Planning 1st Half 2008 Promotions
To Increase Sales - Excerpts from the book,
"101 Ways To Make The Cash Register Ring!"
Bar/Nightclub Management & Marketing

Manager's Page
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Marketing

This exercise is just a part of a detailed A to Z tutorial on creating an action plan to increase sales from The New Manager's Survival Guide, "101 Ways To Make The Cash Register Ring!" Bar/Nightclub Management & Marketing, a powerful tool for creating traffic & increasing sales using proven marketing, promotions & operations techniques. Details here.

For 2008, I’d like to suggest that, instead of looking at each promotion you present as a single, stand alone event, you view that one event as part of a larger 6 months plan for your business. And, it's important to understand how each one of those promotions fits into the overall "big picture" of your marketing scheme.

Therefore, it's very useful to view each promo as a single step in a series of activities designed to build sales vertically on a specific day. Mapping a 6 mo. strategy allows you to see how individual promos fit together to positively influence the sales on a given day of the week.

What we're suggesting: that you not only look at the calendar "horizontally", Monday thru Sunday, but also "vertically"...... down thru each day for 26 wks.

What to do:

Begin with a week day that you identify as having potential to increase sales. For this exercise, let's pick Wednesdays.

Establish a beginning goal: Let's assume for this exercise that over the past three months, the sales have been averaging $1,000 every Wednesday.

Formula: Take the Wednesday sales for the 12 week period, total them & divide by 12 weeks.

In the budgeting process, you established a sales goal for each Wednesday beginning with Week One on January 2. Based on the information above. let's assume that goal was: $1,000.

From there, you might set two simple goals:

A. Double sales on Wed. from $1,000 to $2,000 in 11 wks. (increase sales $100 each Wednesday over the previous week)

B. Maintain that $2,000 a week level thru June 27th.

The fun part of this exercise is when you compute the additional sales over the $1,000 you were averaging prior to January 4. Here’s a quick look at how Wed. sales results would look for the 26 week period, beginning on January 2 & running thru June 27th:

Jan. 02 -        $ 1,000 - week 1 Jan. 09 -        $ 1,100 - week 2 <---snip-- > Mar. 05 -       $ 1,900 - week 10 Mar. 12 -       $ 2,000 - week 11 =======================

Total Sales = $16,500 - 11 Consecutive Wednesdays

Between January 2nd  & March 12th, you can produce an additional $5,500 in sales !! That’s a 65% increase over trend for Wednesdays in just 11 weeks !!

Add another $1,000 a week for the next 15 weeks for a total of $21,500 in additional revenue just from just one day, Wednesdays, over 6 mos. !!

This systematic approach to building sales can produce amazing results if you plan in detail & cover all the bases.

That's where we come in. On the next page (see link below) is our sample planner for the 1st half 2008. In this & upcoming months, we'll provide assistance in helping you to develop & work your plan, achieve your goals for success.

You can see the sales potential if you zero in on just 1 or 2 days. Then, with the right planning & preparation, you can, "MAKE IT HAPPEN!!"

The key here is to be organized, have a game plan. Promos are like little mini-stage productions: They need to be planned, budgeted, cast, rehearsed & directed. Just like in pro sports, each member of your team needs to know what his/her role is, what's expected of them. Ultimately, it's your team, your employees who make the promo succeed and, make cash register ring!!

On a link below, you'll find our prototype 1st half 2008 six month marketing plan. There are over 25 promo opportunities listed. You may choose to use any or all of these promos in your plan & arrange them to play in the days that you feel will best suit your own needs...... plus, add in a few of your own.

January - June '2008 -- Six Months Promotions Planner - You'll find it here.

Want to learn more? This exercise is just a part of a detailed A to Z tutorial on creating an action plan to increase sales from The New Manager's Survival Guide, "101 Ways To Make The Cash Register Ring!", a powerful tool for creating traffic & increasing sales using proven marketing, promotions & operations techniques. Details here.