I Love, I Love, I Love My Calendar Girl

This is a famous oldie, written by Neil Sedaka.  Do you have a calendar for your glass business?  You know, the one you look at each day with a silly joke?  Or is it the one with the daily baseball trivia?

No, it is the calendar you prepare to create special sales in your glass business.  You are in the business of selling glass, metal, labor, energy savings, design and more.  This is the calendar to let your current and potential customers know more about your business in 2012.

Every event on the calendar can jump start another part of your business.  Start the planning 4-6 weeks ahead of the schedule date.  If you do regular newspaper or Internet advertising, coordinate your ads.  Lay out a flyer or newsletter to mail to your customers along with statements or invoices.  Plan if you are going to decorate your store, order T-shirts, bring in extra inventory, get brochures from vendors, coordinate with other retailers in a community wide event, and schedule your employee's hours.

Start the sale three or four days ahead of the actual holiday day, and run through the next weekend.  You can offer 10% of table tops one week, 20% off mirrors on another.  In the Spring, push screen repairs, and in the fall, low-e replacement windows as temperatures go down.  One sale can be 10% off on customer shower doors, and another would be a free bathroom mirror with a new all-glass shower.  You are not limited in your ideas...be as crazy as you want.  The goal is to bring traffic into your showroom and on your phones.  These both will result in new sales.  Remember, a customer that calls in response to an ad is not as price conscious as the customer who is calling ten shops for fixing a broken door glass.

Here are the holidays sales events you can plan in 2012:

• Jan 12   Martin Luther King Day
• Feb 12   Lincoln's Birthday (20% Discount if your birthday too!)
• Feb 14   Valentine's Day  (Free roses with each purchase)
• Feb 20   President's Day
• Mar 11   Daylight Savings Begins (Key on 'savings' at your shop)
• Mar 17   St Patrick's Day
• Mar 20   Spring Begins  (Commercial doors get 15% off)
• Apr   8   Easter
• Apr 25   Administrative Professionals Day (Sell glass for desks)
• May 13  Mother's Day  (Free purse mirror with all purchases)
• May 19  Armed Forces Day (Discounts for all active and retired)
• May 28  Memorial Day
• Jun 17   Father's Day
• Jun 20   Summer Starts (All screening with a discount)
• Jul 4      Independence Day
• Sep 3     Labor Day 
• Sep 17   Autumn Begins  (Start pushing energy savings products)
• Oct 31   Halloween (15% discount to anyone buying in a costume)
• Nov 11   Veteran's Day
• Nov 20   Thanksgiving Day
• Dec 21   Winter Begins
• Dec 25   Christmas

Now, you are not going to run something special for all these days.  Pick between 8 and 10 dates for your specials.  Work with your fabricators to give you special programs based on your schedule.  Maybe you want to have an open house on the first day of Spring where you highlight new windows; or how about a July 4th party, with hot dogs and popcorn for everyone who comes to your showroom.

If you think your ad will be lost in the clutter of all the other Memorial Day ads, then run your specials around Mother's and Father's Day.  The idea is to stand out from the crowd, not be part of it.

Set up a local radio station to do a remote broadcast on one day.  Sponsor a mobile blood bank in your parking lot for Memorial Day.  On St. Patrick's Day, give a discount for all store fronts made with green aluminum.  Be different!

These sales have two goals...sell more products and create buzz about your shop so that more people will come to your showroom.

Mark the dates you want on your office calendar and get started now.