Selling to an Industry

Selling to Carnivals

Many carnivals offer opportunities for emerging companies to turn tidy profits. Properly applied, these strategies for selling to the carnival market will dramatically improve sales.

The world is an uncertain place for emerging businesses and businesses are constantly evolving their selling strategies to keep pace with changes in the marketplace.

The details of your sales strategy will vary according to your circumstances and your company's unique sales objectives. But in general, there are several things you will need to consider when crafting a strategy to sell to carnivals.

Know the Competition

Companies who sell to carnivals face no small amount of competitive pressure.

Like it or not, there are many other businesses that sell similar product lines. Subsequently, carnivals are bombarded with promotional messaging and tend to be very knowledgeable about their buying options.

By researching the competition, you gain the ability to create an effective value proposition. Although there are many ways to research your competitors, conversations with carnivals themselves may be the best source of information.

How to Evaluate Sales Staff

Periodic staff assessment is essential for companies that sell in this industry. Businesses that achieve significant market share recruit the cream of the crop and routinely evaluate them against performance goals and benchmarks.

Although annual reviews may be enough for other business units, sales units should be evaluated quarterly with monthly or weekly reviews of sales totals. Training, coaching and sales incentives can be useful for improving performance and revenues. In some instances, it may be appropriate to team underperforming sales reps with reps that have more experience selling to carnivals.

Marketing to Carnivals

There are multiple methods for marketing your products to carnivals. In addition to personal contacts, advertisements in relevant media combined with online marketing techniques significantly increase your ability to promote your products to prospects and existing customers.

Many businesses find that direct marketing is also helpful in marketing to carnivals because it is a non-threatening resource for introducing their products to new customers.

The first step of a successful direct marketing strategy is to obtain a lead list from an established third-party provider like Experian Business Services, a company with a reputation for quality and service. From there, you can tailor your direct marketing efforts toward your company's strengths and perceived needs in the marketplace.

Share this article


Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs

Lists of Venture Capital and Private Equity Firms

Franchise Opportunities

Contributors

Business Glossary