End of the year sale???
I wonder what they're talking about?
I was reading the newspaper on Friday and
saw a bunch of multi-page ads for department
store sales this weekend.
One of them, from a well known department
store in New York City, declared it their
"End of the Year" sale.
End of the year? End of the year on whose
calendar?
Then I remembered something that I haven't
had occasion to talk about much recently...
the wisdom of department stores.
*** Old school/street smart
It's easy to scoff at department stores
as dinosaurs of a bygone era.
Who knows, with the Internet's ongoing
ascendence, they may die out.
But they ain't dead yet. Not by a long shot.
They have massive real estate holdings,
superhuman buying power, and the means
to own the prime age real estate of every
local newspaper in the country (if not
the world.)
So rather than scoff, it'd be better to watch
and learn.
*** How to have a sale
Sales - correctly timed - are a good thing.
Inventory on your shelves in like a negative CD.
It's frozen money that not only earns nothing, but
costs you to carry it.
Department stores with their ferocious overhead
and finite shelf space are the masters of blow out
sales.
They key to making a sale work (besides promoting
the heck out of it) it so have a pretext, also known
as a reason why.
Buyers are rightfully wary of discounted goods.
"What's wrong with it?" is often the first question that
pops into their minds when they see a big discount.
So if rule #1 is never let inventory grow dust, then
Rule #2 is always have a "good reason" for a sale.
*** The ticking clock
In the old days, lots of Internet marketers used to
put ticking clocks on their order pages with actual
countdowns.
Is that a good idea?
Answer: It might be for your offer. It might not. The only
way you'll ever know is if you test it.
But what is ALWAYS a good idea is a sale with a
natural deadline.
Here's the reality of human life:
*** NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT A DEADLINE
Now that may not be literally true, but if you look
at all the major things that happen in life, they happen
because there's a built in deadline:
* If you know your wife is expecting in September,
you know the nursery has to be ready then, not
in November.
* If you're moving money from one IRA custodian
to another, you know you have 60 (or 90, I forget
which) days to have with the new custodian or
the IRS knocks on your door asking for its instant
40%.
* If you put in a few pounds eating too well over
the winter, you know you have until June to get it
off if you want to appear in public in a bathing suit
(oops, too late for that one...)
The bottom line is the deadline is the most powerful
motivational tool on earth.
*** There is always a deadline
Department stores figured this out over 100 years
ago.
So did greeting card companies and candy
manufacturers. (They even had a hand in
inventing some of the big gift giving holidays we
celebrate today.)
Holidays...there is always a holiday coming up...
and - here's the key - holidays create natural
sales deadlines.
It doesn't make much sense to buy your Mom a
Mother's Day card in late July, does it?
No. Mother's Day falls on a particular day and that
reality sends tens of millions of people scrambling
every year on a buying binge.
And Valentine's Day candy? Does anyone ever
buy and give it in November? Nope. You gotta get
it by February 14. Natural buying frenzy.
*** Happy Holiday Day
Since Rule #2 says you should always have a good
reason for a sale, all you really need to do to declare
a plausible sales event is look at the calendar.
We just missed July 4, but in September it's...
"The Back to school" sale.
October...Halloween
November...Thanksgiving
December...Christmas
January...New Years
February....Presidents Day, Valentine's Day
March...St. Patrick's Day
You get the idea.
If you can't come up with a plausible reason for
a sale just about any day of the year, you're just
not looking hard enough.
Companies can have anniversary sales and
it's not a bad idea to have an annual customer
appreciation sale.
*** The Pre-Publication Sale
Publisher's have a unique opportunity for sales.
The Pre-Publication sale.
Here's how it works...
Your product is ready to ship, but you haven't geared
up the big promotion yet.
A pre-publications sale lets you kick off your sales effort off
*quietly* by offering your smarter buyers the chance to get your
upcoming release at a super discount.
This is a great way to rewards the folks in your circle
who already know what you're all about and look forward
to getting in on every new thing you do.
Speaking of Pre-Publication sales, you know you missed
The System Seminar 2008...
You've been wanting to come to a System Seminar for
years, but circumstances just never clicked.
Or maybe you're a System veteran and you - foolishly -
missed this one.
I say "foolishly" because we were so far out of the pack on
this one that it will take the rest of the Internet world YEARS
to catch up.
But you probably already know that.
If you want to take a look and see what this pre-publication
offer is all about, you can take a look here:
http://www.thesystemseminar.com/2008/cds/
Ken
P.S. I still can't figure out how this weekend
qualifies as an "end of the year sale."
But you know what?
It didn't matter.
I bought anyway - and I got some good deals too :-)
http://www.thesystemseminar.com/2008/cds/
Ken McCarthy
The System Seminar
---------------------------------------------------------
* London UK - System Intensive November 15 & 16, 2008
http://www.SystemIntensive.com
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http://www.KensCatalog.com
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http://www.RealMarketingBooks.com
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