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🧐 Are Your Sales Slow? - Here’s how to shift that mindset.

For this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 199 - Are Your Sales Slow Right Now?, we wanted to cover the question that pops up every post-Valentine's Day rush... the nagging feeling that your business feels slow and leads are down.

What gives? 😢 Why does that one baker post that this was their best Vday yet and yet you're nowhere near their "units sold" number? 😓 Is your business dying? 😖 Are you losing your edge? 😩 Is it market saturation? 😭 Is it... time to throw in the proverbial tea towel prop? 🧣

Here's the thing - feelings don't matter. 📉 Metrics do. Are you actually slow? And if yes, what did you water with your marketing efforts? 

💦 Corrie pointed out that marketing is like a garden - and we tend to water certain goals. 🌱 If you wanted to teach your first Valentine's Day cookie class, guess what - 📉  your customs are probably down - 📈 because your classes are up. 

I posted this in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group this week: 

• 😭 If you read that a baker sold 60 units for Valentine's Day THIS year, and you only sold 50 units - you'll feel like you're business is shrinking by 16%
• 😀 But if you sold 30 units for Valentine's Day LAST year, and this year, you sold 50 units - your business is actually growing, and you're 66% ahead of last year.  

🔍 Perspective is everything. Focus on the right metrics. That's what today's podcast is focused on - focusing on numbers that actually have meaning instead of your feelings which can switch depending on the weather, what's for lunch, and if your spouse was nice to you this morning.

📈 1. Compare your "this year" to your "last year."

Comparing your "this year" to a random baker's "this year" is a recipe for disappointment. You all have nothing in common other than selling cookies. Comparing your market in rural Iowa to my Washington DC market makes 0 business sense. What does make sense? Comparing how your sales were this time last year to the same time this year. You'll be able to truly see if you grew that bottom line.

👉 Remember - your biggest competition is yourself yesterday - beat that baker!

📈 2. Compare $$ to $$.

Instead of comparing "how many customs did I sell," consider comparing, "how much money did I make." The secret is this: if you raised your prices, you may have actually sold less but made more. That means an increase in your bottom line and a decrease in labor costs = a business win. Money matters!

📈 3. Consider where you focused your marketing efforts.

I had someone reply to the thread I posted saying, "My sales are down from last year to this year, what gives!" Fortunately, I'd seen their posts that prior month. They had started teaching cookie classes! So yeah - their customs were down (another reason to compare bottom lines) but their class tickets were up. In fact, they'd sold out three Valentine's Day classes - THREE! So where they watered = where it grew. And of course, the counterpoint to that is if you focus on something new, something old may not be in the limelight as much.

📈 4. Look at metrics, not feelings.

A lot of times I see bakers "feel" that sales are slow. Feelings are unreliable - heck, they say if you need to appear before a judge, do so right after lunch because judges with full bellies tend to be more lenient than judges who have grumbling tummies. Focus on metrics. Meta gives us a ton of free, easy-to-use metrics. Google Analytics also allows us to gauge without the grump meaning we know exactly what happened and why instead of goin' on an unreliable hunch.