240 – Lessons from a Prospecting Powerhouse with Kristen Crawley of Savannah Bee Company

You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 240 it is by

far our most popular product.

It's such a great conversation starter because the conversation usually starts

of one Oh my gosh,

what is this?

Can you eat it?

Attention gifters,

bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun whether

you have an established business or looking to start one now

you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there,

it's Sue.

Thanks for joining me here today.

Just a few short weeks from Thanksgiving heads up and a

reminder that all these special holidays happen just right after that,

right? We've got black Friday of course,

and then small business Saturday followed by cyber Monday.

It's no wonder that they're all packed in together in one

big extravaganza.

This is when minds shift from eating Turkey to Christmas and

Hanukkah gift giving and the official purchasing season begins.

If you haven't planned to participate in one of these days,

it's almost but not too late to join in.

So if you haven't already,

pick one.

Set up a plan quickly like today and don't let this

opportunity to get visibility and sales pass you by.

People are opening their wallet and swiping their cards and you

should get your share.

Before we get into this show,

I have a past guest spotlight for you.

This is where I give you updates on people you've heard

before on a previous gift biz unwrapped podcast,

and today I'm spotlighting Derek Falchi from Northwoods cheese company.

He was on episode number 84 way back in November of

2016 so three years ago already,

of his company.

You see this past June,

Derek purchased his competitor mill locks cheese.

Not only that,

but the deal also includes the lazy spa.

That means they've expanded outside of food products,

cheese, sausage,

crackers now into bath and beauty as well.

What makes this accomplishment so rewarding?

Above and beyond.

The obvious is that this has been a goal of Derrick's

since the early two thousands you see,

he used to work at Maalox foods and when he left

and started his own business,

he placed the intention that someday he would own mill locks.

The law of attraction in the works for sure,

so congratulations goes out to and his partner Angela for this

huge accomplishment.

I was actually honored to be in the room when Derek

made this announcement.

He was in front of the crowd and he ripped off

his professional buttoned down shirt to reveal a mil locks tee

shirt underneath and the crowd did indeed go wild.

It was an exciting time for sure.

Moving into today's guest,

this is someone who excels in customer relationships and by that

I mean the whole gamut,

so prospecting,

selling and getting repeat business.

These are beautiful things to any business owner's ears.

She's going to share with us how she became a pro.

Taking us back to when she first started with just a

desk, a phone,

and a list of names on paper.

Let's hear what happened from there.

Today I'd like to introduce You too.

Kristin Crowley of Savannah bee company,

the founder,

president and head beekeeper of Savannah bee company is Ted Denard.

Growing up in coastal Georgia,

Ted's journey into the magical world of bees and honey was

sparked by an elderly beekeeper,

Roy Hightower,

who believed in beekeeping as a way of life,

even after 35 years.

Ted's passion hasn't waned a bit.

store in Savannah and began selling his Tupelo honey.

Three years later,

Savannah bee company was officially born.

Today, Ted remains dedicated to sharing the world of bees with

others and introducing new honeybee products to market.

Kristin, who's joining me here today has worked with the company

for over nine years,

focusing on the independent retail gift basket,

international and corporate marketing accounts.

Kristen, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you.

Hi Sue.

So glad to be here.

I know I've seen you a couple of times at shows

and last year I was like I really want to talk

to her about being on the show.

And for some reason it just went by the wayside.

And then this year I saw you again and I'm like

I'm not leaving until we have this conversation.

And yay you said yes.

So that worked out really well.

I know.

So glad to connect with you cause I always love kind

of pop in and out of different shows and you're a

constant there.

That's always inspiring people.

So it's really an honor to be included in this group.

Oh you're so sweet.

I love that.

Well and you have so much fun stuff to tell us

about too,

which I'm excited to get into.

But before we do that,

I'm keeping with tradition here on the show and I'd like

to have you share with us who you are in a

little bit of a different way.

Cause we're all creators here are makers of some sort.

So if you were to envision a motivational candle that really

would resonate with you,

it's your own special Kristin candle,

if you will.

What color and what quote would make up your candle?

Yes. Well I would probably have a Navy blue candle cause

I just think maybe blue is a great color for myself

and I enjoy it.

And then I have to stick true to the Savannah bee

motto and tagline of be above your usual cause that means

a lot to me.

Ooh. And how do you guys use that within the business?

Yeah, so we of course it's spelled B E above your

usual and we try to emulate our business a lot like

a honeybee hive.

So having open communication,

every person and every bee matters,

how we all work together.

And then so for personally for me being above my usual

is elevating my workload,

my personal mantras,

just doing what I can to put everything out there in

a positive light.

Beautiful. Love it.

Love it.

So talk with me first.

I want to get into your whole story and your position

within the company.

Cause I know you have a lot to share with us

there, but talk a little bit beforehand about Ted's love for

bees and how he incorporated that into his life and obviously

the company.

Yes, so Ted,

he learned how to keep bees and he was really young

and was very nervous the first time he went out there

with Roy.

As soon as Roy pulled the honey frame out of the

hive, which is basically when you're opening a lid of bees,

a beehive,

there's the honeycomb and the light shined through the honeycomb and

it was this beautiful glistening rainbow and Ted was hooked.

So the fear of being stung by bees was gone and

it just kind of followed him as a way of life.

When he went to school at the university of the South,

he was beekeeping with a landlord and then he went to

Jamaica after college and the peace Corps and Jamaicans had to

keep bees and then when he came back to Savannah with

his brother,

they were kind of doing some like odd jobs,

flipping homes and stuff and still had some honey and a

friend said,

Hey, let me put your honey in my store.

And he was kind of embarrassed.

I mean he was a religion major so it was not

focusing on businesses all it was like,

just take the honey.

She started selling it.

Another start on the street called was like,

Hey Ted,

I hear you have honey.

We'd love to buy some.

So then that's kind of when it organically just got started.

You know what?

I think I'm going to give this a try and if

it fails,

I hope it's within the first year so I can move

on and it's almost been 20 years and it's still rocking

and rolling.

That's so incredible.

We're speculating,

but you might know.

Do you think it was his love of the insect?

The bee or the love of the product of honey.

Oh, it is a hundred percent the love of the honeybee,

everything we do is a honeybee,

honeybee, honeybee.

So we have company meetings and Ted can get a little

sidetracked or just talking about honeybees and we're like,

what's going on here?

But even if he's trying to coach us into prepping for

the holiday season or trying to work out some communication issues,

he's always taking it back to the hive.

Like sometimes in business when you're doing a hundred projects and

you get interrupted different ways,

whether people pop in your office or just more indirect things

with a personal phone call or you've got a crisis with

your kid,

he'll it back to the honeybees And saying,

well, when you disrupt a honey beehive,

it takes them three days to get back coming.

So keep that in mind.

It's always related to the honeybee.

So he's out there any chance he can in the bee

garden, just breathing in the esters and talking to them.

And it is definitely a passion for honeybees.

Oh, that sounds like such a beautiful life.

To have a passion that is that deep and then you

can take it into your business.

That's so cool.

And you guys of course all have to buy into it

to work there for sure.

Yeah. And it's easy to buy into Probably because of the

passion. But I have a really scary question.

Yes. Is part of your orientation going out and like interacting

with the beehives?

It is.

And I can tell you as a person out of,

forget what the fear is called,

but I have a fear of a lot of little things.

So like,

I don't know,

my husband always makes fun of me.

He's like,

I know this is a scary thing for you,

but we'll get this cleaned up in a second,

whatever it is.

But when I went out to the bee garden with Ted

and he's got this calm demeanor,

he's talking about them the whole time.

And now wait,

you're in this big garb,

right? Like that.

I see.

Like on the discovery channel?

No, no,

you're not protected.

Not at all.

So we're wearing like interview clothes.

Okay. So you go out there,

you've got open toed shoes if you want,

which he kind of like gently encourages but not always to

wear the bee veil,

which is the hat with the screen.

So he's like,

yeah, go ahead and wear a veil.

And so we put that on,

we go out there and he opens a hive,

takes a frame out,

encouraged you to try the honeycomb and went out of frame.

So you stick your finger in it and you tried the

honey. And then while we're standing there,

the bees are already working to fix that problem of the

open honey come sell.

So of course he talks about that and I mean it's

a really cool immersive experience and we're still,

we've grown a lot.

But when I first started we were super small so everyone

was doing everything.

I know the guy that got hired before me,

I think it was his first week of work,

Ted asked him to drive to some sort of bee farm

and pick up some hives in this guy's Explorer.

So it's always an adventure around here.

I'd say I at the end,

clearly. I mean you guys have gotten stung at some point

that's just going to happen.

Oh yeah.

Yep. So you just have to have someone who's not allergic

or else you have your epi pen and you're good to

go. Yeah,

we're not trying to get anybody have any allergic reactions and

we've got Benadryl on hand at all times and he gets

stung all the time.

He gets stung the other day and there's a picture on

Instagram where he posted and it looks like he's had like

some major lip filler.

So that's pretty hilarious.

It's a new form of Botox.

Exactly. So your location right now are the beehives then,

right where you work?

Yep. So we're in Savannah,

Georgia. We have three stores here and one of them is

in Wilmington Island,

which is where a manufacturing facility is.

And we have observational and educational hives here.

So the honey that we're obtaining and are pouring,

those are working with our network of beekeepers worldwide.

So Ted still has hobby hives,

but there came to a point when he was producing to

either work with beekeepers or try and help them grow their

businesses by helping them sell their honey.

And that's what we do now.

Got it.

So it's expanded to way past just your location and your

product as you're talking about just the whole love of the

bees, what they represent,

et cetera.

Exactly. Beautiful.

Okay, wonderful.

And that was what attracted me so much to talking with

you also is just how far this whole thing has gone

with the bees because I don't think people really understand the

life and the complexity of life in the hives.

Right. And then all the interaction and support and it's a

whole big community going on there.

Yes. And that's just a main motivator for our company is

we're trying to tell people what we've been doing to help

save the honeybees.

So we've been doing it for so long that we're like

no one even knows.

So we're trying to get that out of there a little

bit more.

And one is of course working with our network of beekeepers.

And then we are putting honeybee hive ingredients in our products,

so we are utilizing amazing ingredients the honeybees make,

but also supporting the beekeepers who help obtain those ingredients.

And then we support a nonprofit called the beacause project and

that's putting observation hives in schools around the world.

So there's about 500 hives now in all 50 States and

four countries,

so it's pretty amazing.

It's fascinating.

I absolutely love it.

I'm just going to say it now because I don't know

if I'll miss slipping this into the conversation.

When I saw you last,

you had samples of the honey of course,

but you also had samples of the honey comb,

which I didn't even realize you could eat.

It was so good.

Yes, honeycomb is a hundred percent edible.

It is by far our most popular product.

It's such a great conversation starter because the conversation usually starts

of one,

Oh my gosh,

what is this?

Can you eat it?

Or Oh my gosh,

my grandmother or grandfather had bees and we use seat honeycomb

all the time as kids.

So it's this long lost art and it's the purest form

of honey.

You can eat and it is an amazing way to dress

up like a short coonery platter or have a dessert have

right before breakfast with a biscuit.

Did you try some zoo?

Yeah. Yeah.

You had me try some and I was like,

Whoa, this is really good.

Yes, it is amazing because I was hesitant,

you know,

I had honey of course,

but not like that.

So that was,

I'm getting on in my years,

I think I've seen a lot of things and there was

something new I'd never seen before.

It was really delicious.

Okay. Yeah.

So let's swing over and talk about your path into Savannah

bee company.

Where did you start and at what point did you guys

connect? Yeah,

so it's kind of ridiculous story and I won't go too

long into it,

but basically ridiculous here.

That's okay.

So that you can cut out as much as you want

in the story.

But basically my now husband and I were engaged.

I lived in Atlanta,

he was in Savannah and we were trying to figure out

who was going to find a job first in which city,

and by this gracious blessing,

we landed in Savannah through my getting the job at Savannah

bee company.

So basically Ted calls one day and he's like,

Hey, or I sent a resume in and he said,

Hey, can you come interview?

I'm like,

well I live in Atlanta.

Okay, can you come tomorrow?

Well I have a job.

I came as soon as I could for my job.

Drove down,

met him at our store,

which we only had one store at that point and met

with retail manager and Ted's like,

okay, yeah,

I like you but we need to make sure everyone else

thought office liked you too.

I'm like,

okay, we're pretty straightforward here like this.

So I drive to the main office and on my drive

I wreck my car completely.

Undrivable so I call from the side of the road.

I'm like,

Hey, I'm so sorry I've wrecked my car.

I'll get a taxi.

And the person here was like,

no problem.

I've got you.

So she comes out and I mean to this point,

my dad's a car fanatic so I feel like if I

got a door ding I'd cry.

But like my car is undrivable and I had got the

straightest face like I'm getting this job.

You are mission-focused.

Exactly. So I'm sitting there and Diana is the person,

she's still here and she's trying to ask me some questions

like, Sarah,

tell me about yourself and poor sitting on the side of

the road and the police officer comes up and he's like,

ah man,

I'm your licensed expired.

I'm like,

okay, thank you.

I like just roll the window back up.

I'm like,

let me tell you about more.

So. So anyway,

it was just this like hilarious interview story that of course

I had another interview after that and all worked out.

And so here I am nine years later,

but I came to the office and there really weren't that

many people here.

We had this oversized 40,000

square foot building that Ted was wondering if we should run

out the space.

And it was a lot of storage places for his friends,

like old furniture.

I came to the office and there was a list on

a table with a phone and a computer.

Well wait,

what was your job?

What was the job you interviewed for?

So I came in for sales.

Okay, we need someone who's going to help push products.

So I get this list on my desk and it's just

of the people who have ordered in the past year and

if they had a certain dollar amount,

call them first.

So I'm just going down the list.

I have no history on these people.

I don't know anything.

I'm just like,

Hey, I'm Kristen.

We have some new orange blossom honeycomb.

Would you like to place an order?

You know,

just trying to navigate.

It was really only about seven months after I graduated from

college. So I'm just kind of learning the ropes and I've

got all this stuff on the top of my head and

I remember like the first month and I was like,

I saw Ted in the home like 10 guess what?

And I like have my little yellow legal pad.

I'm like,

in the past month I've gotten $700 and he's like,

Oh my God,

you're joking.

And so it's like this joke about when we shorten numbers,

I'm like,

Oh this is seven he's like hundred or thousand and I'm

like thousand and so now as we've gotten bigger,

my numbers have gotten bigger and he's like hundreds or thousands.

So anyway,

more related to everyone here trying to grow their businesses is

this list had no history and I just wrote everything down.

I made spreadsheets and then I realized if we're going to

grow this thing,

I can not have all this in my brain.

Like what if I want to go on a vacation?

No one's going to have any idea how to navigate.

So I started to look up kind of like a free

CRM program.

I didn't even know what a CRM was at the time.

I just was like some way to store data.

So this would have been early two thousands This was about

2010 and 11 I started and,

and by 11 I was like,

I've got too much stuff in my brain.

What if something happens?

I need help.

So we signed up with this program,

I don't even know if they're,

I'm sure they're still around.

It's called Le grant.

And it was a very like basic CRM,

which is just a place to put customer information and keep

it all organized.

allowed to hire somebody to come help and we divided and

conquered and there was history on these customers.

So it wasn't just ask Kristin Crawley about this person or

what do they order?

We were able to just keep the relationship going and it

didn't just have to be me knowing everybody's business.

So getting tools like that have been really helpful.

What did you grow into?

What are you using today?

Yeah, so now we're using Salesforce,

which is gigantic.

So now we have like a whole team.

There's five people in the sales team,

which Diana was here,

and she just managed such larger accounts that she was just

grateful that I came in to take the smaller accounts and

try and grow those.

So we've always been a great team.

And then we have just a couple more people and everybody's

got their initiatives and now or over the past couple of

years. So I did international and that's a whole fun adventure

because nothing is the same for any country.

And then most recently I've been working on corporate gifting,

so that's a whole fun new challenge.

I loved that project because you can meet so many people

and they all have different ideas and they want to represent

their companies in different ways.

So there's a lot of creative process there.

Okay. So this is a great conversation to dive a little

deeper into because I think where you were when you first

walked in that first day and saw that list of people

with names,

I think that many people who are listening with us right

now maybe have a handful,

maybe a little more than that if they're just starting out,

right, of,

yeah. Names of customers or potential prospects.

Right, right.

But then comes the scary part.

Like, okay,

you've got these names they bought once before.

How do you get them to buy again?

Or if they're a prospect,

how do you reach out to them in the first place?

So it sounds like you have been very successful just in

the old fashioned way,

picking up the phone,

which I think still holds some importance today.

I'll ask you that again in a second,

but any direction for someone who is facing that situation today,

how do you approach those calls?

Yeah, so I just really,

I love to reach out to people just to hear their

perspective on Savannah at me company.

So I'm not necessarily to get an order.

I mean that's always going to be super fun cause that's

the end goal.

But I reach out and just say,

Hey, this is Kristin.

We're calling from Savannah bee company.

I know you've ordered from us in the past.

How did those products do for you?

Do your customers like them or are we doing something that

we could better improve our service?

Do you have signage?

I really just try and hear what they have to say

and a lot of times it turns out of,

I'm so glad you called.

I've been meaning to call you.

I know personally I just get inundated with emails and we

do rely a lot on sending our monthly newsletter,

which is great,

but just that personal connection of even if they don't answer

the phone and they just see Savannah bee company on the

caller ID,

you can see a couple of days later the order rolls

in. So it's just that constant reminder,

keeping the relationship there.

Also not being like overbearing of I'm going to call you

every day and if you can connect with somebody,

I like to just ask them,

how do you prefer?

I connect with you,

do you want me to call you?

And surprisingly a lot of people say yes but then if

they don't,

I make a note in my little system like don't call,

maybe just send an email.

And so you put that that into Salesforce under their client

record. Absolutely.

Yes. Yeah,

I think that's really good.

I mean first of all,

it's so respectful.

I've got to say here,

we'll get phone calls from people.

Now customers are different because they have a customer service question

or something like that,

but we'll get people,

you know,

many times it's solicitors who will call and we might be

smack in the middle of something and instead they just go

right into their sales pitch versus saying,

is this a good time to chat?

Or I'd like to say two minutes of your time.

Is that all right?

And like to be a little bit more respectful.

So I think the first point when you're saying figuring out

how they want to be communicated with is perfect cause it's

showing a lot of respect for their time.

Yeah. I also,

I really like and gift as listeners think about this too,

because we're so hesitant to pick up the phone.

But what you're saying is a lot of people are saying,

call me,

I meant to call you and now you've taken away their

need to fit it into the day.

You've already done that for them.

Exactly. And then they can just say,

repeat my order.

You have it all.

You can just set it out and you can be done

with that.

Yeah. And if they seem very short and they're like,

don't call me,

then I just take that as,

okay, great.

I now know to not call you.

You just have to keep playing the game and just give

everyone the benefit of the doubt that you never know if

you've called in the middle of their biggest fire or if

they're bored or they're not selling,

you know,

everyone's just trying to make it through.

That's how I think about it.

Right. And we all feel like we're doing way more than

the hours of our day.

Allow us to do.

Well, you know,

we're all swamped.

So sticking with this.

Okay. So we've talked about customers.

What about if you're prospecting over the phone and maybe I

should start,

do you even do that?

Okay. Gift business nurse.

I just have to do this.

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Yeah, we do that off and on.

So we just go to a lot of trade shows,

so we have a lot of leads to follow up with.

So between the leads and then the current customers,

there's a lot of touch points.

There is we do prospect,

but they're pretty warm.

So there's never really a cold call because we'll call it

the purpose and kind of see what they're up to or

if they have any interest.

Okay, so that's your strategy.

So you're out at shows,

you're collect leads,

it shows where people have then probably tasted your product like

I did with the honeycomb.

Right. And then you're following up then on a warm lead.

Yes. That's your way to do it.

Okay. When you're at shows question,

I've seen some times it shows where the goal is to

get as many business cards as you can.

You know,

people just want to get those cards,

you want to swipe all of that.

What's your philosophy and method on when do you pick up

business cards and follow up and when do you not?

Yes, so I can say this whole thought process has evolved

for me in the beginning.

Every person who came to booth,

I'm going to swipe your badge.

You're like,

I'm going to scan you.

I want to follow up.

I want to grab my database,

and then I've learned over the years that that is not

always effective.

So I try and engage a conversation,

get an idea what they're looking for,

and sometimes there's just not enough time for that.

So people will say like,

here's my card,

give me a call.

So if I can jot a quick note,

then great.

If I can't,

then we always send them a blast,

which is like our little followup.

Like thanks for buzzing by.

Thanks for buzzing by.

I love that.

I know we have all sorts of little kitschy things like

that, but we'll do that and then I immediately will start

following up over the next couple of weeks of just like,

Hey, you've expressed interest and just want to make sure that

we don't drop the ball.

Because a lot of times people do want our stuff,

but then it's on us to make sure that they actually

get it right.

And so how many times do you follow up without a

response before you put them on?

Like a more time intervaled connection.

Yeah, so it really,

for me,

it depends on the conversation that we had.

So if somebody spent a lot of time with me at

the booth and they kind of gave me a direction of

what they're looking for,

I'll probably reach out maybe four times,

but over a span of probably two or three months.

And then if there was just like a drop by and

they didn't really do anything,

I'll just reach out twice.

Okay. Alright.

But they're spaced out and they're a phone call than an

email than a phone call.

I kind of really just pepper.

And then with those people who you've had an individual conversation

with, obviously if something a little more detailed to talk about.

Right. And then how detailed are your notes then within Salesforce?

How much do you keep track of that?

Well, it's a case by case.

So I try and take my leads,

I go through them and if I know that I've had

a really detailed conversation with somebody or they'd given me a

really good idea of what they're looking for,

I just go ahead and convert that into an opportunity.

And then that way know this person I really need to

follow up with because they're going to be in my open

opportunities. And then at some point,

I mean I ask for people to tell me if they're

not interested anymore because I know one,

I don't want to be a bug in their inbox.

And then too,

they don't want me wasting my time on them if they're

not gonna move forward.

So I always try and encourage really open feedback with people.

Yeah, I mean you can always say,

if you're not interested now,

that's fine.

We're here for you when you are.

Exactly. And then you maybe do like a mass mailing to

that kind of cool list.

They've been warm for a while,

but they're cooler.

I don't know how many times a year.

Three, four times maybe.

Yeah, at the most.

Probably on that.

Just if there,

we have people who sign up for our newsletter,

so when we send that monthly,

and they're usually already engaged customers,

but then the people,

if they've been converted to an opportunity now,

I'll reach out every couple months and then just realize,

okay, this might not be going anywhere.

But it is amazing because some accounts just have a really

long lead time.

They're like sitting ducks where they underneath,

they are just working,

working, working.

They have,

for example,

like I have a couple of gift basket accounts where you

think that you've lost them,

but they're like,

no, no,

no. We're designing,

we're pricing,

we're doing all this thing.

Okay. Now where we're working and you're like,

Oh, okay,

well I'm glad to hear from you.

Yeah, So glad this is still happening,

but it just,

sometimes other customers just aren't as fast,

like the independent retail,

most of the time they're going to place an order at

a show or directly after,

and then I've had an account that's been really great for

us over the past couple of years that it took a

year and a half to get a confirmed order.

Oh wow.

This is a good example.

Then how did you keep in touch with them?

Well, we kept seeing him at shows,

so we saw him for a year and a half at

shows, and then like the response was like,

yeah, I still want you guys just gotta find the right

way to get you in.

I'm like,

okay, I'm here.

You just kind of feed off of their energy of if

they continue to say they're interested,

then touch base maybe once a quarter.

Got it.

Yeah. Well and that's a good example.

You don't give up but you don't stay on top of

them either.

Right. Pound them.

Yeah. I've had some of that where you know,

I'm interested in something I see where it could have potential

for us down the road and then that sales part is

that it's like a dog on your leg,

right? Like they won't leave you alone when you've given them

one little glimpse of potential.

So you definitely don't want to be that way,

that's for sure.

Have you had any challenging moments or specific pieces of advice

specifically for working trade shows?

And I bring that up because I really incentivize a lot

of our new people who are just starting to develop a

product to do a lot of test marketing through local craft

shows, farmer markets,

not trade shows necessarily for wholesale,

but working a booth and you know when you're new,

that whole thing seems pretty daunting.

You're a pro at this.

So any advice or any kind of things that you did

wrong just to make a fun,

maybe things that you've learned that you can do different for

booth presence and interaction with people at booths?

Yeah, actually someone to call myself out on this one.

My first trade show was the Atlanta gift Mart and Ted's

brother was working with us and he's a super fun energetic

person and just like canceling product like no other,

he's just great,

great energy.

And so we were having fun going back and forth of

seeing who could get the highest order.

So it was kind of a joke because when instead of

asking them how many,

how many units would want that,

we were like,

well how many cases do you want?

And so we joke back and forth and then we had

this one person come in to the showroom and she seemed

to really like the brand and I hadn't quite figured out

how to really develop the relationship with people yet.

So I was just in it to come home with record

breaking sales from this show.

And when I got back in the showroom,

she said,

well, this is my budget and what are the items that

I should fit in this budget?

And I'm like,

Oh, well these are the things,

but really you need these.

Like I just kept making the order bigger and bigger.

And I just really focused on that.

And she was like,

well, no,

but like this is my budget and I really just need

to know.

But to me it felt like everyone has a budget of

the show.

Let me just take as much of it as I can.

And when I got back from the show,

she got her order and called me and she's like,

can I just give you some feedback?

There was somebody at the show that I kept telling them

what my budget was and they just had complete disregard for

it. And they just kept pushing and they want it more

and more.

And I just was really clear of what I had to

spend and I was like,

Oh my gosh,

that was me.

I'm so sorry.

Did you tell her that I shared it.

Good for you.

Yeah. So I wrote her a letter.

I mean,

cause I didn't want her to have a bad impression for

the company and it was a great learning experience for me

because she's like,

you're not like the person at all that I talked to

at the showroom.

There's no way.

And so then I wrote her a letter,

I sent it with her order and apologize and let her

know that I really appreciate your feedback.

And she called me and we had the greatest relationship for

the next four or five years.

I don't believe she's in business anymore,

but it was just this really open communication and she's like,

I cannot even believe that was you and thank you so

much for telling me and I just respect your company even

more now.

And it's very humbling and I'm like embarrassed as I'm telling

you now.

But now moving forward,

here I am,

how many years later?

And I feel like I have great relationships with my customers.

I know how to guide them.

I understand that some people really do work on a budget

and you have to respect that.

And so when you were doing that,

did you feel good about it?

I mean,

I know you were in competition,

so it was part of a game kind of,

and competition's not bad.

Yeah. But were you feeling yourself when you were doing that,

when you were talking with her and trying to increase her

budget? No,

I think it was just like I was just caught up

in the moment of having fun and trying to say like,

well, this person only had $300 just then,

but I got her up to 800 and no,

it wasn't great,

but it was part of being young and inexperienced and not

realizing that it's the end game.

It's not the show.

Because for us,

I think as a new business person,

you can get really caught up in the numbers you get

at the show.

But I've learned over the years that sometimes I talk people

out of product at shows.

I'm like,

let's just start small here.

Let's get some products in your store,

make sure that you can focus and know how to sell

those. And then once they do well with that,

they're going to come to you and say,

give me more,

give me more.

Because there are a lot of new businesses that come to

the shows with huge budgets and no buy everything in the

line and they never order again.

But from a sales standpoint,

that's not great because you can't anniversary that was sales and

you haven't built a great relationship.

You're right.

What I was getting at with that was when you feel

uncomfortable with what you're doing,

it's probably not the right thing.

Right. So it sounds like there was a little bit of

that in there for you,

but I would imagine just what you're talking about.

I mean the most important thing besides fulfilling orders for people

who are coming back to see you because they want to

reorder for the next season.

But the most important thing is bringing on new clients who

are going to be regular repeat customers.

Right? So it doesn't almost matter how big the first sale

is, it's getting the product in first.

I remember when I used to work shows,

I mean we're out at trade shows for the ribbon print

company as that's how you and I ran into each other

and we'll do the same thing.

We want to recommend what's in the best interest of the

customer because then that's going to establish the right type of

relationship moving forward.

But what I've often done is said,

you know,

if someone comes with a budget,

let's say they're buying a printer,

so we're talking 12 $1,500

products, right?

And they want to add all this other stuff.

I'll say,

no, no,

no. Let's just stick with this original package and then next

time look at this and this and this and this.

But then possibly a month later they're already ordering it.

When originally they just came in with a certain budget.

You never know how it's going to go.

But yeah,

I think it goes back to doing right by the customer

always. Yeah,

and I mean,

but I totally understand how I got there because as a

smaller business where you're paying so much money to go to

these shows and you feel like you need to come home

justified and just set those records and have a bang out

show, and I'm sure you've experienced this,

where exhibitors get together like,

well, how are you doing?

How are you doing?

Oh, the show's so slow and it's just this energy that

keeps going and you're like,

Nope, I'm going to do what's right for me.

So it's just like blocking out all that other noise.

Right. Well,

and let's face it,

some shows could be really good for one person and not

for another.

It's just not your audience for sure.

The very worst show I ever did was Atlanta's Mart.

Oh gosh.

Yeah. And a January one,

a huge show that everyone's like,

Sue, why aren't you there?

You should be there.

You should be there.

I tried it once and I'm like,

this, I'm never doing again because there are so many places

you can be.

Oh, there are.

Yeah. Yeah.

I just don't feel like it was the right audience for

us. But you've got to try to know,

and it could have been the year,

you know,

who knows.

Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about promotions or events that

have helped you move the needle for the business.

Again, now you're focused on wholesale,

so we want to keep that in perspective,

not just your product direct to consumer,

but on the wholesale side.

What has helped you get account?

Yeah, so I would say really just more on being able

to grow and get a new product out there is,

we did our promotion about a couple of years ago and

we had all these volcanic Ash pumice stones and they were

for a kit we sold out of the kit and then

we just didn't know what to do with them.

But we also have this bees wax honey and bees wax

heel balm,

and that's a really great product,

but it's kind of a foreign product because you don't just

go, Oh,

I need a heel balm,

but it's a really awesome product.

So we thought,

what if we just gave everyone who bought a heel balm,

a free pumice stone.

So the reason it was successful for us is because it

gave our customers a value that they could give to their

customers. So the pumice stones were an extra item that we

had and they're not very expensive.

So we were helping move through a current inventory item and

kind of an extra item.

So just adding little pieces of value.

Just help the pumice stones one last forever.

So once they're done with that,

they can go back and get the heel balm without the

punnet stone cause you don't need 20 pumice stones in their

life. So that's kind of one of promotion that's worked for

us. Okay.

I like that because you're not talking about discounting product,

you're adding things on.

Yes. Added value.

Yeah. This is another thing to get into here is your

product line has all your edible like the honeys and comb

and all of that,

but then you have lip balms and lotions and all of

that too.

Are those two separate clients for you most of the time

or do they cross frequently?

They cross very frequently.

So you mentioned you don't do so well at the Atlanta

gift market,

but that is a huge show for us.

So it's a lot of gift stores and an independent retailer.

So they're kind of building a story around we have this,

we can build the credibility of the honey and then we've

taken honey bees wax Royal jelly and propolis and put that

in our health and beauty products.

So it's all again centered around the honeybee.

And do you add in any educational elements or health benefits

in the story?

Absolutely, yes.

So we provide shelf talkers for all of our customers.

We have some little training materials for resellers and then all

of our packaging has be facts and quotes and messages about

the different ingredients.

And we're always trying to educate anyone about the honeybee hive.

Like Ted proudly says the post person can learn about honeybees

just by delivering our package.

Cause we've got quotes on it.

And then it's funny we have this old warehouse that I

was mentioning.

It was an old cabinet company is really just not a

state of the art kind of building.

But we painted it and then we had somebody come and

paint some bee facts on the back of the,

and one Of the beef axes,

all worker breeds are female and this woman drives by and

she yells out the window.

Oh yeah.

So It's just trying to get again,

the majestic honey bee information out there everywhere we can.

Do you do the same thing with social media?

We do.

Yep. So we're more active on Facebook,

Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

And do you have somebody then within your system who's responsible

for all the social media or how does that work?

Yes. So we have internal social media person.

She's been on this for a long time and just is

great at carrying through the voice.

And also our e-commerce director writes a lot of blogs for

us and Ted writes blogs.

So if you go to our website,

you can see the B blog and they kind of differentiate

like this one's from a worker bee,

which is one of us.

And then this one's from Ted.

And we kind of have them segmented in the different voices.

Okay, so wait,

is Ted the queen bee?

Yes, he is.

Okay. So we were just at a show together.

If you were to have taken photos at that show,

could you post those then on the Instagram account or would

it funnel through your social media person?

It would funnel through social media person.

And so one challenge that we have is that we have

15 stores nationwide now that are our own company owned stores.

So one challenge that we have is how do we share

on social media what everybody's up to,

but also make it relevant to our thousands of followers.

Because if we post a Savannah event,

how is this relevant to our followers and Boulder?

Or what if they don't have a store in Boulder?

And then that's just been a challenge that we've had as

a company and figuring out how to best promote.

Okay, so each store doesn't have their own account.

It's a master account,

which is really helpful because then you've got way more content.

Yes, exactly.

And it's not scattered everywhere.

Right. And you could post something from Savannah,

but it's still showing like the lip balm or something.

You can still go get it at your local store of

what you know,

however you would that would go.

But there's one central person,

which I think you're just compiling all the opportunity and then

keeping a consistent message out there,

which is great.

Yeah. And that's her full time position.

I am quite sure.

Yes. That and photography.

So a lot of our lifestyle images that are just so

beautiful are attributed to Kate Dowdall.

Love it.

Perfect. Perfect.

So what would you say to somebody who's just getting started

a little bit different than you in that has their product

and they're just starting to get it out to the market?

What would you tell them to do?

What would be their first thing to do?

Not business development,

but getting customers to seeing their product?

Well, I think it would just depend on what their goals

are and their business model.

So are they trying to get into other stores or are

they trying to get into just homes?

Hat's their way of selling.

Let's say their ultimate goal is to be placed in boutique

gift shops.

I see.

Yes. I'm a big fan of the shows.

I know that they've evolved through time and sometimes shows are

more traffic than others.

But I really think that a good way to get out

there and build credibility is finding a show and just making

connections that way.

Cause it's really amazing because not only are you finding customers

there, but you're finding likeminded businesses there.

So every year there's new people who pop up at these

shows and so you can make connections with people who are

just like you and you can kind of work together and

say, okay,

well here's what worked for me and here's what's not working

for me.

And you kind of figure it out together.

You build a network of peers and I just think that

that's really valuable because that's kind of what we do.

I mean,

Ted started going to shows and then he's built this network

of people and to this day we still call some of

them and say,

Hey, this account wants to carry us.

What do you think?

And they're like,

Oh, we work with them,

they're great.

Or I dunno,

I'd steer away and we're in different levels of business and

have different products,

but we can share the truths with each other.

I guess it's just a nice way to put it.

I agree with you that there are two different things going

on at the shows at the same time.

They're the people who are walking the shows and then there

are your fellow booth people or vendors or whatever you want

to call people.

And they're both important because we've gotten business off of them

or con great,

really valuable conversations with them,

et cetera.

And I guess I would just say to to the people

who are listening,

you might feel like you're in a remote area of the

country so you're not going to be traveling to Atlanta or

where some of these big shows are.

But so many areas of the country now have gift shows.

And what I've found,

and Kristin I'll be interested in your opinion of this too,

is sometimes I've found a better show isn't the one where

the aisles are packed with people up and down.

So there's like a million people coming to the show and

the shows are really big because everyone is so busy wanting

to get to every single thing they want to get to.

The smaller shows allow for much better conversation.

People stay and you deepen a relationship at a booth faster

at some of the smaller shows and honestly you only need

a handful of really good connections walking out of a show

for it to have been successful.

Right. To kind of answer that response.

There are some like major shows we go to where it's

just, that's very short show,

but there's thousands and thousands of people there and so many

vendors and I mean those shows,

those are really long lead times.

As someone who's starting,

I would not recommend it at all because most of the

people who are walking do free samples,

do free samples,

can I have samples?

And like who has budgets for that?

Right? If you're not established and you don't have free samples,

you're so you're really not making a lasting impact.

But if you can go to even just a regional gift

show or network with some people in your community,

there's a lot of like economic development centers.

We have amazing resources in Georgia that they're always trying to

grow our businesses so they'll connect us with the right people.

So if you don't have the resources yet to go to

a show,

you might be able to just connect with other makers,

your area that can say,

Oh, you know what,

why don't you try this?

Or there's another show we went to with a like-minded brand

and we're not competitive.

We compliment each other and we split the booth and we're

going to it again this year and it's just one of

those like smaller shows for us.

But we're going to give it a try and we bounce

ideas with this other company and it's just a nice way

to kind of cut your costs and not all shows will

let you do that,

but if you're small enough,

they might.

Right. Another thing I've had experience with right in your area

is the Southern woman show and I did in Savannah and

that's a consumer show.

And so I'm just bringing this up from a different angle

with shows.

Right. In a way it wasn't so great because there were

so many people coming through.

We were printing ribbon for people and children and babies and

everything all day long.

However, there were a lot of business owners who also walk

that show with their family over the weekend and we did

very well at that show.

So you can't just discount a consumer show thinking it's only

consumers who are going to be the one off consumer purchasers

either. Yeah.

And the junior leagues do a lot of consumer shows like

holiday popups.

And that's actually one of the main ways that Ted got

started is that Ted and his brother used to go to

all these road shows for the holidays.

So it was like the Nutcracker and Houston and then there's

Dallas and there's one in Mississippi and Richmond.

So I mean they would do very well in the holidays

and it helped build the business because anytime you're out there

showing just direct to consumers,

you're building your brand and market.

Then you can call the local stores.

Kind of a way you can find some prospects if you

can't go to a show is look on Yelp,

like look at nice gift stores.

That's if you really have some time and just call them.

Be like,

Hey, I just showed here.

We sold crazy.

Do you want to,

can I send you some samples that maybe you could try

and I don't know,

just another way to build your business without having to go

to a show.

What I continue to hear from you throughout our whole conversation

is the human connection.

Exactly. Whether it's a show,

whether it's after the show,

actually getting on a phone call with them versus just email,

but it's all that one-on-one human connection and working it through

that way.

Not collecting a million cards at a show and my pet

peeve, so I just have to say it here because I

have to say it every time this happens is not taking

an email list that you get from all the attendees at

a show and sending an email saying it was so good

to see you.

So because sometimes they didn't even come by your booth.

That's a no,

no, yes.

And just PSA.

The emails that you get from people who are like,

Oh, would you like to buy a list from this show

that's not right.

Like don't buy those ever.

Absolutely. And some of them are scams anyway,

so or the list is 10 years old from a show.

So yes,

be very wary of that.

Getting your emails directly from someone who has been in front

of you,

you've had a conversation and you both agree that you want

to take the discussion further is the way to go for

sure. Perfect territory.

Right. So,

alright, so tell me Kristin,

what's up for you?

Like what do you see as your future?

It sounds like you absolutely love where you are.

I do.

So I have no idea what you're going to be saying

here. But if you were to think about what your future

is going to look like,

what is it?

I am just loving the corporate gift channel right now.

So I love working with companies who are trying to sell

to corporations.

I love working with corporations and I'm having fun diving into

the creative space.

So my first big corporate gift account this year,

I had fun procuring all these different items to match a

goal of how they want to project themselves to their clients.

And so I'm just excited to see where this can go.

And this is really the first big year of it.

So the world is my oyster.

It's exciting.

I love the fact that you're in a company that is

continuing to grow.

You're still have a smaller number of people,

so there's a lot of opportunity to bring in new ideas,

test new things,

and continue expanding.

So being able to do that and stretch yourself and move

forward is a beautiful thing for sure.

How is the best way for any of our listeners to

learn more about Savannah bee company?

Where would you send them?

Online? Savannah b.com

so that's a great way.

And then you can click around,

we've got our video up under our save the bees tab

and you can learn all about how Ted took honeybees to

The Bahamas and restored life and beautiful flowers there.

And then you can also shop our products Beautiful.

And if someone wants to talk directly because maybe they're a

gift shop and interested in considering your product.

Sure. I'm happy to connect with anybody.

My email is Kristin,

K R I S T E n@savannahb.com.

Wonderful. Thank you so much.

This has been fascinating.

I didn't know exactly where the conversation was going to go,

but I'm really glad we spent a lot of time on

sales because I know that's going to help a lot of

our listeners.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom,

your experience,

your insight.

It's been a joy to have you on the show.

Thank you.

So, Oh my gosh,

there are so many actionable tips that we just picked up

on how to bring in and retain new customers.

You guys,

don't just listen to this show.

Pick one new way of attracting or retaining a customer and

implement it right away.

Now I have to say there are many lines from this

show that were my favorites,

but here are the two that top the list.

One, don't be a bug in someone's mailbox and two,

all worker bees are female films up to both of those.

Now, after all those colorful language,

I'm really happy to say that our guests next week we'll

continue to put a smile on your face in a joking,

comedic kind of way.

I look forward to all of us being together again.

Then make it a great week and bye for now.

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