Archive for December, 2007
I’m so incredibly happy to announce that our online boutique finally has the functionality for you to create your own personalized baby blankets. We’re now busy adding the new prints we have, but there are already a ton of new options. Plus it’s F-U-N to play with the different designs.
This is going to be a big advantage for online sales because:
- We’ve increased the selection tenfold. We’re learning that selection, selection, selection is very important for your conversion rate!
- We’ve increased the interactivity of the site – you can now ‘play’ with the fabric combinations until you find something you love!!! People are already spending at least an extra 10 minutes on our site, and the hands on “fun” will “stamp” our brand in their minds a bit better.
- It’s cleaned up our site, all of the blanket images are standard sizes, and we have more “calls to action”.
- We’ve standardized the templates so that it will be easier to offer new fabric options at any time.
So, check it out and let me know what you think!! We’re always open to feedback. And I have to give kudos to my husband who did all the graphic design work and functionality tweaks to make this possible.
I’m absolutely giddy with excitement, we’ve been wanting this functionality for our customers for a long time!!
** I haven’t forgotten about the sales tools, I WILL upload them soon.
December 8th, 2007
Training is going SO SO SO SO good. You know how when you first start working out, the first day is REALLY hard to show up for, but make it just a couple of days and you find that you’re almost looking forward to working out, and within a just a couple of more days you’re really breathing easier and lasting longer?? That’s how my week has been!
The first day was definitely about getting into marathon training mode- what do I need for a successful training session? What am I going to say? Who should I call first? (And of course the most nagging one that I DID NOT give into – “just start tomorrow when you’re more prepared”.)
The second day, I had a plan to break into it by calling existing clients. I spent some time working on my script for pitching new clients over the phone. I finished by calling a couple of boutiques I had visited before but had not sold to yet.
By the third day, I had a routine and setup – I have my coffee, my list of leads, my script, a working pen, my headset, and my notebook. I dial, take a deep breath and remind myself to smile and take it easy! I started making the cold calls on day three, and in the 30 minutes that I was really talking on the phone, I made two complete product pitches and got 7 direct emails and contact names to follow-up on. It felt so good, and each call got easier.
Today I was late for my training session because parent conferences at school changed our schedule. But I still showed up and I sat down and started making calls immediately. I got two more email addresses.
Jamie commented on my last post about me being too hard on myself (someday I’ll actually HEAR people when they tell me this, because it’s not the first time) but I really have to say that doing one focused hour on sales a day has enabled me to be a lot lighter on myself at the end of the day. I’m not beating myself up for what I didn’t do, I’m patting myself on the back for how much I did accomplish. Plus, I feel confident that when buying season gets here in a month, there are going to be a lot of new boutique owners who want to buy Baby Fabulous products – who wouldn’t have known about us if I didn’t start getting myself in shape for the sales marathon now.
This week I’ve created a phone script and a sales cycle tracking sheet, which I plan on uploading and sharing tomorrow so that anyone who wants to can use them as a tool!
Tonight I have to finish up my new wholesale / media kit so I can attach it to all the emails I’ve promised people!!
December 6th, 2007
That’s it – a new kind of discipline is necessary for me to increase our sales. Like a dedicated athlete who is training for a marathon, I am now putting myself into training for the daddy of all sales marathons. Just like an athlete would dedicate the same amount of time to pounding the pavement everyday, so shall I.
The first aspect to my training is going to be dedicating the 10 to 11AM hour to making sales calls EVERYDAY; and making appointments for Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. In addition, my training is to include sending 5 pitch emails every morning before the kids wake up, and writing a baby fabulous blog post at least every other day.
I realize that I can have all the “to-do” lists in the world, but they are useless without time constraints. I find myself saying “I need to call so-n-so” and then days will go by before I get around to it. No more, no more, no more.
Today was my first training session and let me just say that it was hard to make myself sit and focus on sales calls for an hour. Because I’m not organized enough yet. I need to have the list of leads ready to go at the beginning of the calling hour, along with a tracking sheet of what contact has been made, when, and the next action item – for each lead.
I also immediately realized how nice it would be to have a script. I kind-of-sort-of have a script worked out in my head, but I was stumbling over myself today. So I’m going to make myself practice that in the mirror, in addition to some standard responses to some typical questions and ‘nays’.
Sales is not my strong point at this point. I haven’t had formal sales training, but I still close the deal 80% of the time, so I know the goods are in me. Right now, I know little about setting sales goals and forcasting. So, I’m blindy setting a sales goal of a 20% increase in sales each month. I think I read that somewhere. I didn’t make it for November, which is what made me create my new plan of action and my new perspective on being a super-athlete training for the marathon of all marathons. I also didn’t FOCUS on making new sales in November, like I will now.
Next, I’ll find the hour to dedicate each day to designing!
Discipline. Focus. Action.
Discipline.
Focus.
Action.
December 3rd, 2007
