End-of-year sales: How can I prepare my business for this period?
Now, it’s almost September, so it is high time to get the business in order for the most promising time of the year- the end of the year.
This becomes one of the most expected dates for those who have a business since it is the most profitable date on the calendar after all, it is at this time when Christmas takes place, which becomes the most important date for commerce, including dates like Children’s Day, Black Friday, and even Halloween, which has been becoming more popular among Peoples.
It is never too early to prepare the business for the end of the year. That is why, in this article, we will demonstrate to you how to deal with this time of year and use it to your advantage in order to increase your sales .
Come with us to find out more!
What to do to sell more at the end of the year?
Let’s get down to business. Planning is the key to selling more during the end of the year. The better the planning you do beforehand, the brighter your prospects are likely to be for your business.
For that reason, we have prepared some tips on planning for your company’s year-end sales. Here they are:
Before the Year Ends
All the planning for the end-of-year sales period will be done here. And with good planning, it becomes easier to make your strategies work and show good results. Therefore, these steps require special attention. Here are what they are:
Map the opportunities
All your company’s end-of-year plans should be based on your business’s goals and target audience . This is because this information will give you the direction you need to create sales strategies.
The end of the year brings together four important dates for retail: Children’s Day, Halloween, Black Friday and Christmas. Each of these represents a new sales opportunity, so they deserve a close look.
To map opportunities on these dates, you need to look beyond your target audience and the goals you have as a business, but also outside.
Here, you need to do market research, and, in addition to analyzing the competition , understand what the trends were from the previous year and how they developed, analyze what the possible trends are for this year, understand what your audience’s pain points are and how you can solve them.
However, it is very important to pay attention to one word here: viability. Sometimes, it is not feasible for your business to adapt to certain emerging trends. To avoid losses, it is important to observe what is and what is not feasible and try to adapt to meet the needs of your audience without harming yourself.
2. Understand and map customer problems
The end-of-year rush ends up causing many problems in customers’ lives: leaving gifts for the last minute, forgetting to buy something for dinner, looking for the best deal on a new appliance, not having a costume for Halloween… These are just some of the problems that arise at the end of the year and that you can help solve.
To make good plans, you need to be ahead of the curve. And here, that means mapping out all the pain points that the public may have and presenting solutions before the problems even arise.
3. Understand the demand
Once you understand your customers’ opportunities, trends, and problems, it’s important to pay attention to demand: estimating how customer trends and problems impact the need for products and services is a way to ensure that you and your business will be able to meet the demand that will arise.
And if you calculate the demand and realize that you can’t meet it, it may be time to think about expanding your business. But be careful: here, you need to be especially careful because errors in calculating demand can harm your business financially.
4. Plan the actions
You already know what your target audience might want, what their pain points are, and what the potential demand is for your business to meet the needs of this audience. So, it’s time to consider all of this and plan actions for the end of the year.
It is worth paying special attention to sales boosting strategies. In other words, strategies that focus on products that people buy most often as gifts or that have promotions aimed exclusively at a specific target audience. It is also worth investing in offers that attract the public and in freebies.
It is also important that your actions offer convenience to customers. Different payment methods, discounts, the beloved free shipping… All of these strategies are ways to encourage purchases and consumption by the public.
But don’t forget: all the benefits of your actions need to be reflected in the pricing of the products and services you offer. This way, you avoid losses and ensure your business’s profit .
5. Train and engage your employees
If you have employees, you need to ensure they are well trained to achieve the expected results at the end of the year.
Therefore, part of your action plan should be training and aligning your employees. They must have a complete vision of the actions that will be taken and need to know exactly what their roles are and how they will contribute to making these actions successful.
And, just as important as training is engaging your employees. Offer bonuses and prizes for the end of the year. This way, they feel more motivated to achieve the business goals.
6. Prepare your inventory
You already know what the expected demand is for this period, so in order not to miss the opportunity to serve your customers and sell your products or services, it is important to have a stock prepared to meet your demand.
Here, you also need to plan your finances. After all, preparing your inventory involves investing money that you may not have in your bank account at the moment.
Therefore, it is worth analyzing other options for preparing stock, such as acquiring credit from the bank or even using your business’s credit card to make purchases.
7. Invest in digital
Digital and social media advertising is a way to attract an audience that you cannot reach through local advertising . This way, you can increase your sales, reach new audiences and make your business known in other places.
Therefore, include a digital strategy in your plans, with good content that attracts the public’s attention not only on social media, but also in other places on the internet, such as emails.