Why Your First Quarter Falls Short | Sales Strategies

A big mistake that I see sellers and companies make at the end of the year is failing to not plan for the new year. We get caught up in trying to close every single deal we can to accelerate way past our goals that we forget that January is just around the corner.

I’ve been analyzing some sales data for a couple of my clients recently, and what we’ve noticed is that the first quarter sucks. Sometimes, they’ll have strong a strong January, but a terrible February and March where they’re only doing a half or a quarter of what they’re supposed to be doing.

Some of these companies can recover and end up having great years, but they have done it with a lot of fighting, work, and long hours. Others cannot recover from a terrible first quarter. Why does this happen? It all starts in December.

Two things happen in December: we get busy closing sales and we get distracted by bonuses and the holidays. We get distracted by a mindset that says, “Nobody wants to talk to me, see me, or buy from me because it’s the holidays.” As a result, we stop prospecting.

[bctt tweet=”This happens everywhere every year and I discovered this really early on in my sales career.” username=”EngageColleen”]

Businesses and individuals have nothing to do, so they want to see you and no salespeople are calling them. I started applying this principle to my business regardless of what the industry was and now, with my clients. We sell through December and we build a pipeline for the first quarter of the new year.

It doesn’t matter how good you are at the end of the year. What matters is how strongly you start off the new year because that sets the tone for the way the year is going to go. Keep selling all the way through December until you take your holiday vacation, whenever that may be, and build your pipeline for your first quarter so that 2018 is your best year yet.

P.S. Are you a speaker, trainer, consultant or small business owner? Don’t miss my upcoming limited-attendance event on creating never-ending value client relationships, presented along with Alan Weiss in Miami Beach! Learn more at: www.EngageSelling.com/grow