I know you’re busy right now. You’ve got orders to send out before the holidays, projects to finish before year’s end, employees leaving for vacation. But I’m going to add to your workload for the next couple of weeks. You’ve got to carve out time to make those all-important, highly lucrative, end-of-year sales calls.
Yes, even in the midst of this busy season, now’s the time to call customers, visit clients and send e-mails. That’s because December is a time when many customers are exceptionally eager to buy — and I’m talking about business customers, not consumers. There are sales you can only land right now.
Here’s a fact of business life: many companies have money they absolutely, positively must spend this month.
In small companies, entrepreneurs rarely have a “use it-or-lose it” mind set when it comes to money. If we don’t spend our money in 2007, it’s still in the bank January 2008. We rarely have dollars that we have to spend by Dec. 31 or they’ll disappear for good.
That’s not true for every business. If your customers are large corporations, government agencies, educational institutions or non-profit organizations, many have budgets they need to use before the end of the year. Moreover, if they don’t spend all their allocated dollars this year, their budget next year may actually be cut.
That means you’ve got some highly motivated prospects.
Even smaller companies may have money they must spend before 2008 rolls around. Some businesses — especially retailers, resellers, equipment installers and any company that sells products manufactured by others — receive “co-op” money to use for cooperative advertising or promotions. This money, too, often disappears if not used within the calendar year.
That means there are major selling opportunities available for you — but those opportunities disappear on Jan. 1. Realistically, they’ll disappear by around Dec. 20 or 21, the last days many people will be in their offices.
Here are some ways to get those year-end budget dollars spent with you:
Make a list. Identify which of your past customers are most likely to have budgets or co-op dollars they must use by the end of the year. Focus your efforts on those customers.
Visit customers in person. Personal relationships build business relationships, and the holidays give you a perfect excuse to see important customers face-to-face. You want to stop by to bring them a present. This gives you the opportunity to make or reinforce a personal connection. Oh, and while you’re there, ask whether they have any budget dollars they need to spend before year’s end; you can help them out
Telephone. You’ve also got a reason to pick up the phone and call clients: to wish them happy holidays. After chatting with them about their holiday plans, bring the conversation around to what they need to buy before Dec. 31.
Send e-mails. The easiest way to reach a large number of customers is to send e-mails. As an added incentive, offer special end-of-year discounts. In my company, we have institutional customers who have told us they look forward to our end-of-year discount so they can use up their budget.
Suggest using “co-op” funds. Remind customers they may have dollars available from vendors. Co-op funds can usually be used in many ways, not just placing ads. Suggest buying your products as promotional give-aways, just as long as you can add the vendor’s name (think of placing stickers on the product).
Offer to get an invoice to them before the end of the year. You may not be able to actually deliver the product or service to your customer before the end of the year. That usually doesn’t matter, just as long as they receive a bill in December.
So get out there, and make sales!
Rhonda Abrams is the author of “Six-Week Start-Up” and “What Business Should I Start?”
