The holidays are fast approaching, and you know what that means... your sales calls are being met with the all too familiar “call me after the first of the year.”
Once Thanksgiving hits, clients and consumers tend to slow down for the year. They feel that certain decisions would make better sense to wait until after the New Year, but salespeople still need to work and finish out the year strong. So, how do you get them to change their thinking?
Create urgency! Creating urgency as to why they should meet you or buy your product or services before the end of the year is a must! Change their way of thinking from – “I’ll just wait until next year” to “I need to get this accomplished by the end of the year.”
Help them reach their year-end goals. If you sell to other sales professionals, highlight how your product or service is going to help them accomplish their year-end goals. Everyone is looking for a way to increase year-end production and create sales during the holidays. Lead with how you can help them.
Create an attention-grabbing email or video. The holidays are busy and getting people on the phone and/or getting past gatekeepers gets a bit harder. Create an attention-grabbing email with a video that highlights the reasons why someone should meet with you now!
Get past the gatekeepers. This time of year, certain people train their gatekeepers to start pushing off all sales calls until January. Unless you have the person you are trying to reach's email address, you may not get to them or their voicemail. When the gatekeeper insists that you must call back next year, act disappointed and say something like, "Shoot, I know Jim would be really interested in helping his clients with what I have to share with him before the end of the year. Is there any way I could send him an email with a short video? I was just hoping to increase his sales numbers for the last quarter.” Or something like that.
Another way to get past the gatekeeper is the chat him or her up. Be friendly, humorous, and even complimentary.
Hire some good help. I’ve worked in the financial industry since I was right out of college, so it’s been a few years... okay, a lot of years, and there are definitely two main types of mentalities around the holidays – those who want to decrease their appointment setting services because it’s a slow time and those who want to either increase their appointment setting service or start an appointment setting service to finish the year strong and start the New Year off with a bang! Which one are you? The holidays will be so much more enjoyable when you know that your January is already mapped out.
Even though meeting sales goals and having a banner year is important, don’t forget to celebrate and enjoy the holidays! Schedule a little time for yourself to have some fun! This year needs to be celebrated and what better way to celebrate than to enjoy fun times with your friends and family? I hope you have a safe and happy holiday season! Cheers to 2023 and here’s to a fantastic 2024!
xx, Danae
P.S. Another great way to get noticed is with a well-timed and thoughtful promotional item. It gets your name in front of your audience and gives you an advantage over the competition. If you want personalized promotional items, contact me! I have just the vendor who can help!