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Should You Sell During the Holidays?

Guest post by: Lisa Sasevich

Article Overview: This time of year we get this question a lot: "Is it a good idea to run promotions or do launches or even just sell during the holidays?" The truth is, anytime is good when you can connect what you're doing to what people are really concerned about.

Should You Sell During the Holidays?

This time of year we get this question a lot: "Is it a good idea to run promotions or do launches or even just sell during the holidays?"

The truth is, anytime is good when you can connect what you're doing to what people are really concerned about.

For example, during the end of the year, people are thinking about what they've accomplished and what they haven't, so great themes for your promotions would be "Have Your Best Year Ever" or "Start the New Year Strong."

If you want to have great timing for your sales efforts, keep these three points in mind:

1. Consider your market. When you're scheduling your event or promotions it's most important to consider the needs of your specific market.

If you work with corporate professionals who are starting a side job, you might want to schedule your calls on nights and weekends, but if it's a training that benefits them in their current job, you want to schedule that during normal business hours.

If your market is the mom-preneur obviously you don't want to do a free preview call on Mother's Day or host your first big live event on Thanksgiving weekend. But sometimes three-day weekends are a good choice for your live event because people have the day off and that gives them the opportunity to attend.

2. Sometimes it pays to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. For example, we went to the Winter Olympics last year and you would think that we'd want to steer clear of something like that because it would be so crowded, but we often felt as though we were the only ones on the mountain. We learned from that experience that sometimes rather than avoiding something because you think everyone else is doing it, it's actually a good time to do it, because everyone else is thinking that too!

3. Schedule around your competition? People sometimes want to reschedule their own event or class after hearing that a competitor has one scheduled for the same time as theirs. Is that a good idea? It depends.

If you have a lot of overlap in your followers or subscriber list with someone, then you might want to be conscious about what they're doing, but just because you have overlap in your target audience -- say women over 50 -- that doesn't mean you have to be concerned. There are millions of people in your target market and your competitor is only going to have a handful or so in their event.

However, if your list is a close match, and you really feel that you're vying for the same people, then it's a good idea to reconsider your dates so that people can attend both events.

Or, you could consider the audacious idea of collaborating with that person and offer a special price for attendees to participate in both!

So when you're scheduling your sales efforts, don't worry too much about the calendar or the crowd or your competition, think about what your ideal client needs and you will find that your timing is perfect!

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Article Tags: converting prospects into clients, sales conversion, selling, selling during the holidays



Related Forum Posts
Re: What is your worst / best month? - Best months for my business are historically March/April/May & August/Sept/Oct Worst months: December/January (Holidays) & June/July (Vacations) I see our traffic go way up during the good months and way down during the bad months. Very cyclic. Keep in mind, my clients buy businesses and no one thinks of doing that during the holiday or during vacation.
Your advantage over others - Sell using your USP - unique selling proposition. Why should people buy from you, instead of your competitors? Think about it, why are you so great? It may be a hard question, but finding the answer can multiply the effectiveness of any advertising or marketing activities you undertake.
Re: When do entrepreneurs retire, if ever? - Why would you ever retire when you love what you are doing? Sell the business and start another one maybe - but retire - NEVER! You should all read, The 4 Hour Work Week - By Timothy Ferris. He talks about building your business so that you can take mini 'retirement's throughout your life, instead of saving it all up for when you are old. Great concept - what do you think??
Re: SES Toronto - Day 1! - ...oh and even though it's 21 secrets, why do you have [quote:1gz722fe]Tip #22: Use Your Thank You Page to Sell[/quote:1gz722fe] on your blog? Are you holding out on secrets or are you adding your own? Hope to see you at the next conference!
Re: Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; - Thanks Jason I was overseas during the Hippie Generation (but i understand according to you, we have not completed that generation) I just don't see the long hair, bare breasted flower children and open drugs as I understand was so prevalent then or I haven't been looking in the right places. OFF THE CHAIN got me? As to sex and age, I always prefer to see a warning to others, especially minors A question for you, "With so much FREE sex, videos, pictures, stories as such available on the interest, readily accessible to all - Why does SEX still Sell online?


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