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Want to know how to avoid the feast or famine sales cycle in your service-based business? Whether you are already caught up in a Feast or Famine cycle or you are a new business owner trying to avoid getting caught in the cycle from the beginning then this blog post is for you. Keep on reading to find out how to avoid the feast or famine sales cycle in your service-based business.
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What is a feast or famine sales cycle?
The feast or famine sales cycle is where a business goes from major highs to major lows in their sales.
Why is it problematic to be caught in a feast or famine sales cycle?
Being caught in a feast or famine sales cycle is problematic for a number of reasons.
- A feast (or high period) of sales will usually result in lots of clients that you have to deliver for. This often can create immense pressure on the business and the business owner.
- A famine (or low period) of sales can result in a lack of confidence in selling and even result to taking drastic measure such as reducing your prices.
- A feast or famine sales cycle makes it hard for a business owner to predict future income and be able to confidently make investments such as hiring staff, renting an office space etc.
Now that you have an understanding of what the feast or famine sales cycle is and why it is problematic it’s time to find out how you can avoid the feast or famine sales cycle altogether.
HOW TO AVOID THE FEAST OR FAMINE SALES CYCLE IN YOUR SERVICE-BASED BUSINESS
1. Always leave time for marketing and sales (even when you are fully booked)
One of the reasons service-based business owners get themselves into a feast and famine cycle is because when they are busy or fully booked they are concentrate 100% on delivering for their clients. All of their time is focused on delivering the service. Then when those clients have gone the business owner will essentially look up and realise that they don’t have any new clients and obviously they don’t have any new clients because they haven’t been doing any sales or marketing activities whilst they have been delivering for their current clients.
If you want to avoid the feast or famine sales cycle in your service-based business then you need to ensure that your version of fully booked still allows you, or someone else on your behalf, to have time to do essential marketing and sales actions.
2. Move from launches to an always-on selling approach
Another common reason for business owners, especially online business owners, to get caught in a feast or famine sales cycle is because of using launches to sell. There is no doubt that launches are a great way to sell. When used correctly they can generate a large number of sales in a relatively short period of time. However, this results in a major peak, which in most cases is followed by a trough. That trough is usually inevitable because if you follow a launch model then you’ll most likely only be letting people buy from you for a short period of time. If people can’t buy from you then obviously, you’ll experience a trough.
The launch model basically forces you to go into a feast or famine cycle and that is fine for some business owners, but if it isn’t working for you then definitely consider moving from launches to an always-on selling approach. This means that people can buy from you all the time and with the right strategy you should be able to generate sales regularly and as a result get a (fairly) consistent level of sales and revenue.
3. Add in more revenue streams
Depending on the nature of your business it might be that peaks and troughs are inevitable. UK Accountants have a busy January preparing self-assessment tax returns, wedding photographers have busy summer and personal trainers have a busy January as everyone jumps on the “new year new me” bandwagon. If you know because of the nature of what you sell this is inevitable that you will have high revenue months and low revenue months, but you really want to escape from the feast and famine sales cycle, then you should think about adding another service or product into your business to offer an additional revenue stream.
Since the aim of this revenue stream is to help generate a consistent income, or at least bring in sales in what are historically quieter periods, you should think very carefully about what you add. You might decide to add a passive income product that has the potential to be sold all year round. You might decide that focusing on creating something that will generate recurring revenue (which is fairly predictable) is your main priority. Or you might decide to create a totally new service that will have its high when another part of your business usually has a low. There is no right or wrong option, but remember this isn’t just about adding another revenue stream. It is about being strategic and helping to even out the highs and lows.
4. Automate as much of your marketing as possible
In an ideal world, as described in point 1, you should always be making time to market your business. However, time is precious (especially when you are providing a service) so it is important to minimise the amount of time you need for marketing and that can be done through automation. This can be anything from recycling social media posts, creating email marketing sequences or running paid advertising. You are looking for opportunities for you to do the work once and then it to continue without you.
Automating your marketing should mean that an element of marketing is happening 24/7 even without your involvement.
5. Have a waitlist
One of the major reasons service-based business owners get into the feast or famine sales cycle is because when they’ve stopped working with their current clients they realise they don’t have any enquiries and no one is interested in working with them. This means they have to actively start marketing and driving interest again. Now imagine instead that when you’ve finished working with your clients you are able to have a list of people who want to work with you that you can easily contact. That is exactly what can happen when you have a waitlist.
Having a waitlist means that even when you are busy there is value in marketing your business. You can say I’m currently fully booked, but please join the waitlist and as soon as I’m taking on new clients you’ll be informed. If managed correctly a waitlist can ensure that there are at least a constant supply of people to contact each time you have more availability, which should minimise the low of the low months.
You can find out how to create and manage a waitlist here.
6. Offer payment plans
This option doesn’t technically address the feast or famine sales cycle, but it will help to generate a more consistent level of income (and a predictable one at that). If you provide a high-ticket service, or even a service that last for a period of time then it is worth offering a payment plan. Rather than getting one sale and receiving one payment, you’ll get multiple smaller payments. This can be really helpful for predicting income for future months. Rather than making predictions based purely on what you sell that month, you can take advantage of knowing a certain proportion is from payment plans and so that money is very likely to be paid.
With payment plans, there is always the chance that people will default and not pay, so before offering payment plans you should think carefully (and check any legal implications etc), but for some businesses, it can really help.
7. Make the most of evergreen marketing
As you’ve seen the major cause of feast and famine sales cycles is having an on and off approach to marketing and sales. Moving from a launch to always-on approach to sales will help there be an opportunity for you to be selling consistently no matter what time of year, but you also need the marketing activity to be making new people aware of your business and presenting what you sell. This is where evergreen marketing really comes into its own. Evergreen marketing is marketing that isn’t timely but will make sense today, next week and next year.
A great way to start making the most of evergreen marketing is to create evergreen content via a blog, podcast or YouTube channel that has been optimised for search purposes (SEO). This means that 24/7 someone can google a problem, come across your content and then be provided information about your service.
The beauty of evergreen marketing is that it makes great use of your time as you make something once and it has the potential to keep working for you for years to come.
There you have it! You’ve now know how to avoid the Feast or Famine sales cycle in your service-based business
Whilst it is very common for service-based businesses to end up in a feast or famine sales cycle I hope by now you can see that it isn’t inevitable and there are so many different things you can do to avoid this trap.
In the comments what tips you are going to use going forward?
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Income is the lifeblood of a business. With no sales, you have no business and that is why I work with solopreneurs and (super) small service-based business owners to get clear on their business goals and then implement the right growth, marketing and sales strategies.
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