Want to accelerate sales at year end? Do these 3 things

Doing research about my daughter living in Paris this year made me remember “European August” that I experienced as an exchange student in Switzerland in high school.

Most everyone in Europe shuts down and heads off for relaxing and beautiful climes the entire month of August.

Refreshed and relaxed, they then enter the final season of the year ready to close some good business and deliver great results.

I don’t know about you, but I was not lounging in St. Tropez in August this year (more like catching some rays in my backyard chaise lounge in Mesa, Arizona, cooling off with the hose!).

I still took time to reflect on how I wanted the rest of the year to go, and through a lot of conversations with my team, we zeroed in on three main approaches to ensure we meet our business and personal goals this year:

1. Zero in on your most popular, efficient and effective offering and market around it
You might have worked on a lot of offers this year, for a wide variety of clients.

To get some traction at year end, you want to prioritize marketing and telling the story about a core offer that meets the following criteria:

–It is a good fit for end of year activity. Ideally, it will help your clients reach their end of year goals. (If entrepreneurs are your clients, they want to hit their sales goals, and if companies are your clients, they want to do that plus have a solid plan for what to budget for in the coming year)
–It delivers consistently great results.You want to build and share some success stories around this offering to interest other prospective clients
–It leads to more and deeper work. Often companies are not ready to start big new initiatives at year end, but they do want to do things that help them research and plan for bigger things in the new year. Assessments, action plans and strategic intensives are great things to offer at the end of the year.

2. Clean out all the inboxes and re-engage all interested clients
My dear friend and former business partner Charlie Gilkey always talks about the “$1,000 sitting in your inbox.”

When we are flying through the year, we often forget to get back to people, let “I want to work with you just not now” clients simmer without any communication for too long, and get in the bad habit of always looking for new engagements instead of nurturing those we have.

Go back through your calendar, CRM and inbox and follow up with anyone who you would still love to work with. Even if it has been awhile, it doesn’t have to be awkward. You can say something like:

“Hi (name)! This year has flown by for us, what about you? I loved our conversation in February about your goals around (project). What has developed since we talked?  Do you want to hop on a short call to discuss?”

Use your own style, but don’t overthink it. Mo Bunnell recommends a message no longer than 50 words (the above message is 40).

3. Optimize your systems for ease, efficiency and speed of follow up
There are always big things you can do to improve your client experience and operations, but what are the handful of things you have put off all year that get in the way of closing more business?

Maybe you need to finally settle on a proposal template. Or get a minimally functional Client Relationship Management (CRM) system up and running. Or finish your new marketing brochure.

Before the end of September, fix these things in a sprint. Then put your head down and connect and seed like heck!

It ain’t over till its over

Too often, we get stuck in patterns of avoidance because it feels like we are running out of time.

“I should have started in June, I will never catch up!”
“With this big election coming up, everyone will be distracted.”
“My website redesign isn’t complete, I can’t reach out to new people for business.”

These thoughts are not your friend.

There is still a lot of juice left in the year.

Get organized, focus on what you can control, and plant those seeds.

Your clients need you to reach their goals!