It’s the most wonderful time of the year – unless you’re in B2B sales.
In that case, it’s the time for the annual wave of “how about we come back to this in the new year” conversations with your prospects.
But don’t give up hope; you don’t need a holiday miracle to close sales at the tail end of Q4. What you need is a strategy.
Find – and avoid – the dead zones.
Every year there are common times when you just won’t be able to nail down prospects to meet with you. Let alone the stakeholders who can actually sign off on the deal. Those days when everyone is out of the office are the dreaded holiday dead zones.
According to research by Gong, sign rates drop by 38% the week of any major holiday. That’s not just Christmas. The data also includes Diwali, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
And of course, Christmas is the big one. The week of Christmas, sign rates fall by a whopping 78%.
So what does that mean for you? If you’re going to close deals during the holiday season (and you work in sales, so of course you still have a quota to meet), be sure to plan those extra-important signing discussions for the few weeks in Q4 without a major holiday.
Save the big sales discussions for the off weeks, and plan to focus more on your administrative or top-of-funnel activities during those dead zones.
Plan to close early.
Speaking of off weeks, the last week of December isn’t exactly known for closing the quarter strong. In addition to people who are using their PTO, there are also plenty of companies that don’t even have their offices open during the week between Christmas and New Year. In fact, in Australia many businesses close by December 15.
That means you can’t rely on a burst of activity at the end of the month to finish strong; you have to plan ahead.
But how can you make it so those deals close before procurement, legal, and all the rest of the stakeholders head out of office? One way is to shift up the dates for your customer. Instead of having discounts expire at the end of the month, try moving the deadline to something earlier like the 15th or 20th. Then your prospect has to make moves to get everyone on board in time, instead of waiting until the end of the month and realizing they can’t get in touch with everyone they need to seal the deal.
Convince your prospects it’s better not to wait.
Another way to shift the conversation away “let’s circle back in January”? Give your prospect a few reasons why it would be more beneficial to sign now than to push it off for another month.
Here are a few angles you can explore:
- Save money – And no, we’re not just talking about steep discounts in December. Are your prices increasing next year? Let your customers know now so they have extra incentive to lock in the current pricing.
- Save stress in Q1 – Chances are, purchasing your solution isn’t the only thing they’re pushing off till the new year. Do they really have time to tackle all of their Q1 tasks plus purchasing and onboarding?
- Benefit now – Your product offers prospects value to make their job easier. Why wait any longer for something that helps you work more efficiently or effectively?
Bring in the heavy hitters
Every once in a while, deals just don’t move quickly for no identifiable reason. You’ve qualified the prospect and established your product is a good fit, and still the deal is just trudging along. How can you get the prospect to stop dragging their feet and commit before the year is over?
Sometimes you need to bring someone else into the conversation to inspire a little movement.
As much as it sucks to say, a lot of prospects simply don’t trust salespeople. So no matter how well your conversations have gone or how honest you’ve been, they might not be convinced until they hear it from someone else.
Depending on your prospect’s major concerns, it might help to bring in an engineer, someone from your support team, or even a satisfied customer. Even just looping in your manager can help give things the extra nudge they need.
Closing a deal can be a team effort, especially when you’re under the holiday season crunch.
Know what can wait
December is all about closing and finishing Q4 strong. That means that, as backward as it might seem, you don’t want to pack your calendar with demos and trials that aren’t going to close until the new year.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should neglect your pipeline – Q4 pipeline is what leads to Q1 closers, after all. But what it does mean is that you should use your resources (especially your time) wisely. Focus on the deals that have a good chance of closing before the end of the year.
And if any of your prospects still push for a demo sooner – “any way you can squeeze us in?” – then all the better. That means you’ve got a potential buyer who means business and might be eager to close.
It’s also good to make sure your quarters align with your prospects’. For many companies, Q4 actually ends in January or November. If that’s the case for any of your target companies, they’re not going to feel the same sense of urgency in mid-December as you do if your quarter ends on December 31.
Ultimately, selling during the holiday season means you need to figure out who your motivated buyers are and plan your calendar accordingly. Prioritize the go-getters and the almost-closed deals, and let the more leisurely-paced sales turn into your Q1 closed-wons.
Let’s wrap it up.
Closing deals in the thick of holiday season isn’t exactly easy, but these tips will help you end Q4 on a high note so you can enter the new year feeling confident and ready to sell even more.
And don’t forget to keep prospecting so you have plenty of pipeline to return to in January. Use Lusha, a sales intelligence platform that gives you key insights on target companies – including direct ways to contact key decision makers so you can sell more efficiently.
Key Takeaways
- When selling during the holiday season, be aware of weeks it will be tough to close – namely, the days before holidays and the last week of the year.
- Come prepared to convince your prospects why it’s beneficial to buy your product now instead of later, and bring in reinforcements if you need to move the deal along.
- Prioritize spending time on the deals that have a higher likelihood of closing soon and book your late-bloomer demos for Q1 to build future pipeline.
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