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Are You Already Tracking Your Lost Sales?
Originally published Wednesday, May 31, 2017
What your customers want versus what procurement projections say may vary greatly from one time to another. Giving customers what they want and when they want is as important as ever now that options flow in through all types of online sources trying to sell flowers by catering to specific needs. Some of the most common reasons as to why you might be losing sales can trickle down to:
Lack of On-Hand Inventory
This is the most obvious and common one. It really comes down to having the products requested just-in-time. Sometimes products are not available because they just weren’t predicted accurately by procurement but also because they were unable to source the product due to shortages and such.
Not Carrying the Flower Variety
Unusual requests do come in from time to time but its difficult to know how “unusual” a request really is if you’re not tracking it! You may be losing out on tons of sales because it seemed like isolated instances in which a specific variety was requested – but it would sure make a difference if those requests mounted up to a considerable amount of money.
Vendor Issues
It could also come up that the Prebook was already made and it was requested from the vendor but for some reason they cancelled the Purchase Order, or there may even be shipping issues involved here. Either way, if the product doesn’t arrive on time, it’s no use for the customer and you end up losing big.
Not Selling the Product as Requested
Another reason why your customers may be going to competition may have to do with packaging and unit types. If you don’t sell the product just how the customer wants it, they’ll go to someone that does. You might want to at least have that information handy to be able to make decisions later on.
Whatever the case here, make sure you have a system in place to properly track all the lost sales at all times. Good news is that it doesn’t have to be difficult. By just doing recording lost sales through Komet you’ll be able to methodically input the product, the date of product request, quantity, unit type. That way, you can later go in and run reports that can help you reconsider procurement projections, reach out to customers who needed a product once it comes in or make extra efforts to source products that are vastly requested.
The takeaway from all of this is that it’s crucial to listen to your customers, but it’s even more important to actually track it: write it down, put it somewhere, do something with it.
