Pump up your sales in the 4th quarter

Matt Lynch is the national sales director of LYNKA Promotional Products. John Lynch is president of LYNKA.

We are into the home stretch of 2003. For many businesses, the fourth quarter can represent 40 percent of their annual sales or more. Certainly the travel, promotion and retail industries see positive spikes in their sales numbers.

The holiday season is just around the corner, so it's time to prepare your list and check it twice. There are approximately eight good selling weeks until the end of the year, so here are eight ideas to help you pump up your sales.

Review your performance

It's time to step back and see how you are doing for the year. Evaluate your results; where do you stand on your budget? Identify what has been working and what hasn't. What adjustments can you make to improve your effectiveness? Set a goal for what you think would be great results for the fourth quarter. Give yourself a quantifiable goal - złoty sales volume, number of meetings per week or the total number of units sold.

Review your Customers

Compare your sales on a per client basis with last year, see if there are any clients who completely fell off the map. Identify which new clients need more attention, and think back to which clients are "seasonal clients" who usually order during the final quarter. Better yet, run an analysis of sales results in the last four months of last year, and see if you can spot any opportunities.

Understand Your Clients' Budget Plans

"We have to use up our budget." Perhaps the seven best words a salesperson can hear. Many departments of your customers have a use it or lose policy. If they don't use their budget, it doesn't carry over into 2004. You need to know if this is the case. It is not wrong to ask questions about how and when their budget process works. Sometimes they plan the budget at the end of the year, and spend a big chunk in January, while other companies don't get around to budgeting until the beginning of the year.

Holiday Parties

Many companies have a client appreciation event or party. The time to start organizing this is now, because Warsaw restaurants and venues can get pretty booked up in December. If your company is organizing an event, call and create special invitations for your best clients and prospects. If not, then try to attend as many events as possible - everybody is happy, and it's a perfect time to make a positive impression.

Database Clean-up

Why wait for next year to start improving your organizational skills. By cleaning up your database and eliminating the waste, you can be poised to start next year with a healthy list and some prospects already in the pipeline. A good review of your database might also unveil some prospects that got lost along the way, and could result in some last minute sales successes.

Thanking clients for Cooperation - Gift Giving

Holiday gift giving is becoming more popular in Poland. It is a way to say thank you for your past business, as well as confirming your desire to grow the relationship in the future. This is extremely effective if yours is a smaller business. A small investment now can reap great rewards later.

Be Positive, be Creative - Think Outside the Box

Sometimes without even realizing it, salespeople approach opportunities with a negative attitude, thinking they will be turned down. They have incorrect assumptions such as "that client already knows us, they have our offer, why should I call them," or "I don't have anything new to offer them, I will just be bothering them," and our personal favorite, "our clients only care about the cheapest price."

Nothing hurts your chances more than coming into the game with an "it's impossible" attitude. Challenge your assumptions, take a risk and try something original. Remember that being rejected means you are one step closer to someone who will buy.

End of the Year Sales Contest

This one is for the Sales Managers. Want to create some energy and excitement, then put together a sales contest for your team. Concentrate on the areas you want to improve, and set some achievable goals. Track the results weekly and have some prizes that will motivate your people. If you are not sure how to go about creating a sales contest, or would like to inject some creativity into your contest, send us an email and we'll send you a list of sales contest ideas.

Planning for 2004 - Setting goals and quotas

It is time to set your goals for next year. The process involves much more than just taking last year's results and increasing it by ten percent. In next week's article we will give you our guide to establishing goals and sales quotas for your sales force.

For all of you who have been doing business in Poland during the past years, we all know how difficult the recent "Polish recession" has been on sales. Well, today there are real signs that things are turning around. You hear it everywhere. And it's reflected in the economic indicators. Wouldn't it be great to finish the fourth quarter - for the first time in a long time - over budget?

You can do it - we know you can! Just take a deep breath, think about how what we said applies to your business, and most of all, get off your ass! Get out there and sell! And good luck from the "Sales Brothers".

You want some free press??? Sales Trainers and Sales Managers Wanted! We are planning a few future articles whereby we interview leading sales managers and sales trainers about their views on "Selling in Poland." If you qualify and are interested, please send us a short introductory email along with a personal or company profile. We'll contact you shortly. saleseye@lynka.com.pl