Holidays are super overwhelming for everyone. But especially product based businesses, right?

We are simultaneously trying to balance shopping and prepping for our family holidays, all the get-togethers, all the cooking all the organization coordinating schedules, and trying to figure out how the heck, I'm going to manage my business and my sales during the holidays.

So today's training is just a really quick little blurb on three strategies to maximize your holiday sales.

Now there's a couple things I want to address here. As business owners, we get so caught up in the grind sometimes that the holidays can sneak up on us. I know I've experienced that. I know a lot of my my clients have experienced that, all of a sudden we're hitting mid-September, and I'm going in I'm asking them, okay, what's our, what's our sales strategy for Christmas?

And they're looking at me Like:

 …What?

It's not even fall yet?!

How am I supposed to be thinking about Christmas?!

But the fact of the matter is, and I think I've mentioned this before, we need to start thinking about Christmas in the middle of summer, because it is imperative to have a plan and a strategy in place before we get to that season.

Recently I've been working with a potter, and she hasn't really had a strategy in place. No idea, no plan, no production plan or anything for the holiday season. So in September, we sat down and we mapped out her entire holiday season three months of sales and production and marketing.

And now? she is ready to go.

She is all set to hit the ground running.

She's actually really excited about it because not only does she have a plan in place, but she doesn't feel like she's throwing it together last minute, which can be so overwhelming. And let's be honest, it doesn't bring you in the sales that you want.

Three Pitfalls to Avoid

Before we talk about the strategies, I want to talk a little bit about the three biggest pitfalls that go along with holiday sales.

Waiting until the last minute

So one of the most common pitfalls and I say this because I've done it, this is not something that I'm judging other people on. I've done it before. I've learned this lesson the hard way.

We will wait until the day of like the day of Black Friday the day of Small Business Saturday and be like, Oh shoot, I should do something and quickly throw together a social media graphic, throw a post-up on Facebook, send a quick email editorialists be like, “Hey, I'm running a sale today”.

And then... crickets, nobody's buying.

So throwing that stuff together last minute is the first most common mistake.

Not Creating a Plan

The second one I see is that, like I mentioned with my Potter, there's no plan. There's no plan on what you want to sell, how much you expect to be selling, or how you want to be selling it.

Makers go into the holiday season just going “well I'm just going to plaster it wherever and hope the sales come in, and hope that people buy whatever it is I haven't stock or I'm making because I don't have it mapped out.”

Fear of Putting it Out There

The third most common mistake is being afraid to put it out there.

But most importantly, being afraid to put it out there in a way that makes people want to come in and buy it. And so these things are all they're all very common for the holidays. They're also common throughout the rest of the year.

So what I do as a business strategist for micro manufacturers, or makers, creatives, people who are really going from a hobby to an actual business, what I do is I help you develop these plans, so that you're not only creating consistent income year round, but you are maximizing your sales during the biggest shopping periods.

And Christmas is not the only holiday this technique this strategy can apply to any holiday that your products match. If you're a jewelry maker, this can apply to Valentine's Day, Mother's Day. anniversaries, although those are a little harder to coordinate. Any holiday where there's a gift being given these strategies can be implemented.

Create a Plan

So what are the three strategies maximizing your sales this holiday? The first one is you

need a plan.

We need a plan.

What?

What inventory do you have on hand?

What products do you already have made?

What products are your customers already buying?

What do they already love that you make?

And so you want to go, Okay, here's what I have on hand. Here's what I know, my customers love. And so okay, this is what I still need to make. And now based on how my customers usually buy, and the popularity of certain things, here's how many I think I'm going to sell during Black Friday during Small Business Saturday, or during the holiday season, which encompasses about two months right now.

So the first thing is you want to plan out what do I have?

What do I need to make?

What do I think I will sell?

And I know that can be a little overwhelming. I don't know what I think I'm going to sell because I've never sold anything before?

Well, that's what I want to look at when you are promoting your products during other times of the year, what are customers buying?

 How many of them are they buying?

And that can help us develop kind of a ballpark of what you need to do.

And then secondly, what sales are you going to run? I don't recommend, especially in the Christmas season, I don't recommend trying to hit every single selling holiday, you're not going to do Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday, because that is a lot for you.

That is a lot for your customers. It makes them indecisive. “Should I buy now Should I wait to see if there's a better deal on this other day?”

 I want you to take a look at the calendar and say okay, what sales do I want to be running? When do I want to run a Valentine's Day Sale? Okay, so if you do you want to mark that out? And then do I want to run a Mother's Day Sale or a Father's Day Sale? Do I want to run a labor day or Memorial Day Sale?

 Maybe your product ties into you know the atmosphere that goes with those cookouts, outdoors, whatever, do I want to run one of the big four in the Christmas shopping season and mark those on your calendars.

 So I would recommend for the Christmas shopping season maybe picking two not doing all of them choosing to and then a couple others throughout the years that really tie into your brand.

Determine your Sales

Then you want to decide what is my sale going to be? Is it going to be a discount? Am I just going to do like an across the board discount? Am I going to do a product specific discount? Am I going to do special bundles? Am I going to do a free gift with a purchase? And it doesn't have to be the same thing every time. But you really want to think through Okay, what kind of deals are my customers looking for this time of year.

 So for instance, at Valentine's day they're probably just looking for a discount, they're probably not looking for a whole bunch of extras. But around the Christmas season, an extra gift with a purchase might be a really great idea because that's like an extra bonus freebie they can throw in the package with the present or bundling for a discount so they can give a bigger gift for not as much money right?

 You can choose the ones that really tie into Mother's Day gifts, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, things like that. Again, we're probably looking at just a straight discount. But it's really understanding your products, your business what your customers like.

Create a Marketing Plan

 The third thing is the marketing and this is the biggest one this is where so many of us, myself included fall short. You cannot wait till the day of the sales have talked about it. You have to talk about it leading up to it. You want to get people excited. You want people saying

 “I cannot wait for Rexella Design’s Black Friday sale. I'm gonna buy so many of their bags!”

 I can't wait for Avu Goldsmith's Valentine's sale they always have great prices on beautiful pieces of jewelry.”

 You know, I am so looking forward to woodworking for us because they're Memorial Day Sale. They always have a good discount on their cornhole sets.”

 Okay, so you want to be hyping people up for it, so that they are excited for that sale to happen. What does that mean? That means you're posting on social media for about a week ahead of time getting them psyched up, you are letting your customers know in email ahead of time getting them psyched up.

You might even have a VIP group where they get access earlier. If they're on your email list, which gets them really excited. But then the other thing is the day of you want to make sure you're talking about it.

You want to make sure people are seeing your posts. One post a day isn't going to do it. We probably want to do two or three, one email that date isn't going to do it.

I have so many product businesses that have said that when they do two to three emails on the day a sale is ending to make sure you know that that FOMO “don't miss out sales ending soon you want to get your item!” and they end up with sales in the hundreds and 1000s of dollars on that last day that they can track directly to those emails.

You want to make sure on the day of not only are you talking about it, you're talking about it a lot. Because our customers are busy doing other stuff, they might see your email and forget about it, they need to be reminded it might not even show up on their social media because that's what social media is like these days, they need to be reminded.

So make sure you have a marketing plan in place to build up the hype and to remind them that the sale is going on and to give them that FOMO if they don't buy it while the discount is running.

So my top three tips and strategies to maximize sales for any holiday. You need to plan what you're going to sell by looking at what you have, what your customers are going to want and what you need to still make. You need to look at what sales are you going to run - Are you going to be doing discounts, bundles, free gifts, what's going to resonate your with your customers and what ties in best with that holiday season. And then finally, you need to look at how am I going to market this and make sure you are giving enough of a runway to maximize those sales.

I hope this has been helpful I would love to continue the conversation with you drop a comment or click on the link below and I will talk to you later.