Early December is a terrific time to focus on pipeline management

Hello Sales Reset Leader

Some of your team members may find it challenging to stay focused on selling as they get closer to the holiday period.

Here are the reasons:

• Holiday Distractions: The holiday season brings numerous distractions, including personal commitments, vacations, and a general festive atmosphere that can shift focus away from work.

• Perception of Reduced Buying Activity: Many salespeople believe customers have stopped buying for the holiday season, leading to a self-imposed slowdown.

• Budget Cycles: Some prospects may have already exhausted their annual budgets, making it seem less likely to close deals.

• Shortened Work Month: With multiple holidays and time off, December effectively becomes a three-week work month for many.

You have a range of strategies available to help your team members. One of the most effective is to focus on pipeline management.

The rest of this email newsletter assumes you have read this week’s first Weekly Sales Reset“:

• Title: Achieve best-ever December sales results by focusing on your customers' outcomes

• Subtitle: How to improve proposals for the best opportunities in your pipeline

How to improve your team's results this week

• Where to look for evidence

• Expected pushback

• Role-Play Recommendations

• Invitation to Weekly Sales Reset Stories - LIVE! o …

Where to look for evidence

We strongly recommend reviewing the evidence before your coaching sessions with each team member. The evidence you find will make your coaching significantly more effective.

Before you meet with your team members for your 1:1 coaching sessions this week, here’s where to find the evidence you need. 

Is every team member prioritising their pipeline sufficiently rigorously? Can they answer immediately and accurately when you ask them about their single most significant opportunity?

You probably have a good idea about each team member’s single most significant opportunity. When you look at the current proposals for these opportunities, how good are they? How can they be improved?

Expected pushback

So you know what to expect and can be prepared, here are three areas of possible pushback from your team members.

1. Customers won’t talk to me until January. What reasons can your team members devise to make it sufficiently valuable for stakeholders in their opportunities to speak now?

2. Key stakeholders are on vacation. Are all key stakeholders away from work? Or have your team members inadvertently slipped into this mindset?

3. I’m distracted by planning for time off. OK, so it’s unlikely they’ll say this! But this might be an essential aspect of distraction from selling, especially as we move deeper into December.

What are your best responses now that you know these potential pushback areas?

Role-Play Recommendations

1. Best Current Opportunity: What is the single most significant improvement that can be made to the proposal document in their best opportunity? Role-play the conversation with the key stakeholders.

2. Most Significant Next Meeting: Role-play critical moments in the next scheduled meeting in their best opportunity.

(You may find these recommendations about using role-play helpful.)

Invitation to Weekly Sales Reset Stories - LIVE! online

We’re hugely interested to hear how you and your team members get on with these recommendations about improving proposals in their most significant opportunities.

You’re welcome to join us for a 45-minute discussion to share experiences in a weekly session in our FREE Sales Reset Together community from 16:30 to 17:15, UK time every Tuesday.

The session is designed to allow participants to share their experiences and stories about each Weekly Sales Reset theme.

Click here to join the community and learn more about the Tuesday session.

We hope you’ve found this edition of Sales Reset Leaders valuable.

Have a great week!

The Sales Reset Team

Do your team members subscribe to our companion weekly newsletter, Weekly Sales Reset?