How to handle your catalog’s midlife crisis

By Sarah Fletcher

Resist the urge to throw up your hands and say, “I hate everything! I just want to look like (insert competitor’s name here)!” You don’t want to look like your competition. You want to be the dazzling you that reflects your key attributes.

5. Showcase your best features, and downplay your flaws.
Identify your 10 best and 10 worst products. These will tell you a lot about what your customers are buying and what they just don’t care about. Focus the majority of your time and effort on showcasing the top 10. Increasing sales of these items by 5 percent or 10 percent will pay far greater dividends than increasing the sales of your worst products by 20 percent or 30 percent — and it’s much easier to do.