For outdoor sales reps, the idea of selling products online can be daunting. But online sales aren’t a total replacement for sales reps. They’re a critical tool for expanding your reach.
Online sales tools are especially important during the summer months when sporting/outdoor markets have their famous post-Memorial Day lull. Recently, Cory Higgins of Jetty noticed that year-round orders are picking up in the years after COVID. Here are some tips to help sales reps match the success of peak seasons even when there “should” be lulls.
Tip #1: Use Online Platforms to Reduce Buying Friction
In the years since COVID, the wholesale digital e-commerce solutions are connecting buyers and sellers like never before. That’s according to Outside, which highlighted how these platforms connect retailers and brands beyond the thirty-minute trade show pitch.
Trade shows pitches are great ways to reach buyers, but they’re also fleeting experiences. That’s by design. A seller makes a strong pitch, connects with potential buyers, and hopefully closes new orders. But this isn’t always a sustainable approach to bringing in buyers, who might delay their biggest purchases until the next busy season.
Online platforms can turn trade shows into enduring opportunities to communicate with buyers. NuORDER, for example, connects retailers and brands with visualizations, purchase management, and merchandise inventories. An interested customer can discover a brand through a trade show and customize an order through the platform.
A buyer may want to place an order at a trade show, but won’t have access to the information they need off-hand. Platforms like NuORDER change that by making all relevant information available on-demand.
Tip #2: Using Shoppable Catalogs to Build Hype for Upcoming Seasons
“Lulls” are loaded words. Another word is opportunity. For sales reps, a lull is a chance for reintroduction and reinvention. Creating shoppable catalogs can introduce new inventory to established buyers—or even introduce entire brands.
A shoppable catalog creates a visually intriguing introduction to your store’s upcoming inventory. It reduces buying friction by making each image shoppable. As a result, a buyer can go from inspiration to filling out an order within a few moments.
Catalogs—using NuORDER features like carousels and videos—are superior ways to tell stories. Those stories can engage buyers during the “off seasons” to sustain year-round excitement.
Tip #3: Give Outdoor Retailers More Tools for Buying
If you want to move inventory year-round, you need to match your offerings to buyers’ needs. During the summer months, that may mean quickly editing your pricing. Or you may need to personalize pricing for brands who buy in the off-season, which keeps your busy seasons less overwhelming.
You can do that by using NuORDER to give outdoor retailers these tools. When NuORDER launched an enhanced Grassroots Outdoor Alliance retailer experience ahead of the November buying season, it used UX research and user interviews to build a platform buyers would love.
That’s how you can improve sales during off-seasons for outdoor and sports brands. It isn’t about relying on online technology to make the sale. It’s about promoting the tools buyers need to make those purchases during the off-seasons. With a great pitch—and great tools backing that pitch—you turn the off-season into a busier time of year.
