 Would you like to increase
your share of the cut flower market... or are you happy with
what business your florist's outlet has?
It may appear a silly question
to you if you want more flower sales and a bigger share of the
local market for florists. But you would be amazed at how easy
it is to find a florist who does NOT want to compete or expand
locally!
However, since you're on our
web site and reading this article, you DO want a bigger share
of the market.
So let's look at this subject
in some more detail.
Competing with
local florists — politically incorrect?
For many a florist, "competition"
is an ugly word. It denotes cutthroat aggressiveness, dog-eat-dog
attitudes and a whole host of unpleasant things.
Well, maybe so.
But maybe it is also so that
some of that bad reputation of competition comes from those who
don't want you to compete with them... makes sense, right?
But is it really so that competition
is always a destructive, hostile activity?
I don't think so personally.
There are those whose "brand"
of competition is based on attempts to stop others... and that
is an unsavoury affair certainly. It's destructive for both parties
and it will lower the image of flower retailing in the area.
I believe that nothing good
will come out of putting someone else down.
But look-a-here, there are
more constructive ways of forwarding your flower business.
You don't actually
have to compete with the other florists in your area AT ALL.
You merely forward YOUR sales
and do so largely by increasing the use of your florist's services
from what they're now.
The only ones who might suffer
as a result are the supermarkets perhaps, but not other florists
in the area.
You CREATE the additional
business out of nothing... so how could that be harmful or hostile
to any of your fellow florists?
So don't fret about the idea
of hurting someone by competition.
You have the perfect right
to work to pursue success and happiness as long as it's done
legally. And you can be very competitive and still avoid unethical
tricks or hostile actions.
So there's no reason to feel
guilty about increasing your own chances of success, right?
 The other side of florist
competition
Now, just because YOU want
to compete in an ethical and constructive way, does not mean
that every florist practising cut-flower retailing in your area
would be equally beneficially inclined.
Let's face it:
UNLESS they have a way
to EXPAND the demand for cut flowers and accessories or start selling the SERVICES
of the florist, their reality will remain that there's a limited
market in your local area.
Unless a person can see that
cut flowers could be sold in almost ANY quantity (provided you
are active and acquire a clever new way to do so), they cannot
help but think that there's a definite LIMIT of income available
in the area to be shared between florists.
In other words, they'll believe
with absolute certainty that the demand for cut flowers and bouquets
is limited in your local area.
They believe that any increase
in the market share for one florist (that'll be YOU, by the way)
will mean that THEY, the competitors, will LOSE THAT INCOME.
As such, this is nothing to
worry about.
The only thing you need to
understand is that there's no way to change anyone's mind
about competition... unless they're willing to change their
own mind about it.
But if they have chosen to
believe there's nothing they can DO about obtaining more income
and customers then they cannot but feel threatened by any colleague
florist who DOES just that.
Obviously, if you go through
all the trouble of acquiring a solution for increasing income
AND invest your time and efforts into implementing it successfully,
you're hardly willing to "prove the other florist wrong"
by showing them how to cut into the new market share you've found
locally, right?
Thus, while cooperation in
professional florist-related issues is good, it might not be
such a great idea to share information about your successes and/or
new marketing plans with your local competitors in the cut-flower
retailing business.
In fact, it's best to
keep your plans for marketing your cut flowers and ideas for
competition to yourself and just do what you decide to do.
Because anyone can start doing
something about selling more flowers to new target groups, the
"inevitable destructive power" that people fear so
much and which they call "competition" is never the
CAUSE of anyone's problems.
It's really something in a
person's mind, not a real thing... and not the CAUSE but CONSEQUENCE
of doing nothing about finding new ways to create new business.
They simply don't understand
the core idea of the cut flower retailing and how it relates
to sales, competition and, above all, the opportunities that
present themselves DAILY to the florist who is alert and PERCEIVES
those chances.
The core idea
of cut flower retailing
There's a lot of nonsense going
around about the marketing of flowers as well as the nature of
competition between local florists.
Much of this (false) information
spread about has little or nothing to do with the cut-flower
retailing industry.
This is especially so whenever
the thinking comes from the realm of consumer durables —
the durable consumer goods such as refrigerators, furniture,
motor cars, lawn mowers... generally things that aren't consumed
after the purchase.
Obviously flowers aren't very
durable. And while the florist's bouquets will easily last a
lot longer than the supermarket bunches, the duration cannot
be compared to the longevity of consumer durables, of course.
And neither are flowers consumable
goods either. A bouquet isn't devoured once given but placed
in a vase and put on a visible place in the home.
So we have a form of perishable
goods that fit neither the durable nor the consumable category
of merchandise and thus ideas derived from marketing strategies
for either class of products do not lend themselves very well
to marketing cut flowers.
Instead, we have a category
of our own for our products.
A flower arrangement
could be called a form of "perishable
contemporary art,"
a form of physical product producing solely emotional results
in the receiver and/or the spectator.
Nobody NEEDS flowers for sustenance.
A bouquet is not a vital component of those essential necessities
we need to survive.
And yet, the aesthetics and
beauty produced by this contemporary art form of the florist's
expertise, the positive emotions of affection, love, caring,
affinity... these are most definitely a must-have for any living
being.
Nobody can live with bread
alone. Every single human being needs to feel loved.
And beauty is one of
the most precious things in life, being one of the primary elements
of happiness and joy... all of which a lovely bouquet characterises
best in the world.
So flowers ARE needed, and
very much so in fact.
It would be a dark and hopeless
world indeed without flowers.
Yet few people REALISE these
things the way you do, being the professional florist.
The only true
enemy of the florist
Other florists in your area
are not actually the real enemy... nor the fiercest of competitors
either for that matter.
The only true enemy
the florist has is...
... THE PASSAGE OF
TIME.
Every day that passes means
several lost flower orders.
A husband forgets to bring
flowers to his wife on her birthday. Lost business.
A husband doesn't realise he
should bring her a nice bouquet for Easter... lost business.
He doesn't come to think of
how nice it would be for her to receive a nice bouquet of her
favourite flowers every now and then... for NO reason at all
but for the love he has for her...
...and you lose a sale.
Just because you don't
know about these people and their circumstances and occasions
does not mean you haven't lost a sale.
You are losing sales but you
just don't know about it, see?
You could KNOW these
people, be aware of their circumstances and list out their occasions
in order to sell a lovely flower arrangement...
Every day is someone's birthday,
someone's anniversary, a day of showing one's love toward another...
a day of buying a nice bouquet of flowers.
Every day you do nothing
to REMIND people to buy flowers and help them realise the positive
effects of bringing home a nice bouquet... will be a lost opportunity.
What's so amazing about
the cut-flower market is that it can be INCREASED enormously
by being active and, above all, KNOWING how to offer your services.
As things stand today, the
"demand" you have in your area presently is NOT a true
indication of how much you COULD sell.
It's merely the result of PASSIVE
marketing of flowers, of using the marketing ideas that don't
suit the trade.
Believe it or not, the demand
for flowers in your area could easily be DOUBLED within a
year or two from what it is today... and YOU could be the
florist who receives all the new business thus created!
So you can see that what your
competitors do or leave undone doesn't really influence it at
all.
The passage of time IS your
only competitor... but only as long as you allow the current
state of things to continue.
Would you like to know how
you could change it?
Florist competition:
How you can cease and FREEZE the moment...
The passage of time is the
enemy only for as long as you don't have a workable business
plan to turn the stakes and harness the passage of time to WORK
FOR YOU.
Once you do then you will
freeze the time.
With this I mean that there's
a way to guarantee that customers REMEMBER those important days
and also remember to bring their loved ones flowers now and again
for no reason at all except to show their feelings and bring
joy to the other person.
There's a way to harness
the passage of time to make it work for you and your cut-flower
retailing business and not against.
You can simply CREATE a huge
demand in your area by utilizing the potential provided by the
core nature of the cut-flower retailing industry.
You must cease the moment...
and secure a proven method of signing on new type of customer
who needs the service of being reminded, who can afford to buy
top-quality bouquets and has the willingness to do so frequently.
If you do that then you won't
have to worry about the passage of time.
Instead of robbing you of opportunities,
the passage of time will bring forth more and more new flower
orders... and your flower shop will flourish totally outside
the market for which your competitors are fighting.
You will be able to
increase your sales and profits continually by utilizing a unique
system with ready-to-use tools and tap into a whole new target
audience of whose existence the competition will remain blissfully
unaware.
What could be a better way
of winning an edge over the competition than that?
The system to achieve this
— all set up in a series of ready-to-use tools and detailed
instructions — has been carefully documented in form of
a manual we call the Florist's Flower Power Business Expansion
Guide
CLICK HERE
to read the presentation of the Florist's Flower Power Guide
to gain a competitive edge over competing florists in your local
area and increase your cut flower sales continually!
It can really make a world
of difference in your future success as the winning florist in
your local area...
Best wishes,
HDK Consultants
Ltd
32 Manning Close
Richmond Square
East Grinstead RH19 2DR
West Sussex
United Kingdom (England)
Tel. 01342-328 116
Int: +44-1342-328-116 |
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