Sales
Successful sales planning requires balancing promotions with revenue needs and your brand. A poorly planned sales promotion can derail company growth and affect revenue. Through proper sales planning, you can increase your sales, give specific products a boost and can encourage new customers to try your products or services.
Calendar
Create a sales calendar that tracks every sales offer distributed to customers. Include coupons, joint promotions and ongoing sales promotions. Visually inspect your schedule to reduce overlapping promotions and decrease the trend toward constant sales. Match your sales calendar to your marketing communications to ensure all promotions are adequately promoted in a timely fashion. A wise strategy is to use promotions to introduce new products, so correlate your sale offers based on new product schedules.
Statistics
Review statistical data from prior sales. Look at increases and decreases in revenue for promotional items as well as overall sales. Determine what types of sales are more effective at driving overall sales and repeat these tactics in future sales. Whenever possible, survey customers about their sale experience. The more knowledge you obtain about the effect of your sale on your customers, the better you can tailor your sales to maximize revenue.
Supply
Nothing can hamper a well-conceived promotional plan than a poorly executed supply plan. Make sure to have an abundant supply of products on hand to fulfill customer demand during the sale. Lack of products can lead to long-term effects on your company's growth because disgruntled customers will stop returning to your store for promotions. Create a plan to handle out-of-stock conditions so you can mollify unhappy customers. Consider free shipping of the item to customers, an additional discount off of other store merchandise or a substitute product for the same price that is higher quality.
Employees
Educate your employees on all aspects of your sales promotion and increase your staffing to handle increases in customer traffic. Consider offering overtime or hiring temporary workers if necessary. Sales can entice new customers to try your products, so you want to display your best company image and service level to encourage repeat customer visits. Reinforce your sales promotion marketing by having employees remind customers of the promotion and answer questions at the beginning of their shopping experience.
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