If you have ever hung up a supplier call out of pure nerves, this video was made for you: Anton walks through the worst-case scenario where you botch 15 out of 20 supplier conversations and shows why even five approved brands is enough to start, grow, and eventually win over the brands that said no.
The Facebook Comment That Sparked This Video
What's up everybody? Anton here from Drop Ship Lifestyle, as you probably know by now. But I wanted to get you a quick video today because I just saw a comment on our Facebook page from a guy saying he was thinking about becoming part of Drop Ship Lifestyle, but he heard it's tricky to get authorized to sell for the type of brands that we want with our specific method of drop shipping.
I obviously responded to him. But I did also want to record this because typically if somebody is thinking something, it means many people are. My method or my style of teaching is to try to spread the message with the masses so I don't have to respond to a bunch of people one-off, so I could have more freedom in my life, too.
So let's talk about suppliers. Let's talk about supplier approvals and answer the question: can it be difficult to actually become an authorized retailer? If you just want the simple answer, it is yes. But that is one of the reasons, ever since I started teaching this stuff way back in 2012 when I started Drop Ship Lifestyle, I've always recommended finding at least 20 brands to sell for. Let me just quickly talk about why, if you want to know a little bit more than that and go a little bit more than just surface deep.
Why One Supplier Puts You Out of Business Before You Start
We'll go to extremes, right? Let's say on one extreme of this business, you go out and before you build your store, you find one potential supplier, one brand. Well, obviously there's some problems with that. The first is if you reach out to that brand and say, "Hi, I want to sell your stuff on mystore.com," and they say, "No," well, now you're out of business before you even started.
Let's just go even further and say they do approve you and they say, "Yeah, you could sell our stuff. Let's do it." And you do, and you make a bunch of money, and two months later they go out of business. What happens again? Your business goes out of business.
So one of the reasons I recommend finding at least 20 brands, again, is so that you have that security. You don't have all your eggs in one basket with one supplier.
Rejection Is Not a You Thing: Why New Stores Get Denied
But also because, again, in the beginning when you're a brand new store, not every brand is going to authorize you to sell their products. This isn't just about you. It's not a you thing. This happens with us even when we launch stores in new niches.
So why is 20 that magic number? And again, 20 is the minimum number. It's because with a new store, the first time you're ever doing this, even if you follow the drop ship blueprint and use my phone and email scripts for supplier approvals that you can find, of course, in module four of the blueprint, there's a good chance that you will only get authorized to sell for 50% of the brands you find.
So if you found 20 total and you get authorized to sell for 50% of them, now you have 10 brands when you launch. And maybe you're terrible on the phone. Maybe you're super nervous. Maybe you say the wrong thing every time and you don't get 10 brands right away. Maybe you only get five to start.
Well, even then, even if you only got five as a new store, that is still enough to start something, to get momentum, to get the ball rolling. And what's going to happen over time is you will meet the criteria of these other brands that originally said no.
Let's just say again, you are terrible with talking to people on the phone. You get all nervous. You're so nervous you're having a conversation with somebody, maybe it's going okay, and you hang up because you're that nervous. And again, you only get five to start. So now you have 15, worst case scenario, because you only found 20, that you didn't get authorized to sell for on day one.
The Real Reasons Brands Say No: Traffic and Revenue Requirements
Well, what are the reasons they might deny you? Most of the time, and again, this is what will happen even to me when I'm building a new store, they will either just say, "Listen, we're only bringing on new retailers that have X amount of monthly traffic." They're not going to say X, obviously. They're going to want to see a certain amount of monthly traffic, and that means website visitors. So basically sharing a Google Analytics report with them or a Shopify report.
Or maybe they're going to say, "We want you to have X amount of monthly revenue." And the reason they're doing this is because they don't want to waste their time if you're not going to be actually an established business that can bring them sales.
Do What You Can With What You Have Where You Are
So if, again, worst case scenario, 15 of your 20 suppliers told you they want to see those things in the beginning, or they even just said no, not right now, you still start with what you can get. You get authorized to sell for the brands you can sell for. You still do things on your own or move forward through the blueprints by optimizing your store for conversions, by getting traffic, making the most of what you have.
There's actually a quote I love. It's from Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt named my son's middle name. His first name is Anton, he's the fifth, but his middle name is Theodore after Teddy Roosevelt. But there's a quote from him that I love that says, "Do what you can with what you have where you are."
And this is my thought process here. If you got five brands in the beginning, do what you can with that. Get the most amount of traffic you can with them. Get the most amount of sales that you can with them.
The Three-to-Six-Month Follow-Up That Builds an Authority Site
And then what do you do over the next three to six months? You follow up with the rest of these brands that denied you in the beginning. You get better on the phone if you get nervous. You learn how to use email properly and connect to the right people with the brands.
And eventually over time, remember this is not like a snap our fingers and get rich thing, but eventually over time, you have an authority site in your niche where you sell for all of the best brands, and people come to you when they want to buy that niche product, whatever it is.
So again, I just wanted to share my thoughts on this because, like I said, I did answer the guy on Facebook that asked that question, but there's more to share. So maybe I'll share this video with him, too. But if you're out there and this video also helped you, do me a favor: let me know by leaving a comment. And if you have any other questions, let me know. Maybe I'll hop on and record another one of these things for you if I could talk correctly. All right. Thank you everybody. I appreciate you and we'll talk.
The biggest takeaway from Anton's approach is that rejection is built into the plan, not a sign the plan failed. When you know in advance that roughly half of the brands you contact will say no at first, a denial stops being a crisis and becomes a follow-up task for three to six months down the road. That mindset shift alone separates the stores that stall from the ones that grow into authority sites.
So here is your next step: before you build anything, make your list of at least 20 brands in your niche. That research is the foundation of how to find dropshipping suppliers that will actually say yes, and it gives you the security of never having all your eggs in one basket. Reach out, take whatever approvals you get, and start moving.
And if you only land five brands out of the gate, remember the Teddy Roosevelt quote Anton lives by: do what you can with what you have where you are. Optimize your store, drive traffic, build your numbers, and then circle back to every brand that said no. In a few months, you will be the retailer they want to work with. And if you're still not even sure what products or niche you should enter, check out our guide on best dropshipping niches for 2026.
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