Sep
28
Know Your Customer and Your Competition
Filed Under Competition, Customers, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment
GETTING TO KNOW THEM AND SELL MORE
Isn’t it wonderful when a client says, “How did you know?” with a big smile on her face as she realizes you understand her without telling you anything? This bonding is possible when you listen with your eyes and ears.
Wednesday’s newsletter is all about relationship building to increase sales to current clients, and it also introduces you to the new site OrganicWholesaleSupplies.com.
IS YOUR COMPETITION RIGHT NEXT DOOR?
Retailers selling gift baskets are easy to spot because they flaunt designs in store windows. Others aren’t so easy to detect.
This blog article explains how to install online tools that uncover where competitors are located and easily set up programs to deliver their information into your Email.
HOW TO GOBBLE UP NOVEMBER SALES
Have you considered offering clients gift baskets for Thanksgiving? This November holiday can be just as lucrative for your bank account as Christmas, especially if you tell clients the benefits of standing out of the holiday gift-giving crowd.
Read this idea about hostess gift baskets before creating a plan to offer gifts for personal and professional giving.
Sep
24
How to Read a Client and Get Raves
Filed Under Customers | Leave a Comment
As I spoke with a radio executive, finalizing his order for a baby basket, I inconspicuously gazed around his office and noticed golf memorabilia on his desk. Those items quietly told me about his passion for the sport.
When a major golf tournament came to the area, I created a golf gift for him contained in a bucket and filled with tees and tee-shaped chocolates, score cards, and more, presenting it to him the day before the tournament began.
That was 13 years ago, and that same radio executive who’s now with a satellite radio group is not only a current customer, he also recommends me to other executives in his field.
Do you wear an antenna as you walk into a client’s office so you can pick up on similar signals? Getting to know their preferences outside of the office as well as inside doubles your chances for keeping lucrative clients for life.
What’s also important in relationship building is realizing when clients’ preferences change. For example, one of my clients recently became a grandmother, and she requested organic items (blankets, bibs, and toys) for the first time.
That’s one of the reasons I created OrganicWholesaleSupplies.com. Due to eco-friendly trends worldwide, some of your clients may begin requesting green goods. Now your internal antenna will lead you to one source that makes it easy to find organic food and gift items available for every budget.
You do everything possible to intuitively know what clients want before they say a word, and their favorite phrase for you is probably, “She/He gets it.” It’s one reason why they continue to request your beautiful gifts and baskets.
Sep
21
Gift Basket Sales, State-Made Baskets, Business Structure
Filed Under Sales-Increasing Strategies, Startup Help | Leave a Comment
PUT SALES ON YOUR SIDE
Will your clients start ordering now that the financial markets are stabilizing? Wednesday’s newsletter shared two tips you can do now to begin loosening their purse strings (women) and wallets (men). Seven of you contacted me as of Friday, saying that these ideas have already made a difference.
HOW STATES HELP YOU SELL
One U.S. state is looking to populate their online space with Web site addresses belonging to gift basket makers. The same may be true in your state or country. Read which state is recruiting and how to learn if your region is doing the same, giving you another way to promote and profit.
WHAT’S YOUR BUSINESS STRUCTURE?
Sole proprietorship is the most-popular business structure for us, but perhaps it’s time to convert to limited liability (LLC) or a corporation. Ask The Gift Basket Expert forms an answer for a designer who wants to know if an attorney is needed when forming an LLC.
Sep
17
I’ve been contacted by some of you and a few of my clients who are concerned about sales this holiday due to financial worries of the firms who buy from you.
This concern is valid, but we’ve been here before, and the financial crisis will surely happen again. The good news is that you’re probably in a good position to make quick, strategic changes. There are no board of directors in your way, telling you not to move forward in the manner you choose.
So what are your options to attract old clients and new prospects?
1. Write a letter of encouragement and send it to current customers. Tell them that during these uncertain times, you’re ready to help them increase their business by delivering gifts and baskets to prospects they now have a chance to pursue.
An example letter was recently added to Top 10 Letters.
2. Make sure that you create multi-sized gift arrangements in your seasonal assortment. Designs made in small baskets to large, rectangular tins are corporate favorites. In addition, you can place a minimum order number on mugs to ensure that you sell multiples rather than singles (minimum of 3, 6, 12, etc.).
Selling multiples is easy when you remind clients, in conversation or on your Web site, how many people to place on their gift list (support staff, cleaning crew, doorman, etc.).
You’ll see a range of small, tall, and large designs on this baskets page.
There will always been a reason for some people to shout, “The sky is falling!” It’s better to concentrate on where the money is falling.
Sep
14
Emotional Selling, Creating a Friendly Site, Gift Basket Business
Filed Under Sales-Increasing Strategies, Startup Help | Leave a Comment
PUT SOME FEELING IN IT
What do you sell? Is it gift baskets, or are you selling happiness, joy, and comfort wrapped in a beautiful package? Wednesday’s newsletter focuses on the emotions that clients express through your gifts and how to capitalize on what you really sell.
The offer to receive the report, Top 10 Secrets of Gift Basket Marketing that Puts Money in Your Pocket, when ordering the CD, 99 Marketing Ideas to Make More Money, expires today.
HOW TO STEER SALES TO YOUR REGISTER
There’s nothing that turns a person against your Web site more than the inability to find what they want. That’s why adding an easy-to-create site map, with a link to it on your home page, is considered friendly assistance.
Here’s more detail on making this special page a priority before the holidays.
INFORMATION FOR ASPIRING DESIGNERS
Are you new to the gift basket industry? I welcome you and have created extensive information on the GiftBasketBusiness.com site and blog for your benefit.
This link introduces you to several Web sites of interest, including an industry dictionary, gift basket podcasts (online radio shows), and more that exist just for you.
Sep
10
Play on Their Emotions
Filed Under Customers | Leave a Comment
Asking clients about what the receiver wants is your first priority, especially when making a great first impression. It’s part of the marketing process that convinces every recipient to become a client and every client to continue ordering.
I’ll always remember my first two gift basket deliveries. One was delivered to a man, and the other to a woman.
The gentleman was recovering from a long illness, so understanding his dietary restrictions was crucial. When I arrived, he looked at the contents and began to cry. He announced, “This is beautiful!” and hugged me. I wished him well and turned before he could see my tears of joy.
The woman recipient gasped as she viewed her basket. She was very trusting, inviting me into enter her home to see where she’d display the gift.
Gift baskets focus on capturing emotion. They’re given in times of joy and comfort. As you design your holiday and everyday baskets, make sure you ask clients every possible question about the receiver to increase the rate of new orders from both parties.
Additional sales from people who already know you guarantees your success in the long run.
See the birthday, thank you, and get well gift basket videos on the GiftBasketTutorials.com site for more ideas on emotional selling.
As a gift basket designer, you surely can identify with this marketing technique. 99 Sizzling Marketing Ideas to Make More Money, January-June, contains many more ideas to increase your revenue. And this is the perfect time to get the CD to help you prepare your marketing plan for 2009.
Order it today, and you’ll also receive the free special report, Top 10 Secrets of Gift Basket Marketing that Put Money in Your Pocket.
Sep
3
Here are ideas to ensure that your sales plan contains many options that guarantee orders.
1. Add gift pyramids to your merchandise mix. Pyramids are created using large, flat boxes of cookies, candies, or chocolates stacked atop each other. Stabilize a minimum of three boxes with clear tape or glue. Wrap in cellophane, and top with a large bow and star spray in colors of red, gold, or green.
This tall, stacked gift consistently produced sales for me, and I bet it will also increase yours.
2. Acceptable alcoholic substitutes are found in products that include alcohol in the name. Look for strawberry champagne preserves, amaretto brownies, champagne vinegars, and other gourmet foods.
Most of my clients didn’t request wines and alcohols, but they did enjoy the taste of spreads with a hint of spirits that could be shared with young family members.
3. Ask for referrals. When finalizing orders, ask clients for names of associates who need holiday and special occasion baskets. This is the way to warm up cold calls and expand your client list and business potential.
I found no better way to instantly increase my client list than to ask each customer for leads to others, and they were happy to refer people ready to order. This is one of the key sales tools mentioned in Holiday Help to Sell Gift Baskets at the GiftBasketCourse.com site.
4. Mention your New Year’s baskets to clients who forget to buy holiday gifts for some of their customers and others who referred business to them throughout the year.
I learned that many budgets are re-funded after January 1, and that’s when some clients had money to buy, so don’t give up on a prospect just because they didn’t order for Christmas.
Save Time – Gift Basket Biz Plan
Popular Gift Basket Books
-
