Can you hear them? Not too far away you can faintly hear the jingle of approaching sleigh bells. Yes, the holidays are on their way! The holiday season is an important time of year for most companies. Many depend on these next few months to generate a large amount of the total yearly sales numbers.

Rather than stress and worry, get started now taking advantage of these seasonal opportunities. Consider this…

* The holiday season has already begun. Take advantage of the building momentum by offering discounts and specials now. Capture the spirit of the upcoming season by being proactive and capturing a sale before your consumer has a chance to look elsewhere.

* Prepare for the holiday rush by involving everyone in the planning process. The holidays can be stressful at work and at home so lay the groundwork now that will help see you, your business associates and your family through the holiday season. Feeling a part of the team can be a great energizer.

* Offer holiday specials. Bundle poorer performing products with something new and fresh. Clean out inventory to make way for the new. Everyone is looking for a bargain, especially this year. Think creatively for a win-win offering.

* Strengthen your business and personal relationships by sending holiday cards. Reconnect, strengthen or form new partnerships by remembering associates, customers, friends and family with the simple gestures of thoughtfulness holiday cards can bring. Buy them personalized with pre-printed envelopes to save time and effort and for a professional look.

* Remember to keep your priorities straight. Recognize what is important and don’t stress the small stuff! The holidays should be enjoyable as well as productive.

Let the Holidays begin!

Now is a great time to plan ahead for the holidays so you can actually enjoy them when they roll around. With a bit of holiday proactivity, there is much you can check off your holiday to do list now. Consider these work ahead suggestions:

* Purge excess decorations. Go ahead and get into the holiday spirit now by going through all those boxes of decorations in the attic. Recycle or trash all those broken or old or just plain ugly decorations you know you’ll never miss now.

* Plan your holiday parties. Budgets are tight this year so go ahead now and begin planning how you or your company will celebrate the holiday season. You don’t have to break the bank to have a fun party everyone will enjoy. Check this CardsDirect blog in the future for budget friendly party ideas.

* Update your mailing lists. Pull out last year’s holiday cards mailing lists and confirm addresses, refreshing those that have changed during the past year.

* Go ahead and order your holiday cards now. For the best selection and to avoid rush shipping charges, go ahead and place your greeting card order as soon as possible. Think about it, what is going to change between now and Christmas anyway? Get it done now and you’ll have one less thing to worry about later.

* Address envelopes. Now that you have your cards, you can go ahead and address the envelopes and set them aside. Then all you’ll have to do is drop them in the mail. Again, one less thing to do so that you will have more time for other holiday related activities, like decorating!

Any other ideas for holiday proactivities you’d like to suggest?

I’m excited! Our 2009 CardsDirect Holiday Catalog is being printed and it looks great! In it is a sampling of the over 2,000 card designs offered online. We certainly do have a wide selection this year with new card designs in every category and many unique formats you just have to see to believe! Check out the amazing new Holiday Cards!

If you’re not already on our mailing list and want to make sure you receive a catalog, order one online now by clicking here and you’ll receive one hot off the press. Be sure and click the box just above the submit button so you will be sure to receive email discounts in the future. You will also get to take advantage of our promotional discount included on the catalog itself.

Watch your mailbox. Our catalogs should be in homes and offices soon. I’m looking forward to the holiday cards season and hope you are too!

Hard to believe, but the holiday season is fast approaching! Being in the personalized greeting cards business, we are gearing up now for our busiest season of the year– holiday cards sales! To make room for the new, it is out with the old. But nothing is tossed that can possibly be repurposed or recycled as we are also proud of our efforts to protect the environment! Here are a few snaps of cleaning day at CardsDirect.

We’re in the process of adding hundreds of new card designs to our site and exhibiting them on our office walls. Labeled, sorted, categorized and filed, we are quite excited to see the beautiful and unique designs being added this holiday season.

Although not a retail outlet, we are proud of our offices and believe that a cluttered office leads to a cluttered mind. A cluttered mind is not a good thing when the details are so important, as they are to our consumers. So, as we clean up, toss, recycle, file and organize to better serve you, our customers, we encourage you to do the same to prepare for your own upcoming holiday rush!

Forbes called him the consummate salesman. Fortune Magazine praised him in their article, “The Art of Selling”. Newsweek called him “something special”. He received the title of Greatest Car Salesman by the Guinness Book of World Records. Who is this sales legend? Joe Girard is his name. Joe sold automobiles. He sold big ticket items one at a time, selling 1,425 cars in his best year. How did he do it? One of his secret weapons was greeting cards!

Joe sent out an average of 13 cards every year to each of his clients. He would send one card a month and holiday cards in December. He hired two assistants to help and remembered customers with birthday cards, anniversary cards and any celebratory occasion you can think of from Halloween to Groundhog Day.

He knew that business greeting cards inspired customer loyalty and proved that by keeping his name in front of his customers, they would be motivated to refer him to their friends as well as return when they needed another car.

Why not try it yourself and experience success just like Joe!

{source: Biztactics}