How to Sell More T-Shirts in 23 Days–Day 6

 

It’s day six, time for a quick review of the last five days. If you’ve been following along we’ve established the following to do list so far:

1. Find your niche–find a need in the marketplace and fill it.

2. Become an expert–understand the features and benefits of the products and services you offer.

3. Know your competition–what is your biggest advantage to your customer compared to your competitors?

4. Develop a quality presentation–know the answer to the question “Why should I buy from you?”

5. Provide an experience for your customers–what are you doing to make it fun, easy and memorable to do business with you?

If you’ve been brainstorming and writing down your responses to these five questions, you probably have generated a lot of ideas on things you can do to sell more t-shirts. Which leads me to my next “how-to” idea.

DAY 6

Get a Calendar

Get a calendar (here is one site if you want to order one online, or just go to your local office supply store. There are calendars available that start in August! )and start making a real plan. You don’t need a computer program or a book on marketing. With an inexpensive 12-month calendar and a piece of paper in front of you, answer the following questions:

• Who are your customers? Who currently buys from you?  Schools, teams, coaches, businesses?
• Are these sales seasonal? If yes, make a note in your calendar. For example, if you normally sell to schools in the fall, indicate that you should do a marketing activity in mid to late summer to remind your customers that you do business. If you would like to go after the family reunion market or the summer camp market, make a note to do some kind of marketing activity in the spring. If you already have one season where you are busy for several months, you might want to concentrate on building sales in your not-so-busy season.
• On the calendar you can also make notes about new markets or specific customers you would like to go after and pick a date to do it. For example, if you decide to target construction businesses or landscaping businesses, pick a month that is appropriate to target this niche with a marketing activity. The marketing idea might be as easy as putting an ad in your church bulletin.
• Think of businesses that wear printed t-shirts—salons, restaurants, delivery services, grocery stores, gas stations, car washes.  Who are YOU doing business with? Do they need shirts?
• In your calendar, make note of local events that take place in your community. Are any of these events places where you could sell shirts?  When does school
  start? When does baseball or basketball season start? When are you going to make time to call your best customers? When are you going to take your
  last order before the holidays? This date is important, because when you commit to a date, you have given yourself a reason to call customers and
  let them know that this is the last possible date they can place an order. Are you starting to see the value in the calendar?