Business Development Howler - Selling washing machines at music festivals

During the Junior Apprentice (UK) series in 2012, one of the candidates, Andrew Tindall, led on a task where his team had to choose two items from a selected range of products. Their job was to sell their chosen products at the WOMAD world music festival, and make as much profit as possible.

One of the items Andrew chose, was a hand-powered washing machine, a large bin-shaped thing, which seemed to work on a similar principal as a salad spinner. His logic for choosing this product above the other options was that it would be attractive to the glamping market (campers who like to camp in style and with maximum comfort).

At the festival, he tried in vain to sell these machines, so much so, that he almost deserved a sale just for his sheer perseverance. But in spite of his efforts, he failed to sell even one machine. On reflection, it wouldn't have mattered who the salesperson was, or how skilled that salesperson might be, it was an impossible sales proposition and Andrew was flogging a dead horse.

For a variety of reasons, it was a classic case of the wrong product for the wrong market, being sold to the target audience at the wrong time.

1) The WOMAD festival lasts for just a few days. I don't know of anyone who goes to a short music festival with washing clothes on their mind.

2) True glampers would choose a camping site with launderette facilities, whilst true campers are happy to rough-it and wait till they get home before washing their clothes.

3) At £60, these over-sized salad spinners were a bit pricey.

4) To be fair to the product, it worked pretty well in the demonstrations and with minimal physical effort too, so maybe it has potential. Perhaps Andrew's team might have experienced better results from marketing it to large outdoor distributors and shops, rather than selling direct to campers who have already arrived at their camping destination, and have thus planned for their time away. In my opinion, these machines need to be marketed as a 'pre-trip' purchase if they're

going to be successful.

5) My memories of camping are of the car being packed to the rafters on both journeys, so adding a small bin sized thing to the proceedings would be a definite "no thanks".

So what's this got to do with your business?

If your sales figures are tight or under-whelming, or they're below target and looking gloomy, there are several angles to consider:

Question 1) Is it down to your sales skills?

In which case it could be a learning and development issue which needs careful exploration so that the skills gap is identified and addressed.

Question 2) Is it down to your product/service(s)?

This is a bigger question with more variations.

a) Your product/service is decent but your customers don't want it (yet/anymore).

b) Your product/service is decent but your customers can't afford it (yet/anymore).

c) Your product/service is decent but your customers don't understand it (yet/anymore).

d) Your product/service is decent but you're no longer selling it to the right people. 

e) Your product is lousy, or it has become lousy due to changes in your marketplace.

e) Your product is decent, but it is only decent, and definitely not brilliant.

Tip:

If your sales figures are struggling, make sure you explore the deeper and often 'more difficult to solve' issues around question 2, as well as the learning and development challenges around question 1.  

Thanks for reading

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