How To Deal With A Sudden Temporary Rise In Orders

Increased sales are the ultimate aim of any business but what are you to do when these sales come in at an unexpected rate? We will all create a business plan before every year of being in business and this will make certain assumptions of how many sales and of what value will be obtained throughout the year. So if we vastly exceed these predictions all of a sudden then it’s great news, of course, but have you given any thought of how to fulfill these orders? Here we look at some of the challenges and thoughts on how to deal with the situation.

Determine If You Can, Where The Extra Orders Are Coming From

The first step is to determine how it is that you are getting these extra orders? Have you been doing anything different with regards to advertising, promotions or sales? Is there a change in your industry, perhaps a competitor has gone out of business or suffered a dip in reputation? Whatever it is, if you can figure it out it may let you know if you can expect this increase to be temporary or permanent.

Can You Service These With Your Current Structure

How do you service your customers? Do they come to your location, or do you go to them? Perhaps you offer a mail order service if you are supplying goods? The main thing to consider here is if your current structure can cope? Do you deliver goods yourself? If so do you have the capacity and, if not, will the added cost of having the goods deliver hit your profit margin too much or not?

Look At New & Improved Methods

If you are a manufacturer of goods then it may be worth considering how efficient your methods are and look at any improvements that could be made. For example, if you optimize APS production scheduling it can help your stock get to the shelves in time for purchase better than the old standard one production schedule.

Do You Need Extra Staff?

It may be simply that stepping up the production to the required levels or dealing with more customers or orders is just not feasible with your current staffing levels. So is it wise to take on more staff to help get through it all? Well, you need to consider how quickly and costly it would be to get new staff up and running? If your staff are specialist it may be difficult to get anyone temporarily, so you need to decide if it’s worth getting permanent staff in.

Is It Worth It?

Overall you need to make a business decision. Look at all of the factors and business plan how much these extra orders will cost to deliver and how much, if any, profit comes from this extra work. It may sound daft but the smart decision at the end of this process might just be to turn down the extra work,  but only you can make that decision.

Have you read?

# World’s Most Luxurious Hotels, 2019.
# Best Cities In The World For Shopping In 2019.
# Best Law Schools In The World, 2019.
# Best Film Schools In The World For 2019.
# Best Music Schools In The World For 2019.