SALES REP NEWSLETTER

What Buyers Want We recently polled independent booksellers to ask, "What do you appreciate from your sales reps? What would you like to see more often?"  The biggest takeaway? Trust. Buyers rely on a strong relationship with their reps and need your expertise. They appreciate the extra touches you put into your markups! In the spirit of building trust and helping everyone use Edelweiss effectively, check out the video below where we cover the highlights of our buyer survey.

What buyers said: "Markup notes are so important!" "I care about what my rep thinks." "Bonus points if you use bullet points!" "I want to know more than what is populated by the publisher. I want to know what the rep thinks and why they love a book." "Print runs are often the first thing I look at." "I would love for them to make suggestions (returns and orders) based on the data in analytics." "I love rep suggestions for orders. I would really love rep suggestions for returns!" "The most helpful thing sales reps do for me re: catalogs in Edelweiss is telling me which books they (and other reps they work with) personally loved on the list."

Make Your Mark on Your Markups As you can see from some of the quotes above, buyers really care about your opinion! Rather than copying and pasting content from the tittle summary, share what YOU think about the titles you present. Don’t be afraid to put your own spin on it. You don’t have to use all Edelweiss features for all titles. Pick and choose. Be creative!

Prioritize Priorities If you don't yet use Priorities in your markups , it might be time to reconsider! Buyers rely heavily on the ability to sort big catalogs by the priorities you provide. This simple feature speaks volumes and allows for a more efficient workflow.

Don't Forget Print Run In addition to adding personal commentary about titles, Print Run helps buyers know the level of investment a publisher is putting into a title. This information often makes sense at the top of a markup, but it’s also possible to ask your catalog admin to include it with a title’s data feed. Adding author Hometown is also helpful to buyers, and it's a custom feed we can accommodate. Having both already available saves you time when creating your markup!

Maximize Your Comps Some of the strongest feedback from buyers was regarding comps. They prefer comps that connect to their sales history. If you’re presenting a paperback version of a previous hardcover title, the hardcover goes at the top! Next are other titles by same author (ideally from the last few years) . They report that audio and ebooks are not helpful comps. You don’t have to add the same ISBN as a comp because the stores can easily do that themselves:

Add Your Signature You can now add a default message and signature to all your emails that come from Edelweiss+! Just go to your preferences, and select Email . Write your default signature message and click Save .

More Sales Rep Training Have you visited our Sales Rep Training page? Whether you’re new to a sales rep role or just want to revisit certain features, we’re here to help!

As always, don’t hesitate to let us know whenever you have questions at support@abovethetreeline.com . Best, Darcy Piedmonte Publisher Success Manager Edelweiss+ by Above the Treeline