56. My Real Invention Pitch to a Big Box Store! (ROAD TRIP!)

Join me on my exclusive trip to the O'Reilly Auto Parts HQ where I sat down with the Merchandising Category Manager and pitched my invention! (Learn what to do and what to expect when selling your invention in bulk).  Wholesaling your invention comes with many obstacles when dealing with a chain or big box store, learn how to sell your invention right!

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Transcript

0:00

good morning guys and welcome to a really special episode of the Invent with Me podcast If you can't tell we're

0:06

not in our normal setting We're not in the Torquestrap garage This is a Torquestrap truck next to me and I am at

0:12

the Fort Lauderdale airport I am on my way to Springfield Missouri where I have

0:18

a buyer meeting with the special tools and hardware buyer of O'Reilly Auto

0:25

Parts All right so this is really exciting I know this this scenario has played out in my head like a billion

0:31

trillion times I'm sure it has in yours too You have an invention idea and you are sitting in front of a buyer of a

0:39

major big box corporation Uh what types of things are we going to run into what

0:44

types of questions are they going to ask hell what are we going to wear so let's get right into it Uh yeah I know you're thinking do I

0:52

wear a suit and tie to these types of meetings well in my opinion you're the

0:57

owner of the company Uh Stephen is going to be there with me Stephen is kind of going to play more the form formal role

1:04

and frankly he knows a lot more about this meeting than I do I'm playing the

1:09

hey I'm happy to be here as the owner to facilitate this deal So I'm dressing pretty casually I have an ice cream

1:15

t-shirt on some decent slacks and just throw on some new shoes Don't wear ratty

1:20

shoes okay but actually the meeting is tomorrow where I'm gonna wear jeans and a torque strap polo with my nice white

1:28

Nike sneakers Okay pretty straightforward So that's pretty much uh

1:34

that that was a burning question on my on my mind in the in the beginning is what do you what do you wear to these things anyway I digress So we're going

1:42

to hop on an airplane We're going to head to Atlanta where we're going to connect and then we're going to go to Springfield Missouri That's where the

1:48

headquarters is Now with any luck we'll close a big deal today

1:54

We're at the very minimum we're going to learn something right and we're going to

1:59

do that together And I can't wait to share that information with you If all goes well perhaps tomorrow night Stephen

2:07

and I will sit down for a special interview to kind of wrap up the podcast and go over how it went But I'm going to

2:13

do my best to kind of document this journey let you know what happens along the way obviously do it in stealth mode

2:20

We don't want to scare anybody off Um who knows maybe I'll get a cool interview with somebody at a high level

2:27

at O'Reilly I don't know But let's find out So guys we're going to negotiate a

2:33

deal O'Reilly has already seen the product They've seen our Amazon presence They've seen our social media presence

2:41

They know that the product is proven but they just want a face-to-face meeting A lot of this is going to come down to

2:47

price shipping times terms pretty straightforward stuff But

2:53

at the end of the day what do they want to know they want to know that when they put my product on the shelf it's going

2:58

to move with no friction Okay so I I

3:04

don't What does that mean i don't know Okay we're going to find out We're going to see what barriers there are to

3:10

entry Listen I've rambled enough Let's close out this part Let's head to Atlanta I'll see you guys soon Good

3:18

morning inventors and how are you look just a quick note before the show Season two of the Invent with Me podcast is

3:24

brought to you by the Invent with Me Patreon Odds are you've been listening

3:29

to the show for a while now and you need more information I don't typically agree with a payw wall unless it's a situation

3:37

in which there's not enough time in the show or there's just more tender love

3:42

and care needed to get you to the successful point with your invention where you want to be The sign up process

3:49

is incredibly straightforward Just go into the show notes click on the link for the Patreon and sign up via their

3:55

safe payment platform $6 a month connects you to the Discord which is

4:00

stacked with current inventors as well as other professionals and myself And together all of us are going to make

4:07

sure that your dream becomes a reality All right guys Remember I took the punches so you don't have to And enjoy

4:14

this episode brought to you by the Patreon Thanks All right guys So we're

4:19

back at the hotel I apologize This is the only place I could get decent lighting in this hotel room but here we

4:26

go So today was pretty exciting Today was kind of the preamble or the precursor to the big meeting tomorrow So

4:35

I arrived at the airport in Springfield Steven picked me up in the rental car that he picked up which is actually a

4:41

pickup truck that we're going to use for a demo tomorrow We went to the office of nation

4:48

sales Okay So now listen this is important because I never quite understood the importance of a sales rep

4:55

until today Nation Sales is a sales rep

5:01

slashdistributor Uh mostly a sales rep And what they do is they vet inventors

5:08

like us before we're allowed to talk to big box stores right in this case the that that

5:16

store being O'Reilly Auto Parts So we we meet with them in their conference room

5:22

and they have a display built They called it something specific I can't quite remember but they've replicated

5:28

the shelf at O'Reilly Auto Parts with its current inventory the way

5:34

everything's set up uh the the height at which it's set up right and they blend our product into it to give a visual

5:41

appeal of what that might look like This was really cool to see This was really important to see

5:48

And basically they gave me the rundown of what it's going to be like tomorrow when I meet Mike Okay Mike is the buyer

5:57

the merchandiser whatever you want to call him for that particular category at

6:03

O'Reilly Auto Parts So I asked the guys I said "I need to understand how much of

6:09

this pitch is about how cool the product is how much of this pitch is about

6:15

logistics and shipping getting the product to their warehouses and how much of this pitch is about our marketing

6:23

efforts and assuring them that when they put our product on the shelf it's going to move." And the answer I got was yes

6:32

All three are very important So let's start with logistics because that's the most boring part and that's

6:39

the part that they brought up first A buyer doesn't really care too

6:45

much about how cool the product is What they really want to know is how much inventory do you have and specifically

6:51

how much inventory do you have in the USA how quickly can you get it to us

6:57

when we put in an order now for us the answer was well if you're ordering a

7:02

couple thousand we'll get it to you within a week because we have that in in the warehouse If you're ordering 10,000

7:09

or more well the lead time on that is going to be like 90 days because that's a full-fledged manufacturing

7:17

process They said "Okay well don't worry about that too much right now They don't have an order placed Uh they don't

7:23

intend to place an order that we know of So let's just stick with we have

7:29

plenty of inventory and we can always get more Okay cool And then they want to

7:34

know can we integrate with their inventory systems okay They have electronic inventory systems that we

7:40

need to be able to integrate with with our own software and synchronize and

7:46

make things work so that their distri distribution centers understand when we

7:52

have product coming when it's going to arrive so that they can prep for it and they can receive it Right so it's a very

7:58

intricate uh inventory system that they have set up

8:03

It's pretty much going to take someone on your team part-time ready

8:09

to handle all the information the tracking the shipping of these different

8:16

orders going to different uh warehouses So we talked about that and

8:22

what that might look like and Stephen had a pretty good handle on the the the electronic system for inventory

8:31

So is it something we're experts in right now no But we know enough to be dangerous and we know enough to have this conversation I hope Okay So that

8:39

was inventory And then we we talked about marketing right they want to know

8:46

that when your products get on their shelves they're going to move Okay so

8:53

what I was basing my pitch off my practice pitch today off

8:58

was their current straps And their current straps don't really have any marketing other than the foot traffic

9:04

that they bring in They also had one of our competitors straps on this particular

9:09

shelf And I kind of explained how our social media blows their social media out of the water because well we're

9:16

actually doing it and uh explain our meta ads our Instagram ads our presence

9:22

our conversion rate And then I explained the human element of how we sell straps and how in reality if we were selling

9:30

straps in brick and mortar the conversion rate would be much much higher because people vastly buy straps

9:37

in person much more than they do online Yet still were able to make 1,500 orders

9:43

a month uh do do six figures every month in sales off of products that typically

9:51

don't move quite well online So imagine the conversion rate

9:57

and how well these are going to move in store Okay so that was the marketing

10:02

speech And then the third question I had was how much story

10:07

goes into this guys because I'm a storyteller right how much should I focus on why the

10:15

product was invented and my struggles with straps in my life things of this

10:21

nature And they said "Honestly Mike is a really downto- earthth guy and he's

10:28

going to enjoy you personalizing these stories." So have at it man Tell tell

10:34

him why you invented it Tell him the stories of the injuries or the lost loads

10:41

uh tell him your driving factor what you did but before this and segue that into

10:47

where the product is now and that's going to show your drive and your passion for your

10:52

product I said okay cool can do So basically tomorrow what we're going to do is a

10:59

threepronged approach or attack if you will at 10:30 in the morning when Mike

11:05

shows up at the nation sales office So Mike works for O'Reilly He's going to buzz over to the nation sales office

11:11

He's going to meet us Right Okay So the three-pronged approach is one we're going to demo the product We rented a

11:17

pickup truck We got a cooler We're going to do the cooler drop test Fasten down

11:22

Look how easy Look how fun that was in the bed of the truck Bada bing bada boom Done it a billion times Kind of a

11:28

snoozefest to me but I can understand how someone who doesn't touch the product regularly might enjoy that

11:36

Next we're going to go inside and I'm going to tell the story of the bungee

11:41

through my dad's hand why I invented it and why I started the business and then

11:50

I'm going to let Steven speak to where the business is at now So he kind of gives it clout like hey this wasn't just

11:55

a pipe dream Look at the millions of dollars of sales we've done of this product

12:01

Look at the growth we've shown year over year proving that this is a product that

12:07

h can scale has growth potential and moves quite well And then at the end of Steven's

12:14

PowerPoint presentation he's going to touch on our social media and our marketing And that's where I'm going to

12:19

bring it back to real life away from the PowerPoint and bring it to a real

12:25

conversation where I talk about our social connection our marketing and how we make sure we get feet in the store

12:33

buying our product therefore buying more O'Reilly products Cuz that's what this

12:39

is all about They want a unique product because unique products bring in fresh

12:45

eyes and fresh audiences into their stores That's why inventors have such a

12:51

leg up on the other competition We went to dinner with these sale with the nation sales guys right after this

12:59

practice meeting And the most interesting takeaway I got at that dinner was they have big box stores call them

13:07

up as a sales rep all the time and say "Find us something unique Find us

13:14

something different Find us something outside the box." Now the challenge that these salespeople

13:20

are faced with is not only do they have to find something different They have to find a product that's currently selling

13:27

and proven but they also have to make sure it's not selling too much and it doesn't already have exclusive

13:33

distribution or representation with a Home Depot or Lowe's something like that right so they're hitting a moving target

13:40

that has so many variables to make it a perfect opportunity I like to think that my product is in

13:46

that perfect opportunity space where we've pushed e-commerce for 3 years We

13:53

haven't tapped it out but we've definitely capitalized on it to say the

13:59

least We're not yet in a retailer big box store just a couple

14:05

independents And we've proven that the product moves at whatever price point we

14:11

market at So that was a huge takeaway that these big box stores or the yes big box stores

14:18

are looking for unique inventions But usually what they get is they get a

14:25

current brand like a ratchet strap coming to them and changing one little

14:30

thing you know adding a quick feed option or some some

14:36

little some little innovation that really doesn't shake things up but they

14:41

got to say "Hey we have a new feature on this aisle." Right so everybody's kind of happy but in reality are the

14:47

customers super excited heck no Now the other big takeaway I got from the nation

14:52

sales guys was this They said that they are in a really

15:01

good position to talk to O'Reilly Lowe's Farm King Farm and Flee any of these big

15:06

box stores because they offer a vetting process He said "You won't believe the

15:13

number of calls that these big box stores get from different brands like

15:18

us." And you guys know it was the first thought on your mind Admit it When you invented something you said "I'm going

15:24

to call up Bed Bath and Beyond and tell them about my invention and make a little cell sheet and yada yada yada."

15:30

Stupid Just it's just just they they are inundated You can't imagine how many

15:36

people are calling them emailing them w with drawings and ideas and and and

15:42

pitch decks and and one sheets Listen a one sheet is for when you're ready to hand them a pen and fulfill an order not

15:50

when you have an idea Okay so he said "The reason it's so important to have a

15:56

rep like us is because we vet and we take we we make sure that the big box stores take you very seriously." And

16:03

that's why I'm all the way here in Springfield Missouri today Okay From from Miami to Springfield 4-hour

16:10

flights I'm here Mike is meeting us We are all getting together We're spending money on dinners We're doing the big boy

16:18

work because we're working with a sales rep Now I don't uh promote them advocate

16:26

for them in any way This is my first foray into all this stuff I'm an e-commerce guy through and through but

16:32

I'm seeing the value and it's quite interesting I can tell you that these

16:37

deals uh it's never a holy grail situation Uh we've been warned that

16:43

O'Reilly is going to want to make a lot of profit on our product Okay surprise

16:49

surprise They want to buy it for nothing and sell it for lots of money Uh but I

16:54

have also learned that you know we can wiggle our way out of that and work down the margin so that we're making good

17:00

money and they're making good money not just the other way around

17:06

And again I learned that it's mostly going to come down to logistics Can you

17:14

integrate with our shipping systems can you deliver on time can you fulfill the

17:19

orders that we project on and if you have one slip up one bugaboo that might be it They might not

17:27

work with you again So you got to be ready All right So if you can't tell I'm

17:33

laying in bed I'm going to hit the hay We have a big day ahead of us But tomorrow at 10:30 is the meeting After

17:40

that I'll be heading to the airport where I'm going to close this out and let you guys know exactly how it went I

17:47

don't expect to have any concrete answers but I do expect to learn more I'll see you guys in a little

17:54

bit Well here we are

17:59

a man in his microphone after a meeting with the merchandising

18:05

manager of tools and hardware at O'Reilly Auto

18:11

Parts Let's see The last time I talked to you guys I was sitting in my hotel

18:16

room young full of full of piss and vinegar ready to go into that meeting

18:22

And here I stand before you a man at Springfield airport in Springfield

18:28

Missouri looking out at a pasture full of cows four beers

18:35

deep Ready to tell you

18:41

that honestly that meeting went about how I expected

18:48

However I can't explain the feeling I had towards the end of

18:55

it So we had prepped for this meeting with Nation SE sales and what they told

19:01

us was Mike is a really straightforward guy You're going to have a really honest

19:07

one-on-one truthful interaction with the guy He's going to come in in a polo

19:12

jeans and and jeans and sneakers and he's just going to say "Okay what do you got?" Well Mike came in in a polo jeans

19:20

and sneakers He sat down and he said "Okay what do you got?" And for some

19:26

reason it still just all kind of threw me off how straightforward it

19:32

was So I'm sitting just to the left of Mike We're at a big conference table Mike's at the head I'm to his left

19:38

Steven's to my left Right Nation sales is across on the other

19:43

side And Mike says 'Well let's start with some introductions And I said you know I

19:50

introduced myself told a little bit about the story of Torquestrap going back to the days

19:56

when a bungee cord went through dad's hand Gave him that whole spiel That's always a

20:01

winner Told him that I searched for something better but didn't find it so I decided to make it myself And Stephen

20:08

will apprise you of where we're at now four years later Stephen introduces

20:14

himself He goes through his spiel chief revenue officer and Stephven starts to

20:19

talk about the sales and the reach kind of backing all the stuff that I was just talking about as far as how cool the

20:25

product is After that we I I said "Hey you know

20:30

before we get too deep into the numbers should we go outside so you can see this product and really see how it

20:36

works?" And Mike says "It's your hour." So I said "All right let's let's grab

20:42

the M500s right there off the table Let's just grab those and go out Let's do a demo." So we go to the bed of the

20:48

pickup truck There's a red cooler there for waiting for us Little piece of wood

20:54

And I give Mike the spiel on how the product works Better faster simpler

20:59

safer bigger hooks thicker But here's the real magic Spring-loaded cargo strap

21:04

that always stays tight So easy to use You just pull Watch how much tension I generate Wab bam Pull the stick out from

21:11

underneath the cooler Shaboom Still still tight Still secure Yeah Cool Cool

21:19

You know Mike doesn't give us much to go off of He doesn't give much of a

21:26

reaction So we go back inside and Mike just starts talking about all the

21:31

barriers to entry that we are going to face with O'Reilly Auto Parts and he

21:38

started talking corporate which I don't speak lots of look there's lots of

21:46

cautionary tales about what could happen how he likes to do deals that are very mutual very 50/50 everybody wins however

21:55

just know that if your product doesn't sell you have to buy it back just know that whatever product you displace on

22:02

our shelves you have to do what's called lifting which is where you torque strap

22:07

up incurs the cost for the competitor that we bump out and the process for

22:13

that is finding a liquidator who will buy the product on at pennies on a the

22:18

dollar and and Torquestrap covers the difference right he talked to us about

22:23

how we have to be ready to recoup the cost of warranty claims which could be a

22:29

certain percent of the entire order [Music]

22:34

so he's going through all this stuff and it's just sounding getting more and more daunting And then eventually what he

22:40

said was "I don't think it's going to happen this year Our product review is too

22:47

close Maybe next time Maybe July will recircle but is anything going to happen within the next 12 months?" I don't

22:55

think so Now that's not to say the wheels couldn't turn fast in

23:00

2026 but as far as right now the timing is just not

23:07

right And you know maybe I've been watching too many movies too much uh too

23:13

too many stories of entrepreneurs who hammer their way into the seemingly

23:19

impossible deal But as soon as he started to turn the tide and show that

23:24

it might not be happening I felt immediate guilt immediate shame immediate panic that I should do more in

23:31

this moment And I was digging deep inside myself because I had given my marketing speech all of our followers on

23:38

social media all the people that we can reach in a short amount of time and drive foot traffic in I said "Listen I

23:45

at one point I said to Mike I said "You're worried about us bringing feet into your store and making sure this

23:52

product sells." I said "Mike I could bore you with the numbers on our social media all day long but at the end of the

23:57

day the only number you need to know is six figures a month." I said "Mike when

24:03

was a" I said "I don't know about you but before I started Torque Strap I

24:09

never bought cargo straps online." And he kind of nodded Yeah Yeah I said "No

24:14

one buys cargo straps online." I said "And despite all these barriers to

24:20

entry the fact that I have to convince a person to go on my website that they haven't heard of enter 16 numbers off of

24:27

their credit card and their shipping address and hope that they're going to get a product in three days despite that

24:35

mountain in front of a purchase I'm still able to close six figures in sales

24:41

every single month I said "Imagine the power of the conversion in O'Reilly Auto

24:48

Parts." I said "This has been the missing link to the puzzle." And I left

24:54

it at that That's kind of a short version but I thought that was really compelling because the the main thing on

25:01

their mind is if I put this on the shelf is it going to move he didn't really have much to say

25:08

about that Maybe it impacted him Maybe not After the meeting we debriefed me and

25:15

Stephen the nation sales guys They had a lot of great things to say about my demo Dude the product worked great It was it

25:21

just flawless It couldn't have gone better But no one really said anything about my marketing speech So I got a

25:27

little bit bummed out about that Maybe it wasn't as good And I should have asked but I was scared to hear what I

25:32

didn't want to hear which is maybe I didn't maybe I didn't hit the mark Maybe

25:37

I didn't close the deal

25:43

So listen guys the the the message I want to give you about this interaction was Mike the buyer at O'Reilly has gone

25:52

through this exact same meeting 600 times He's juggling

25:58

200 suppliers vendors whatever you want to call them brands like me Torquestrap at any given time If one rubs him the

26:07

wrong way he's got another one to take their spot If you ever notice something interesting if you go into O'Reilly even

26:13

though they have all the tire repair stuff you would ever need from Slime you'll still see Fix a Flat in

26:20

that same area Why so he can pit one against the other Don't play games with

26:27

me Slime I know you think you're top dog because you own 75% of the space but Fix

26:32

a Flat is here and they're ready to walk all over you if need be If any unknown persons

26:39

this game of shelf space is cutthroat This game of shelf space is unforgiving

26:44

This game of shelf space is so much more scientific and mathematical than any of

26:50

us ever could have fathomemed myself Certainly I should only speak

26:56

for So I want to basically leave you guys with this This was I I want to

27:03

leave it positive because I had too high of expectations uh too high too put too much pressure on

27:09

myself but at the end of the day this was the first introduction in a long

27:16

process No corporation moves fast Certainly not O'Reilly Auto Parts

27:23

Certainly not Mike Awesome guy But he knows the faster I move and the more risk I take the more things I take

27:28

responsibility for and the more that the executive branch is going to kick my ass Slow and steady wins the race

27:36

Consistency is key showing good numbers and taking very little

27:43

risk Your product has to display those attributes Low risk high reward for

27:50

everybody and a frictionless fulfillment system

27:55

All right So my plan moving forward because

28:01

marketing was on was a big topic And after the meeting I talked to the nation sales guy says "Hey," I said "I don't

28:08

think Mike really understood what I can do for them from a marketing standpoint." So I said "What do you guys think if I just start marketing just

28:16

make viral videos on social media about shopping at O'Reilly

28:21

uh different things like that i don't I I don't have it all clear but I know that if I sit down and think about it

28:27

for a couple hours I could come up with some viral content that incorporates O'Reilly Maybe it incorporates Torstrap

28:33

maybe not I don't care And then we can just send that video to them and say "Hey this is what we're talking about

28:41

Sure we have 200,000 followers across the four platforms total but videos like

28:47

this can reach millions of people And if Torquestrap is a partner with you this

28:53

is something that comes along with it for free We are bringing feet into your stores for free Think about the impact

29:00

of that So that's something I got to work on in the next coming days Overall a good experience Learned a

29:09

lot I think it's going to take a lot of hours maybe a whole week to consume what really just happened Please be here

29:16

Jessica Kramer and Jonathan Rose Come on Jessica and Jonathan get your

29:22

butts in gear But once I digest everything that went down and once I have a game plan

29:29

I'm going to be much better equipped to help you guys when you inevitably

29:35

inevitably four beers deep when you inevitably run into this situation and

29:42

run into the scenario of dealing with a buyer at a major corporation All right I don't know how

29:48

I'm going to wrap this episode It's been a short one Maybe we'll continue on I'm I'm going to close out this

29:56

episode in the studio with clarity after I've been able to sleep on this So stay

30:02

tuned We'll see you guys for part four

30:08

All right part four of the O'Reilly Buyers meeting You remember in what was the

30:15

movie uh Cable Guy when Jim Carrey left all those voicemails

30:20

uh and they got really creepy and then the next day he says "Sorry about

30:26

yesterday by the way I was in a weird mood." I kind of feel like that about

30:32

how I left things at the airport Right So the last thing you guys heard was me tipsy at the airport talking about what

30:37

went down Well in reality what went down was a really positive first meeting with O'Reilly And I think I mentioned that

30:43

but what I want to drive home is after we had some clarity after we had some uh

30:49

phone calls with Nation Sales it turns out that you know it it was a successful

30:55

meeting and they were really they're really anticipating seeing our numbers So we've put together our prices and

31:03

what we've tried to structure the deal is to where we can make about a

31:08

60 62% profit margin gross profit margin on the transaction right so if my cost is

31:16

$5 I sell it to them for $15 whatever the case is And then uh um O'Reilly when

31:25

they buy it they want to make a 60% margin So I if you have a cheap item that's worth 10 bucks they want to buy

31:31

it for $4 and they want to sell it for $10 right that's their 60% margin they're trying to make Now Mike kind of

31:39

admitted to us that well he told us straight up that in the past O'Reilly said don't even bring us a deal unless

31:46

it has a 60% margin We don't want to see it Not going to happen He said now

31:51

they're getting a little bit more lax about that because now they're realizing that margin isn't quite as important as

31:58

good partners right key word there being partner Someone that is easy and

32:04

friendly to work with seamless has inventory has good marketing is a good

32:09

company based here in the US So we're putting together pricing

32:14

We're offering them pricing that gives them about a 50% margin because hey more

32:19

for me is better and you'd be so when you look at this deal let's say they buy $400,000 worth of torque straps I

32:27

factored in there that I'm going to have to pay 15% in commissions right that's Stephen and that's nation

32:32

sales their combined commission uh of that

32:38

$400,000 we are going to have to factor it with the bank which means we go to the bank which O'Reilly has five and we

32:45

say "Here's a PO for $400,000 I want you bank to give me the

32:52

$400,000 and and the faith is this PO because we're working with O'Reilly The

32:57

bank says "Sure Uh we're just going to charge you 7% fees on that money." Okay

33:03

So we're subtracting another 7% from the $400,000 deal with

33:09

O'Reilly And then we're figuring about 1% uh for returns in warranty claims So

33:15

that could be as much as uh I don't know what the math is on that 40 40 or 400 returns claims Um big chunk

33:25

of change you know maybe five grand 10 grand I don't know And then I I do know

33:30

I just don't know right now And then uh the big one the big um

33:37

uh uh uh what's it called gosh I'm not even drunk today The big variable that

33:43

we can't nail down is the potential lift Right i talked about that earlier A lift is if I go in and I knock off Husky

33:50

straps off the shelf O'Reilly says to me "What am I going to do with all these husky straps that you just displaced?"

33:56

It's your responsibility to cover 90% of the cost of liquidating those So that

34:01

means I can either fork over a bunch of money and buy them myself stick them in

34:07

the warehouse and try to sell them myself I could hire a liquidating company who I guess would buy them for

34:13

pennies on the dollar Uh but that's not going to cover what O'Reilly wants to

34:18

get out of them or O'Reilly wants their cost out of them And I talked to my mentor Craig He said "Look all this is

34:26

negotiable right i mean they they listed the high end of the deal They listed the you getting screwed version of the deal

34:32

but all this is negotiable if things align." Okay so with all those fees the commissions the bank factoring the

34:39

potential lift which I calculated worst case scenario at $60,000 that would leave Torquestrap

34:46

with about $122,000 at the end of the deal That would be a net profit margin of like 30%

34:54

Okay Um 30% net Okay So after all the fees is that a great profit mar a net

35:01

profit margin typically actually it's not bad When you look at my net profit margin on Amazon right after ad cost uh

35:10

total advertise advertising cost of sale tacos a cost all that jazz and platform

35:15

fees our net profit margin is generally between 30 and 40% On a great month I

35:23

might hit like 42% That's rare Uh so uh 30% profit margin on a deal

35:31

with O'Reilly of that size is good because it happens boom almost instantly

35:36

you have $122,000 of profit in the business account Uh I don't need to explain money

35:42

to you guys Profit is a good thing So it and that's just the first deal Now

35:48

imagine it goes swimmingly because my marketing is great and people buy torque straps from O'Reilly like crazy The next

35:56

order there is no lift That was a one-time fee Bumping Husky off the shelves that's done for So that's going

36:03

to save me a huge chunk of change on the next deal So instead of $120,000 in profit it could be more like $180,000 in

36:10

profit And if in fact I move product well the next order will be

36:16

significantly more It doesn't quite work like that It's not like hey first we're going to do a $400,000 order then in six

36:22

months we do a million dollar order They're going to kind of stagger it and trickle it because some regions are

36:28

going to sell more than the others right it's going to kind of vary But the ongoing orders could be monthly or

36:34

quarterly and they could start to get really lucrative Maybe O'Reilly would say "Hey instead of putting two units in

36:40

every store we want to put four units in every store." Boom You just doubled your profit You doubled your order value You

36:47

doubled your income And on and on it goes So uh I I'm very excited I am

36:54

nervous about all these fees though I It's one thing to say "Yeah there's going to be $120,000 profit." But you

37:00

got to remember in the time it takes to get the deal done uh you're you're you're kind of losing money right you're

37:06

you're paying employees you're paying insuranceances you're paying softwares you're operating a business so it's not

37:11

like woohoo 120 profit No eventually you're you are burning money right now

37:17

There's other fees that are harder to nail down and harder to quantify Um so I

37:22

am nervous about the 30% profit margin I would like more So we kind of lowballed

37:27

them on the price and they're probably going to kick it back If they're really

37:32

offended they may not even respond and we shot ourselves in the foot But hey that's what leverage is all about right

37:41

at the end of the day I have my online store I have e-commerce And there's

37:48

other big box stores out there even regional ones Farm and Fleet Farm King

37:54

Big R stores Tractor Supply Co many less stores but maybe they don't harp on you

38:00

about profit margins Maybe they're good with having a 40% growth gross profit margin They buy it for six and they sell

38:07

it for 10 and they're they're a happy camper Okay So I'm not going to sell the farm over or or to to one entity I'm not

38:16

going to be beholden to anybody I have leverage And that's why e-commerce is so important All you people thinking I'm

38:22

just going to retail retail retail Well you have no leverage And if they offer you $3 and a purple Twinkie you have to

38:29

take that deal So here's the funnest part I'm I'm This episode's going kind of longer than we anticipated but when I

38:37

got back to the office like I predicted at the airport I did think of a way to incorporate O'Reilly into two uh short

38:45

form videos Okay two short form videos And then I after those

38:50

videos I shot them I edited them and I posted them on YouTube but unlisted You

38:56

can't see them on YouTube but I'm going to show you exclusively here on the Invent with Me podcast right here on

39:02

this episode right now I'm going to let you see and listen to those two shorts that I shot And I edited in O'Reilly

39:09

These are old videos You know I wasn't going to waste my entire day on these videos So I just got crafty with editing

39:16

And to them they're two brand new unique videos So anyway take a take a watch have a listen to these short form videos

39:23

and then I'll uh I'll tell you the plan for them So here they are You won't believe where I found these Every

39:29

weekend I load my bikes and the strapping takes the longest time I went to O'Reilly and found these things It's essentially a hybrid of all straps but

39:35

this part shocked me There's actually a steel spring inside that gets mega tight From what I can tell this means two

39:41

things No more ratcheting and no more adjusting I won't be using these straps anymore and I would love to hear if you

39:46

guys have them in store near you But I went ahead and started using these on everything I haul In fact I went back in

39:52

April to claim my birthday reward and pick up another set New products and awesome tips This is why I go to

39:58

O'Reilly every week Check this out Javier turned me on to torque straps for my cargo but the strap was a bit too

40:05

long for my application That's when he took me outside and showed me this hack you're about to see Real talk is there

40:10

any other store you get serviced like that i honestly thought that to get high-end products and honest reviews I

40:16

would have to deep search the web But O'Reilly's product line is on point and in stock You can't beat that And check

40:22

out this hack No more worrying about my cargo straps flopping in the wind Let's

40:27

go Okay simple stuff right i mean they're fast-paced They're catchy But for me it was uh it was it

40:35

was four hours of my day and a trip to O'Reilly to get some B-roll and some footage Funny story when I was filming

40:42

in O'Reilly Listen big lesson or uh big tip here Anytime you're going to film at

40:49

a location a store a park a dealership I don't care Just film Do not ask for

40:56

permission They will eventually come to you and they'll be friendly Hey man what are you up to and then you'll tell them and nine times out of 10 they'll be like

41:03

"Well we're not really supposed to let anybody film here Uh you I would have to radio." It's over Once they radio the

41:11

the security guard who's from Nigeria and he can't lose his job he is not

41:17

going to let you film in that location Okay he'll be nice but he just I can't do it I can't do it I can't do it So

41:24

just get the shots You don't need much You saw from my videos I took a shot of

41:29

the front of the store I took a shot of the aisle I took a shot of me sliding the product in front of the cash

41:34

register with the guy in the background That was all illegal footage But once you got it you got it Okay And sure

41:40

enough he told me "We just got an email from corporate We are not allowed to let people take pictures or video in the

41:46

store." Which is the most asinine thing I've ever heard in the digital uh social

41:51

media era You're banning social media influencers from from shooting videos in

41:56

your store That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard But hey I'm not surprised So uh yeah get the shot All

42:03

right Um now after I shot those videos I shot a like a Loom style video just like

42:09

I'm talking to you guys right now I'm at the computer and I ran through our social media I ran through their social

42:15

media I ran through the plan to run ads and to direct people with viral videos

42:23

to their store And look it came out pretty pretty nifty I can't share that one with you because it I think it

42:29

reveals too many a little bit too much detail It's a little bit too intimate Uh

42:34

not on my end on their end If they ever found out that I sent that video to to

42:40

made that video public when they were under the impression it was private that might be a little bit of a bugaboo So

42:47

all in all good things Uh if you want to find out whatever happened with this deal hop on the Patreon subscribe You

42:53

can get connected on the Discord Uh six bucks a month you get instantly connected to the Discord We're all there

42:59

and you can talk to me personally and and we'll talk about how the deal ended up All right guys That's it for this

43:06

episode What an exciting time What an interesting journey And I hope I capitalized on all your questions about

43:13

a buyer meeting If not please leave a comment on YouTube And I'll see you guys on the next one

43:24

There There