Post Holiday Sales Slump - Opportunity to Strengthen Sales Base
The eggnog is drunk, the tree is recycled(maybe) and the shoppers are gone. While the first weeks and months after Christmas sales spikes are slow on a good day, it's a time that could be used to strengthen your sales base to keep the ship afloat and growing into the new year.
How?
The simplest way is to look at your numbers and figure out what had the strongest reaction in your customer base. Was it the hand-crafted items, or did the mass-produced trinkets produce more sales conversions? Based on trends I have noticed as a Mom of four, the quality hand-crafted items have a greater appeal over the long term - hence they get more money out of my pocket book! For a little perspective, this story may help.
Every year, my husband and I try to do one hand-made item for our kids. This year, I made hats for the older kids, and ponchos for the twins. They're well-made and from the heart - but most importantly, they love them. Several years ago, my husband made wood blocks for the twins, they still play with them. While I'm not advocating you tell your customers to make a bunch of stuff, as that sort of defeats the purpose of selling it to them, I am advocating giving the hand-crafted items you sell more attention in your marketing and advertising plan. When they are well-made and reasonably priced, most people have a perception of the items being something that will last.
The problem really lies in getting them to understand that they're not that much more expensive, but that the few dollars more they spend on the hand-crafted item will be worth it in the end. If the chatter I'm hearing is any indication, people are looking for locally made, hand-crafted items more and more. They are tired of the worries of lead in the paint from China, they are tired of the cheap toys that break within minutes of being opened, they are tired of cheap shoes or clothes that don't last.
More importantly, they are tired of impersonal mega-stores that don't really care. The funny thing about our technological age is that we as a species still have a need for a human connection. If we can't get it in our day to day work (thank you telecommuting), then we expect to find it in our consumer and personal life. We crave that connection.
Use this to your advantage in your marketing campaign. Emphasize the fact that you have a family or independently owned company, or that you are a one-man/woman show, that you are responsive to your customer's needs. The value that you build into your brand through your interractions with your clients will carry your company farther than the products or services you sell.
So...while business has slowed down as people get their credit card bills in the mail this month, take that time to analyze what happened last year and build on it. Try to use the emails you hopefully collected through the holiday season to keep in touch with your customers, find out what they want in the new year, and give it to them!
