Fourth Quarter Blues - Got Em? by Tim Connor, CSP
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                           Words of wisdom for this week.   

"What I need is someone who will make me do what I can."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

The pressure is on and management is breathing down your neck to finish the year on a positive note and hit or beat your number for the year.  I know the feeling.  You have looked under every rock and behind every tree and there still doesn't seem to be any more business out there that you can close. 

You have tried everything. You have:

-Contacted inactive clients and tried to re-activate them

-Harassed your new prospects until they don't ever want to hear from you again

-Made more calls than ever before in your career

-Made concessions with prospects to get them to place an order

-Started your day earlier and finished it later

And the list goes on and on...

So what's left to do to ensure that you have a record year, or at least enough to make sure you keep you job for another year?

Here is a brief list of actions you can take that you might not of thought of:

1. Try a new creative approach, one you have been unwilling to do in the past because it seemed so 'out of the box', to get your prospect's attention.  Send them a dinner plate (FedEx) with a note attached saying something like, "It's time to get this off your plate and on to mine. Let's get started."

2. Devour a new sales book or two, one you have been putting off all year. (I've got several listed on my website.  Tell you what, to make it easier for you to finally get off your butt and start learning some new sales tactics, I'll give you a 2 for 1 offer an any of my sales books/manuals.  Just go to my website (timconnor.com) purchase 2 of any of my sales books or manuals and mention the 2 for 1 in the comments section and I’ll only charge you for one of the items.

3. Stop whining about how bad business is and do something, anything - new, different, more, faster, sooner, I don't care but take action.

4. Come up with a special reason or incentive for your customer or prospect to see you, buy from you now.  (I just gave you an example in No. 2 above)

5. Try cultivating a new prospect or contact in an entirely new:

-Industry
-Geographic area
-Category (age, gender, position)

6. Stop wasting time on poor prospects that have been stalling for months.  Let them go.  It feels good and it will save you lots of time, energy and resources.

7. Now it's your turn.  With a little creative thinking see what you can come up with.

The real secret here (and it’s really not a secret) is to manage your sales activities, funnel and selling behaviors so that in the future while everyone else in your organization is scurrying around looking for crumbs, new business or just any kind of success that you can have a relaxing 4th quarter knowing that it will end with predicable positive results and you can eliminate the stress and pressure during this time of your life when it should otherwise be filled with so may other positive things.

About The Author:

Copyright: 9/2009 Tim Connor, CSP - Connor Resource Group

Tim Connor, CSP World renowned Speaker, Trainer and best selling author of 75 titles, Box 397,  Davidson, N.C. 28036 USA,  704-895-1230 (voice) - 704-895-1231 (fax) - tim@timconnor.com (email) - www.timconnor.com (Website)