Silverstone Dealers Program

[Steve at Silverstone Fabrics]

Hello Fellow Upholstery Shop Owners,

Many of you will recognize me and my company from my years of posting on this site (as an upholstery shop owner of over 35 years and as an advertiser here on Ken's site).

I typically do not like self serving posts unless the post speaks to the betterment of my profession and/or my business.

I understand first hand  how difficult it is to make money within our industry, especially in the current state of the economy. It was with this background and understanding,  I looked at my fabric site (Silverstone Fabrics) and decided there must be a better way to market my inventory.

Silverstone Fabrics is part of an Internet based group of companies that market upholstery fabrics in what I call "the secondary fabric market". Other members of this group include: New Toto, Fabric Guru, Winter Beach Modern, Modern Fabrics.....etc. We all acquire our fabrics in similar ways (ie: we purchase large left over inventories from major furniture manufacturers). 

After 2 years in the planning, we are proud to introduce our Silverstone Dealers  program.

In a nut shell, you and your company can make money from our inventory, all while saving your customers up to 50% off the true wholesale of 1st quality fabric.

You may look at our dealer program at: http://www.silverstonedealers.com/

We are not the answer to all of your fabric needs, but we can make a smart  business person some money.

[MinUph]

Hello Steve,
  Are there samples available or is this just online images? Explain more on the program please. How do we order, get our share, sell the product etc. I filled out your form and wonder about the information.
  Thank you.

[Steve at Silverstone Fabrics]

Paul, Congratulations--you were our very first dealer to sign up.

Later last night, we had several other sign ups, including one from Canada.

Here is how our program works:

Sign UP.........it is free.  You've already taken this first step.

We will send you a "Welcome" letter. In the letter, you will receive a private dealer code. This code will allow you a 50% discount on either of our two web sites (www.silverstonefabrics.com and www.silverstonecontractfabrics.com ). Also included in the "Welcome" letter will be a 10% off code that you can share with your customers.

How the program works:

A DEALER sees a fabric in one of our sites that they wish to purchase. You use your DEALER code at the point of payment and we will give you a 50% discount from the listed price.........keep in mind that most of our fabrics are listed at 50% off true wholesale, so when you divide that by half, you are paying 25% of true wholesale.

A CLIENT is referred to our site by a dealer. The dealer gives them a "CUSTOMER code" that allows for a 10% off discount at the time of purchase. If the customer makes a purchase and enters that code, the dealer who shared the code and our website will be rewarded with 50% of the customer's purchase price.

For Example: A customer goes to silverstonecontractfabrics.com and purchases 20 yards of Ultrafabrics Brisa Truffle at $36/yd. When they get to the check out, their total will be  $720. They enter the 10% discount code. The amount due is lowered to $648.00. At the end of the month, we will send the DEALER a check for $324.00

Since our fabrics come to us in limited yardage and our inventory is constantly turning over, we can not send out sets of samples. Upon request, we do send out individual samples.

Benefits to our Dealers
--You can access our 100,000 yards of fabric and hundreds of leather hides
--You can call and talk to a fellow upholsterer (I have been an upholsterer for over 35 years) about fabrics or leather
--You can ask us if we can find fabrics for an upcoming project
--You can ask if we can find an upholstery-related resource for you. We are based in Hickory, NC and High Point, NC is only an hour away.
--You will receive a monthly newsletter. Find tips and ideas of how to make or save money with fabric from Silverstone.
--Receive money back from the sale of fabric from an Internet-based fabric company.
--Free samples are mailed to your customers

Benefits to your customers
-- They can purchase 1st quality fabric for less than 50% off true wholesale
--They can call and speak to an upholsterer (35 years in the business) about a fabric or leather.
--They will receive free samples.


We are looking to grow our company and to offer re-orderable fabrics, leathers and frames.

We realize that there is no one perfect supply house and that we have our limitations, but keep an eye on us. We are going to continue to grow through innovative ideas and hard work.

Our program is free. What do you have to lose? Nothing.  What do you have to gain?..................money and knowledge.

Paul, your welcome letter will arrive to you this afternoon. Steve

[sofadoc]

I've just signed up.

My one fear is.......In the past when I've referred a customer to a website, they start poking around other websites on their own, and pretty soon they've bought some $9.99 yd. crap.

[Steve at Silverstone Fabrics]

SD, You need to educate your clients about fabrics and fabric companies.

As a 2nd generation upholsterer, I pass on a lot of fabric that I know will sell but I don't market fabric that I wouldn't want to work.

If a client doesn't  find something from our sites and they buy from another source, at least you "had a dog in the fight".

If a client makes a purchase from our site because of your referral, we share the money  with you. No other Internet company will do that.

Learn to market our sites. Keep up with our monthly newsletter. Pay attention to our inventories.......ie: our inventory is your inventory. We will feature strategies on how to market our goods within our newsletter.

As I have already stated, we are not the answer for every question. We are a new resource for an upholstery company to make money with.

Some days the right resource  might be Greenhouse, the next day it might be Barrow...........etc.  Next Monday, the right resource might be Silverstone. Steve

[Steve at Silverstone Fabrics]

Wow! Thank you for all of the emails and sign ups.

We are excited about the possibilities that our company can evolve into.

Things on the horizon:
-- Re-orderable fabrics and leathers
--Re-orderable supplies
--KD and assembled frames

Sign up now and enjoy the ride.

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July weekend. Steve

[sofadoc]

Steve:
It was nice to speak with you on the phone the other day.

I'm getting ready to have your link added to my website, and was thinking (yeah, scary I know).

As I was telling you, many of my customers have already purchased their material before they ever darken my door.

So if I add your link to my website, should I go ahead and include the discount code for all the world to see? Or would you prefer that I only give it privately to customers?

In order for me to "Have a dog in the fight", I need to get the code to them even before I ever meet them for the first time.

[Steve at Silverstone Fabrics]

Hi sofadoc,

Thank you very much for adding our websites to your site!  Publishing your client referral code on your website is fine with us. 

Once again, thank you!

Steve's wife/partner, Diane