7 Seasonal Trends to Help You Sell Fasteners

Seasonality affects more than you might think when it comes to selling products and equipment. There’s a lot more to it than simply finding the right buyers or getting an advertisement in prime position. It’s all in the timing. It’s rare to find a coffee shop open at night, similarly, to see an ice cream truck operating through December. 

Each sector has its own seasonal trends. For example, landscaping tends to happen in the warmer, drier months. Agriculture alone has different needs for different seasons, such as planting and harvesting. It’s important to know, whether for sales or marketing, how to use seasonality to your advantage. Here are seven things to consider.

1.  Don’t forget about the weather

We can’t predict the weather, but we do know that it changes from season to season. The trick is to be proactive and start selling in enough time before the season hits. Target ahead of time, factoring in distribution and delivery time, so the buyer is prepared before the start of the season.

If you stock overseas, it’s important to consider different climates and different seasonal activities. For example, eastern Europe may get more snow during the winter months, compared to the UK, so you need to think about preparing for snow plow sales.

2. Understanding off-season

This is an important one for industries such as agriculture, as if your audience is working outside for most of the day, they are likely not to see your marketing or sales efforts. The best time to target these professionals is during their off-season. Workers are likely to spend more time researching new parts, equipment, and services when they have more down time. However, it's good practice to still present, even if a little less, during peak time, as you need to account for admin days or equipment breakdown.

3. Use market data

Data is one of your most important tools, regardless of your industry. From data, you can determine any buying cycles, by looking at your past sales to identify any trends. With this information, you can find out how often buyers or potential buyers may need replacement parts.

By using analytic trackers, you can identify website traffic. This will help you spot any buyers who are currently interested, allowing you to target the right people at the right times. Using analytics and looking through past data will also help you to identify any trends or spikes in sales and web traffic. This will help you to plan for any seasonal marketing or sales efforts.

4. Identify budget cycles

Knowing the budget cycles of your potential customers can be integral to securing business. It stems from knowing the industries you cater for well and whether it’s typical for them to set a budget for the year. If this is the case, then talking to them during the last quarter when they set the budget could be your make or break.

5. Categorize your inventory

Categorizing your stock based on product life cycles can really help to differentiate purely seasonal products from perennial items that are sold all year round yet may experience times of increased seasonal demand.

Doing this will not only help to keep you organized but will gain control to avoid being left with residual stock.

6. Spend time forecasting

Some products or services require significantly more time for being forethought than others. Lead time is a really important thing to consider when developing marketing and sales strategies. The amount of time it takes the buyer to go through the buying process can affect your own sales process. This is when planting the seed to the buyer earlier than necessary really will come in handy.

7. Pitch to the press

Securing placements with press outlets is perhaps a less obvious seasonal trick. By searching outlets that reach your target audience for an upcoming season or holiday you can see what past seasonal articles have looked like. Whether that’s “harvest deals” or “summer savings," and so on.

An option here would be to get in touch with the author or publication and see what their plans are for the next edition. If it sounds like it could work for both of you, then pitch your product.

For more information on Earnest’s seasonal products, speak to a member of our team. Call 1-800-327-6378 or email us at [email protected].