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For this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 199 - Are Your Sales Slow Right Now?, we wanted to cover the question that pops up every post-Valentine's Day rush... the nagging feeling that your business feels slow and leads are down.

What gives? 😢 Why does that one baker post that this was their best Vday yet and yet you're nowhere near their "units sold" number? 😓 Is your business dying? 😖 Are you losing your edge? 😩 Is it market saturation? 😭 Is it... time to throw in the proverbial tea towel prop? 🧣

Here's the thing - feelings don't matter. 📉 Metrics do. Are you actually slow? And if yes, what did you water with your marketing efforts?

💦 Corrie pointed out that marketing is like a garden - and we tend to water certain goals. 🌱 If you wanted to teach your first Valentine's Day cookie class, guess what - 📉 your customs are probably down - 📈 because your classes are up.

I posted this in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group this week:

• 😭 If you read that a baker sold 60 units for Valentine's Day THIS year, and you only sold 50 units - you'll feel like you're business is shrinking by 16%
• 😀 But if you sold 30 units for Valentine's Day LAST year, and this year, you sold 50 units - your business is actually growing, and you're 66% ahead of last year.

🔍 Perspective is everything. Focus on the right metrics. That's what today's podcast is focused on - focusing on numbers that actually have meaning instead of your feelings which can switch depending on the weather, what's for lunch, and if your spouse was nice to you this morning.

📈 1. Compare your "this year" to your "last year."

Comparing your "this year" to a random baker's "this year" is a recipe for disappointment. You all have nothing in common other than selling cookies. Comparing your market in rural Iowa to my Washington DC market makes 0 business sense. What does make sense? Comparing how your sales were this time last year to the same time this year. You'll be able to truly see if you grew that bottom line.

👉 Remember - your biggest competition is yourself yesterday - beat that baker!

📈 2. Compare $$ to $$.

Instead of comparing "how many customs did I sell," consider comparing, "how much money did I make." The secret is this: if you raised your prices, you may have actually sold less but made more. That means an increase in your bottom line and a decrease in labor costs = a business win. Money matters!

📈 3. Consider where you focused your marketing efforts.

I had someone reply to the thread I posted saying, "My sales are down from last year to this year, what gives!" Fortunately, I'd seen their posts that prior month. They had started teaching cookie classes! So yeah - their customs were down (another reason to compare bottom lines) but their class tickets were up. In fact, they'd sold out three Valentine's Day classes - THREE! So where they watered = where it grew. And of course, the counterpoint to that is if you focus on something new, something old may not be in the limelight as much.

📈 4. Look at metrics, not feelings.

A lot of times I see bakers "feel" that sales are slow. Feelings are unreliable - heck, they say if you need to appear before a judge, do so right after lunch because judges with full bellies tend to be more lenient than judges who have grumbling tummies. Focus on metrics. Meta gives us a ton of free, easy-to-use metrics. Google Analytics also allows us to gauge without the grump meaning we know exactly what happened and why instead of goin' on an unreliable hunch.

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This week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 198 - Weather with Heather (and Corrie), we talk about the very reason why the Baking it Down Podcast was a day late this week - ❄️ bad weather.

🌪️ They say the only job you can guess wrong every time and still be employed is being a weatherman - 😭 and that's what makes weather events and cookie pick-ups a match made in refund hell.

So - how to predict the unpredictable? 🌧️ Here are our hot takes on cold weather in this week's podcast (🌡️ also yes, I (Heather) wanted to be a weather person because I thought it would be a neat radio tag like to say, "Weather with Heather on the 8's."

❄️ 1. You need a weather policy right now.

Your best friend when it comes to handling bad weather is a weather policy - 📝 a simple page on your website (ideal), a post on your Facebook Page (okay), or even a Google Doc (easy) that states what your plans are in the event of inclement weather can help you set expectations before the flurries fall. If you wait to enact a weather disclaimer after the bad weather hits, 😠 you've got a recipe for a bunch of angry reviews falling from the fingers of unhappy clients.

While you're at it - have a separate policy for both 🍪 pick-ups and 🎟️ classes since both can be different enough that one policy won't necessarily apply to both a pick-up order and a class attendee.

❄️ 2. No one reads - so repeat, repeat, repeat.

Making a single post to your Facebook page about a class cancelation for weather isn't going to cut it. 👓 No one reads (and even if they did, the algos don't let posts reach them anyways), so make sure the weather communication is across the board.

I'm talkin' r-e-p-e-t-i-t-i-v-e as in:

• ❄️ Facebook Page Post - 7 days out, 4 days out, day of
• ❄️ Website banner / pop-up
• ❄️ Newsletter Email - 7 days out
• ❄️ Individual Emails - 7 days out, 4 days out, day before, day of
• ❄️ Individual Texts - 7 days out, 4 days out, day before, day of

In the world of communication, less is never more - more is more.

❄️ 3. Get in front of weather events.

🥶 When weather is in the forecast, start messaging clients before it starts precipitating. 🧊 You'll know you've not beat the storm communication when it's your clients asking you what the plan is. Don't be that baker - get to them before they start to panic. It'll show that you've got this handled and aren't panicked yourself.

❄️ 4. Offer Refunds / Credits for Classes | Freezing for Pick-Ups

When it comes to cookie class cancelations, I like to offer a full refund or an incentivized option to roll into the next class (and save on their Eventbrite fees). Here's our take - if you signed up for a class that got canceled and you couldn't get your money back, how would you feel? "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you" - the Bible (🙏 and these bakers).

Now more tricky - 🧊 communicating to the custom cookie order client that freezing a cookie is actually an effective way to keep it fresh. And you'll be able to accomplish this by stating that in your "weather cookie pick-up policy." 🥶🔥 The thought of "frozen thawed" for the average user signals a lack of freshness, so the words you use here to sell them on a delayed pick-up are important.

❄️ 5. Take their orders to them & have insurance.

🚫 Your homeowner's insurance policy will deny that claim made by the lady who slipped on your front porch picking up her cookie order so fast, it'll make yo

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Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 197 - Lessons from Susan Reed (now watchable on YouTube, don't forget), we wanted to talk about common scams - but not in the way you'd expect.

We want to find out what marketing tactics make scams so effective. And we've come up with 5 takeaways for lessons we can steal (on brand) from Susan Reed and company.

If you're unacquainted with ol' Suzy, she's the name for a common scam where an event planner reaches out asking for a very specific set for her upcoming corporate event. She names a place, time, and location - ironically exactly in the same city as the unassuming baker.

Once you take her order, she pays you. Which would all be well and good but she makes a mistake and accidentally overpays you - by just a hundred bucks (give or take) on top of the nearly $1k she intended for the baker. The baker is notified of the mistake and returns the overpayment.

A few days later, the baker's bank reports the entire transaction as fraudulent, the e-check bounced, and the baker is out the refunded amount. But the marketing question lies in what made the baker believe the lie? And that's today's podcast.

⚠️ 1. Be Consistent.

If there's one thing Susan Reed is, it's consistent. And in marketing, you have GOT to be consistent. Corrie and I say folks shouldn't worry about an oversaturated market - they should worry about their lack of consistency because it's inconsistency that will lead to someone gobbling up your market share.

The unfortunate part of inconsistency is that its results are not immediate. 📆 That break you took all of January? 😭 You'll see those slower sales in July - when we are truly fighting for each and every baked buck.

⚠️ 2. No is not the Final Answer.

In marketing, "no" just means you've not found a way around an objection. 🛑 "No, we're not looking to switch bakers" should sound like, 👂 "The deal you pitched isn't good enough yet, what else do you have to offer?" A salesperson sees no as the interlude to a yes. Same with Susan Reed. She emails thousands of bakers and keeps emailing - ❌ even if 1000 told her no - 1️⃣ because all she needs is 1 yes.

⚠️ 3. Cold Outreach (on repeat).

Cold outreach ain't for the faint of heart, but it works! 🥶 Cold outreach means reaching out to someone you have no prior relationship with (be careful when cold emailing, there are some laws around this). But reaching out to a 🧊 cold contact is how they become a 🔥 warm contact willing to talk business. Look at Suzy - every baker she reaches out to is a cold contact - it's because her pitch is so desirable that she gets bakers on the hook for hundos.

⚠️ 4. Concise and Clear Communication.

The reason why so many bakers fall for Susan Reed's antics is because her initial email is so clear and concise. ✍️ She tells you what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it, what she'll pay for it, and how to deliver it. It's such a great approach to emailing: clear and concise.

⚠️ 5. Steal. LoL Jk. Efficient Follow-Up.

Finally - steal. 🦹‍♂️ Just kidding. Don't do that no matter how tempting. 📧 But the final point is efficient follow-up. While the "Susan Reed" emails are likely a script running to thousands of bakers at all times, it seems like the follow-ups are actual scammers, and they get replies because they reply so quickly. ⏰ They do this on purpose - the less time you have to see if they're scammers, the more likely you are to fall prey to their schemes.