Analyze Your Product Line

Product analysis is key to maximizing your party plan sales and part of the Cash Flow Show training program.

Between talking about party bookings, getting the scoop out about your business opp, and of course showing the products (not to mention fundraisers, bridal events, etc.) it is easy to make your show entirely TOOOO long!

Analyze Your Product Line

When you take the time to analyze your product line you will see that your products fall into 3 distinct groups.

1. The Ignore Group: These products either sell themselves with absolutely no effort or they NEVER sell.
2. The Main Sales Group: This is the bulk of your show sales.
3. The Create Desire Category: These rarely sell, yet are often used as hostess gifts. They create desire for the business or booking benefits.

Do you understand your product line?

Related Article: Realistic Strategies for Funding Product Development

Understanding your price groupings is key to picking which products to show and tell. (You know you cannot show them all, no matter how much you want to!)

Product Analysis

Create a spreadsheet or chart and get a real understanding of what is in each category. This takes some time but really only needs done once, then just re-looked at briefly when a new catalog comes out.

Using your spreadsheet, figure out which products are in the main sales category based on price spreads. For example, your catalog may range in pricing from $4.95 – $299.00 for different products.

Without an analysis, you may say: “I only sell a couple of the Widget at $299 so it is not worth my time or breaking my back to carry it in.”

After an analysis you may say: “I never sell a Widget at $299 but I give an awful lot of them away for FREE to hostesses; I should put more time into my $299 Widget to increase my bookings!”

Price Points in Catalog

On the spreadsheet, divide your catalog into price points. Using the above example the groups may be as follows:

• Under $20
• $21 – $29
• $30 – $50
• $51+
• $100+

It may be different price point groupings for your catalog. Read more about price points in another article.

After you have the whole catalog divided up (this will take some time) then, using the highlight feature, highlight your top sellers with one color, your items that are often used as hostess perks with another color, and those items that sell at every single show no matter what with a third color.

Then take the following criteria and ‘stack’ them on top of the higher-priced items in each category to determine what you want to show and tell during your presentation.

• Weight, durability and size
• Ease of sale
• Customer appeal
• Need for your presentation
• Uniqueness of novelty items
• Collections
• Seasonal items or items that establish a sense of urgency.

You can then decide which group they are in and how you should make best use of your time.