The unofficial rush to the end of the year is upon us. Though there is no fiscal calendar that recognizes September–December as a reporting period, we often treat it as such. The summer is over, and there are only four months left to make the numbers for the year.
A group of Hartford-area business owners were talking about planning for the end of the year and what to do in order to make sure you reach your sales goals. The following are the basic sales tactics we all agreed were necessary to increase opportunities and closes.
Pay attention to all relationships. Connect with the people you know. Ask them who you should be talking to about your products or services. The people you know are the ones who like and trust you. They are the individuals who would be inclined to refer you when an opportunity arises. However, you’re not always front-of-mind with them. It is incumbent on you to stay connected. But do not make the connection one-way. The relationship is first and foremost. Deal with the person with authenticity and friendship. The opportunity to ask for referrals will naturally occur.
Increase the important activities. If your responsibility is selling, then making contacts, connections and calls are the important activities. Look at the calendar for the past month and determine what percentage of your time was actually spent doing important selling activities. If the percentage is less than 70-80 percent, then you should reconsider what you are doing. The best and most successful salespeople are out where their clients and prospects are; they are not in the office. Office responsibilities should occupy no more than one day per week.
Increase the activity and pressure on any sales opportunity that is at least past the half-way point in the sales cycle. The best chance to close out the year strongly is to close out the opportunities that already exist. Take a serious look at everything that is in the sales pipeline. Apply fresh thinking, or enlist the aid of a teammate. Honestly assess which opportunities can realistically close, and move them up in the priority.
When the best and highest priority opportunities are known, make sure you understand each situation intimately. Know the intention of the client. Know the goals of the client. Know the pain the client is experiencing. Translate all of that knowledge into dollars. What does this situation mean to the client in terms of their P&L? Then make sure you clearly define how you and your solution alleviate that situation. Just because an opportunity is a high priority for you does not make it a high priority for the client. The client treats it as a high priority when the pain ($$) of remaining the same is greater than the pain of changing.
Lastly, be prepared. Preparedness alleviates mistakes, accounts for contingencies and reflects professionalism. If the client has anxiety (and what client doesn’t?), your preparedness is like a security blanket. The client’s questions are answered, sometimes before they are even asked. The concerns are addressed before they become problems. The results can be expected rather than hoped for.
The selling skills described above are not restricted to the last four months of the year. They should be a year-round set of best practices that elevates the performance of the entire sales team. But if they don’t exist today, starting them tomorrow in anticipation of closing out the year strongly is not a bad idea. n
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Ken Cook is managing director of Peer to Peer Advisors, an organization that facilitates business leaders helping each other. You can reach him at kcook@peertopeeradvisors.com.
