376 – BASH – 4 Reasons Why Your Products Aren’t Selling

Gift biz on unwrapped episode 376.

And yes,

it's a bash At Tenten gifters bakers,

crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

Now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode,

packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow.

Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.

Hi there.

It's Sue and thanks for joining me here today.

If you haven't been to a bash yet,

hold tight.

You're going to get the full experience in just a minute,

but basically it starts off with a short training from yours.

Truly today,

the topic is why your product might not be selling.

Then we get into the showcases with other handmade product creators,

just like you they'll share some information about their business and

you have the opportunity to see how others present themselves and

also get to support others through the discounts they offer or

collaborations they're seeking.

The last bash resulted in some new wholesale orders and individual

product sales too.

And yes,

you can be part of a bash.

As long as you're an established handmade product business owner.

I invite you to book your spot,

go to gift biz on wrapped.com

forward slash bash and find one of the bashes that fits

your schedule as a handmade product maker,

you make the most beautiful,

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I'm honestly so impressed with your talent and you always put

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gift biz breeze.

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maybe even several times a day,

and you're discouraged because you aren't seeing any of this move

the needle for your sales.

I hear your frustration.

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of throwing in the towel on social media altogether,

wait, please don't do that.

Here's the thing some adjustments needed.

That's all you see putting in more time posting the same

way isn't going to magically bring in sales.

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Okay. It's time let's get into today's bash.

Welcome to our next gift.

Biz bash.

I'm here with some fabulous maker business owners that you'll be

hearing from shortly,

but as now is a tradition with the bash.

I'm going to do a little bit of training first and

today we're going to be talking about four reasons why your

product might not be salad.

And oh my gosh.

How discouraging is that?

When you spend so much time making a product researching where

to go for a craft show,

for example,

or putting things up on your website or whatever it is

and your product's not moving,

it's crickets,

you're not hearing or seeing any increase in your numbers.

So frustrating.

So I want to talk about four areas that you should

consider. If you're seeing this happening to you,

the first one is not having your company niched down.

And I like explaining this by a little bit of a

story. So let's say you're going to a craft show.

You walk into the show and you're looking at all the

booths and what they have to offer.

And you come upon this one booth and on the table

are handmade greeting cards.

Maybe there's some really pretty B2 jewelry.

And there are some macrame wall hangings.

All of these are beautiful unto their own,

right? But as the maker,

when you talk to the maker,

they are making all of these different things.

So just think about that for a second.

Just get a visual in your head of what that looks

like. Now you go on and you go to the next

table and at the next table,

all that is,

there are handmade greeting cards,

all kinds of different sizes,

different themes,

similar style amongst everything.

And you talk to that maker and her specialty is the

cards. She can talk about the paper that she uses or

her style or why she puts the sayings on the cards

that she does,

et cetera.

And so if you compare these two types of booths,

one against another,

you can clearly say that the person who's making the cards,

that is their specialty,

what's the specialty of that other maker.

Who's making all three of those things.

There is no specialty,

which really puts her more like a gift shop.

And so if you were looking to buy cards,

let's say,

who would you probably buy from?

You're going to buy from the person who is the expert,

who this is the one single focus of their business.

Do you probably buy from the second table?

Okay. So this added level of specialization helps you get sales

because people want to buy from someone who is all in

on one thing.

So this potentially could be a reason why you're missing out

on sales.

If you're making and presenting just a huge table of all

different types of things that you make,

that aren't in any way connected to each other.

You're looking more like a gift shop than a crafting specialist.

Okay. That's number one.

Number two kind of goes along the same lines of what

you're presenting out.

But this has to do with how many products you're actually

showing. And it's possible if you're not getting sales that you're

actually presenting too many products.

Have you heard the saying that a confused mind,

doesn't buy.

I've seen myself do this often where I'll go and I'll

be looking at something.

Maybe it's online,

maybe it's in person.

And there are just so many options.

It starts to make my head hurt.

And then instead of picking one,

because you always feel like you have to pick the right

one. You walk away.

There was a study done in Menlo park,

California by Wilson and sons.

And they illustrated this point perfectly.

So what they did was on one Sunday,

they were out at a show and they had six flavors

of their jams lined up where people could taste all six

flavors. They watched the numbers for the timeframe that they were

out there.

40 people stopped.

This is Sunday.

Number one,

40 people stopped.

And of the 40 people who stopped and tasted the six

jam options.

30% of them bought now the next Sunday they thought,

wow, how can we increase our numbers?

Well, we're going to increase our numbers by increasing the options

that people can purchase.

Thinking either people will find flavors that they like better,

that they'll purchase,

which will prompt a purchase,

or people will buy more,

all the different flavors.

The result of that Sunday,

number two,

same time.

So all of the parameters were equal like a science test.

They presented 24 flavors.

More people stopped.

60 people stopped versus the 40 from the prior Sunday,

but catch this only 3% of people purchase.

So 3% of people purchased when there were 24 flavors,

30% people purchased when there were only six flavors.

If you run the numbers out,

that's six times greater sales with less products being presented,

kind of interesting.

Another example of this from another big brand Procter and gamble

with crest toothpaste back in,

I forget if it was the eighties or the nineties,

they decided they were going to expand their flavors of toothpaste.

And they actually went up to 50 different flavors of toothpaste.

Do you know what happened?

They had been at 50% market share with just one flavor.

They dropped down to 20% and it was the first time

ever. They actually dropped in their market,

share below Colgate and here they thought they were doing such

a great thing.

You know,

adding all these flavors and it ended up backfiring on them.

So as you think about products that you're putting on your

website, what you're doing at shows,

just keep this in the back of your mind about how

many options you're actually presenting.

And are you confusing your customers,

your potential customers by just giving too many options.

Now, the solution to this can be that you can talk

about other options that are available.

Confusion can come with lots of different things.

You have too many sizes,

you have too many different styles or flavors or colors,

all those different options.

But let's say if you have sense,

so I'm going to go with my candles.

You know,

I use this as an example all the time.

Maybe you only present the top.

I'm just go with six.

Since we were talking about that number with the jams six

different sense,

and maybe there's two sizes with each of those scents.

Yes. You may carry other sense or have the ability to

make other specialty sense.

If you will,

and maybe not sizes,

maybe we'll just stick with those sizes.

You can always talk with people about that.

You don't have to necessarily though be presenting it up.

So just that point of confusion once again.

So that's the second point.

Now the third one.

Oh my gosh.

I know I'm guilty of this and I bet you guys

might be too.

And this is you spend more of your time making versus

marketing. You know,

it's so easy for us to make what we sell because

that's how we got into it in the first place.

We love just the whole thing of creating.

We love it's comfortable put some music on.

Maybe you listened to a podcast it's,

you're in your zone and you may,

but here's the thing you actually need to be spending more

time marketing than making,

because it's easy to build up inventory.

But if no one is buying,

then you really aren't in business.

You're not making money.

So marketing is super important.

Now here's the thing about marketing that I think we also

often forget marketing means you need to tell people who you

are, that your exist in what you offer.

Right? The thing is you need to tell people more than

once and I've been guilty of this too.

I think,

well, gosh,

I went in to give for this reason,

I told everybody about such-and-such well,

guess what?

Not everybody is in the Facebook group at the same time,

listening to my live show,

right? Or not everyone sees a post or shares a post

or gets the word.

And even if they did many times,

we need to see it over and over again,

before we actually get it,

understand it,

buy into it and want to acquire your product.

So you need to be telling people more than you think

you do because not everyone is listening all the time.

Plus think about it.

I mean,

how many people are multitasking all at one time?

So in terms of marketing,

tell them more often than you think on more channels than

you think,

you know,

you might say,

oh, well,

I'm not going to put this on Facebook.

Cause I already did on Instagram or somewhere else.

But actually you should be putting things everywhere so that people

get the message,

more marketing,

less making.

And finally point number four is not conveying confidence and the

belief in what you're making and how valuable it is for

your customers.

When did I do this?

Oh, I think I just did an Instagram post about this.

Showing the template for your elevator speech.

I actually call it an introduction message,

but an elevator speech.

I'm not going to ask for hands.

Cause I can't see everybody who's listening here.

But how do you feel when you,

when someone asks you the question?

Well, tell me about your business.

Do you like stumble a little bit over your words and

say, oh well,

you know,

and you kind of take a step back versus taking a

step forward and recognizing that this is an opportunity for you

to talk with pride about what you're making and what you

do. And I see this all the time.

I also see it,

not so much in the bashes cause you guys come prepared.

But when we're talking,

I don't know when people come to our booths,

Anita, you are often in the boot,

the trade show booths with me and we talk about business

and what do you do?

What do you make?

There are many times that people step back and they're timid

in presenting what they're doing.

I'll say the craft shows too.

When I start talking,

people will not necessarily initiate unless I start the conversation.

And I'm the customer.

So consider if you're not making as many sales as you

would like how you're presenting your business,

not even when you're just quote unquote on because you're behind

a booth or at your booth at a show.

But when you're out at parties and people ask you what

you do and you say,

oh, I'm in business.

And then you start talking really calmly or mumbling or that

type of thing.

No, you want to present your business with confidence and excitement

and knowing that what your product provides the right customer does

them. Well,

it brings beauty into their life.

If you provide something that's decorative that you are giving them

a meal solution.

If you make spices or meal kits or things like that,

if you have pampering products and you know that they're a

hundred percent natural and healthy and good for you,

you are bringing out and making things for us that we

want and make our lives better.

And that's what you have to relay in your conversation to

people. It's the mindset of the business owner and having that

confidence that it's going to make people have confidence in you

and the products that you sell.

So in summary,

again, the four reasons why your product may not be selling

first off as a business owner,

you haven't niched down to a singular or a small group

of products.

So you can be seen as the expert in that field.

Number two,

you present too many products,

so it gets confusing for a customer.

And then they just click off the website or walk away.

Number three,

you spend more time making than marketing,

flip it,

spend more time marketing than making.

And finally that you're not showing up with confidence and pride

and commitment.

And knowing that what you offer is a value to the

customer. You have to show that first versus I think we

kind of look for a trigger that people are going to

like and accept it.

We've got to be the one that presents it.

Okay. If you want to talk about this further,

we can certainly do so.

The best place to do that over is in the Facebook

group, gift biz breeze.

I'd love to have you come and join us there.

If you aren't already there.

For those of you who are here today and doing the

bash with me.

Any comments about this,

any thoughts or any questions we were just talking about?

Just let me know when you can unmute yourself and say

something. This is Gloria here.

I would say that I,

I, I would say that I have been guilty of not

marketing enough to be making more and less marketing,

but mark come in is definitely the key.

It has helped when I make that a number one,

focus. You see the difference when you're recognizing it and really

funneling your energy there.

Yes. Yeah.

That makes sense.

Excellent. It's really just remembering to do it,

putting it on your calendar and putting it in your schedule

or whatever to make sure you do it.

Any other comments?

Go ahead,

Anita. So I am a gifting company.

Okay. So if I would be at a local event like

that, What,

because I do offer a variety of different products.

What would I do?

Like obviously customers have been is our number one product,

but what would you suggest doing?

If I was asked to put up the display for a

local networking event to,

for the services that I offer ribbon is just one of

the things that we do.

It happens to be the number one product that we sell,

but that ribbon can be added to so many other different

products to enhance other products.

So finding that one product might be,

or one specialty might be a difficult thing for me.

Any suggestions?

Absolutely. So,

and you're in transition too right now of your business.

Absolutely. But I look at you and your umbrella is branding,

right? Like you are becoming a branding expert to get your

messaging out through gifts,

custom ribbon,

other products that you provide,

but your overall umbrella is helping other businesses brand themselves properly.

And getting that branding in a visual sense,

I'll say,

because there's so much more to branding than that.

But the visual branding aspect is your specialty.

So when you're out at shows or when you're talking with

people, the benefit is more than the product for you.

So that's the way I would think of it.

So then you offer different things.

You put ribbons on different types of products for different events,

or you provide ribbon for them to just be able to

put it on their products.

And then all the other things that you do too.

I think the overlay is branding there.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I have a question Sophie here.

So yeah,

so I do two different products.

One is craft kits and the other is paper earrings.

So about the craft kits,

I currently have two options,

which I have at crawfish.

I always feel like there's not enough options for them,

but then once you said that if there's too many options

in the needs,

do confusion.

I am doubting whether I should add more options are not.

What do you think about that?

I wouldn't because especially when you're doing things at a craft

fair, you want them to make their choice quickly and get

into the making.

But maybe what you do is at each craft fair,

you have different options,

only two.

And then you could also show them if you're enjoying this

making, then there are other designs that you could do online,

but it's specifically at the show,

no. Or at,

at your tables,

I would just do a couple.

Okay. Anita,

I'd like to add to that Sophie.

See for me,

and I know what you do,

but for me,

I look at your earrings and your classes are only two

major products that you're offering ended event.

When you look at yearnings,

even if you have multiple numbers or different styles of your

ex, they're all still earrings,

same thing with the class kits,

they're all still crafted kits.

It's still one product,

just different variety.

I just want to tell you that one expert,

Sophie. Exactly,

exactly. And quilling is your one specialty.

I don't look at it as having too many different options

in that respect.

That was going to be my other question.

Within hearings.

I have different designs and colors and that's that confused people.

If there are too many designs with too many colors,

I think it depends how much you put up.

I've seen the look of your displays and I think they're

perfect. I think it's fine.

There's a balance between too much and too little.

Right? And so,

as long as you are seeing that people are buying and

I know they do.

And you're also good at marketing off of that because you

make people put them on and you take pictures and then

you put it over to Instagram.

So I think you're fine.

But if you ever got to the point where you were

seeing that results,

weren't working,

not that it was the wrong audience,

like I know you had an experience recently where you went

to a show and it was the wrong group of people,

but where you're feeling like the audiences,

right? If you keep adding to what you're showing there,

that might be an issue.

But I think right now you're doing well at the shows

with both people,

learning how to Quill buying the kits and buying your earrings

too. So you are the quilling expert and we're going to

get to your showcase in a minute.

So I don't want to Rob you of your thunder here,

but you're known as the quilling expert and you offer it

in two ways.

People like jewelry,

that's done through quilling and they can buy it already done.

Or they like the act of making.

And those are two different people.

Not always cause I liked both.

But do you see what I'm saying?

Yeah. All right.

So with that,

why don't we go ahead and get into the showcases and

I promised you Sophie,

I wouldn't make you start because this is the first time

you've done a bash.

So Anita you've started before.

So Gloria,

I'm going to let you unmute yourself and go ahead.

And again,

what I'd like you to do is tell us who you

are and what your company is.

And then the products that you make.

If it's not automatically a parent,

something that's coming up and I forgot to say this in

the pre chat,

but this is actually going to go live on June 25th.

So we're recording this early.

So anyone who's thinking they might want to come and be

able to showcase their business.

Also, we record these several weeks before they actually go live.

So June 25th is when this is going live and you

guys are all listening to it right now.

So think about that in terms of what you have going

with the business at that point,

Gloria, and then where people could come and learn more about

you. So take it away.

After that long explanation,

Gloria with canes get past this and we're located in the

Myrtle beach area.

We help our clients to get things by staying top of

mind with their clients on they get the aspects I can

be reset,

can skip fast and start calm.

And we own all social media aspects.

What we have coming up as far as June,

we're starting to get ready for holiday season.

So come and check out our website and get ready for

those holiday gifts for your clients.

Beautiful. So Gloria,

are you more business to business?

So you're helping small,

medium, maybe even large businesses in their relationships with their customers.

Yes, that's what we,

we do individual gifts all of the time,

but we specializes in group gifting.

Got it.

Wonderful. Thank you,

Gloria. Anita,

why don't you go ahead and go,

Hey everybody.

My name's Danita Hassman.

I'm from the Hershey gifting company located just outside of Hershey,

Pennsylvania, and we provide unique gifting and promotional experiences to remember

special people,

life moments,

and special events in a unique and personal way.

Our number one product that we offer is custom printed to

ribbon where our customers can personalize a message that's printed on

ribbon, or even put their own logo or special event on

the ribbon for marketing purposes or for their gifting needs as

well. We are looking to collaborate with some other people,

especially some small businesses that want to we're really developing our

ribbon on demand service that will help small businesses or individuals

like promote a special event and hopefully get them to be

seen in a more creative and fun way.

You can find us@thehersheygiftingcompany.com

or of course on all social medias at the Hershey gifting

co. Perfect.

Perfect. And I do have something else.

We're not at any live events right now,

but we are offering a discount coupon with bash 15,

B a S H 15,

for anybody that wants 15% off their first order off their

first order.

Okay, wonderful.

So it's limited to the first order,

always trying to make sure that if we're offering any types

of discounts or codes and I'm telling mostly listeners,

also people who want to join the bash later,

you always want to put some type of a time frame

bracket and timeframe on these things.

Even if you're doing a promotion,

not the bash,

something else,

you always want a deadline.

This is what I learned way back in my corporate years,

because if you don't even the people who do like gift

cards, when you buy gift cards,

those are liabilities out there forever for you.

So you always want to bracket it with an end date.

I just had to,

I felt like I had to randomly jump in there and

talk about that,

Anita. Sorry.

And I have it set up that they can only use

it one time on the backend.

There you go.

Fabulous. So if anybody has any questions with how to do

that, let me know.

I'll be happy to show that.

Perfect. Okay.

Sophie, tell us all about you.

I am Sophie luxury and my business is Ms.

Paper across and as a was already told before I am

the paper pulling expert.

And for those of you who don't know what it really

is, it's a craft where you use 10 strips of paper,

you roll them up and then shape them into different shapes.

And what you can do with that,

it has like endless possibilities.

And the one thing which I do,

and I love is your earrings.

So all the earrings I wear is just paper quilling,

yearnings, which I make.

And I've been doing this as a hobby for almost seven

years before I changed this into a business because I saw

that not a lot of people are aware of what paper

cooling is.

And I felt like it wasn't the same.

There was like a void.

And I thought,

I need to make it into a business.

So more people can see the possibilities and for the crafty

people, they could experience it and they could do it with

their own hands.

So I do it in two ways.

And one is the hearings and you,

for those who are there on video,

you can see the new ones with temp testing and for

all the coffee,

people who want to learn paper cooling.

I have the craft kits and workshops,

which I do locally and across the deal.

So these are the two ways I offer my products and

share vapor cooling with everyone.

And I do have a code it's gift this stash for

a 10% off.

And it's valid till the end of July.

And you can find anything about me on my website,

on Ms.

Vapor, craft.com.

Perfect. And oh my gosh,

Sophie, I continue to be impressed with you and all the

creative designs that you're coming up with.

All the cool quilling,

the way all the little parts come together.

And oh my gosh,

they're so beautiful.

So impressive.

So anyone who wants to see also,

I'm just adding in,

jump over to Sophie's Instagram account and see what she's doing

over there.

It is talk about marketing your business and promoting.

It's just so entertaining.

Interesting. You get to see everything that you make.

It's fabulous.

So what's your Instagram handle?

The analysts,

miss underscore paper underscore craft.

Perfect. Wonderful.

So you guys all have to go over and check out

what Sophie's doing.

It's fabulous.

Like your reels,

your grid,

everything. Everything is perfect.

All right.

Wonderful. Well,

thank you for joining in today.

We were expecting a couple of other people actually double the

amount of people more than double actually,

but I'm thinking Saturdays may not be the best day,

but we'll see,

as we move forward,

remember if you want to sign up for a bash,

this isn't a replace situation.

You come on,

you're able to be part of the bash.

And it goes up as you're all listening as a podcast

episode in the future.

So that's how these bashes work.

I've had a couple of people afterwards be like,

well, where's the replay.

I missed it.

But where's the replay.

It's not,

if you want to be on the bass,

you have to show up to our zoom party live,

or you don't get to chance to showcase your business.

Okay. So if you're interested in showing up at one of

these future bashes the link to go and grab your spot

is gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash bash.

And I've just now put up a bash for July and

a bash for August.

There are about three weeks apart from each other.

The August one in particular would be really good for anyone

who wants to promote back to school.

I've specifically put it there because we'll record on a certain

day. The podcast will go out about two to three weeks

later, and it's perfect timing for promoting back to school.

So something to think about again,

and the link again is gift is on rapt.com

forward slash bash.

Those of you who are on here,

stay with me for a second afterwards,

after we stop recording.

And for those of you who are listening to the podcast,

I'd love to see you in one of our up and

coming bashes,

take care,

have a great week,

continue on making,

and I will see you all soon.

Bye for now,

Before you move on to your next activity today,

make sure to get your name on the list for at

least one gift biz bash.

You can see the dates and times for upcoming sessions and

get signed up over at gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash bash.

And if you're enjoying the podcast and would like to show

support a rating and review would be wonderful.

It helps spread the word about the show too.

So it's a great way to pay it forward.

There's also another way to get something tangible in exchange for

your support.

Visit my merch shop for a wide variety of inspirational items

like mugs,

journals, water bottles,

and more featuring logos images and quotes to inspire you throughout

your day makes a great gift to,

and we've just added some new products for the season,

which is my favorite design right now.

It's a toss up with that gorgeous lemonade image and a

quote about refreshing and the beautiful butterfly design.

What's yours turn around as quick and the quality is top

notch, nothing but the best for you.

Take a look@alltheoptionsatgiftbizonwrapped.com

forward slash shop.

All proceeds from these purchases helps me offset the costs of

producing this podcast and now be safe and well.

And I'll see you again.

Next time on the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reactions from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what,

aren't you part of the group already,

if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.