Sales Promotions: Do's and Don'ts
Sales promotion is a method to promote the sales in
addition to standard merchandising techniques such as advertising or personal
selling, providing offers of free sample, giving gifts to the purchaser and so
on. In other words,it is a way by which the companies/business
owners/corporations rewards their customers which in turn helps in attracting
more customers.
Sales promotions should be done positively for the benefits of
the customers to survive in the long run which indirectly benefits the
business. As most companies deviate from this they negatively hurt and exploit
their customers which results in the downfall of the company's reputation and
sales as well. They only reward their new customers which rushed from the
promotional activities. This results in the reduction of the company's sales.
There are few of the do's and don'ts of sales promotion that a
company should look upon.
- A promotional activity should be simple and rewarding at the
customer's end. A small gift with the product is a good idea of promoting the
product.
- It should not be any of like a jackpot, gambling, etc. Like a
business saying, buy 50 packets of chocolates and get a chance to win one
million dollars.
- There should not be many terms and conditions.
- Though sales promotion is for rewarding customers, it should
also be of some benefits to the companies.
- It should be less costly and really rewarding for the
customers.
- It should make its customers proud and should provide better
offers than its competitors.
All these practices can help in providing better sales promotion
for a company. Besides this the decline of sales is because of the better
deployment of the sales promotion by the competitors. There are many times when
these promoting practices decide the fate of a product. A new product should
have a better promotion as to attract customers in the market. There are few
points that should be undertaken.
- Understanding the position of the product.
- Recognizing the advertising and marketing strategies for the
type of the product or service.
- Understanding the target audience.
- Analyzing the results of previous promotion.
- Keeping an eye on the competitor's promotional strategies.
- Giving benefits to the customers.
- Recognizing the strengths and weakness of the sales team.
- Define your objectives.
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