The worst week I've had all year for sales...(this week)

Yeah, interesting thread. I do not accept that it's anything to do with the economy. My buyers are global and the product price is not going to put them out of pocket by any means.

Plus, I can accept CB might have "issues", but that doesn't account for my own in house payment processing, unless Paypal also have "issues" at the same time.

I kinda like it though...makes me sit up and pay attention. I work much harder when I feel that beer money might be limited at the end of the month.

I just quickly read some of the links relating to this CB issue.

Did anyone actually email CB and ask them directly if there is an issue?

Seems a lot of evidence to suggest sales are not tracking or at least not processing...

Aaron

hi,

there seems to be an issue with CB as this has been posted on various other forums too. im sure CB will check & fix & must have so many emails too!!

How the heck do I know if that's happening? What's the best way to seek and destroy?

I don't believe it has anything to do with tracking or sales registering with CB. I made a personal recommendation for a product on CB to one person several days ago, and saw in my stats the next day that they had purchased.

John

Bingo. There is no confidence killer like weakness in the financial system. It's not just the economy. There are many factors to the overall picture which kill buyer confidence.

Additionally, it is normal for some weakness in sales in the 2-3 months before elections. This happens every 4 years. It won't matter who's elected, most will heave a big sigh of relief just knowing who the next U.S. President will be (remember, that does have a significant international influence now), and that alone will restore some confidence and loosen some purse strings.

Hang in there, guys. This is a rough patch, but it will get better.

Bailey

And interestingly, PayPal looks pretty constant apart from a spike over the summer.

paypal.com - Traffic Details from Alexa

Cheers,

Neil

How do we know people aren't uninstalling the Alexa toolbar or upgrading or switching to new browsers that may not have it?

See now, I don't think of attributing the drop to an external influence (such as the economy) as saying I don't control how much money I make.

Rather, those external influences provide essential clues how to better connect with my customers.

I believe the marketing message is going stale BECAUSE OF factors like the economy, credit crisis, etc. The marketing message has to be brought up to date to better speak to current issues and our customers' current worries.

Like it or not, the world does change, constantly, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. But no matter what is going on, good or bad, we as sellers must tailor our marketing message to keep our products pertinent. If we don't keep up with the times, we'll get left behind.

Bailey

Good answer Bayo.

I was promoting ebooks on a review site and sales dropped to zero. They were all available for free with a simple google search. That's what I get for promoting old products.

Now, my other sales have dropped too so I think people not having extra spending money because of the economy is hurting some niches.

Hello,

I've been in consumer sales for 30 years. I'm not talking about at a retail level but about direct in-home selling.

There are good months and there are bad months. There are good years and there are bad years.

If anything I have learned, that it is the attitude of the salesman more than anything else that determines whether there will be a sale or not.

Here is an interesting story that you might enjoy.
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The Hot Dog Man and the Recession

Once upon a time, there was a good man, who had worked hard all his life. He disliked his work. It was not rewarding. His boss was never happy. But he worked hard. Until, one day, this man decided he had had enough, and he quit.

He just walked out. He went home and told his wife. She cried.

How are we going to send our boy to college", she asked? The man thought for a minute and then said, "I will think of something". After a while, he decided to do something he has always wanted to do. He would sell hot dogs on the street corner from a little hot dog cart on wheels.

He took his savings and bought a hot dog cart. His friends were not too sure about this. But the hot dog man started selling hot dogs on the street corner, in his hometown. They were good hot dogs. Best quality. Not cheap, but he charged enough to pay for them. Things went pretty well right from the beginning

People liked his hot dogs. He always made sure to have plenty of fresh ketchup and mustard and onions. Every customer got a smile with their hot dog.

He did very well, and soon more people wanted his hot dogs. More than he could serve. So he bought another hot dog cart. His son pushed the new cart. He made good hot dogs too.

And every one of the Son's customers got a smile and a thank you to go with their hot dog. The hot dog man made sure to teach his son about this. The two did well, and saved the money they made, until it was time for the boy to go to college. There was enough money to send him to school even if the hot dog man paid another young man to push the second cart.

"Give them a smile with every hot dog," he told his first employee. It worked fine.

This gave him an idea. He bought a third cart and hired a second employee.

Every year the city grew and every year he added a few more carts. The hot dog man's company did very well. Buns and dogs were coming in bigger trucks these days. He was glad the son decided to study business in college. Their hot dog company was hiring more and more people and getting bigger and bigger. It would be great when the son returned home with all that college education to help him manage it.

The big day finally arrived. The son came home from college. Dad was excited. Mom too. There was a BIG Party. Everybody came.

Then it was time to get to work. But the son was not interested in working in the hot dog company. He wanted to do something more grand. The hot dog man was sad.

But then he asked, "Can you just look over our books and give me some advice?"

"Sure", said the son, while looking at his watch.

"Things are going pretty good", said the hot dog man. He got the books and paperwork out to proudly show the son what they had become while he was gone.

The son looked things over and thought for a minute. Then he said, "Gee, Dad, you have an awful lot of hot dog carts. And Expenses."

Then he asked, "Don't you know a Recession is coming?". The hot dog man did not know what a Recession was, so he asked.

The son explained what he had learned in college about Recessions. The hot dog man shook his head in amazement.

He thought things were OK, but his son was just out of college. The hot dog man had worked a lot of hours to pay for that college education. He thought surely the college people knew more about business than he did, so he listened.

The son said, maybe you should mothball a few carts this season...

So that is what the hot dog man did. After a month or so, sales were down.

The son and the hot dog man looked things over again. The son said they should cut advertising expenses a little.

The hot dog man was sure the son must know about these things, So that is what they did. Sure enough, sales went down.

A few months later the books were worse. The Son said profits were being squeezed by the Recession. He said they should buy a cheaper hot dog. Save a little money. So they did. Sure enough, Sales went down.

After a while the son looked again at the books. Again. He said, "Gee Dad, you're not making much money. Maybe you should cut payroll a little. So they laid off a few employees. The ones who stayed on were not too sure what would happen next. They stopped giving a smile with every hot dog. And sales went down even more.

Things were gloomy until the hot dog man had a great idea. He called all his employees together. Even the ones that had been let go. He told them something like this. "Sometimes things are easy and sometimes things are hard. It's easy to lose your way when things are hard." He admitted that he had been scared by this recession.

Then he went on. "Things have been hard lately. BUT, we are going to go back to doing what worked before. We will buy a better hot dog. We will run a few ads. We will get all the carts out of storage. And everybody will have a job. I don't care what it costs." Only one thing", he added, "Ya gotta give every customer a smile with their hot dog". They promised they would. And so they did.

Sure enough... sales went up.

And they keep going up to this very day.
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if anything I have learned that in bad times I just have to do more. What I mean by that is that if I normally write five articles to generate traffic now I might need to write 10.

I need to increase my activity because of bad times. In slow times closing rates become smaller so I may need to talk to more people or in the case of Internet marketing, I need to generate more traffic.

These are the times when you make sure everything that you think is working is really working.

In good times you get tend to get lazy. Sales are good people are buying.

Lean times make you stronger.

There's an old Russian proverb...

The same Hammer that shatters the glass -- also forges the steel!

MadMoney

As this year is ending soon, will sales dip too, especially when it is in December due to festive season?

I heard that sales do go up in January because it is once again time for many to make new year resolution.

John

In the past (in the IM niche) I have found that sales increase when people are on holiday from their day jobs and working on their online businesses.

Last year, the week between Christmas and New Year (including Christmas Day!) was busy sales-wise for me.

When you can find a reason why some people aren't buying (eg they have spent all their money on Christmas presents), you can usually find a reason why others are (eg they are on holiday from their day jobs and are spending time on their online business).

Cheers,

Neil

In salesmanship what is ultimately important is your attitude. Attitude determines your Altitude.

Instead of seeing a bad week of sales, why not see a challenging week to upgrade sales performance?

Instead of saying it’s a bad day of sales, why not say it a day for more improvement?

Instead of thinking “I cannot make sales today,” force your thought to concentrate on the benefits that will come from successful sales.

Instead of listening to woos, failures and obstacles others tell about their sales, leave the place to where you will hear stories of laughter of joy, success and opportunities for more sales.

Do not sit idle bemoaning your circumstances, get up and dust yourself for a better tomorrow…

That is the spirit of successful salesmanship!

Adiari Captain.

Had to laugh when I saw this thread...

I've had times when my sales have dropped, and others here report record weeks! This time, although I haven't broken any records, I've certainly had a better September than expected.

My IM related promotions are as good as they were in April, and my non-IM niche promotions continue to grow. For what it's worth, I do promote CB products, and had a really good week for one of my promotions in particular from the marketplace.

There's definitely plenty of products/service that you can bank on, even with the state of the global economy.