Salesmen are amongst the worlds most rewarded and at the same time one of the most challenging professions. I love to sell but I must confess that it is a bit of a challenge initiating and completing the sales process but somehow I have mastered it and would like to cheer some of the steps that might be of help.
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Making a sale will not always imply that you make a good profit, especially if you fail to manage your sale right. Does this sound familiar? Then let’s look at what mistakes businesses often make and how to affect a great sale.
When many businesses attempt to take their first steps in retail sales, it is by design assumed that making quick sales means a substantial reduction in the price and promotion of your sales effort. Though outwardly that sounds a simple proposition, it’s sadly never the right approach to what is popularly known as ‘good business practices’. Besides, it’s certainly not the procedure for savvy businesses to make their money.
To cut the bitter part out and make your traverse smooth, pleasurable and above all naturally also profitable, CFAgbata takes the pleasure to show you some easy-to-follow steps that are designed to help you in making a good profit from your very first sales effort.
Your First Step in Striking a Profitable Sale
It is a common belief that the first thing you must do as a startup business is travel light. In other words, dispose of the stock that you believe should be gotten rid of instantly. In true essence, that could in certain cases be recommendable for a few sales. And yet, it is seldom advisable to start your business by proceeding in this manner.
Your first step involves making a decision as to when the time is right to start running the sale. It is always critical for you to get that timing right. If you are the last one trying to make a sale, you will always find customers with empty pockets. If you are the first, that’s not altogether a wrong move. Yet, being counted among the group that comes first is a lot better; as being the very first seldom allows you the privilege of attracting enough attention or making the right kind of noise to achieve the desired sale. The best time to strike is when customers reach the ‘sale mode’ peak and are now prepared to spend their money. This is normally the scenario when several sales are being run simultaneously.
Your Second Step in Striking a Profitable Sale
After deciding when your sale should be run, you will next need to know what product can be best put up for a quick sale. As this is likely to have a considerable affect on your profit margin, the decision is obviously going to be of equally great significance.
What needs to be given a serious thought at this juncture generally includes:
· If your business promotes a product or products that are of a somewhat seasonal nature, your concerns should least be about exhausting your stock to the last piece, in order to eliminate the need for carrying it over.
· If your business does not promote a product or products that are of seasonal nature, you will need to work out ways to reduce your end price.
A more sensible way of dealing with products of a seasonal nature is not overstocking in the first place. Maybe, you could carry just a small bit of excess stock, particularly if that is considered absolutely necessary. Secondly, weeks in advance of your scheduled sale date, have a word with your suppliers to dig out the stock that you can probably purchase at a dumping price, as this is usual a practice where seasonal stock is concerned. What you need to watch for is reaching them ahead of the sale period, ensuring that your move is well timed for picking up good bargains. By picking up good quality items, purchased at rock-bottom sale prices, gives you the advantage of mixing them up with your personal stock in-hand and making it look far more freshen up. Mark up the new stock hence prepared, by maybe even up to 150% of the cost, to counter your reduced stock price, thereby making an overall profit from each sale you run.
To reduce the price of non-seasonal products, you will need to concentrate more on bulk buying. Nevertheless, if your products involve some in-house manufacturing process, you could go for a bulk making process for the range that is more popular. Though you would naturally not wish to put your business in jeopardy by adaptation of this simple system, it would be more rational to try it out only on items you are certain will sell well, rather than of involving your entire range of popular products, all in a single go. As products that you consider among the most popular range you have to offer need to be kept a little more exclusive, you would definitely not opt to bulk make them. These will be the ones that mainly attract your customers and make them repeatedly come back to you for ever more.
Your Third Step in Striking a Profitable Sale
Now, having come to a workable decision regarding the right time and the right product, your next task is making a decision as to the procedure you may best adopt in promoting your product and how to ensure that you run a profitable sale at the end of the day. This area needs working out items that have the highest probability of drawing maximum exposure to your business and who will be your precise buyers or target audience, as we professionally call them.
Your target audience will need to include:
· People who are able to easily afford your regular full price
· People who are normally ready to pay you the full regular price, yet would not stop at getting the same product on the cheap if possible
· People who would rather be called holiday makers, in proper sense of the word
After you have managed to figure that out quite effectively to your own satisfaction, prepare and target your marketing drive to commence at the right time. This should commonly occur either well in advance or as an alternate, in an extreme case, by the very first day on which your sale is planned.
Follow these three steps, and you will still live to thank CFAgbata for making your sale a truly profitable reality. Good Luck and we wish you an enjoyable business experience. Bon voyage!
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