Workshop Format

The workshop content is directly below. After you’ve read through today’s workshop, I’m here to answer your questions about how to find products to sell, struggles you have when sourcing products, how to expand your product line etc.

So Many Products…. But Nothing to Sell?

Never before in the history of retailing have there been so many products to sell. New products enter the marketplace at a faster rate than ever before.

Innovation is at an all time high.

We live in a nation of niches. People looking for specialty products that reflect their thoughts, interests, feelings, values.

There are a plethora of products available to sell and an abundance of opportunity.

Yet everyday I receive emails from people saying “I can’t find anything to sell online.”

Why, with more products than ever before on the marketplace, do entrepreneurs bursting with potential run into a roadblock when it comes to finding products to sell...

Roadblock #1: Selling What You Love

Sometimes good advice is taken out of context. An old saying goes “Do what you love and the money will follow.” And a lot of people have taken that advice to heart. And they look to sell products that they personally love.

And while there’s nothing inherently wrong with selling what you love, you run into problems if no one else loves it.

When it comes to product sourcing, many people look at what they love and their quest stops there.

I once had a client who collected wooden owl figurines. He LOVED owl figurines and had them everywhere in his house. He decided he was going to sell owls on eBay. He went out and sourced owls that he loved. That he thought were the cutest things he’d ever seen.

He put them up for sale. And they sat. And sat. And didn’t sell. He was depressed to say the least. He thought eBay didn’t “work”. He thought online sales were a dying market.

Both inaccurate statements.

What he DIDN’T realize is that owls were OUT. Done. Yesterday’s news. The owl craze had come and gone. People had moved on to other things. Cows were in. Cows were SO in that everything “cow” was selling. Cow figurines. Cow artwork. Cow clothing. Cow home décor.

But there was a problem. My client hated cows. He thought the cow craze was the silliest thing he’d ever seen. He didn’t want to sell cows.

He wanted to sell owls.

And so that’s what he did.

I’d like to say this story had a happy ending. But the owl craze didn’t come back and he is no longer selling online. Because he ONLY wanted to sell a product that he personally loved.

He wasn’t willing to make owls his HOBBY and cows, or tools, or lamps or bathtubs his BUSINESS.

Don’t let this happen to you!

You can LOVE selling on eBay. But you must sell what the BUYERS love. And when you approach product sourcing with that mindset, an amazing thing happens. You’ll find that there is a whole world of products out there that you didn’t even know existed that you can fall in love with as well.

Roadblock #3: Not Moving Out of Your Head

When I first started consulting with entrepreneurs who wanted to sell products online, the first thing I’d have them do is go through an exercise where every product, every piece of information, every news story, every conversation, every advertisement that they encountered during the day would be put through a mindset. A method mindset I created called The Product Sourcing Mindset™.

The Product Sourcing Mindset™ is a method that teaches you how to look outward and observe what is going on in the world around you. To “live” in the world in which your buyers live in. Read what they are reading. Watch what they are watching. Go where they are going.

Instead of sitting at your desk trying to think up an idea for a product to sell, The Product Sourcing Mindset™ has you looking outward, turning on your “radar” and observing the world around you.

As a result you see things differently. You see opportunities that others miss.

And all of a sudden you find yourself in the enviable position with more ideas for products to sell than time to sell them.

For those of you who have seen me speak about The Product Sourcing Mindset™ at eBay Live or are members of WhatDoISell.com, you know that I’m passionate about this concept. Why? Because I see it transform people’s businesses every day.

There’s nothing more satisfying than watching a budding entrepreneur go from saying “There’s nothing to sell.” to “I have so many ideas, I can’t decide what to sell.”

For everyone reading this workshop, give it a try. Open your mind to every piece of information you come into contact with today and start collecting information and ideas.

But be warned! When people first start using the Product Sourcing Mindset™ they often find that all the new ideas keep them awake at night!

Fortunately, you’ll find a cure for that in the next roadblock we’ll discuss. (And you’ll be able to sleep nights.)


Do you want to learn how to live the Product Sourcing Mindset™? You can learn how to have an unending supply of ideas for products to sell in the Member's Area at Link

Roadblock #5: Banish Your Preferences

Would women buy NASCAR products? Would men buy cosmetics? Does that sound ridiculous to you?

Hold on to your preferences, or even more to the point, your prejudices…. when it comes to finding products to sell on eBay.

A few years ago, I was speaking at a local meeting for eBay sellers on the topic of product sourcing. At the meeting I talked about the up and coming trend of men’s skincare and cosmetics.

I explained why there was a demand for these products, did a professional product line profile presentation, identified the target market, and basically presented a “niche in a box” that night.

There were several people in the audience looking for ideas for products to sell.

When I got through presenting this money making niche, I expected people to be clamoring to get more information.

But instead something very different happened.

They laughed.

And snickered.

And said “I would NEVER sell men’s skincare products. That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Everyone had their prejudices against the idea of selling men’s skincare and cosmetics.

Undaunted by their response, I went continued presenting this hot niche idea and discussed in-depth in our exclusive LIVE Member’s Only Monthly Teleclasses at WhatDoISell.com.

In one of our Member’s Teleclasses a 35 year veteran of the construction industry spoke up. He said that he was developing and manufacturing a hand cream product for construction workers that would come in a black container and could be used on the job site without calling attention to the fact that is was hand cream. He said that for 35 years, he had been “stealing” his wife’s hand cream because his hands were cracked, dry and bleeding all the time.

No one laughed that night.

The next time you find yourself scoffing at a product or trend, I challenge you to stop yourself and look at it from a different perspective.

Remove your judgments about what is valuable to people and start looking at what other’s need and want. That’s what they’re spending their money on and that’s what they’ll buy from you.

The Exclusive Monthly Member's Only Teleclasses at Link are only one of the many advantages of membership. If you're serious about building a business on eBay, visit us at Link and see if we're a match for your needs.

Roadblock #7: You Skip the Test Marketing

The other day I talked to a brand new eBay seller who was lamenting the fact that she didn’t have $10K to go out and get started buying some inventory.

Curious, I asked her what she would buy if she did have the money.

Clothes she answered. Sweaters, skirts, hoodies…

What kind I asked?

She said she knew a guy who was selling a bunch of clothes from a local store that was going out of business and she thought it would be a good way to start her eBay business.

The problem was that she hadn’t done any test marketing of the products or any research on market demand.

And I knew from her description of the clothes that the “great deal” was actually items that had little demand on eBay.

It was a blessing that she didn’t have a large amount of money to spend on inventory because it would have been a devastating loss of start up capital.

When you are sourcing new products, you MUST test market them first. Buy one unit. But it retail. List it on eBay. See how it sells. The purpose is NOT to make a profit but to assess market demand. In real time.

Take a loss on the product if you have to. It’s better to loose $17 on one picture frame that doesn’t sell well than it is to loose $670 on a Lot of 25 frames that were not test marketed first.

All retailers test market.

Nordstrom buys a few products to test market first and then places a re-order. Target orders a sampling of the latest toys and then stocks up en masse’ after they see how they sell.

This is one of THE most important steps in finding products to sell. You never truly know how it will sell until you list it. Then you can move on from there.

Roadblock #9: You’re Afraid to Be Different

In Roadblock #6, I discussed the importance of specialization. Of carving out YOUR niche rather than copying someone else’s.

How many of you find yourself looking at other sellers products with envy and saying “I want to sell THAT.”

It’s human nature to do that – that’s for sure. But to be successful on eBay you can’t follow the heard. You must have the courage to be different and find your own path.

The thing about it is that finding your own path is SO much easier than competing with the dog-eat-dog world of the “me too” sellers.

The sellers who want to compete on price, as Seth Godin talked about in the workshop I referenced in Roadblock #6.

(In fact, pick up Seth’s book called The Dip. He talks about what it takes to make it in a “me too” entrepreneurial world. It’s a great book. Short, fast, easy read, and a very powerful mindset to live by.)

If your competitors are all going “right”, stop for a moment and take a look “left” to see what’ there.

For every trend there is a counter trend. For every person who wants to sell high-tech electronics, there is a successful eBay seller selling low-tech crafts or do-it-yourself kits very successfully.

High-tech is profitable. Low tech is the counter trend and is profitable too. In many cases MORE profitable.

Make it a habit to read about fresh, unexpected business ideas. Start hanging out with places and people who have a unique view on the world. At WhatDoISell.com we call them Idea Hotspots™.

You can find out more about Idea Hotspots™ at Link

Most importantly:

"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson