The month of October represents the countdown to the end of the year, and the last chance to work in reaching – or surpassing- your sales goals for the year.

The opportunity is certainly there. Many of your clients – and prospects – have end of the year business gifts programs, employee appreciation events, or leftover budget money to use up.

With that being said, your clients are crazy busy and they might wait too long to start working on the selection of products. With factories running out of stock, holidays, and very tight timelines, they might end up looking for other solutions that leave you out of the game.

Here are three things you can do this week to leverage the holiday programs business opportunity

1. Send an eblast

Select 6 to 10 promotional items, in 3 levels of pricing. Divide into 2 groups and create an email blast showcasing one group. Be sure to include a link to each product to the same item on your website, in case your recipient is interested in more details.

Create a second email, with the rest of the items, to go out in 30 days or so, with a headline of “Last Chance” or something to that effect.

Don’t overthink the items. Choose them from your favorite suppliers and include a mix of high end, trendy, travel and electronics, even if your client has never asked for those. The point is not necessarily to sell a particular item, but to remind them you are here to help them.

And if you don’t use an email marketing system yet, this is a good time to start. There are many easy ones to use in the market, some are even free if your list is under a certain number, such as MailChimp, for example.

2. Contact those who ordered last year at this time

Go through last year’s sales for the last 3 months of the year, and make a list of the clients and their events. Give them a call to ask if they’ll be doing those events again. If you can’t reach them send them a follow-up email, so they can easily reply with their answer.

 

3. Send them a package with self promos

Chances are you have a bunch of self-promos you never got around to handing out. This is a good time to get rid of them. Put a package together with a few of them, tie them together with a fun story. But if you are drawing a blank and can’t come up with anything clever enough, just call it your new sample package.

The point is that they get something from you landing on their desks.

 

There you have it! Three simple things you can do this week to increase your sales.

Taking a few hours this week to complete either of the above tasks will translate into extra sales.

Don’t wait for them to call or email you, they might never get around to doing it. Clients are busy and they will appreciate your reminder that you are there to help them, at the precise moment they are working on those projects. 

It’s a win-win situation.

Which one of these will you implement? How about ALL three of them?

What would you add to this list?