Selling in December is rough. The time of year that most people are planning on spending money they don't have on their families, you are trying to get them to spend money with you....a stranger.
Once December hits, everything changes in sales. People simply stop spending money and listening to sales pitches. Right? Wrong. The fight just gets harder. And your Q4 goal starts to loom and your boss is breathing down your neck and you have no choice but to either give up or go harder than you have all year. Because in December, mediocrity yields the same results as the below average deliver all year.
In my opinion you have one thing on your side when selling in December, and that is attitude. Yours and your prospects. After Thanksgiving people are just a little happier for 1 month. They are more likely to speak to you, interact with you and legitimately listen to what you have to say. Take advantage of this. Get out of your car and into their place of business. Pick up the phone. The longer you sit and think about how to hit your number, the more your number becomes unattainable.
Then you have another factor that can be good or bad depending on how you position your sale. That is urgency. Can you create enough urgency so that a business owner makes the decision before the years end because he/she wants to be set up for success in Q1? Or did you get sold on why it is just not feasible to spend that money around the holidays? Someone is going to win. Most of the time, it will not be you. But if you are mentally tough, keep pushing, get up early and work late, you WILL win enough to hit your number. And if you don't...well there is always next year. But if you lose every year in December, over 12 years you will have completely wasted an entire year of your selling career and probably cost yourself a LOT of money.
So when December hits, force yourself to work 2 more hours a day, talk to 10 more people a day and pitch your most expensive and valuable products so at the very least, you walk away with a moderate win for you and your company.
Usually, how your December goes is contingent upon the presents your family gets over the holidays....so don't let them down!
"You become what you think about all day"
Dave Altimari
Being in sales, you are dealing with hundreds of people a week in thousands of different situations. It's very difficult to sort through everything, so I am choosing to write it down and share it so that I can share my experiences, and give advice on what I consider one of the most stressful, yet rewarding positions you can have.
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