“Sending your deluxe thank you gift basket to the nurses was the first thing on my mind when I heard that my aunt was recovering from surgery. How fast can you get it there?”

That’s one customer’s telephone conversation a gift basket designer shared with me during our weekly mentorship meeting.

She’s noticed a big and positive change in her sales since she began contacting customers, online and offline, to remind them about her gift basket service.

Notice that the above doesn’t state that she talks about gift baskets. Instead, she reminds them about the reasons for giving and the value that her gifts represent both to the customer and recipient.

The more she positions her gifts and baskets in that manner, the more calls, customers, and sales she receives.

Like this designer, when you focus on benefits, your sales will rise. That’s the key to increasing profits in every economy.

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Need to re-position your business or want to talk about another problem that’s keeping sales stagnant?

You still have time to speak with me (this special service ends on August 31). Just click the Setster link below to make an appointment, and we’ll talk by phone at the time you choose. It’s just $1 a minute, and you’ll have one or several great solutions in 30 minutes or less.

© 2008-2010 Shirley George Frazier. All rights reserved. Shirley George Frazier is the world's expert on the gift basket industry, professional speaker, and author of How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business, The Gift Basket Design Book, and Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business: Solutions You Can Use Today. Visit GiftBasketBusiness.com for DVDs, CDs, reports, tips, and more to learn, grow, and profit with gift baskets.

Read these related articles:

1. How Donations Bring You Business

July and August are months when corporations make their decisions about how they’ll profit, what they’ll pay employees, and into which departments monies will be distributed in the upcoming year.

This is a wise time for you to make commitments about your business as well for end-of-year sales and your 2011 action plan.

• Start by reviewing last year’s sales and deciding to increase that amount by a certain percentage such as 15 or 25 percent.
• Then begin deciding how you’ll contact new and current customers to capture their early holiday orders.
• Finally, write on paper your big goals for the new year and objectives that will secure those plans.

What I share above is how I developed plans for my business many years ago. My percentage increase plan was 20 percent, and that was exceeded by gaining accounts from my bank’s manager and insurance agent.

Postcards were my big contact plan along with sales that came from a newspaper feature story about my business. Television appearances were my big goals for the next year, a feat I once thought was not achievable but transformed my business for the better.

The GiftBasketBusiness.com blog post, Four Ways to Woo Corporate Clients, shares insights that were inspired by designers’ questions about getting corporate sales.

Your success story will be different than mine, and most of all you will accomplish more and increase sales quicker because of the low and no-cost promotional opportunities available to you today.

Plan to succeed, or don’t plan at all. You’ll receive whichever reward fits into the category of your choosing.

© 2008-2010 Shirley George Frazier. All rights reserved. Shirley George Frazier is the world's expert on the gift basket industry, professional speaker, and author of How to Start a Home-Based Gift Basket Business, The Gift Basket Design Book, and Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business: Solutions You Can Use Today. Visit GiftBasketBusiness.com for DVDs, CDs, reports, tips, and more to learn, grow, and profit with gift baskets.

Read these related articles:

1. Crafting a Plan to Profit
2. How to Plan Now for Christmas Gift Basket Orders
3. Welcome to the Gift Baskets Newsletter