Selling Around The Holidays
Selling around the holidays can be a hard proposition. A lot of people ake off time during November and December and can be very hard to track down. If you can get a hold your decision maker, other key people in their organization like legal, accounting or other executives may be out, and make you unable to get a deal done before January.
So, what is the best approach to keep sales coming in even when prospects aren’t? I like to work on smaller accounts, specifically mom and pop and owner/operator operations. Why? Because these small business owners usually never get a vacation. Their bottom line and income depend on it. They don’t have money to give to someone else or even the trust to let someone else run their company while they are out. Because of this, they are still around even when your large commercial or key accounts are out on vacation. Who knows, this could even lead to bigger things if they are a franchise or affiliated with another larger company.
If you don’t deal with smaller prospects, the holiday’s provide an excellent opportunity to get organized and build up your potential prospect list for the new year. If you can get caught up, organized, spruce up your sales material and find good qualified leads, by the first of the year you can hit the ground running. Many times you can still call a larger account and get someone on the line. That person may be in a good mood due to the holiday’s and may be more likely to give you the decision makers name and extension or direct number. Again, this will allow you to build up your potential prospect list for 2009.
The worst thing to do is nothing. Sales for the 4th quarter and the 1st quarter will reflect this time, for the good or bad.
Show Me The Money Says:
I tend to do the latter of the things. Get organized and stuff lined up ready to go.
Sometimes before the holidays tho you can use the “hey it’s the holidays coming up, do you really want to have to worry about this when you come back or get it taken care of now.”
Posted on December 11th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
#1 Sales Guy Says:
I agree. I set up all my stuff for the first of the year when the decision makers are back with their New Year’s resolutions. They are more interested in making a change or saving money going into the new year.
Posted on December 12th, 2008 at 10:12 am