giving up on selling in Q4 2020? SLAP

OWW! WHY?!

Your competition’s thinking the same thing. So send emails, make calls, and have conversations with prospects. Move ahead of your competition while they’ve given up, and you have more of your prospect's attention. 

There are no traffic jams on the early and the extra mile =)

If you can't beat holiday shopping - join it. While your prospects are primed to look for gifts this holiday season, if you and management can develop a Black Friday or Christmas Sale-like promotion, you’ll be on their radar.

And this isn’t just for retail; you can do it for B2B as well; because the decision-makers are still retail consumers.

You’ve lost so much time in 2020. You need to catch up, squeeze what you can, and make efforts to stay ahead from now on (and let this be a lesson on preparing for the worst, because if it's not a pandemic next time, it'll be something else).

Also - keep in mind that prospects need to recapture their lost time, too; and your products and services can help them. Ask for the sale that way. 

There will be enough to do in 2021. Planning and executing initiatives now will eliminate the stress and worry for the new year.

Amateurs start in January. 

Workload is full, but wallets are empty. Most people spend less at the beginning of the year, because their finances have been destroyed during the holiday season - maybe more this year, because of economic uncertainty - and because they’re distracted with all the new year crap.

They’ll be less focused on your messaging and more focused on theirs. It makes sense to get you in their budget while they’re still willing to spend. 

Tax benefits? IDK. In my ten-year career at Fransmart, I noticed that I’d get many calls from prospective franchisees in Q4 ready to buy, and a very common talking point from them is: “My CPA says I need to minimize my tax burden by making an investment by year-end.”

I’m ashamed to say I never asked how the tax law works there; but even though I didn’t understand it, I still stood to benefit from it. 

 Be present and enjoy the holidays. NOT working during Q4 may give you more time to attend holiday parties and be with loved ones...but are you really enjoying yourself?

With good planning and massive execution these last few weeks; you can be closing more deals than your competition - definitely more than you might imagine - and you'll be able to spend more on your loved ones, because you have more commissions; actually be present with them, instead of stressing about scarcity; and you'll for sure have something to celebrate, work-wise. 

action steps

1. Have a conversation with ownership (or the powers that be) to bundle products or discounts that would attract customers into moving forward now. If you’d like me to be a part of that brainstorming session, reply and let me know! I love this stuff!

2. Ask your friends, family, referral partners (CPAs, especially), and clients for referrals for introductions to people you can help NOW, using the thoughts above. Create an email they can easily forward to prospects and copy you on them. Make it easy for them to refer you. 

3. Craft an email or cold calling script, also with the thoughts above; and stress the urgency of moving now to take advantage of any discounts or deals, reducing the stress and spending of the new year, and the fact that you’ll make it easy for them to buy and enjoy your product. 

conclusion

There was an incredible podcast conversation between Tim Ferriss and Josh Waitzkin, where Josh talks about the most important part of anything you do, and the answer surprised but empowered me:

 I remember when I went skiing with Billy Kidd, who you might recall is one of the great downhill racers back in the ‘60s, the Olympic Ski Team. Awesome dude....He was saying to me years ago, when I first skied with him, “Josh, what do you think are the three most important turns of the ski run?” I’ve asked that question to a lot of people since. Most people will say, “The middle because it’s the hardest, the beginning because they’re getting momentum.”

Billy describes the three most important turns of a ski run are the last three before you got in the lift. It’s a very, very subtle point. For those of you who are skiers, you know that’s when the slope is leveled off, there’s less challenge. Most people are very sloppy then. They’re taking the weight off the muscles they’ve been using. They have bad form. The problem with that is that on the lift ride up, unconsciously, you’re internalizing bad body mechanics.

As Billy points out, if your last three turns are precise, then what you’re internalizing on the lift ride up is precision. So I carry this on to the guys who I train in the finance world, for example. Ending the work day with very high quality, which opens up – for one thing, you’re internalizing quality overnight.

 You don’t have to accept the conventional wisdom that things slow down at year-end. It could be the absolute strongest quarter you have in 2020; and when you kill it in Q4, you’ll internalize that abundance, you’ll be less stressed, and can make investments for 2021 that others can’t because you did things others won’t.