Eddie Wang used smart, aggressive selling to build a $12 million clothing company, Ming Wang Knits, from scratch. Learn how he did it.
Eddie Wang didn’t know a soul in the U.S. when he and his wife Ming started looking for contract knitting work in the U.S. in 1978. Today, their clothing line sells in well-known stores such as Nordstrom, Von Maur, and Dillard’s, with their business generating $12 million to $15 million annually.
How did the couple from Taiwan make it into some of America’s top retail chains? It didn’t happen overnight. Instead, the Wangs built on each client relationship they won to get to the next.
Here is their strategy for sales success.
Use Your Social Contacts for Leads
When classmates at FIT mentioned that it was possible to do contract knitting work from home to make money, Wang asked them for leads to companies that were outsourcing work. At one friend’s suggestion, Wang approached a French designer who needed help. When the designer asked if Ming could create a sample garment, based on one from the designer’s collection, the couple quickly won their first account. “My wife made it better than she did,” he recalls.
2. Use Suppliers for Leads
Wang’s willingness to reach out to his network helped him again when he was ready to go after other business. In buying yarn for his first jobs, Wang got to know several yarn manufacturers in the city. When Ming was ready to market her own designs, Wang asked the yarn suppliers for leads to manufacturing companies that might be open to buying them. “They gave me quite a few names,” he says.
3. Having a Better Product and Competitive Price Beats “Being Part of the Club”
Although the Wangs were unknowns in a notoriously tough and closed business, Wang says that the quality of his wife Ming’s designs were his USP—unique sales proposition. Showing his prospects that he had a superior product and competitive pricing enabled him to overcome the objection of not having a track record or “knowing the players” in the U.S.
4. Don’t Be Scared of Cold Calling
At the time, when the Wangs started out, all of the knitwear manufacturers in New York City were located in one building on Seventh Avenue. Eddie, literally started his sales efforts on the bottom floor. Working from the first floor up, Wang made door-to-door cold sales calls on every manufacturer in the building.
5. Use Your Experience from Home
After several sales calls, Eddie realized that his family’s history in the garment business back in Taiwan gave him credibility and inspired confidence in the manufacturers. He made it part of his pitch. “They were happy to hear our background,” he says.
6. The Sale Starts with the First Order
The Wangs started out with a small order from Richtone in 1982. They persuaded the company to increase the size of its orders by offering a steady flow of new designs that their experience told them would sell well—and consistent, on-time deliveries. “Over the year, we became the number one contractor working with them,” says Wang, who estimates that sales from the contracting business reached about $300,000 during the first year of working with Richtone and around $1 million the second year.
7. Sell Where Your Prospects Buy
When the Wangs started their manufacturing business, Toula, in Florida in 1986, selling was no longer a simple matter of knocking on doors of garment makers. To sell clothes as a manufacturer, they had learned from working in the industry that they needed to participate in apparel trade shows held in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and Los Angeles. Store buyers attend those shows to order products to fill their racks. The Wangs started traveling to the shows in 1986, an investment of thousands of dollars. It paid off. They got their first order from Ino’s Fashion, a small specialty-store chain in Ohio. “They gave me a good order,” recalls Wang.
We just trusted the customer in the beginning. That hurt us. A lot of people saw I was new and took advantage of me.
8. Don’t Waste Time and Money Selling to Deadbeats
Some stores that placed orders with the Wangs during their company’s startup phase never paid for the clothes. Excited about making their initial sales for Toula, the Wangs had not done credit checks. “We just trusted the customer in the beginning,” says Wang. “That hurt us. A lot of people saw I was new and took advantage of me.” After the first year, the Wangs began checking new clients’ credit to prevent these losses.
9. Identify And Work with the Buying Influencers
About six years ago, the Wangs were ready to go after accounts with big chains such as Nordstrom. Their son, Steven Wang, who was running the New York City showroom, knew that many designers broke into big stores by having their styles showcased seasonally at The Doneger Group, a fashion merchandising and consulting company. Many retail buyers engage the group to advise them on which lines to look at when they make trips to New York City.
The cost to show was in the thousands, but Steven saw it as a necessity. “With every industry, there’s a way to do things,” says Steven. “You have to follow suit.” But that was just the first step. “Just because you subscribe, it doesn’t mean you get into Nordstrom, Von Maur or Dillard’s,” says Steven.
Persistence pays off… You have to have a positive attitude and can’t get discouraged.
10. Take Responsibility for How Your Product Is Being Sold—Future Sales Depend on It
As the Wangs showed The Doneger Group that sales figures for their line were growing at their existing outlets, the group encouraged an East Coast buyer from Nordstrom to visit their showroom about six years ago. That buyer placed a small test order. Steven worked closely with the store to offer advice on which colors and styles sold the best. “We make it our responsibility to sell our product in the stores,” he says. When that order sold well, a buyer from the South placed an order, and the Wangs found themselves working with Nordstrom stores around the country.
11. Change in Personnel Creates Sales Opportunities
With their products selling well at Nordstrom, The Doneger Group suggested that a buyer from Von Maur make an appointment. Steven met with the buyer three times, but she never placed an order. He didn’t give up and kept in touch by regularly sending new product information and following up with phone calls. When the buyer left the company, her replacement showed up and immediately placed a small test order. That was four years ago. Now Von Maur is one of the company’s biggest accounts.
12. Understand the Buying Cycle and Don’t Slack Off
“Persistence pays off,” says Steven. “With all of our major accounts, on average, the time from me starting to try to win these accounts to the point where we got our first order was about 18 to 24 months.You have to have a positive attitude and can’t get discouraged.
The Wangs are amazing people
Persistence seems to be the key to creating a successful business, definitely inspiring…
the key here is this doesnt happen overnight, it takes years and building up relationships and trust and quality, etc