Sales Tips

Selling to Holiday Decorations Retail Businesses

Today's top holiday decorations retail businesses recognize that every dollar counts. Here's how to sell to holiday decorations retail businesses in the current business climate.

As it turns out, holiday decorations retail businesses play by the same rules as any other type of business; they're in the market for high quality products at reasonable prices.

Don't be intimidated by the speed of the marketplace. Although speed is important, sales fundamentals and logical strategies will make the biggest difference in the success or failure of your selling efforts.

Casting a Broad Net

The first step in selling to holiday decorations retail businesses is to cast a broad net. Strategies that are isolated to the local market are not likely to succeed in an environment that makes effective of remote, technology-based selling tools.

Although a geographic concentration may be a useful strategy for new sellers, you will eventually need to broaden your focus to include prospects outside of your initial range. You can also broaden your prospect base by expanding your product line or by creating strategic partnerships with suppliers of complementary goods.

Marketing, Promotions & PR

Emerging B2B businesses are often tempted to buy their way into the market. Rather than taking the time to develop relationships with holiday decorations retail business owners, these companies blanket the market with high-priced marketing content in hopes of scoring fast conversions from buyers.

Marketing is useful and necessary. But new businesses should channel their energy toward initiatives that support their value proposition. Although lead lists obtained from third-party vendors like Experian can equip your sales force with targeted prospects, the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is limited to your team's ability to connect marketing, promotional and PR messaging with your company's unique product traits.

How to Evaluate Sales Staff

Periodic staff assessment is essential for companies that sell in this industry. Businesses that achieve significant market share recruit the cream of the crop and routinely evaluate them against performance goals and benchmarks.

Although annual reviews may be enough for other business units, sales units should be evaluated quarterly with monthly or weekly reviews of sales totals. Training, coaching and sales incentives can be useful for improving performance and revenues. In some instances, it may be appropriate to team underperforming sales reps with reps that have more experience selling to holiday decorations retail businesses.

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