December 31 will be Here Before You Know it: 4 Strategies to Help you Finish the Year Strong

The next in the B2B Summer Sales series. It's still slow and will probably remain so until after Labor Day, but with conference season and plenty of holidays coming up, the end of the year comes up quicker than we realize. 

GTM Partners research just reported that 56% of B2B companies failed to meet revenue goals last year. Now is the time to plan to finish the year strong so you aren't part of that statistic.

I've got 3 strategies and a bonus tips for you, get started tomorrow to ensure you're celebrating on December 31.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro to mini pod
• 0:35 Stats you need to know
• 1:35 Tip number 1
• 2:27 Tip number 2
• 3:55 Tip number 3
• 6:47 Tip number 4
• 9:09 Recap

Transcript

summer: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to another mini pod. The next in the B2B summer sales series. We're in the dog days of summer. Right now it's hot and everyone is on vacation. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it will probably remain slow until after labor day. And then after labor day in B2B, it is a sprint to the end of the year conference season goes quickly and then November is hit and miss with two major holidays. It seems like everyone works for about two weeks in December before the major holidays steal the attention again. So it might only be the middle of August, but December 31st will be here before you know it. And now is the time to strategize for how to close the year strong. GTM partner's research just reported that 56, 5, 6% of B2B companies missed revenue goals last year, if you're behind on your goals. Congratulations, you're normal. All joking aside. I've been there too. And no matter how prevalent it is, it does not feel good. It's also hard to come from behind and win. So the sooner you start the better. Now you might be planning or hoping on conference leads to carry you through with a w but what's your backup plan. If there aren't enough leads. Or the leads that you collect are gun shy. I've got three strategies and a bonus tip for you that are inspired by a real clients project, but that you can have for free. Start planning tomorrow for how to feel amazing on December 31st. Your first tip. Analyze your late stage deals. Use your favorite data analysis or AI tool and identify late stage deals that could close by the end of the year. Refer back to my blog for tips on pipeline health checkups, to remember what needs to be in place for that to qualify as a deal that's likely to close. Once you have your targets identified, collaborate with your marketing partner and strategic partners in order to devise ways to win. Do you need a special piece of content geared toward late stage objections? Do you need to tag team with a strategic partner and while you're checking in with your partners? See if they're working on any deals with folks that you could also talk to. It's not too late to close a partner lead. To return to your stall deals using that data analysis or AI tool identify deals that could also be re-engaged. For specific tips on followup and re-engaging check out my blog. What you want to do is specifically look for prospects who fit. Your ICP and either ghosted you or where your next step is a little ambiguous, like check back in six weeks or check back next quarter. What would you prefer reaching out to them with a I'm just checking in. I'm just following up a message or a message with real value that will get them thinking about how your services can help them. I'm going to bet. It's that second one. In addition to the tips in my blog, you can have one of my favorites. I was reviewing my notes and I have some questions. Reviewing notes makes you sound smart and like you're preparing and you're being studious and that you care. Hopefully you do. Or another one of my favorites fall on the sword. I know I'm supposed to check back in. Six months, but I failed to make note of what exactly we were going to review. Earn another meeting and then go back through discovery or deeper discovery and see if the deal makes sense to both parties. Leverage your mid and late funnel marketing content and your strategic partners here as well. Number three. Look at your current client base. Analyze for happy and healthy clients who are under utilizing your system or services. Have you ever lost a client to a competitor because they didn't know that you offered a key feature or something that they needed and they went elsewhere to get it. That feels awful. So what's your plan to prevent that from happening again? Maybe you've got clients who have grown and have different needs than when they signed up or maybe you've added more features or ancillary services that tenured clients might not know about. Think about this and Anthony and arena's book eat their lunch. He reminds us that when you're courting new clients, you bring them new ideas and insights and added value. When they become clients, there's a honeymoon period during implementation. And then typically suppliers tend to get complacent or feel entitled to the business. And then your clients are open to hearing new ideas from your competitors. You need to keep them informed and up-to-date and continue to align with their goals and objectives. Now, if you're worried about coming across as salesy, you have every reason to be nervous. I remember the first time I installed a customer success manager on my team. And when he started calling clients, the reception was chillier than we expected. Who the hell are you? I already buy from you. I don't want to talk to anyone from sales. So ask yourself how you can ensure that your current clients are going to see the value in the additional features you offer without feeling like they're being sold to. For non salesy ways to do so. Consider leveraging client success stories. You probably have new clients that are using those new features or ancillary services, and you could leverage a success story. Either in your delivery or in some marketing content. You could also incorporate the new features into your regular QPRs with your clients. Where. You're checking in with them. You're doing status updates and it's just in there kind of naturally. So it doesn't feel like, Hey, here's a demo on our new stuff. Don't you want to buy it? Uh, QBR can be a nice way to do that without feeling weird. And don't forget to ask for referrals. More leads close faster, and you still have time to bring those home before the end of the year. Side note while you're analyzing your clients. Also make note of the ones who aren't happy and healthy and run your customer success plays. Those folks are going to be tempted to answer when your competitor calls this time of year. And here's your bonus tip number four. A magical piece of content that can help you generate urgency and overcome your toughest competitor status quo. Guides. Implementation guides, buyers, guides, timelines. Sometimes prospects will give you the brush off because they're busy. And we all tend to think that the end of the year is far off. Showing a guide or a timeline can help build that urgency. Let's take a scenario where they want to go live January 1st. And let's back into that. Usually that means going live between Christmas and new year's and that's a week where a lot of people take time off. So they're going to have to work around that. They're going to need to test it first and fix any hiccups. They're going to need to receive training. There's usually some sort of data install. There's implementation paperwork. There's a handoff from sales. There's getting the agreement out and signed there's agreement. Negotiation. So even with a simple system or service. You could be looking at weeks worth of work and then adding time for holidays and time off, you might be doubling that time. Backing into a desired live date shows that they can't wait on your project. And then the temptation to stick with status quo usually comes down to two things. First off. You might be vastly improving processes or saving large amounts of money for them, but their company probably isn't incomplete. Freefall. And they're probably doing fine. And top that off with their folks are busy and if they tend to be doing fine, Taking on a big project might not seem like it's worth it. Your guide will break the project into bite sized chunks and show them that you're there with them every step of the way. And it makes it much less daunting. And guide can also be a great thing to put on your website to capture buying intent of your mid to late stage prospects. Let's remember that even when they are engaged in. A buying process with a B2B sales person. Most buyers tend to continue to do their own independent online research. And you'll want to have those resources available to them as well. So let's wrap it up. The end of the year is coming sooner than you think. Labor day. To new year's Eve is a whirlwind of conferences and holidays. While things are still slow. Take time to analyze your pipeline and your current client base and make strategic plans to close your year out. Strong. One. Identifying late stage deals that could close and collaborate with marketing and strategic partners on moves that will bring them home. Two. Identify stole deals that you could re-engage remember those folks who told you to call back in two weeks. Well, it's time to call them. Number three. Identify happy and healthy clients who are under utilizing your product or service. And come up with a non salesy way to showcase the benefits to them. For create a guide that will help overcome your prospects inclination to procrastinate or their fear of taking on a big project. If you need more specific tips. I've got some blogs and other content that goes deeper into some of these topics. If you need help finding those goodies, please let me know. You can also pick my brain if you prefer. Find me on LinkedIn. I am summer Paoletti rhymes with spaghetti or online@theriseofus.com. See you next week.