Planning For A Successful Sale
One of the questions we get asked often is what are our best practices and must-do's for having a successful sale? In this article, we’re sharing our best tips and secrets with you! If you're a small business owner, read through and do a mental audit of whether you're doing these things.
How To Plan For A Successful Sale
- Prepare enough supplies ahead of time.
Having enough of your products is a given, but don’t forget about your basic supplies like your sticker paper, mailers, cello bags, ink, cutting mats, etc. The last thing you want is to run out of something that could potentially ruin the entire sale. Make sure you have plenty of everything on hand so that nothing goes wrong!
- Have a game plan.
Make sure you think ahead for your releases, so that you aren’t rushing around last minute. You’ll want to consider:
- Plan what you want to release in advance
- Have a plan of attack for the design and manufacturing process, including how much time it will take and when it will happen. This will help you budget more accurately and avoid any rush fees if things don’t go as planned.
- How long it will take to design
- Don’t rush into anything or cut corners just because you feel like you need something new on the market ASAP! Take as much time as necessary to make sure that whatever you release is high quality and exactly what you want it to be — even if that means taking longer than expected.
- How long it will take to manufacture or source.
- If you don’t know how long it takes, ask your manufacturer or supplier. You should also factor in shipping time if needed.
- Will you need additional help?
- If so, start looking now so that there’s plenty of time for training and preparation before launch day arrives.
And be sure to change your processing times accordingly while being transparent with your customers.
- Prepare your graphics.
Prepare your marketing graphics ahead of time for your website and social media. Product photos are good but graphics can provide clearer communication about your product and sale. Plus, you can easily reuse them for each sale! We use Canva to create all of our graphics. This also saves us time for future sales because we can reuse and edit the graphics.
- Use a newsletter.
This is such an underrated tool for promoting your sales. With a newsletter, you have your customer’s information and can send them information directly rather than relying on social media, which you can be banned from at any moment. You have more control over your customer base. (We use Flodesk!)
Use your newsletter to let everyone know about the sale ahead of time. Send out an email blast letting everyone know exactly when it will start, how long it will last, etc… people like knowing what’s going on in advance!
- Give freebies.
Although we do offer them for our sales, we don’t think it’s 100% necessary as most people are not buying something from your shop solely for the freebie. However, tiered freebies do encourage people to spend more. An example of tiered freebies is: if you spend $30+, you get an extra item for free. If you spend $50+ you get two extra items for free, etc. This encourages customers to spend more during your sale which means more profit for you!
- Set up an automatic discount.
Offering your sale as an automatic discount instead of a promo or coupon code is helpful for customers who forget to enter the code or miss it (and email about it later). This saves both the customer and yourself lots of hassle!
Questions From Our Listeners:
Q: How do you figure out what percentage to set for the sale?
A: We’ve done this for quite some time and we’ve arrived at a percentage that makes the most sense for us. But ultimately it depends on how much it costs you to make your products. You want to make sure that after the discount, you aren’t losing money (that means factoring in your time, supplies, shipping, etc.).
Q: What do you do if it's slow?
A: There are several things you can do! First, plan to have doorbusters each day. These can be new releases or special deals for specific days of the sale. This helps draw people continuously to your shop. Second, share the sale to different social media platforms (like Facebook, Instagram, do an IG live, etc.). Finally, be sure to stay active during the sale, posting on instagram regularly to stay top of mind with your customers.
Q: Thoughts on collab sales?
A: They are good, but not necessary for your success. It’s fun to participate and talk to other shop owners. Our two favorite collab sales are the PBC (Planner Boss Collective) and UPS (Ultimate Planner Sale) sales, which we think are the most organized and established/quality in our experience.
Q: I keep getting rejected by collab sales. How do you get picked?
A: Disclaimer, we are not 100% sure, since we don’t run collab sales. We’re happy to provide our advice based on our past experience though. First, don’t be sad if you don’t get picked, it’s not a reflection of you or your shop, and you can always apply again in the future. Additionally, you can always do your own sales! Collab sales aren’t a guarantee that you will do well or better than on your own. Finally, take a look at the shops that got picked. It really helps to be different from the other shops, like being from a different country or selling different products.
Q: Do you have any money goals for your sales?
A: Not really, but we like to compare the performance to past sales. This is to help us figure out what’s working and what isn’t.
Whew, that was a lot to cover!
⬇️ Drop your questions below about prepping for a successful sale. If you're not a shop/small business owner, comment and let us know if any of this surprises you or what your thoughts are.
We hope you find our tips and suggestions helpful for your next sale. We are cheering you on! :)
Be sure to listen to the full podcast episode #2 for all the details!
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Thank you SO much for being here. See you in the next episode!
xo, Lisa & Lucy
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