January, February and even March are great selling months. Everybody is charging out of the gate with new goals and new budgets, gyms are full and people are fired up.
As salespeople, we need to be sure we ride the wave of that new momentum while it lasts.
One thing I like to do in January and February is review my past client list, that is, people I may not have spoken to for a while, and re-initiate contact.
Often we have disconnected due to things like budget cuts or spending freezes which may now be out of the way, at least temporarily.
It is always much easier to re-engage an old client than find a new one.
Another concept I have found to be effective at the beginning of each year, if your business lends itself to this, is to jumpstart my relationships with an early-bird type offering. This can take the form of a free offering or something at a reduced price, just to prime the pump and energize a new conversation.
While such an offering may not be apparent in your context at first blush, if you look a little deeper, it may reveal itself.
For example, if you are selling insurance, you can offer a “free” gap audit, in which you review a client’s multiple policies and advise whether or not there may still be exposure or weak links.
Or if you are a real estate broker, you can offer to provide a “free” market analysis to people who may be considering selling their homes in the next year.
The reason I am putting “free” in quotes is because you and I know you would do this anyway, but the idea is to promote the early-bird concept as something special, which in reality, it is.
The key to these types of marketing initiatives is to get them out there in the first few months of the year when everyone is the most optimistic and ambitious about the coming year.
Then you will have established a dialogue that you can build upon for the next nine-eleven months!
