Keeping Sales Demand High During the Holiday Months

Updated: October 29, 2009

Keep doing the same thing

Treat November and December like any other month! Doing anything else is just a mentality. Your customers still need what you're selling, and those needs, demands and pains to solve haven't gone anywhere just because the holidays are near.

Appeal to end-of-year planning/budget cycles by your customers

Even this year, many of your prospects may have surplus budget to spend before the year is up. That, and/or they may be actively planning budgets for 2010. Either way, you want to be a part of that conversation if you have something they need.

Help them kick-start their own New Year goals & results

If what you're selling can benefit your customers and their own goals & objectives, isn't it better to have that in place on January 1, vs. waiting to buy and onboard later in the month, quarter or year? Build a sense of urgency that this is exactly the time to make a move and get a head start on next year's goals.

Know your customers; make offers specific to what they're uniquely doing this time of the year

If you know your customers well, you know what they're doing this time of year. If you sell to retail, this is clearly the most important time of the year. If you sell to summer vacation spots, this might be a time to actively plan and market for next year's busy season. Whatever your customers are doing and thinking about uniquely this time of year, customize your messages, offers and engagement tactics there.

Promote & Execute Webinars

If you subscribe to the notion that your prospects don't feel like working hard this time of year, then they might be more likely to sign up for and attend a Webinar. If the office is a little slower on their end, they'll have more time to participate. It's a great time to educate and get them engaged with value-added content in a variety of formats (Webinar, blog, white papers, top 10 lists and more).

Help them reach their customers this time of year

If you're worried about engaging prospects and customers this time of year, your prospects are probably worried about the same thing. Take what you know about them, their customers and their market/industry, and offer them advice on how to engage and sell to their end-customers as a means of engaging and building thought leadership. It's a great lead generation offer this time of year as well.

Holiday-themed referral offers

Engage current customers with seasonal offers to engage their peers and colleagues at other organizations on your behalf. Give them gift cards (to indulge themselves or to use in their own gift-buying) or any variety of offers that make sense for the nature, interest and geography of your customers.

Focus on demos

So maybe your customers don't want to make a purchase decision until January. Even if that's true, you can focus November and December on getting your prospects as far down the purchase cycle as possible. Focus on doing as many demos as you can. Answer objections, get executive sponsors involved, send out proposals and begin negotiations on terms. Move prospects forward so that you're set up for a big beginning of Q1.

Front-load your pipeline for next year's fourth-quarter

Start planning (and budgeting) right now so that you're accelerating lead generation in Q3 of next year. That way, your pipeline is full of even more closeable business heading into Q4.