Home topics small-business-resources hot-tips Advice Hot Tips Sales Advice Can a sales promotion make a difference? Sharon Williams November 21, 2012 Buy-one-get-one-free, free gifts, free samples, vouchers and coupons. Are they old fashioned or do they have a place in today’s sales and marketing strategies ? I was talking to a client the other day: big company, clever people. We were brainstorming a strategy to deal with a large competitive advance. I raised the subject of good old-fashioned sales promotion. Lightbulb moments happened and the strategic director of marketing agreed that a carefully considered sales promotion would absolutely do the job. Problem solved. ‘’Why hadn’t it been thought of before’?’ was the sentiment in the room. Sales doesn’t have to be quite so complicated. In this digital world where our attention spans are the size of a gnat, we are constantly looking for the next ‘new thing’ and competition is rife. The old-fashioned sales promotion techniques are proof that sometimes the simple and traditional ways still do work, albeit with a new and exciting slant. We see examples of it working in the real world daily from my buy-six-get-one-free morning coffee, to the car wash, to recruitment deals, discounts on technology to school uniform sales. Sales promotion principles are playing a large part in raising product and brand awareness, boosting sales and therefore enabling business growth. Some things haven’t changed. Sales promotions are generally short-term offers, designed to re-ignite customers or draw in prospects that wouldn’t usually be loyal or