As everyone is preparing for the Christmas break and daydreaming of mince pies round the tree, it’s no surprise you may feel your sales prospects may be seemingly hard to reach.
But if you’re thinking of easing off the accelerating your sales campaigns because you think your contacts are harder to reach, then the chances are so are the competition.
Christmas holidays and the “call me back in the New Year” responses are objections that sales teams far and wide will be hearing.
But the challenge is that if you or your sales team fail to overcome this age old objection and maintain prospect engagement over the Christmas period you risk;
- Extending your sales lead time
- Reducing your prospect engagement and brand recognition
- But worst of all, losing an opportunity to a competitor
There is no denying that the success of landing a telesales call with your decision makers during the lead-up to Christmas can be reduced. And of course there could be a genuine reason why key stakeholders cannot commit.
However, by adopting a strategic approach to your telemarketing and lead generation campaign you can maintain sales momentum and capitalise on the all the positives of the Christmas season (mince pies included).
Adopt a focused approach to optimise sales resource
Let’s be honest, it’s not only your sales prospect that may be enjoying the holiday season, but your sales team. Therefore, to maintain sales targets your remaining resource should be highly-focused for optimised results.
It’s not only a great sales pipeline you need to achieve this, but insight.
In today’s day and age your sales targets engage and consume promotional information in different ways, including self-educating through content such as blog and whitepapers.
They are all too often bombarded with meaningless communication messages, so it imperative to cut through the ‘white noise’ and create strong prospect engagement. And even more so during the lead-up to the Christmas break when availability is limited.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know who is engaged, available and opening their emails and hasn’t taken extended leave until the end of January? Well you can. By adopting IP Tracking or Marketing Automation tactics you can see in real-time who is highly engaged and automatically be alerted to your hot leads; optimising your telemarketing team’s resource and dramatically increasing your hit rate by over 50%.
Capitalise on Budget Spend
Following the holiday season, it will be time for your sales prospects to start implementing next quarter’s activity.
In fact, in Q3 many B2B companies are tasked with finding solutions and engaging with suppliers to address their project needs in readiness for completion in Q4. Or seeking solutions for a project to be budgeted for in Q1 of 2017.
If you have utilised the winter months to do your research and made an initial outreach with a strong value proposition, the chances are you will be ahead of the competition and a candidate for the sale.
In addition, the Christmas break is often a time for senior decision maker’s to reflect and review their plans for the New Year. So if they have your offer in hand you are in a strong position for consideration.
Consistent action creates consistent results
Humans by nature crave consistency – in message, in service and in communication. It is not only your prospects that need consistency to build trust and recognition with your brand, but your sales process.
In fact, Harvard Business Review indicates an 18% increase in revenue growth between companies that have a defined and consistent sales process to those which peaked and troughed.
So, if you say you will call back in two weeks – call. If you send a fortnightly blog-send it.
Review, refresh & refocus
If you have the luxury of time, use it to take stock. Analyse your most successful sales journey. Review the messages which are creating most market traction. And collaborate.
Unlike sales, marketing never slows down. And it’s no surprise that organisations who proactively align their sales and marketing team on average see a 36% higher customer retention and 38% higher sales win rates.
As the age old saying goes; two heads is better than one. So use your time wisely to refocus and prepare and align your objectives, enhance strategy for the coming month, review your buyers’ journey and ultimately drive your sales conversions.
That feel-good factor
Now you need to be a bit of a “bah humbug” not to be jolly about the festivities ahead. Which means your prospects will have that feel-good factor too. So capitalise this. You may find that those leads you do reach are more open to dialogue and willing to provide free information and prospect insight which will strengthen your communication and personalisation of the conversations in the New Year. They may even wish you a Merry Christmas!