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Discover The Secret To Boosting Sales During Those Slow Months

Guest post by: Sheryl Strasser

Article Overview: No matter what business you are in, there is always going to be a slow period. That is simply a part of business. For the construction companies of the world there is the winter months when there is little that can be done outside without a lot of problems. For cable television companies it is the summer, when people are spending more time outside then watching television inside.

Discover The Secret To Boosting Sales During Those Slow Months

Discover The Secret To Boosting Sales During Those Slow Months

No matter what business you are in, there is always going to be a slow period. That is simply a part of business. For the construction companies of the world there is the winter months when there is little that can be done outside without a lot of problems. For cable television companies it is the summer, when people are spending more time outside then watching television inside.

There are methods to combating this issue. In some cases the companies will simply go with a different type of business during these months. Landscaping companies are known to become leading snowplow service providers during the winter months. This helps to offset the time when they are down. But what if you do not have another service to offer? Then you have a problem that needs some careful consideration.

First and foremost you need to determine if you have a customer base of the slow months. This is easy enough to know. If you have people ordering from you but just not as often then you have the right kind of customer base. They are simply in a period of the year where they do not feel that your product or service is quite as necessary as other times of the year.

Now you need to figure out how to entice these customers or potential customers into making purchases during these months. So let's take a look at the options that you have available to you.

The first option is to lower the prices. Now this can be somewhat dangerous to the company as a whole. The problem may come in that the people will note that you are lowering the prices at one point during the year and then wait until that point to start ordering from you. So all you have really done is to move the slow period from one time of the year to another and lost money in the process.

The other more viable option is too offer some kind of incentive for ordering from you. Of consumers polled, more then sixty percent said they would increase their spending by as much as seventy-five percent when an incentive was offered to them for the purchase. These are amazing numbers when you think about it and can be used to your advantage.

One of the best incentives to offer is travel. There are few that do not like to travel and most will jump at the chance to get a free vacation. So why not offer a free vacation with a certain purchase? Think it will cost you too much? That is where you are wrong. There are now affordable solutions available to businesses to help boost the slow period spending by their customers.

Companies around the world offer just such a service. You can purchase, in bulk, vouchers to be given away to your customers with a specific purchase. So you are offering a no cost vacation for them making a purchase and you are not spending a ton of money. In all truth you are spending a lot less then you would be if you lowered prices. Of course you should be careful about how many of these vouchers you give away. It is best to implement such a program for new or returning customers only. If you do not do this then you could have customers lining up at the doors trying to get a vacation because they made a purchase several years ago. Make sure that you lay out all the stipulations on paper and pass it through a lawyer or your legal team to ensure that you are within the law on every thing.

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Article Tags: cable television companies, careful consideration, construction companies, consumers, customer base, first option, landscaping companies, money, service providers, slow period, viable option, watching television



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Re: In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore - Thanks for sharing GT - very interesting! According to Amazon Kindle, the two most highlighted passages from the book are: [quote:1tn0ii6a]Slow philosophy can be summed up in a single word: balance. Be fast when it makes sense to be fast, and be slow when slowness is called for. Seek to live at what musicians call the tempo giusto—the right speed.[/quote:1tn0ii6a] [quote:1tn0ii6a]Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity.[/quote:1tn0ii6a]
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
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