HOW TO CREATE A SELLING CALENDAR
A selling calendar is pivotal to staying organized between sales-focused and non-sales seasons. This is important because you cannot be in a selling model all year, you will burn out your audience.
A selling calendar is a great tool to map out the weeks or months that you will be busy and when you will have some downtime. Use non-sales times to prepare what needs to happen before your next event. For example, do you need to order more products, buy more foam core, or replenish your fine prints? The slow times are perfect for taking inventory, restocking, reviewing your marketing and selling plans, and charging up for the next selling push.
Now grab your calendar or planner and start building a selling calendar!
1. Mark Committed Events
The first approach is to mark major sales events you already participate in or are anticipating. Some of these dates you may have already committed to.
2. Note Life Commitments
It’s important to include life and family in your business planning. On your calendar, note holidays and personal events that affect your business. It’s no use planning a big launch the same weekend you take a family vacation. Check out local and national events as well which will divert public attention away from your efforts.
3. Note Business Trends
For many creatives, November and December are big for holiday and gift buying. However, look at your artwork or products. Do any of them lend well to another holiday or season? Spend some time combing over your artwork and finding at least one date, month, or holiday that relates to an item you sell. Here are a few examples:
If you make custom scarves, these will sell great in the fall and winter so you would begin promoting these at the end of summer.
New Year’s is a great time to sell calendars while July isn’t, but July is a good time to start planning and building the inventory of your calendars.
4. Expand your Sales Strategy
Finally, put events on your calendar you want to participate in. Pair your calendar planning with a bit of event research. I am going to caution you to be realistic with this step. If filling the entire summer with festivals and sales is doable – then go for it. But for many of us, that’s not sustainable.
It’s easy to want to participate in something but fail to plan and miss the opportunity. Look into the deadlines for applying or entering these events and mark important dates on the calendar so you won’t miss them.
