December is not only the “happiest time of the year;” it also be the most hectic, stressful time of the year for those at work. It is not uncommon to hear salespeople complain about the month of December. Common gripes are that everyone is too busy to add anything new to their plate, or all decision-makers are away for the holidays. With this kind of attitude, they may as well not even try, right?! What if you were armed with some strategies for connecting with your prospects and opening up new relationships and opportunities for the New Year? We already have the statistics from Craig in his blog post, Why is December a Great Month for Sales Prospecting? Here are my five tactics to leverage holiday cheer in the month of December and have better quality conversations when B2B teleprospecting or cold calling.
1. Ask the question, “How are you positioned to improve in the New Year?”
A great way to start a teleprospecting conversation at the end of the year is to encourage your prospect to start thinking about how they can improve their operations in the New Year. As the year winds down, most likely your prospect will begin to think about how they can improve their processes and perform their job responsibilities more efficiently and effectively. The end of the year can also include many process improvement board meetings. Start filling your prospect’s mind with great ideas to start the New Year off strong and help them look like a genius in their meetings!
2. Fill your prospect’s idle time as they unwind before the holiday.
As year-end work dies down, take advantage of your prospect’s lighter workload to extract as much valuable information and insight about their current environment as you can in order to prepare you for future conversations. What were their biggest challenges this past year? What are they going to do to overcome them? Use this time to really listen to what your prospect needs.
3. Take advantage of fewer meetings as everyone starts to leave for vacation.
It goes without saying, December is a huge month for vacation time and you may find a lot of people are out of the office at this time. This can also work in your favor as those who are not on vacation are most likely at their desks more often, tidying up their individual work to prepare for the New Year. You run a pretty high chance of catching your prospect at their desk and statistics have shown that the connect rate is higher at this time of the year!
4. Sort through your data and set yourself up for a winning New Year.
If you do that you have difficulty catching your prospects live on the phone, this can be a positive challenge as well. Set aside some time to review the quality information you have gathered this past year and make a list of what worked for you and what didn’t. Setting yourself up for success in the New Year is an important part of the process as well!
5. Wish your prospect “Happy holidays!” to convert to more positive conversations.
From my own experience, simply bringing up the holidays with a prospect can turn a cold, negative, or otherwise strained conversation into a warmer dialogue. Forget needing a referral or other warm opening, the holidays provide an instant way to remind your prospect that you are a human too and that there’s always time to share your excitement about the holidays with each other. You don’t have to be the Grinch to get work done!
What are your tips for teleprospecting in the holiday season?
Michaela Cheevers is a business development representative at AG Salesworks. She helps her clients find fully qualified sales opportunities in order to grow their sales pipelines and generate meaningful business relationships. Always looking to help others, she looks forward to connecting the right people with the best business solutions.
