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There it's Sue.
Speaker:And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.
Speaker:These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and
Speaker:things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.
Speaker:If you'd like to submit a topic,
Speaker:DME, over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped,
Speaker:I'm going to share with you a concept that I've been
Speaker:talking about for a while now,
Speaker:but I don't think I've ever formally defined it or explained
Speaker:the underlying reason why you would have this in place.
Speaker:So we're going to cover a concept that I call the
Speaker:sales channel panel.
Speaker:This is the key so that you can maintain sales and
Speaker:manage through all the different crisises that come up and sales
Speaker:blocks that we have.
Speaker:The sales channel panel is what was missing when we all
Speaker:got so caught off guard.
Speaker:Last year,
Speaker:I remember people who only did craft shows.
Speaker:All they did was sell face to face.
Speaker:And all of a sudden that was like our knees were
Speaker:cut out from under us,
Speaker:right? Because the one single way we always used to bring
Speaker:in sales,
Speaker:all of a sudden,
Speaker:just poof vanished like seriously.
Speaker:It was almost like within a week first we had the
Speaker:ability to sell face-to-face and then all of a sudden we
Speaker:didn't, this type of thing can happen in a number of
Speaker:different ways.
Speaker:It's not just what we just experienced last year.
Speaker:I remember three or four years ago.
Speaker:Now when Facebook went down for a short time or Instagram
Speaker:or down,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:Instagram went down for a minute and you would think the
Speaker:whole world had collapsed.
Speaker:And the reason is we were so reliant on one way
Speaker:to bring in sales that when that was missing,
Speaker:there was nothing else we can do.
Speaker:Having a sales channel panel in place is what's going to
Speaker:lay the groundwork so that when these struggles come up,
Speaker:when one way of making sales gets shut off,
Speaker:you are not totally defeated.
Speaker:You are not totally left without any options to turn to.
Speaker:And unfortunately,
Speaker:that's, what's been happening,
Speaker:not just once,
Speaker:not just twice.
Speaker:And I think when we get back onto an even keel,
Speaker:we just let things start to slide again,
Speaker:because we feel like maybe it's back to business as usual.
Speaker:And for a few months,
Speaker:I think potentially wishful thinking things did feel like they were
Speaker:really back.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we were opening up again.
Speaker:You could go into stores anywhere inside and not be wearing
Speaker:the masks.
Speaker:And now once again,
Speaker:what's happening,
Speaker:we're starting to restrict again,
Speaker:just last week.
Speaker:I found out that one of the big trade shows that
Speaker:I planned to attend was up and now guess what?
Speaker:It's down again.
Speaker:So we're going to go through another wave of this,
Speaker:which again,
Speaker:reinforces the reasoning behind why you would need something like a
Speaker:sales channel panel.
Speaker:So now let me explain and give you the details of
Speaker:what this is all about and explain the strategy.
Speaker:When you have a sales channel panel.
Speaker:Literally, what this means is that you have all the elements
Speaker:in place for your business to get visibility.
Speaker:Because if you don't have people knowing you exist and knowing
Speaker:what you offer,
Speaker:they never have a chance to buy.
Speaker:It allows you to way to communicate with potential customers.
Speaker:So prospects and customers,
Speaker:and then a way to capture sales.
Speaker:I define seven elements to a sales channel panel,
Speaker:and I'm going to share with you what these elements are.
Speaker:And then I'm going to tell you how the whole sales
Speaker:channel panel works together.
Speaker:The first element is a website.
Speaker:Obviously you have to have a website if ever you're going
Speaker:to conduct and close any business online.
Speaker:That's what e-commerce is all about.
Speaker:Second in person shows whether they're craft shows,
Speaker:farmer's markets,
Speaker:church, bazaars,
Speaker:sidewalk sales within your community,
Speaker:anywhere where you're selling in person,
Speaker:we can throw in retail shops.
Speaker:If you happen to have a brick and mortar shop,
Speaker:anywhere you sell in person is another element of your sales
Speaker:channel panel.
Speaker:Number three,
Speaker:networking groups.
Speaker:And I break this into two different categories here.
Speaker:Networking groups have a professional level.
Speaker:So these would be like your chamber of commerce BNI,
Speaker:which are lead passing type groups.
Speaker:And then you also have networking groups that are more social.
Speaker:It could be if your children are in school,
Speaker:the group of parents that you hang out with,
Speaker:or if you're in any of the committees within the schools,
Speaker:this could be a book club that you participate in,
Speaker:or a group that you work out with at the health
Speaker:club. All of these are social groups.
Speaker:And this is yes,
Speaker:part of your sales channel panel,
Speaker:because these are people who could potentially buy from you.
Speaker:Number four,
Speaker:in terms of a sales channel panel is connections that you
Speaker:have, that you could do collaborations with.
Speaker:So other people who are in your community,
Speaker:you sell to the same customer locally or other people nationwide,
Speaker:where you have a compatible audience,
Speaker:you don't sell the exact same product,
Speaker:so you're not competing with each other,
Speaker:but your audience would be looking at your products because they
Speaker:have similar interests.
Speaker:So this could be somebody who let's say has pampering products,
Speaker:and then another person who sells candles.
Speaker:So a customer who buys pampering products would also probably be
Speaker:in the market for candles.
Speaker:That's kind of the thing that they're about.
Speaker:So these two people could come together and collaborate.
Speaker:So this is another portion of your sales channel panel.
Speaker:Number five,
Speaker:having an email list,
Speaker:being able to communicate in that way.
Speaker:I will remind everybody that before social media there was email.
Speaker:That's how we talked with people.
Speaker:Number six,
Speaker:obviously. Yes,
Speaker:social media,
Speaker:the new still bright child that we all look at,
Speaker:social media and under social media,
Speaker:there are new platforms,
Speaker:different things happening all the time in that I'm calling it
Speaker:the element right of a sales channel panel.
Speaker:Interesting how clubhouse became so popular.
Speaker:And now what's happening.
Speaker:Interest is a little bit waning here on clubhouse.
Speaker:So you see how things will ebb and peak,
Speaker:right? And number seven,
Speaker:rounding this out is wholesale.
Speaker:And along with this are other avenues that spin off of
Speaker:wholesale, like consignment can artisan co-op that type of thing.
Speaker:So these are the seven elements of the sales channel panel.
Speaker:Let me restate them website in person sales,
Speaker:networking, both professional and social groups,
Speaker:collaborations, email,
Speaker:social media,
Speaker:and wholesale.
Speaker:We go over how to actually set all these up within
Speaker:maker's MBA.
Speaker:But my guess is you have several of these in place.
Speaker:Maybe not all of them,
Speaker:but several of them already in place.
Speaker:Nice. Here's the thing.
Speaker:When you,
Speaker:you get all of these elements in place,
Speaker:then you're in the driver's seat.
Speaker:Because then what you're able to do is adjust the intensity
Speaker:of each of these elements based on market conditions.
Speaker:Let me go back to the story that I was talking
Speaker:about in the beginning.
Speaker:So that person who was always showing at craft shows,
Speaker:and then when the shows shut down,
Speaker:she's looking around like now,
Speaker:what do I do?
Speaker:However, if she would have had these other things in place,
Speaker:if she would have been collecting emails,
Speaker:if she would have been showing up on social media,
Speaker:if she maybe had her product placed in some local areas,
Speaker:she wouldn't have been so singularly reliant on the craft shows.
Speaker:And so in this case,
Speaker:just to continue following the story.
Speaker:When craft shows went down to zero on the sales channel
Speaker:panel, because she couldn't do it anymore,
Speaker:she could increase social media visibility,
Speaker:sending out a few more emails,
Speaker:but when everyone was caught off guard and they didn't have
Speaker:any of these other things in place that the people who
Speaker:stumbled. And so what happened throughout the year is everyone was
Speaker:scrambling to put these things in place and use the strategy
Speaker:of the sales channel panel is to help all of these
Speaker:elements at the very least setup.
Speaker:And I'm putting this like this is level zero of the
Speaker:panel. And so then you are able to raise and lower
Speaker:the level of intensity of any of these seven elements based
Speaker:on what's going on around you.
Speaker:You're not scrambling having to put it all together and get
Speaker:it established from ground zero,
Speaker:but you are able to up the level of intensity,
Speaker:and this is the way you're able to survive and move
Speaker:quickly and do some pivots very fast.
Speaker:When things come out of left field that you aren't expecting,
Speaker:and it doesn't have to be a worldwide pandemic,
Speaker:it could be the weather came in and totally eliminated a
Speaker:craft show for a weekend.
Speaker:Or your website,
Speaker:heaven forbid froze.
Speaker:How do you get sales?
Speaker:If something like that happen,
Speaker:something's wrong with your website.
Speaker:All of these different types of things will allow you to
Speaker:recoup sales.
Speaker:And most importantly have confidence that you'll be able to approach
Speaker:anything that comes your way.
Speaker:And you'll be fine.
Speaker:Another way to think about this,
Speaker:those of you who use Canva,
Speaker:when you go in and you add a photo into Canva,
Speaker:you can do a ton of different types of adjustments to
Speaker:the photo,
Speaker:right? So you can change the brightness.
Speaker:The contrast saturation,
Speaker:opacity, highlight fading,
Speaker:adding a vignette,
Speaker:like all these different types of things that you can do
Speaker:that affect the look of the photo,
Speaker:but they don't change the base photo.
Speaker:This is a very similar strategy,
Speaker:just discussed in a different way of the sales channel panel
Speaker:because your company is the same,
Speaker:but you would just increase the intensity and lower the intensity
Speaker:on the different elements based on what you need at the
Speaker:time. It's still your business.
Speaker:It's still all your products.
Speaker:It's still you selling,
Speaker:but you're going out and you're reaching your customers in different
Speaker:ways with different approaches based on the situation at hand,
Speaker:again, the sales channel panel,
Speaker:when you have it all set up in this way,
Speaker:brings confidence and security to your business in an uncertain world.
Speaker:And no business can be more solid than that.
Speaker:That's a wrap.
Speaker:I'm a get to the point kind of girl.
Speaker:And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek
Speaker:sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream
Speaker:of yours,
Speaker:share your handmade products with us.
Speaker:We want them,
