Many, sales professionals believe that the holidays are a bad time for prospecting. Not true. The holiday season can be an excellent time to prospect. It is true that some people are out of the office, however, many are not. This means that your prospect could be hard at work, reachable and willing to engage with you.
Because December can be a slow month in many industries, prospects may also have more time to speak with you. And, if things are slower, prospects are frequently less harried and stressed out. This is always good news.
One objection that you’ll encounter in December and no other time is the objection: “Call me in January.” While some prospects will be willing to engage with you, others will not and they’ll ask you to call in January or after the New Year.
At one time, this could be an insurmountable objection. People actually had physical calendars and in December many of them had not yet purchased their next year’s calendar. This made it impossible to schedule appointments in January. Even with prospects that wanted to schedule an appointment, you’d still have to call back because they literally did not have a calendar.
Today, of course, this is a nonissue. Prospects have calendars for next year, the next 10 years or the next 20 years. So, as you are prospecting this holiday season, when a prospect says to you: “Call me in January,” or “Call me after the New Year,” this is what you say:
“Let’s pencil something in for January (for after the New Year). It’s not chiseled in stone; I’d be happy to give you a call to confirm. Is (January date) good or is (different January date) better?”
This way you’ll be able to hit the ground running in January with a pipeline full of solid appointments and qualified opportunities.
Happy holiday prospecting!
