Sometimes a person has enormous sales skills but has trouble coming up with or developing products on his own. In these cases, you have the option of becoming a reseller. A reseller is someone who purchases products manufactured by someone else and then sells them for profit. If you want to do this regularly on a large scale, it is good etiquette (and depending on the product, a legal requirement) to ask permission of the company to sell their products.

Write out your contact information, including your phone number and email address.

Write out the contact information for the company.

Specify the date of the letter.

Write "RE: product sales request."

Address the letter to the permissions department representative (Dear _:). Calling ahead to get a specific name is always best, but you also can write "To Whom It May Concern" if you can't get this information for some reason.

Introduce yourself and explain that you are writing to request permission to sell the company's products in the first paragraph.

Briefly indicate your reason for wanting to sell the company's products and the specifics of how you'll sell the items. For example, indicate that you operate your own online website and are looking to expand your catalog, and that sales will operate only through the Internet.

Indicate the experience you have that would lead you to be a good reseller -- even though you're going to garner profit through the sales, companies want good resellers because the way resellers promote products can reflect on the companies that produce those products.

List all of the products for which you are requesting sales permission, including the make, model and any other descriptive information that clearly identifies each product.

Invite the company to negotiate permissions with you and contact you with questions or concerns.

Write "Sincerely" or another formal closing of your choice and sign your name. Under your signature, indicate whether you are enclosing any additional documents (e.g., Enclosures: (1) Biography for John Doe, His Own Business, sole proprietor).

Tip

If there are local, state or federal statutes under which a permission is absolutely required (e.g., you want to sell copyrighted material), indicate the statute in your letter. This tells the company you are familiar with and are willing to comply by necessary regulations.