[Hua11.com Original] Before delving into this article, let's first clarify two concepts: marketing and sales.

What is marketing?

Put simply, marketing is a specific market strategy developed based on the unique characteristics of the business and the market environment it operates within. It is a systematic project.

What is sales?

Sales are the specific goals and steps formulated for the actual implementation phase, based on the aforementioned market strategy.

It can be said that marketing plays the role of a coordinator, while sales play the role of an executor.

Having clarified these two concepts, let's return to the title of this article: "Don't do sales?" More specifically, florists should not engage in sales, or at least not excessive sales. Why is that?

I. The Disadvantages of Florists Engaging in Sales

We often observe on social media that many florists like to frequently post information about selling flowers and their creations. Some also frequently share transaction records, chat logs, and even QR codes (for attention or payment).

While this might seem like self-promotion, it is understandable. After all, everyone has the freedom to promote their own business.

Let's not discuss the behavior itself, but rather, through this behavior, we can clearly see that many florists focusing on sales concentrate on the products (floral works) themselves.

This is a very common sales perspective: focusing on products.

This perspective has many disadvantages, such as:

1. The sales process begins at the product end rather than the demand end (potential customer needs on social media);

2. Reduced attention to the external elements of the product. For example:

- The cultural significance of the work itself

- The story of the orderer/customer (the person)

- The story behind the order (the event)

Etc.;

3. A lack of a macro perspective on the part of participants. For example:

- The position and cultural significance of this work within the entire body of the florist's work

- The position and cultural significance of this work within the entire management strategy

Etc.;

If considering commercial elements, when many florists engage in sales, at most they will only consider:

1. Whether this order is profitable and how much profit can be made

2. Simply adopting sales strategies such as low prices (or free) to attract customers (followers)

But they will not consider:

1. The significance of this order in the overall operation. For example, is this order a part of a marketing strategy? That is, will this order influence another order (for example, promote the transaction of another order)?

2. Does attracting customers at a low price have long-term significance? Can it lead to more referrals and conversions? Will it impact brand positioning?

Etc.

If you only think about simply and directly "hawking" and promoting in social media every day, then there will only be the following effects:

1. The number of people blocking you increases, the information reach rate decreases, and the effectiveness of your posts worsens;

2. It gives the impression that your business is struggling. If your business is good, why do you need to ask people to buy flowers every day?

3. Your customer acquisition channels are limited, and you can only rely on social media, this "lifeline"

Etc.

The style cannot be elevated. :)

If you overly focus on the trivial and energy-consuming work of sales, it will diminish the creativity of the florist; a decline in creativity and a decrease in the quality of the works will affect sales.

It is a negative cycle.

So florists should try to avoid excessive sales work.

To summarize the above phenomenon in one sentence, it is that many florists find marketing challenging and can only engage in simple sales, with uncertain effectiveness.

II. Solutions

There are many problems, and here are several solutions.

Solution 1:

Find a full-time marketing partner who understands the flower industry for cooperation or partnership.

This partner does not necessarily need to have in-depth craftsmanship knowledge (this is the florist's expertise), but must be able to understand the florist's work and have their own specialties in the marketing field.

The cooperation could involve profit sharing, with some having a basic salary and others not.

The partnership could lead to a shareholder role, which involves many considerations. Detailed analysis can be found here:

[Hua11.com · Flower Shop Risk Defense Series 1] Are you sure about partnering? Someone wants to invest in your flower shop. Too good to be true?

[Hua11.com · Flower Shop Risk Defense Series 2] Revisiting partnership: Two florists team up to open a flower shop/studio. How is this idea?

Whether it is cooperation or partnership, please first ensure that he/she is the right person. :)

Solution 2:

If you can't find the right person or are constrained by labor costs and can only rely on yourself for now, then you should change your sales approach, improve sales efficiency, and achieve better results with the same effort.

It is recommended to adopt advanced sales methods: produce high-quality products and avoid information clutter.

Two principles:

1. Do not over-promote, but provide value;

2. Avoid making claims you are not certain of (for example, orders without a deposit), but focus on the outcomes.

How to provide value?

For example, Hua11.com has written over 50 high-quality articles, forming the album "How to Run a Flower Shop and Floral Studio," which was first published and made available for free reading on the official website of Hua11.com.

This is one way to provide value. The fact that you are reading this article has already had some effect.

Of course, this method requires a high level of expertise from the author and is quite time-consuming and energy-consuming. For example, we have been writing this book for over 2 years and are still constantly refining and optimizing it to strive to deliver more value.

If you want to be more carefree, you can try the following methods:

1. Share common flower knowledge

- For example, flower care tips: [Hua11.com · Essential Floral Knowledge Series 2] How to maintain floral salon works and daily flower gifts?

- For example, various flower languages and legendary stories: Flower 24 Hours Blog

Etc.

2. Share some floral work production skills. Remember not to hold back "secrets." The flower industry is small. Treating minor skills as core competitiveness is limited thinking and meaningless.

3. Share your stories with customers without breaching privacy.

4. Improve your personal quality and elevate your social media presence from a "recording" to an "appreciation" level.

Etc.

Continuously providing value is beneficial to enhancing brand reputation, customer trust, and loyalty. This is a "slow" strategy, but sometimes, it happens to be faster and more effective.

Solution 3:

Join a successful team and become part of them. For example, join the "Flower 24 Hours" high-quality physical flower shop alliance and become part of the ecosystem. It is easier to go from success to success.

OK. The above discusses the reasons why florists should not engage in excessive sales and feasible solutions.

But in fact, we can also consider another higher-level approach: Let the production process incorporate sales elements.

When the florist's work is completed, the sales hook is also embedded. What remains is to wait for the sales hook to take effect and attract customers passively. This will be detailed in another article.

Copyright Statement:

This article is an original creation by Hua11.com and is included in the “How to Run a Flower Shop and Floral Studio” Ebook. The content of this article may be periodically updated and is initially published on the Hua11.com official website blog. You can find the article at this link: https://hua11.com/blog/4714.html.

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The work titled “How to Run a Flower Shop and Floral Studio” is copyrighted by Hua11.com. Additionally, the “Practical Floral Training” model and the concept of “Light Decoration” are original creations by Hua11.com. The trademark “花艺意” is registered and protected by relevant national laws.