September 1, 2010 25 Comments

Selling Wool or Yarn

yarn

I had a strange dream last night, but oddly, it had a lesson in it. I dreamed that I went to a place to sell wool. There was one buyer. They decided whether my product was worth buying. Then, they turned it into yarn. They carded it, they dyed it, they put it on different spools and sold it to hundreds of people.

Which business is harder? In some ways, selling wool is harder. I have to convince one person instead of several. In other ways, selling yarn is harder. I need to sell lots of it to a lot of varied people to make it worth it.

And yet, both require sales. Both require trust. Both require a relationship, a quality of product, a distribution channel.

B2B, B2C.

Can social media be used for both kinds of sales?

Sure. Absolutely.

Related posts:

  1. Selling on the Edge
  2. Selling Blog Content the Clean Way
  3. Bartering
  4. When Not to Sell Me Something

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  • Anonymous

    It’s funny because I had a conversation in Australia about wool versus yarn. Some people sell raw materials and others make money by processing it. Australia and Canada sell raw materials to USA and China then buy the products back once assembled or processed. One is not necessarily better than the other, providing you know where you are in the chain and are concious about where you fit in the chain. Some people manage to expand their presence, others are content in their niche. I think we sell both wool and yarn, but you are able to spin a yarn much better than me :)

  • http://mydarabell.com/ Dara Bell

    Often when I sit and write a comment I have good idea what I am about to say. Today no idea. To me sales is dead important. If you read Confessions Of An Ad man or listen to David Ogilvy speak he placed emphasis on sales, even Cluetrain says sales and salesmenship are important. In Cluetrain they say the market place is in no longer in the square anymore, I do not think the the clothe is not spun there either. The marketplace is huge now, the opportunities huge, the rules the same.

    Sales and salesmanship is still importance, getting hung up on words is mistake too. Maybe you like Customer Service, maybe you like Client Relations maybe you like chief-selling-wool- -guy (or yarn) more. It is sales that drive your growth, or in my case others peoples sales.

  • http://mydarabell.com/ Dara Bell

    The Afterthought
    Having information products not just the yarn or the wool is good too.

  • http://www.kherize5.com Suzanne Vara

    Very interesting dream and article. If you are the wool seller, you have to sell 1 thing but it has to be top of the line or they will not come back. If you are selling the yarn, you have to “create” each color to be as good as the other or it will not sell; and not always do we need every color. Hmh. as I try to wrap my arms around this and slow the thoughts or struggle of sorts in the head as to which one would be better, I believe it goes back to are you best suited to have the one and be the leader of that or create multiple parts and have them compliment but also stand alone from one another. I guess some could be both but then they run the risk of being mediocre at both.

    Shakes head as you got me going again. You always do that and I so do appreciate that. Lucky for me moleskin is nearby to capture these ideas and thoughts.

    @SuzanneVara

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Glad we’re thinking about common threads. : )

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    I’m totally with you. I’m reading a new book called The Man Who Sold America, about Albert Lasker (who came about 40 or more years before Ogilvy). He was pushing that advertising was ‘salesmanship in print’ in the 1900s, and I think it’s true. Now, the question is whether social media is salesmanship plus customer service in print. : )

  • http://lby.co/dcc7Jy Ilana

    Chris,
    In both cases it’s necessary to turn a product that is essentially a commodity into something with meaning for the customer and to differentiate it from everyone else who is selling a similar product. I work with a talented group of people whose job (as it happens) is to market yarn. We do this by inspiring and educating customers to use our products and by focusing on what it means to our customers to use our products (like creativity, stress relief, sharing) . In a recent blog post, we asked our readers to share one word that comes to mind when they think of our brand and created a word cloud from their responses. If you look at it you’ll see that “yarn” was not a top response. That was good news to us.

    http://lby.co/dcc7Jy

    I imagine it is harder to de-commoditize raw materials. And, while having to sell to only one customer seems easy, it isn’t so easy if there are 3 others trying to sell to that same customer.

    We are very active on social media and yet it is hard to imagine someone who sells wool or sheet metal or sugar finding social media useful.

    I’m not sure which is harder, but it definitely seems to me that B2C is more fun.

  • Anonymous

    Err never bought wool or yarn but have awhile back purchased thread to darn my socks with, not done so lately as life is too short to repair (badly) socks, to put up wallpaper etc

  • http://mydarabell.com/ Dara Bell

    I think it is. That is quite memoriable Chris.

    Dara

  • http://reallifemadman.blogspot.com Marjorie Clayman

    Okay, if I’m weird for being an advertising gal who finds affiliate marketing uncomfortable, I have to say that you’re weird for being a business and gaming guy who dreams about wool and yarn. I mean, it’s the way straight to my heart…just sayin :)

    I’m not sure you’re the wool salesman though. I think you are the person who takes care of the sheep and angora bunnies and alpacas. You feed them, you give them what they need so that their wool is silky and high quality, and you enable other people to take the wool and sell it. Start yodeling!

  • http://www.thesalescorner.us/blog Matt Geier / Thesalescorner

    Can social media be used for both kinds of sales?

    You should be saying yes to that question;

    In Sales, it’s more then just about what you’re selling. It’s often about things like who’s it coming from; what’s the pitch method; what’s the methodology and experience to back up what you say!

    Good Read!

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    I’m down for yes. : )

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Well let’s see. I sell Third Tribe, which is a product that educates marketers. Wool.

    I sell blog themes. Wool.

    I sell writing to big companies. Wool.

    I sell speeches to big audiences. Wool.

    Believe it or not, I’m far more in the wool business than the yarn business. My blog is the only yarn.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Seems like we have a trade. I get you going this way. You tell me I’ll do something and I deny it, and then I end up doing it. Fair trade.

  • http://reallifemadman.blogspot.com Marjorie Clayman

    Yeah, but all of what you listed is why I said I think you’re more on the side of raising the animals that make the wool. You let someone else shear the sheep and sell the yarn, and then whether that becomes yarn is up to them. ‘course, I don’t even know who the spinners are in this scenario…I need to get some of my other crafty friends to help me out…

    • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

      Ahhhh, now I get you. I can see that. : )

  • http://twitter.com/mnsfibers Midnightsky Fibers

    That is exactly why I sell both wool and yarn (no really!) to both B2B and B2C AND sell support (patterns, classes, services for businesses, and raw materials for businesses). People like it since they can see how the fiber became yarn and what they can then use the yarn for.

  • http://judysoped.blogspot.com/p/contact-judy.html Judy Helfand

    Chris,
    What do you want to bet that I am your only commenter who has, in fact, raised sheep? I mean really raised them, fed them, cleaned their stalls, called the vet when things didn’t seem right, waited patiently for the sheep shearer to stop at our place while working the circuit. God forbid they miss you on the circuit. I remember one year the shearer lost control of Oakie, he was literally a black sheep. Oakie flipped the shearer and then Oakie went running into the brook.

    When we finally caught Oakie he was wet, not good for electric shears. So the gentleman put Oakie in a stand and sheared him the old-fashion way, non-electric shears.

    Here is the thing about shearing sheep…you need to get the coat off in one piece or nearly one piece so that the processor can wash it, dye it (if desired) and spin it. The wool is dirty, greasy and smelly; you ship to the processor by UPS! I used to use Bartlett Yarns in Harmony, ME. They have been spinning wool since 1821.

    Ten pounds of grease wool will produce 4-1/2 pounds of yarn. Do you know how hard you work to produce 10 pounds of wool? Not to mention hay, grain, vet bills…but I loved them: Queenie, Fluffy, Joe and Oakie. I’d like to think the word “rambunctious” comes from the word “ram” (male sheep) and I always think of Oakie when I hear that word!

    I can tell you this much: I trusted Bartlett Yarns, they trusted me, we had a nice relationship, together we helped produce a good product–they had the distribution channel. Me? I had the pure joy of watching nature…the way sheep get “sheepish” after they been sheared, standing in a corner and will not make eye contact.

    Tonight, as I close off this side street story, I remember that tucked away in one of my drawers are two skeins of their wool.

    Well…bless the beasts and the children, as they say.

    Judy

  • http://www.kherize5.com Suzanne Vara

    The good news is that when you get me going this way, I find more things to tell you that you deny – now that is an even fairer trade as my friends tell me that the warranty on your mind expires at 40 so I need someone to spark and bring out the ideas.

  • http://www.sacriliciousmarketing.com/ REBlogGirl

    Funny the last commenter said he was probably the only commenter that raised sheep – I on the other hand may be the only one that was an employee of the VC firm that funded Yarn.com in the 90s which failed miserably since grannies weren’t looking to internet for all their yarn needs at that time. Enough about that, though. What I like about this analogy is for a business that serves both B2B (mostly SMB) and B2C, you have to position yourself differently and silo your social accounts content appropriately in order to be able to reach both markets effectively. That is great take away for the multi faceted business. Use the same tool just differently to reach your markets. At Where.com, we have only recently started separating customer support, geographic consumer info/offers/reviews, SMB educational info/offers from our more corporate accounts on various networks and it has already proved a more successful model to engage the various markets. Your analogy is perfect for this concept. How do engage the person who wants yarn or the business who wants wool through the same channels? Well said.

  • http://www.sacriliciousmarketing.com/ REBlogGirl

    Funny the last commenter said he was probably the only commenter that raised sheep – I on the other hand may be the only one that was an employee of the VC firm that funded Yarn.com in the 90s which failed miserably since grannies weren’t looking to internet for all their yarn needs at that time. Enough about that, though. What I like about this analogy is for a business that serves both B2B (mostly SMB) and B2C, you have to position yourself differently and silo your social accounts content appropriately in order to be able to reach both markets effectively. That is great take away for the multi faceted business. Use the same tool just differently to reach your markets. At Where.com, we have only recently started separating customer support, geographic consumer info/offers/reviews, SMB educational info/offers from our more corporate accounts on various networks and it has already proved a more successful model to engage the various markets. Your analogy is perfect for this concept. How do engage the person who wants yarn or the business who wants wool through the same channels? Well said.

  • http://blog.webconsuls.com/ Judy Helfand

    Hi again,
    I just heard from a friend who is traveling in Kenya: “The next morning we visited the Weavers and Spinners Compound. It is a place where battered or abandoned women and children can go or be taken. They learn the art of weaving and spinning. They do every step of the process of turning sheep’s wool into yarn. They make the different color dyes from plants they grow and weave it into shawls or patterned rugs and wall hangings. They are sold in their gallery/gift shop. The women do this to become self-sufficient.”

    Wool is powerful!
    Judy

  • http://blog.webconsuls.com/ Judy Helfand

    Hi again,
    I just heard from a friend who is traveling in Kenya: “The next morning we visited the Weavers and Spinners Compound. It is a place where battered or abandoned women and children can go or be taken. They learn the art of weaving and spinning. They do every step of the process of turning sheep’s wool into yarn. They make the different color dyes from plants they grow and weave it into shawls or patterned rugs and wall hangings. They are sold in their gallery/gift shop. The women do this to become self-sufficient.”

    Wool is powerful!
    Judy

  • Smillington042

    i have 500 ish rolls assorted worsted wool for carpets are they saleable to you.

  • http://www.blackfridayplanet.com/ William Hushburn

    It’s a yes for me.