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It can be pretty hard to book a sales call with a prospect planning to go on a vacation during the holidays in a few weeks. Imagine if this prospect was one of those you had to work hard for, and then, boom, the holidays come knocking on your door.
How do you even start by convincing them to hold a meeting with you when they probably want to go shopping? With holidays approaching, here is a guide on booking a sales meeting.
How to book sales calls before the holiday?
1. Make the Meeting Convenient.
Imagine a scenario where you have to get through traffic before Christmas - stressful, isn't it? So when booking the meeting, you should ensure it is convenient for both of you.
One way to ensure that you do not have any stressful scenarios is by sending the prospect your availability schedule. Include 3-4 slots that best work for you. It can be daunting to use a blank slate to figure out the best time to meet.
While sending the meeting invite, ensure that you highlight why you meet with the prospect and what you intend to cover. Make use of tracking tools to know when the opportunity opens the invite.
2. Do Not Fall for the Easy Bait.
In most cases, you’ll find that calendars are often open during holidays. Do not try to book appointments the day before the holidays. Let’s be candid; Friday meetings are usually often easy to lose. The same goes for planning an intersection close to the holidays. You’ll find that most of them are probably not planning to go to work this time of the year.
It is why it is essential to book your meetings in advance to ensure they’ll show up. Also, you'll have a buffer if they need to reschedule by booking early.
3. Make Sure That The Stakeholders Are Around.
Most people love traveling during the holidays. It will not help to book an appointment when all the stakeholders are busy getting their tan. It is why it is crucial to ensure that you plan around your stakeholder’s schedules.
It will offer you the chance to plan on the deals you may close before the end of the year.
4. Make The End Of Year Date Early.
In most cases, it will be of help if you choose an early date to close the year. It will offer you the chance to plan around the date and complete the deals before all the stakeholders are away. Having this data helps you avoid closing deals during the holidays.
Nothing kills a vibe than seeing a work email while you are busy eating sushi. In most cases, the date is usually December 10th. So ensure that you arrange your meetings before this date.
5. Send Them A Gentle Reminder.
It is often essential to remind your prospect that you would like to meet with them regardless of the time of the year. It is especially crucial during the holidays. Most people are usually caught up with the holiday season and forget about the meeting.
Many sales experts believe that text messages are the most excellent approach to remind a prospect of a sales meeting. According to recent research, 98 percent of all text messages get opened, compared to 22 percent of emails.
Calling is too intrusive because they have already met. A repeated cold call may seem salesy. Another meeting reminder will serve as a reminder of how busy your prospects are if they have many unopened emails in their inbox.
It's important to remember that you want to be pleased with your prospects. Make your text more personable. They are most likely outstanding people if they have purchasing power. They are deserving of exceptional outreach.
It would also be bad for you if you end up trying to call the prospect about the meeting to find out they already went on holiday.
6. Avoid using “ Happy Holidays” while trying to book the meetings.
As a sales rep, you always have to find a way to stand out. The prospect will likely receive emails during this holiday starting with this subject line. If you are trying to book an appointment, come up with great subject lines that will entice the prospect to open it.
The downside of using “happy holidays” is that the prospect may receive so many emails during this time and might overlook the urgent ones. So the candidate might think that your email is just a promotion and fail to open it.
7. Map Out Your Key Dates.
It is an excellent strategy because companies start to slow down right after Thanksgiving time. If this is the case, it is best to assess your key dates.
Doing this will help you choose the suitable dates guaranteed to help you land that meeting.
The prospect might find it annoying if you try emailing them or calling them to ask when you can meet up when they are already in holiday mode. To avoid such scenarios, you should map out your key dates.
8. Combine Phone And Email Outreach.
To help ensure that you secure that meeting during the holiday, you should use both cold calling and cold emailing.
Why is this? Remember, during the holiday season, the prospect’s mind might be all occupied. Let’s say they get the chance to read your email; it is human for them to forget about it. To ensure that you get an appointment with them, you should go a step further and call them.
9. Be Quick To The Point.
Most people during the holidays often want to quickly get done with their projects and get into holiday mode. It will not help your case if you are not straight to the point while booking a meeting with the prospect. Therefore, regardless of the approach you choose to use, it is best to ensure it is short and precise.
10. Get Your Timing Right.
It will do you no good if you choose to contact the prospect two days before Christmas. This is why it will help you get the right timing, as it will help improve your odds of getting a hold of the prospect.
The Final Note
Even though the holidays are one of the most challenging times of year for B2B salespeople, it doesn't have to be a death sentence.
Don't give up prospecting; now is an incredible moment to put your head down and conduct some pretty unique prospecting experiments. Just make sure you start in January and not earlier!
Using all above mentioned suggestions should make prospecting throughout the holidays a little easier.
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