Let’s be realistic, not much of what’s in your sales pipeline will close between the week of Thanksgiving or between December 25^th and January 1^st.  The frustrating thing?  You’ve probably been working harder than ever this whole year to promote your brand, product (s) and service offering (s)!

Among other things in your marketing plan, maybe you’ve been marketing/advertising in all the publications and online outlets your target audience might be reading (and as many as the budget would allow)… you’ve also been hitting your referral base/repeat customers and brand champions with consistent easy to read and easy to find messaging.  Don’t let that hard work go to waste – don’t count “contingent offers”… aka: verbal commitments as the golden tickets and miss other opportunities.  You’ve made it this far,  you can do it!

You’re in the homestretch of 2009… the final undertaking… (carefully) consider your answers to these questions and rededicate yourself to making your numbers:

1. Are there any last minute surges? Limits/deadlines that are expiring? Price increases in Q1 of 2010?  These are the “closers”.
2. Thank the referrals – in a big way! Through newsletter announcements, email blasts, messages from key management, special gifts (only if these are already in the budget and you haven’t spent  the $$$).  Your repeat clients/referrals may have one more person or company interested in what you’re touting at the last minute and your gratitude just reminded them of why they purchased from you in the first place.
3. Follow Up!  A thank you goes a long way whether the prospect will or won’t buy before December 31st.  There’s always 2010!  
4. Lastly, almost every company makes some type of Q4 Announcement – what’s yours?  Can it help sell the folks in your pipeline?

We know… you think you’ve got five weeks left to meet your sales goals before the end of the year right?  You couldn’t be more wrong!  You’ve really only got three (see first paragraph).

Remember – sales aren’t about YOU.   They’re about what you’re selling.    

About Tanya Blackburn

Tanya is a marketing/public relations enthusiast and former television journalist with a nose for news and a knack for simplifying complex information into easy to understand, impactful key messages.