How do I sell during the holidays?
Happy Holidays! It’s that wonderful time of year when it couldn’t be clearer who does and doesn’t have a quota.
Holiday seasons bring a lot of emotions with them: nostalgia, joy, excitement, exhaustion, and even some sadness. The holidays are a lot like someone taking our personal soundboard and moving every slider up.
This means a lot of noise and a lot of fatigue. One of the most common reactions to fatigue is an aversion to decision making. That’s a huge problem in an industry where timely decision making is half of our paycheck.
What can we do? Get specific. Ambiguity requires energy, and all that energy is being directed squarely toward figuring out where to store a turkey until Thursday.
There are three ways to be specific and navigate through the noise of the holidays:
1. Agendas in every meeting
No matter how important your upcoming meeting is, competing noise means buyers are trying to reduce as much as possible. This means you’re selling the meeting as much as you are the deal. Before your next meeting, every one of your buyers is going to audit their calendar and see where they can get time back. If you’re specific, you can keep steps in place and keep moving forward.
2. Know your stakeholders
With a motivated buyer, you can navigate through any challenges that you know about. For anyone who has ever planned a wedding, think of this being like the assigned seating at the reception: we can always find a way for everyone to be happy with where they’re sitting, but we have to know who is showing up. For any of you who haven’t planned a wedding, just send your RSVPs on time.
Your stakeholders don’t want to be a blocker, but they do want to make sure they fully do their job. Bringing task specificity to every stakeholder means giving them the chance to be thorough and expeditious at the same time.
3. Identify the blackout dates
We’ve all heard the heroic tales of sales people who got their clients to sign a deal while they were at a New Year’s party… there’s a LOT more stories of deals that slipped to the following year. Holidays mean travel schedules. You need to know what actionable days you have left, and that means learning about the holiday plans of each of your stakeholders. The good news: this is actually really fun! Find out who’s going to Cabo! Tell them about your favorite taco place (Taco Guss)! This is the time of year when Mutual Action Plans count double. It’s Q4. The stakes are high. The logistical challenges are overwhelming. Build your plan together.
There is nothing more challenging than running a deal in the dark during the holidays, but no one is asking you to! Your buyers are looking for someone who can take work off their plate, and they will be thrilled about you having the foresight to make sure the work you’ve done together will find a way to completion.
Get agreement up-front. Stay specific. Enjoy the hap-happiest season of all.
