by phone to find the right person to send your products information to. Titles of the people you want to talk to at a catalog company include: Merchandise manager or director, or just the “buyer.” If it’s a big catalog, with multiple product sections in the catalog, you may ask for the buyer in that specific department. i.e. If it’s an Apparel catalog and has a shoe section, then you could ask for the “Shoe buyer.”

A simple cold phone call might go like this: Hello, I wonder if you can help me, I have a product that I would like to get sold through your catalog, can you please direct me to the person that can give me the procedures for submitting it?

Or: Hello, I have a product that I would like to get sold through your catalog, can you please give me the name of the person to talk with, or send information too?  

Do your best to extract the name of the buyer, so when you follow up on your product information package, you can ask for them by name when you call. And better yet, if possible, get their direct number or extension.

NOTE: Many bigger mail order companies will have a product submission form or a “vender information kit” they will send you. 

Some people do not like researching, cold calling and doing this type of work, or maybe they don’t have time. Then you need to try and enlist the help of a product representative who will do all this work for you for a commission. i.e. Sales rep.

To do this you will need to figure that commission into your wholesale pricing beforehand. Commissions to a rep will most likely fall somewhere between 10% and 20% on all orders that that rep is responsible for generating. So if a rep gets you into a catalog, he will expect to earn a commission on all orders that ever come from that catalog, no matter who the order is placed through. This would be laid out in the sales rep agreement. 

There is one alternative product rep service that has a lower commission rate of 7% that has been put together by the NMOA. This product rep service is cooperative in nature, where portions of the upfront costs of marketing are shared between the product suppliers. That is, if your product is accepted into the program, you are required to pay a one-time $495.00 co-op marketing fee to help cover research, list fees, postage for mailings, envelopes, telephone charges, and other miscellaneous costs that incur with all marketing efforts. Details on this sales rep service are here. www.nmoa.org/salesrep

It is not always easy to find a rep calling on catalogs, and when you do find one, there is a chance that they will be unwilling to take on your product. If you find that the rep you want is hesitant, try to find out why, and if it would help to sway him, consider offering them exclusive mail order market rights to make the deal. That means that any catalogs that come calling will be forwarded to the rep, and you will not enlist the services of any other reps to call on mail order related firms. 

However, you still retain the rights to enlist a rep to call on brick and mortar retail stores.

NOTE: Leave yourself an “out” just in case they don’t perform in a given period of time. You don’t want to be tied to one person forever if they are not doing anything for you. And there are plenty of reps that can talk up a storm, but in reality don’t do anything for you.

This article is only an excerpt from the National Mail Order Association's report on How to Sell Your Product to Catalogs. The full report can be found at the NMOA web site for free.http://www.nmoa.org/freestuff.aspx