Taking Advantage Of The Predictable Cycles In Your Industry & Your Locale
By Damien Parker | September 22, 2014
We all operate in the present whilst planning for the immediate future…and the humble calendar is the pathway of the immediate future.
Fortunately, the calendar is very predictable, so too is your industry (whatever it may be) as is the locale where you operate your business. They just tend to replicate events and anniversaries at the same time and usually the same way.
When it comes to marketing you can take advantage of these predictabilities and plan your marketing efforts twelve months out; and have a reliable template system which can be tweaked and perfected for many years into the future.
I am very strongly suggesting there is tremendous merit in developing an Annual Marketing Calendar where you will pre-think and devise strategies well in advance of what you will do month after month to generate additional sales.
When adopted and implemented, no longer will your marketing be abrupt, rushed, ill-conceived and haphazard; good planning of the opportunities/pitfalls and ample time to devise the individual strategies will see to that.
Your marketing calendar will serve as a map to guide you toward your annual sales goals. The calendar will help you coordinate your efforts. With it, you are more likely to be realistic about your time and energy, which in turn will help you make wise decisions. Your calendar will help you stay organised and be pro-active. Your marketing is more likely to get done when you take the time to identify what you want to do and when you want to do it.
To develop a marketing calendar, incorporate it into your current time management system. Some people find it easiest to use a wall calendar, others like a desk calendar or a computerized program like Microsoft Outlook.
Here’s a suggestion on how to proceed.
(1) Review The Past Year For Significant Events
Go through each month of the past calendar or financial year looking for reasons why sales did and didn’t happen. Specifically look for events that occurred because of:
- things that you did or didn’t do
- things that your competitors did or didn’t do
- things that just happened in the general economy or the local economy
- natural timing events such as Christmas, school holidays, Easter etc
I would highly recommend that you involve your key staff in this exercise as well. Get a large wall planner and use different coloured pens to indicate what happened month by month.
Guess what? Life is predictable. It’s almost guaranteed that whatever marketing efforts your competitors did last year, they will repeat this year as well. It’s as good as playing poker with them but knowing what cards they’ve got in their hands.
(2) Analyse The Upcoming Year For Significant “Timing” Events
Begin by recording all the public holidays, and as you are doing this, record the number of trading days available to you month on month. Some months have a smaller number of trading days which makes sales budget achievement all that much harder…that is, unless you are aware of this fact and have strategically planned a number of powerful sales generating events to plug the gap.
Equally think about the impact of events and weather patterns on the psyche and purse of your customers. Example: Many consumers max out their credit cards over Christmas and so the chances of getting easy discretionary sales during January and February will be slimmer.
(3) Analyse the events which happen in your local and national economies
Events such as the timing of tax payments, elections, budgets and such have a profound impact on the psyche and attitudes of consumers. People stop spending during the lead up to the elections and budgetary announcements. Why? I don’t know, but it does happen.
(4) Analyse your industry and your competitors
What are the natural sales cycles of your industry?
When are the major events of your industry held?
When do your customers and prospects have a burning need for your products and services?
When do they have the cash needed to make the purchase?
In slower times how can you stimulate sales?
What tactics can you employ to “gazump” the marketing strategies of your major competitors?
That last question should be studied carefully, for if you study your competitors marketing efforts in detail I will guarantee you there will be predictability and once you know what they are going to do and when, surely this gives you a tremendous advantage.
Here’s to more sales, profits and cash from your business,
Damien Parker
Business Improvement Specialist
www.salesprofitscash.com
Follow my Tweets: @salesprofitcash
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