The New 3 for 99 Promotion

[mellisa]

New promotion

Areas Covered:
Scotland, North Wales, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Dorset, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, East Sussex, Kent, West Sussex, South Wales, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, London, Derbyshire, Cleveland, Durham, Cumbria, Shropshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire.
(Some advisor bordering these counties will be sent details of the promotion so that they are able to honour it if they asked about it).
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS OFFER IS NOT TO BE OFFERED OUTSIDE OF THOSE ADVISORS DIRECTLY INFORMED.

3 blinds for £99 – Pick and Mix from selected Verticals and Rollers

As we move into October and look ahead at the run up to Christmas, we have put together a very powerful promotion to ensure that our advertising achieves maximum stand out.

We have recently trialled a similar promotion in selected counties and this has resulted in a fantastic increase in leads at the expense of our competitors. All Advisors taking part saw an uplift in their sales with many converting £99 leads into orders at well over £300. We are confident that our 3 for £99 ‘Pick and Mix’ offer will do the same for you.

We have chosen a number of discontinued fabrics to use for this promotion and this allows us to offer them at such a competitive price. The overall objective of this promotion is to create leads with which you can use your sales skills to convert into higher value orders - it is not an exercise in selling lots of blinds at £99!

Please read all of these details carefully so that you are well prepared in the sales visit.

Timing

10 October – 6 November (orders honoured until 19 November).

Advertising

Regional press and leaflets First insertion date Thursday 13 October.
Last insertion date Thursday 3 November.

Samples are enclosed of both the leaflet and the regional press ad. In certain counties there will be ‘was/now’ pricing on the back of the leaflet.

The offer

The promotion has a very simple formula, allowing the customer to pick and mix from a selected range of discontinued fabrics from our Verticals and Rollers range.

Customers can make any choice as follows:
· Three Verticals
· Three Rollers
· Two Rollers plus one Vertical
· Two Verticals plus one Roller


As this is such great value, the offer is limited to one order for three blinds per household. As part of this promotion we cannot accept orders for individual blinds or for quantities less than three blinds.

Pricing

The chart below shows the fabrics and price points for this offer.


Product Fabric and shade 3 for price
Vertical 127mm Georgia Tangerine £99
Vertical 89mm Georgia Grass £99
Vertical 127mm Modena Gold £99
Vertical 89mm Manhattan Watermelon £99
Roller Chateau Leaf £99
Roller Jasper Barley £99
Roller Kahlo Blue £99
Roller Rivulet Terracotta £99
Vertical 127mm Clouds - White, Beige £149
Vertical 89 mm Clouds - White, Beige £149
Roller Clouds - White, Beige £149



As you will see, we have included a very attractive offer on Clouds, which allows you to sell up when you’re in the home and improves the value of the order. Clouds is one of our best selling fabrics and your customers will appreciate that this offer represents very good value on a main range item. The fabrics at 3 for £99 are priced to reflect the fact that they are from discontinued stock.

Enclosed with this mailer you will find the swatches needed to support this promotion with the exception of Clouds, which you will find as part of the full range in the Verticals and Rollers books.

Product Specification

Verticals will be supplied with silver headrails and grey components. The cord, cord weight and control chain will be supplied in white. The maximum width for Verticals in this promotion is 2 metres. The increase cost for a blind wider than 2 metres will be £30 per blind.

Rollers will be shape one only, no braid and supplied with a sidewinder. The maximum width for a Roller in this promotion is 1.75 metres and the maximum drop is 1.55 metres. We will not be able to accept orders for Rollers outside of this specification, as the very competitive price does not allow for the turning of the fabric.



Stock Availability

We have carefully selected fabrics with the highest stock levels in order to satisfy the demand that this promotion may generate at these price points. However, should we start to run low on specific options, we will notify you by text message. It is imperative that you stop selling that option as soon as you receive notification. SAM Advisors will have an automatic stop on these options.

Deposits

Wherever possible, full payment should be taken in advance or at least a minimum 50% deposit.


And finally….

Don’t forget that this promotion was designed to generate the opportunity for you to sell up the range and not to sell lots of blinds at 3 for £99. Please keep the following in mind when you attend the sales visit:

· You should take your sample bag and ‘At Home’ magazine into all appointments and only show the 3 for £99 promotion if customers ask for it. If they do, then please make them aware of the ‘trade-up’ option in Clouds fabric at 3 for £149 on both Verticals and Rollers.
· The promotion has been based on discontinued stock (with the exception of Clouds), which allows us to hit this competitive price point – discounts are not applicable under any circumstances.
· The offer allows for one order per household with full payment in advance where possible.
· All fabric swatches must be kept up-to-date and options removed as soon as they are notified as out of stock. Please do not offer substitute fabrics from the product books.

Please make the most of the leads that this promotion will bring and offer your Field Sales Manager as much availability as possible.

We wish you the best of luck with this great offer!

[phugly]

Hi Melissa,
My sample swatch seems to differ slightly from those you have detailed. Is it perhaps because they are different in some areas?

[Bear]

Sorry Mellissa---"Take Sample Bag into every appointment" is not really on. For a start it weighs a ton, and I cannot get it out of the boot!!! I have to go into the client with just the measure and SAM and printer and then fetch in sample books as conversation develops.

If any advisor says they are taking the sample bag in ( or up 4 flights of stairs!!) then they are a liar or a dreamer... Sorry

Does anyone reading this take the full sample case in to every call??

Bear

[glen]

YES, I take sample bag in all the time (minus opus, pleated & wood weave) have all brackets in there for measuring, measuring stick, tape measure, SAM, printer + paper order pads for none SAM orders.

Do not have any probs with doing this, cannot understand how you have probs taking bag out of boot when you have van lease ? ( not trying to be funny) what kind of van do you have.

And no I am not lying (honest)

Glen

[hereticus]

This is an old chestnut, but perhaps Marketing need to face the realities. Of course we don't take all the samples into every call, it just isn't possible !

Credit to Hillarys for trying to make the newer sample books lighter, but its still too much, especially if visiting flats or if parking more than about twenty yards away.

My strategy is to fill the bag with Vertical, Roller, Venetian, and Wood sample books, plus SAM, Printer, Price List, At Home mags, Conservatory & Awnings mags, Tape Measure, and Clipboard with paper and pen.

Everything else stays in the car unless or until required i.e Romans, Pleateds, Woodweave, Opus, etc. Customers don't mind that you have to pop back to the car - often they have already remarked on the heavy looking bag that you carry !

If I have to park some distance away, or if visiting flats without a lift, I generally have a quick telephone conversation with the customer to determine which samples I need to take in.

A suggestion - if your FSM does a field visit with you, stuff everyhting into the bag (all the above, plus sample blinds, plus measuring stick if you use one) and suggest that he/she carries it.

I know the official line is that we should take everything in but personally I would rather be out working than visiting the osteopath.

PS : I've just had this wonderful vision of a company sports day with all the FSM's doing a 50 yard dash with a full sample bag. What fun - hope they have St Johns Ambulance standing by !

[1234global]

instead of hillary,s banging on about taking sample bags on every call they should spend some time doing a health&saftey risk assessment because if anyone injures themselves they would be wide open to a law suit and fines plus compensation

[BEZBOZNY]

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[hereticus]

Can I suggest that we all adopt a standardised response to closing off sales leads resulting from the current 'give-away' promotions.

If you make a 3 for £ 99 sale then fair enough - not much commission in it but better than a wasted visit. If you manage to trade up and make a better sale then thats great, and full marks for salesmanship.

But what about the ones where the customer is just not interested in anything more expensive, or accuses you of bring a con man, or threatens trading standards, or simply had their hopes raised by an enticing ad but can't afford anything better (like the little old lady I saw this morning who's been saving £ 5 a month from her pension until she can afford vertical blinds but thinks Clouds is rubbish even at that price - I felt like giving her Acacia at less 50% but guess I'll have to wait another 18 months while she saves up).

In these cases there seems little point in leaving a quote because they are quite clearly not going to change their mind or be persuaded, so I have started closing the sale in SAM by highlighting the 'NO PRODUCT OF INTEREST' option.

If we all do the same then eventually someone somewhere might analyse the SAM responses and start asking questions - just another passive tactic to help highlight the problems being caused by these promotions.

What do you all think - or has anybody got an even better idea ?

[phugly]

Hi Hereticus, I have been using this closing on 2 for 99 since it began. If the customer is not going to buy at that price I'm b*ggered if I'm going to send it in as a quote, hence NPOI

[golfsthegame]

Me too I have also been doing this since day 1 of 3 4 99 promotion

[hereticus]

Great....that's at least four of us employing the same closing tactic.

Everybody else on board please !

[JoY]

I will now!!! Number 5!!

I have been leaving it blank, as I don't think anyone actually reads those messages. The "advisor cannot attend - please rebook" seems to get ignored anyway.

[BEZBOZNY]

We process the E01 and E02 responses and call back to try and rebook these customers, but we do not look at NPOI fail codes..............well, not at the moment anyway.

I doubt it would be in anyones interest to call back these customers. But that is just my opinion.

[JoY]

What about a new reply for SAM along the lines of....


"Customer did not buy... advisor accused of trying to con them."

Would be interesting to see how often that was used.

[gloryboy]

yep, i've been marking them no product of interest as well, assumed they'd be binned by HO and not direct mailed etc.