Another year is almost over for American small businesses. It’s time to hurry to meet end of year sales goals. Here are 10 tips some experts shared with Small Business Trends.
Ways to Meet Your End of Year Sales Goals
Plan Ahead
Taking the time to do the little things like scheduling emails and front loading work for the first two weeks of the month are important steps. Chris Rothstein, CEO and co-founder of sales automation platform,Groove.co has a simple formula.
“Make a detailed plan of attack to reduce risk in every potential deal before you start; you should know the next 2-3 actions to take in every deal before people start leaving for the holidays,” he says.
Motivate the Team
Your team might have visions of sugar plum fairies and mistletoe in their heads before the end of the year. You can make that spirit work for you with call blitzes and other incentives like sales promotional incentives. Those should funnel pre-holiday energy in the right direction.
Pass Along Winning Information
Being clear about expectations will help those end of year sales goals materialize.
Will Eadie, Global Vice President of Sales and Strategy at WorkJam explains that the info that gets passed along should always increase sales.
“If a manager knows that someone who buys Product A typically bundles it with Product B, that information should be communicated to associates to empower them to make the additional sale,” he says.
Understand Your Customers’ Budgets
Factoring in your customers’ spending habits over the holidays will help you time your sales goals for end of year. Patric Palm, Co-Founder and CEO of Favro, points out you need to find which ones will likely have cash to spend at the end of the year based on past habits.
Use High Quality Content
“Personalized, up-to-date content is a crucial part of the selling experience year-round, but as companies look to meet their end-of-year goals during the holiday rush, the importance of high-quality content grows,” says Theresa O’Neil, Showpad Vice President of Marketing.
It needs to be relevant and engaging.
Wine and Dine Those Clients
This is your last chance to make a sales pitch over lunch or dinner before the year’s end. Throwing in a discount might be the closer you need.
Recognize and Reward Your Associates
A little pat on the back for a job well done goes a long way toward motivating your sales team around this time of year. An award not only recognizes good behavior, it also helps to avoid burn out.
Start a Social Media Conversation
Salespeople need to look beyond the individual transaction as the year comes to a close. The sales experience for clients becomes important when there’s no new product on the horizon. Sellers can start a conversation on social media and share personalized content to drive sales up.
Offer a Creative Contract
Prospects might waver about signing a contract as the year closes. The right incentive might be all that’s needed. Giving them the option to opt out after trying the product for a month could do the trick.
Making the contract quarterly as opposed to yearly also works to get clients to sign before the calendar changes.
Offer a Subscription Model
If you can offer a subscription rather than a one-off sales model, you might close some last minute deals. Software-as-a-Service is only the front end of this trend. There’s room to improvise and add other products.
[“Source-smallbiztrends”]
