The End of the Year?????

Depending on how you calculate there are about 33 selling days left to 2024. On course to hit your goal? Don’t bother reading the rest of this. Need some help to boost your numbers? Read on!

1. Get rid of the head trash. So many sellers I speak with are already telling me that “the year is shot” and they’ll “hit ’em hard in the new year.” This is one of those things that sound reasonable but simply isn’t true. There’s still time to close business if you know where to find it. “Call me after Thanksgiving.” “Call me after the first of the year.” Yes, you’ll hear those things shortly but there are still PLENTY of prospects who need what you offer and are ready to speak with you now. Get it out of your head that “you can’t sell after Thanksgiving.” You can.
2. Contact everyone you spoke with during the year that told you they have to think it over, or talk with their partner. Or whatever other stall they gave you. DO NOT make the purpose of the call to be a follow-up. Let them know you were thinking about them. Ask them how they’re doing. How their life is. How their family is. How business is. And, almost as an afterthought, bring up the proposal they said they needed time to think about. You may find a few who are ready to buy…NOW!
3. Reach out to previous clients. Same as above…check in to see how they’re doing, etc. And again, almost as an afterthought, let them know how much you enjoyed working with them in the past and that you’d welcome the chance to do so again. Ask if there’s anything they’re working on that you can help with. You may be pleasantly surprised…there’s GOLD in your database.
4. Larger companies often have budgets for various things, like training, advertising, marketing, etc. If they don’t use their full budget for the year the most likely won’t have as much in the budget next year so departments often like to “dump their budget” at the end of the year so they get the same amount or more for next year’s budget. This is a great time to let those companies know, “If you have budget you need to dump I can invoice you now and you can use that budget all next year.” My mentor taught me this one and it often works surprisingly well.
5. Keep prospecting. The prospecting you do over the next few weeks is setting up your Q1 of 2025. If other sellers want to stop prospecting now, because, “No one wants to hear from me at this time of year,” let them stop…NOT YOU! Consistent and Effective prospecting cures a lot of sales ills. Jeffrey Gitomer says that “Proper Prospecting Prevents Poverty.” I sometimes don’t agree with Mr. Gitomer, but I could not agree more with him on this one.

There’s still time to make your holidays both happy AND profitable!!