Strategy: Sharpen Your Circulation Skills

If there’s a disconnect between the plan you create and what management expects to achieve, speak up. By doing the proper bottom-up planning, you’ll take ownership of the numbers that actual results are being compared to daily and weekly.

4. Test and Test Again

When you’re faced with objections such as, “Our customers would never …” or, “They always …,” fall back on this truth, “But you can’t be sure unless you test.” For example, we’ve looked at the recent trend of consumers ordering late during the holidays. Just a few years ago, it was difficult to convince management to mail past the middle of November. By suggesting a small test later in the season, we proved that catalog shoppers will buy closer to the time of actual need — a trend that’s continued. Late shopping during the Christmas buying season definitely is here to stay.