October | November are THE Most Important Months of the Year, But What Are You Doing About It?

Posted on

October and November are the two most important months of the year for sales teams and yet far too many sales people and managers just don’t change pace and then roll into Christmas and January and wonder why they miss target.

Worse still, they start Q1 of the new calendar year playing catch up.

Thank goodness this doesn’t happen in your organisation

Whenever we ask a B2B client how was your December & January the reply is always “not that good”
When we ask why the person (probably correctly) looks at us like we are idiots
“Because of Xmas (idiot)”
“Is that a one off or does it happen every year?”
Now they really are convinced we are idiots!

Hope Is Not a Sales Strategy! So if it is every year what are YOU doing to change your results, starting in October?

There are more organisations open for business and back to work in January than ever before
We might slow down but nowadays less companies actually shut down.

So how well are you implementing the key Sales Pipeline principle of Managing the Lead Time between Sales Activity and Sales Results

If it takes you an average of 2 to 3 months to convert a new opportunity, or win a new client, or fill an order book in a quiet month, then 2 to 3 months prior to January is October and November.

How are you changing your sales activity in those months?

Or are you just sitting back saying “January has always been quiet for us”.

Now this isn’t the latest academic theory from some intellectual from Harvard who has never made a sales call in their life.

This is real life Sales In Action and successful sales organisations around the world live and breathe it.

KONA is a real life case study.

For 19 January’s out of the last 19 years in business KONA has had huge January’s– because our clients pre-book us for:

However, in the months of October and November we increase our client facing activity and lead generation.

A bad start to the New Calendar Year is hard to claw back so here are THREE PROVEN tactics to kick start your New Year and not start behind target.

1. Introduce Weekly or Fortnightly Power Hours

In a Customised Sales Training workshop, we generated a massive ROI for a client and gathered all of their 36 Sales People, Sales Support and Sales Managers into a room.

Each participant had to arrive with a target list of 50 contacts – existing, lapsed and prospects.

We then ran 2 hours of Power Hour Training then made everyone put the training immediately into practise

Outcome:

The group BOOKED 546 FACE TO FACE MEETINGS IN ONE HOUR – More than 15 appointments per person!

Their conversion ratio at that time was 34% of meetings to orders and they had a HUGE January and start to the New Year.

2. Incentivise Face 2 Face Meetings

All sales teams are under pressure to hit target however Activity Drives Results so focusing on the Daily Sales Figures rather that the Daily Sales Activity has you running your sales through the rear view mirror – too late to change.

So set a target for Face to Face meetings, new proposals/quotes and/or New Clients and put an incentive in place to focus yourself/your team on the Activity Targets that Drive Results.

3. Run A Client/Customer Incentive

Everyone knows about the January sales, yet as an organisation, are you sitting back saying that is only for Retailers?

What incentive can you run to your clients/customers for business booked in January?

For example, KONA are currently running a campaign where any organisation that pre-books:

We are all under pressure to achieve results and yet there is almost always a delay between the activity put in and the results achieved.

And yet if you aren’t managing that your Sales Pipeline or Sales Lead Time between your Activity and Results then you are not managing your business, team and/or customers properly.

If you are looking to increase the effectiveness and results of your organisation, contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 or email info@kona.com.au to discuss how we can help you to improve your organisation’s results.

The KONA Group is Australia’s Leading Sales Training and Sales Management Training and Coaching company and provide Customised Training programs that include:  Sales Training & Coaching, Sales Pipeline Training, Key Account Management Training, Call Centre Training & coaching, Negotiation Skills Training & Coaching, Motivational Speakers, HR Consulting; Storytelling For Sales; DISC and MBTI, and more.

Contact Us