When sales are down the normal reaction is to hustle and amplify the power of influence, whether via traditional relationship based sales or targeting marketing to support an elevation of a brand, product or service and doing it quickly. 

When we are in these predicaments, one of the most important things to remember is that when sales are down, our ability to hustle and work together to gain results is paramount.  How we approach the hustle and what we do to promote our brands can make all the difference in generating leads, conversations and ultimately sales faster. 

In this post, we present you with 10 sales tips for fresh produce marketers to employ when sales are down:

10 Tips to Help Hustle When Sales Are Down 

1. Determine a 60-Day Trade Marketing Strategy

Use the power of the fresh produce industry media outlets using press announcements and advertisements to generate news and activity around your brand.  Consider participating in timely tradeshows and events and capitalize on face to face opportunities that yield immediate sales discussions.

2. Understand How Customers are Using Your Website

Use your website’s analytics to determine which of your existing and prospect customers are visiting your website.  If you are able to track your visitor’s behaviors by noting the pages, products and content that they consume, use this intel as a signal for a bigger discussion around sales.

3. Know What Your Competitors Have Cooking

Get a deeper understanding of what your competitors are doing in the marketplace and how they are communicating to trade and consumer audiences.  Taking a cue from their activity may enlighten you from a marketing perspective and help you sharpen your immediate approach to steal their thunder.

4. Help a Customer in Need

Oftentimes our biggest sales opportunities come from the people that love and trust us the most in the marketplace.  When sales are down, take the opportunity to talk to existing customers and help them solve their problems with concern, care and consult.  Find solutions to their problems with an approach that your company can solve (where applicable). 

5. Draw In Your Prospect Customers

A quick way to draw in your prospect customers is to communicate with them in a way that is passive yet effective.  Consider communications tactics such as newsletters and blogs to keep them informed and connected to your website (see #2) to garner cues that may help you formulate your next sale.

6. Amplify Your Social Media Game

Social media can be effective when approaching trade customers, particularly on LinkedIn.  Use this social media tool, as well as Facebook, to ignite conversations about products or promotions that you want your customers and potential customers to know more about. 

7. Drive Trial of Your Product

Embrace the power of consumer demand to bolster sales when in a dip.  Use nimble marketing tactics like free product give-aways, sampling and even social media promotions to ignite trial and demand for the products you intend to sell more of.

8. Use Geo-Targeting to Hone in on Key Markets

Whether you employ your website analytics or the power of social media, geo-targeting is an affordable and quick way to share helpful information to the right audiences in the right places at the right time. 

9. Tell Your Customers What You’re Doing

When in doubt, over communicate to your customers to inform them about the lengths and efforts you are engaging to ensure they have positive results in their stores or businesses.  If you are using geo-targeting in particular, share this information and your plan with your customers to prepare them for the lift in sales at their businesses as a result of your efforts.

10. Share Your Results

If you are hustling new business and find success with the tactics outlined above, use your experience as a case study to portray how success looks when you combine a sales problem with a marketing solution to help your internal customers visualize how internal teams can support one another on an ongoing basis to assist sales efforts whether feast or famine.

At DMA Solutions, we believe that by staying true to our mission and our purpose, our business is poised for success in good times and not so good times.  We weather the sales storm by being consistent, diligent marketers that [oh by the way] offer unparalleled customer service and measurable results to our clients.  During sales slumps we roll up our sleeves and get to work employing similar tactics noted above.  We know that if the results work for us, they just might work for your business too. 

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