Christmas it is not. Halfmas is hot!
We can credit George Costanza with the term “Festivus” but I’ll take credit for “Halfmas.” A few hundred million people use George’s made up holiday expression and a few hundred may use mine. George wins but you, as a reader, can win as well. If you don’t do 35 percent or more of your annual sales volume in the 4th quarter of the year, it may mean you don’t do enough holiday business and there is business to be had. As a 48-year veteran supplier, and having always had product for the holidays, I can’t tell you the thousands of distributors who say, “I don’t sell greeting cards, I don’t do many calendars, I don’t sell Christmas.” Why not? 80 percent of all businesses buy something for the holidays and about the same amount buy greeting cards. So why are you letting that business go somewhere else?
“Halfmas” is the point on the calendar that is half way between the last Christmas and the next. It is the opportunity for a “grand opening” of your Christmas/Holiday selling season. Indeed, many major insurance companies and other big buyers have already gone to press with their 2016 greeting cards, calendars and planners, but those are the few companies who design and print their own. On the opposite end are the late buyers who wait until the order must ship overnight to be there on time. In the juicy middle is the vast majority of businesses.
The last week in June and first week of July is the time for you to let your customer and prospect world know that you want their holiday business. Why then? From the money side, most every gift, card, calendar supplier has launched an early bird sale. This can save your client as much as 40-50 percent off their holiday budget. From the delivery side, this will ensure the lowest cost method of delivery, again saving money. About health… there’s little doubt the holiday season is filled with stress. Trying to decide, order and accept delivery a few weeks before Christmas increases unhealthy stress and is a needless problem consuming more valuable time than the summer. All sorts of problems occur with late decision making and delivery.
As a “gift consultant”, the doors to your 2016 Holiday Gift, Greeting Card and Calendar Collection should be ready on or about July 1. Your objective is to put together a limited, beautiful and well thought-out collection of holiday gifts from the right suppliers, at the right price and with the right incentives to stimulate a buy. Here are your preparatory steps:
1) Purchase a one- or two-inch loose leaf binder. Leather looks great. A photo album from a store like Michaels works even better. Take the time to make it look professional and upscale. If you have a sales team, make a binder for all. This binder will serve you for years as it is reusable. You do not want to use catalogs or even a search engine. You want a limited collection reflecting your choices.
2) Identify your key holiday suppliers for the basics such as food, crystal, glassware, calendars, and greeting cards. Ask these suppliers for advice on their best sellers. Your presentation must have a concentration of tried and true gifts. Look for products where you can get, or have, preferential pricing. Ask your supplier what they may have on early bird. Ask them if they will give you special pricing for the summer. You will find many who agree if you let them know what you are doing and how they can gain.
3) Identify what you or the market consider the “hot items” of the year. Not everything hot is a gift. Gifts do not need to be, and really should not be, branded. Being able to personalize the gift with a name or initials makes it a better gift. Items coming in some sort of box or gift wrap make it a better selection. The key to finding “hot new items” is to select ONLY FROM PROVEN SOURCES. The last place you want to go is to a no name importer in California who will not have stock, has poor customer service, and doesn’t even understand your business. These “vendors” may be fine, but not in the time-pressed holiday season.
4) Look to put together about 50-75 gift items. Be sure to have a few gifts priced at $500, $400 on down. Just a few on top and the major concentration at $50 and lower. Most of the volume is well below $50, but you will find bigger spenders and clients willing to stretch their budgets. Remember the bigger the company, the more buyers you will find. The Chairman of the Board may not be your client, but contact his or her administrative assistant and you’ll find a buyer for “board of director gifts.” Even the accounting department may be a buyer. Your job is to get intra-client referrals and as many as you can. A major oil company had 75 different buyers at an end-user show. They all wanted something for the holidays.
5) Once you have assembled your collection, take JPEGs of the products off line (high resolution only), or better, ask your supplier for a clean 300 DPI JPEG of the product. Clean means no sales copy, no pricing, no ID of the supplier, nothing but the image. Print that image in color on an 8-1/2” x 11” sheet. Slip that print into a sheet protector you can purchase from an office products store to use as an album page.
6) Assemble your binder. Put the sheet protectors with a picture showing on both sides into your binder. The first page should be the most expensive and be followed by all other gifts in price descending order. As you will be showing the collection, you will leaf down to the lowest cost item, but you never know where your client may see something and spend a little more than budgeted. I strongly recommend you make a PowerPoint or flip album presentation with the same images. This is a perfect attachment to your e-mails and your campaigns in a digital world.
7) Back it up. The back of the binder is the only place you should have any printed materials and catalogs. Here is where you put a calendar, a planner and a greeting card catalog (Acclaim Greeting Cards from Soundline – a commercial plug for this writer). So where are the prices, etc.? On a cheat sheet you have, but the client does not see.
8) Launch your selling season at “Halfmas.” Do it with a campaign using e-mail, snail mail and social media. Write a column for the business section of your newspaper, business newsletters in your area and your social networks... “What’s Hot for the 2016 Gift Season”. That kind of press will make you the go-to authority and get you tons of business. Think, not politically, but think Donald Trump, the grand master promoter. Send an invitation to view your 2016 collection. You are like a couture designer introducing their new line.
9) Grab the phone. Make calls about 5 days after your campaign launch and seek appointments. “Holly”, you say, “Now is the best time for you to order your holiday gifts. I can save you a lot of money with early order incentives. I will save you a lot of stress and frustration that comes every year. We will ensure inventory, the least expensive way to get it delivered to you, and on to your gift list. How is next Tuesday?”
In all, this campaign should take you about eight to 10 hours to fully prepare. This is not an idea, but a proven method of adding a significant amount of holiday business to your annual sales volume. The effort is a bit intense the first year, but becomes easier the next year and years ahead. Many gifts are annual staples and you may need to replace on 50%.
The take away!
As a former sales manager, I can’t accept “I don’t sell... ” unless you have more volume than you can handle. Were I a current sales manager, I would ask, “Is there any other time that 80 percent of all the customers and prospects in the business world have a common need for product from you?” This is our season, our best season. Happy Halfmas and here’s to your best year ever. Only you can make it happen.
Joel D. Schaffer, MAS is CEO and Founder of Soundline, LLC, the pioneering supplier to the promotional products industry of audio products. Joel has 48 years of promotional product industry experience and proudly heralds "I was a distributor." He has been on the advisory panel of the business and marketing department of St. John’s University in New York and is frequent speaker at Rutgers Graduate School of Business. He is an industry Advocate and has appeared before the American Bankers Association, American Marketing Association, National Premium Sales Executives, American Booksellers Association and several other major groups. He has been a management consultant to organizations such as The College Board and helped many suppliers enter this industry. He is a frequent contributor to PPB and Counselor Magazines. He has facilitated over 200 classes sharing his industry knowledge nationwide. He is known for his cutting humor and enthusiasm in presenting provocative and motivating programs. He is the only person to have received both the Marvin Spike Industry Lifetime Achievement Award (2002) and PPAI’s Distinguished Service Award (2011). He is a past director of PPAI and has chaired several PPAI committees and task forces. He is a past Chair of the SAAGNY Foundation, Past President of SAAGNY and a SAAGNY Hall of Fame member. He was cited by ASI as one of the 50 most influential people in the industry.