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How Would You Boost Sales During Q4?
Posted By: kablett* on 11/16/2004 11:52 AM (CST) 250 Points
My company has just informed me that if we don't meet our sales targets for the year, it will seriously jeopardize our hopes of securing round 3 growth financing next year.

We have 6 weeks left in the year. Christmas time is insane in retail, so our chances of opening a lot of new business is this period is limited, because the retailers don't have the time to talk to us, let alone look at our products.

Given this, what marketing technique(s) would you employ to significantly increase sales before the year end?

Posted by: Peter (henna gaijin) Member Response
11/16/2004 1:27 PM (CST)
On the whole, I don't like end of quarter/end of year pushes, as I feel you are taking from future sales to get current sales (often in costly ways). But in your case, it sounds like you have a real reason that could justify it (your financing).

I don't think we can provide any useful answers without more details. What type of business are you in? What do you sell, and to who?

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Posted by: D4Demand Accepted Answer
11/16/2004 3:00 PM (CST)
When the retailers won't see you, bypass them.

It's the classic "factory outlet sale" approach. You will have to find a fulfuillment partner and a robust Email list, but I would suggest taking the product to the E-streets.

Or if this is a product with mass appeal, you may also want to consider the following:

Contact the human resource departments at large employers in town and out, and offer their employees the product at "wholesale" prices. Make certain that you cover your shipping and promotion costs as well as a margin for returns and profit, of course. Lots of companies like to reward employees this time of year. Others like to be able to offer employees a benefit that they would not be able to get from any other source.

If it is a narrow niche product, you can always try to open up retail space in a vacant Mall store, strip center, etc. and then use flyers and direct mail to "paper" the neighborhhod.

At Christmas, everybody wants a bargain. Everbody.

Catch the wave!

Warning! Ask your boss if the Third round investors will agree to fund you if you take this "non-channel" course. After all, if the revenue comes from outside the regular business plan, they may STILL say that the plan is not paying off and that channel targets were not met.
 
Posted by: savialeigh* Accepted Answer
11/16/2004 8:16 PM (CST)
contact your existing customers, and offer a guarranteed sales agreement now through christmas, on whatever additional product you place.

guaranteed sales is the magic word. in 15 yearsof retail management, I never listened to any vendor who wouldn't guarantee to sell through or remove the leftovers at no charge. We almost always sold through ($90m per year in my store, so sell thru was easy) but I wasn't taking the cut if it didn't.

it would be a lot easier to answer this question if we knew what products you offer!
 
Posted by: telemoxie Accepted Answer
12/1/2004 11:21 PM (CST)
I agree that it would be nice to know what product you are selling - or at least what country you are located in... and it would be nice to know what kind of dollars you are talking about...

... but since you mention selling thru the retail channel - could you "bypass" the existing channel with some sort of kiosk program? e.g. you could set up in a few high-end shopping malls.

This will close some sales, and might be profitable, but if you have a multi-million nut to crack, it would probably be too little, too late.

Again, I'm shooting in the dark because I do not know what you are selling - but have you considered selling internationally? If you are in the US, I hear the dollar is weaker, which should encourage foreign companies to purchase domestic goods. Would your product be appropriate to promote to large overseas retailers?
 
Posted by: laurenceainsworth* Accepted Answer
12/10/2004 8:40 PM (CST)
From what you’re saying it seems like you don’t have much penetration into retail outlets which might be your longer term issue. There is very little you can do in 6 weeks other than squeeze every sale possible out of the routes to market you currently have.

So use your direct access to market to advertise your products and sell. You could give special offers discounts or BOGOF’s (buy one get one free) if that works for your product. The risk of this approach if you have a retailer channel as well is that you’ll not create more sales but instead buyers will go to you for discounts instead of buying from the retailers when you want them to buy from you as well as buying from retailers.

If you have a sales force get them out, they should be out there selling every moment of the day not in the office “doing paperwork”
 
Posted by: Sanjeev Kumar Vyas Accepted Answer
12/19/2004 8:48 PM (CST)
I think D4 Demand has given a good advice and a good concern too.
I would echo other's concerns that it would be useful if you could tell us about your product and how short are you from your target.
1. selling Directly to the customers is a good idea, have promotions at various places. If you think malls are too crowded and your product can be given away as a gift then have small shops in the neighborhood.
2. Sell it to the companies. Again your product has to be something that can be given as a gift. Companies would be happy if the get a good bargain for their employees.
3. Selling to retail people could be hard but if you assure them to remove the left over that would make them look at you twice.
It would be nice if you could post back the answers others and myself have asked.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Sanjeev
 
Posted by: Val (Moderator)* Moderator Response
12/28/2004 6:18 PM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question, since its more than 10 days old. We do this to make sure members' contributions are rewarded in a timely manner and to improve the visibility of newer questions. Thanks, so much, for participating!

Val (Moderator)
 


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