Outlook 2010: Prognosis: Baby Steps

To date, Fairytale Brownies has employed one outbound telemarketer, but intends to have more of its phone reps place outbound sales calls. "We have to be proactive," she says, "as opposed to dropping a certain amount of catalogs and expecting a certain amount ?of response."

Forced Growth
What's more, Fairytale Brownies is forecasting slight growth this year, "out of necessity," according to Spitalny. To obtain such growth, the company is pitching more gift-giving occasions in its catalog than it has in the past, such as graduations and weddings. It's also gunning for greater email segmentation, seeking to retain current customers with emails that are more in sync with the types of gifts they ?usually buy.