Oasis Valentine Designs

Smithers-Oasis North America Design Director Sharon McGukin, AIFD, AAF, PFCI, is a speaker and author known for her "edutaining" floral design tips and Southern charm. She has four decades of design experience, is past president of AIFD and lives in Carrollton, Georgia.  Valentine's Day can easily be the busiest day of the year for a floral designer. Almost everyone has a potential Valentine - someone they'd love to surprise. Lucky for us, flowers are the favorite gift of this exciting sweetheart's holiday. It's easy to postpone prep and dread the day due to all its craziness, but that isn't a good idea. Careful planning in advance is the insider's secret for organizing this chaos into a successful day of sales and customer satisfaction. Florists already know to prepare for the traditional phone-in orders for delivery of dozens of red roses or bouquets of red tulips. Let's look at 6 tips for planning your Valentine's Day sales we can take to inspire more non-traditional sales and impulse buys. Click image for arrangement recipe Prepare in advance To appeal to everyone's wallet, develop recipes for arrangements in a range of prices. Offer similar designs in at least three price points-budget, moderate and exceptional.  Concentrate on flower combinations that feature long-lasting flowers such as alstroemeria, carnations, mums or liatris. Include designs with less fragrant flowers like anthurium. protea or green plants to suggest for those who have allergies. Ask about allergies when making a sale. Create each of the designs in your menu to determine the cost of labor and materials. Take photos of these mock-up designs to use in sales sheets with customers and your advertizing media. Make your procurement lists from these recipes. Showcase the designs in your cooler and begin taking advance orders. Click image for floral design recipe Suggest upgrades Use interesting materials as upgrades to basic arrangements. In this design, Snakeskin Wire was wrapped around the foam, inside the vase, to add a pop of color in the first design. Midollino Sticks were added to the second design to expand the space for the arrangement giving it more perceived value. Offer a hands-on floral design class In advance, offer a DIY class showing attendees how to use one of the Smithers-Oasis heart forms to create their on heart-warming designs for the holiday. Using poms, carnations or roses offer varied priced 'heart & flowers' packages they can purchase to create their own design and 'give their heart' to a loved one. Make it easy to buy flowers Advertize that you have gifts to suggest for all ages and relationships: fun gifts that children can enjoy including balloons, candy and stuffed animals; inexpensive flower designs for parents and grandparents; small floral thank you gifts for teachers, co-workers or friends; and glorious bouquets of specialty flowers for that 'special someone'. Offer exclusive customized designs for a premium price. Display eye-catching 'grab and go' impulse buys for last minute shoppers. Post photos of your Valentine Flower Collection on Social Media. Accept walk-in orders to be picked-up via Facebook private messaging. Tweet and post photos of the arriving abundance of fresh flowers. Inspire a passion for flowers Tell the story of where your flowers are grown, how to care for them or any other interesting information you have to share with your customers. They will enjoy retelling the story as they give their gift. Ask for specifics about the recipient and offer suggestions that will help meet their needs or preferences. Talk up the 'treasure' (the value points) of the gift they are choosing for their loved one. Make it feel good to buy flowers, so they will want to return. Utilize fragrance and color Create impulse sales by clustering flowers that are really fresh and just opening around sales counter to be seen and touched. Be sure to include some really fragrant blooms like stems of Oriental lilies, hyacinths or roses. Use signage to offer the name and price of the flowers. Group flowers together that would arrange well for DIY buyers. Preparing your shop for Valentine's Day sales? Watch this quick video of Valentine planning tips  from OASIS Floral Design Directors Frank Feysa, AIFD, PFCI and Neville MacKay, AIFD, CAFA. "Have you started your plans for Valentine's Day?" Sharon McGukin sharonmcgukin.com Every OASIS Floral product, completely described Oasisfloralproducts.com has the complete information you need, including sizes and colors, on every OASIS Floral product available. You can create a list and order where you prefer, including from the site. Just shop as you normally would, adding items to your cart. When you're ready to check out, transfer your cart to the participating distributor you select. The distributor will process your order, ship and bill you directly. It's that easy! If you have questions, ideas or concerns, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-321-8286 or support@oasisfloral.us. See what's happening on our social sites

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Unsure how to view the class schedule or how to sign up for a class.....email me at: flowerclassroom@gmail.com I will be glad to answer any question at: 913-708-2988 thanks! Christina Burton-Fox AIFD