The holiday season is a busy time for sales professionals. You're juggling last-minute shopping, parties, and travel plans while trying to stay connected to your prospects who are spending more of their time with family and friends. It can often be difficult for sales reps to keep their prospects engaged with their products during this busy time. Worrying about whether your prospects will forget about you amid the holidays is a concern for most sales teams.
To help you and your sales reps enjoy the holiday season, we’ve come up with ten tools, tips, and strategies that will help you stay in touch with prospects, no matter where you are. This is so both you and your prospects can enjoy the season while maintaining a relationship that will have you looking forward to what the new year has in store.
- Keep at it. That doesn't mean you use the busy season as an excuse to be pushy, but you can reach out at different times to catch your prospects when they're available. Research has shown that cold-calling sometimes requires nine attempts, so don't be discouraged on the eighth if they don't pick up. Try sending a quick email, or even better, an interactive video to let them know you're thinking about them over the holiday season and look forward to connecting on the issues they are facing in the coming year. Buyers want you to understand their industry, business, and challenges.
- Nurture current leads. December is a great time to redirect your focus on what's important, which is often progressing leads. Use the holiday season to reach out to promising prospects that have fallen to the wayside and include them in nurturing campaigns that keep you top of mind. Discover different strategies and mediums for conveying your message to these prospects. For example, sending a personalized message over video is compelling and engaging, and if it's appropriate to mention the latest product enhancement to drive their business forward in 2022, even better.
- Schedule your 2022 appointments now. You can make lining up demos and first meetings in January your priority for this month. Prospects may not give up precious time now but may have more availability after the holidays. January is the perfect time to show them how your product can improve their business as they enter the new year. Pro-tip: consider using an online scheduling tool so you won't need to coordinate with back-and-forth messaging.
- Launch outbound sequence campaigns specific to the new year. Business often slows down over the holidays, which means people should have more time to do things they don't usually get to do, like reading emails—significantly longer prospecting emails. You know changes are coming as companies approach their new year goals, and you can tailor your prospecting emails to that. You can even offer a special deal if they act on your call to action before the end of the year. Whatever you do, make your outreach strategy an actionable one!
- Drop by. If it's possible to implement drop-by cold calling in your prospecting strategy, December is the perfect month to do it. Typically, this strategy works best if you know if December is the slower season for your prospect. Plus, you can take advantage of the season by dropping off cookies and wishing the office members well.
- Prospect on Fridays. This goes back to the 'Keep at it' tip. You shouldn't use the holiday season as an excuse to leave the office early or think that your prospects are too busy, especially on Fridays. There's a chance their Fridays have more available time slots than the rest of the week, and you can fill it!
- Prospect with holiday spirit. Let's face it; no one wants to talk to Scrooge this time of year, so you should reflect the joy of the season in your messaging. Your value proposition might not be different, but you can put a greater focus on making your delivery reflexive of the joyous time of year. Pro-tip: use a mirror while you're making calls so you can practice maintaining a happy, light expression while you talk to prospects and customers or deliver your message over a video.
- Keep an eye out for networking opportunities. Some of your prospects and customers could be hosting holiday lunches and parties, and you can use that as an opportunity to develop relationships—and maybe even slip in a follow-up meeting while the mood is light. Networking to create established relationships is key to making a lasting impression.
- Emphasize end-of-year budgeting. It's the time of year when people are rushing to purchase gifts for their loved ones, but it's also a time when B2B clients are looking to get the most out of the year's remaining budget. When you contact them, ask about their remaining budget and come prepared with package prices that fit into it.
- Utilize creative outreach. Creative, personalized outreaches are essential no matter what year it is, but especially during the holiday season. It's a time when people have more in common and can talk about and integrate holiday topics into most conversations. It also means people are cheerier with holiday time off coming up. If a prospect sees that you took the time and effort to create something personalized for them, chances are they'll respond to return the favor.
We hope you found some ideas to help you maintain a relationship with your prospects throughout the holidays. You can use these ten strategies to stay in touch and nurture those who matter most during the busiest time of year, or you can come up with some of your own. One tool we recommend for this time of year is verbTEAMS interactive video capability. Interactive video gives you a way to communicate directly without needing to coordinate your schedules, and it’s a great way for you to remotely measure prospect engagement.
