Many marketers stop prospecting during the holiday season, but I’ve found that holidays are a great time to prospect. More people are in a positive, festive mood, and you get to meet more of them as you are out and about. You can use this to your advantage and make your holiday season even more prosperous. This article discusses why this works so well.
Most salespeople don’t even try cold calling during the holidays. It’s common knowledge that trying to do business between Christmas and New Year’s is a waste of time, because most decision makers aren’t available and the ones who are aren’t in the mood to talk about buying. Yet Mark Hunter, the author of High-Profit Selling, claims that customers obtained during the holidays are on average more profitable than customers acquired at other times of the year.
Let’s tackle the common knowledge arguments first. Holidays are the time when most people choose to go on vacation. Yet that only makes it more likely that decision makers will stay in the office during that time. They reason that by being in an empty office, they’ll have a good chance to catch up on various projects uninterrupted. A decision maker might also remain just so that there will be someone available to take calls and work on any emergencies that occur.
As for decision makers not wanting to do business during the holidays, you’ll actually have a better chance to talk through your pitch because your prospect won’t be as likely to be interrupted by other calls and coworkers. And if you have a good chance to present your case, showing how your product will benefit the prospect, he’ll be motivated to turn off his party mood and get back to work. Decision makers, being less swamped during the holidays than normal, will also be more in the mood to ‘chat’ and that will give you an opportunity to get to know them better.
Because most of the office will be either working shorter hours or out on vacation, odds are thegatekeepers won’t be answering the phones during the holidays. You’ll have a much better chance of having a decision maker be the first one to pick up the phone. So if you have prospects whose decision makers you simply haven’t been able to reach, a holiday is the perfect time to give it another try.
Read more at: http://sales.about.com/od/Sales-Leads/a/Why-Holiday-Prospecting-Works.htm
