{"id":11174,"date":"2018-11-20T13:19:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T13:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandler.dsstaging2.com\/case-study\/prospecting-best-practices-to-close-out-the-year-strong\/"},"modified":"2022-10-18T16:02:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T16:02:16","slug":"prospecting-best-practices-to-close-out-the-year-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/prospecting-best-practices-to-close-out-the-year-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Prospecting Best Practices to Close Out the Year Strong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There are only a few weeks left in Q4, which means that lots of sales professionals are asking themselves a familiar question right about now:&nbsp;<em>How do I make the most of the time between now and December 31?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s take it as a given that a) time is precious, and b) how you choose to allocate your time in the final weeks of the sales cycle is more important than ever. With those two critical realities in mind, consider the following three best practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BEST PRACTICE NUMBER ONE: CHECK YOUR SALES CYCLE.&nbsp;<\/strong>It\u2019s surprising how many sales teams, even very late in the year, will allocate time and effort based on how \u201cexcited\u201d they are about an opportunity or how \u201chot\u201d they believe a new opportunity to be. But when you ask, \u201cHow long is your sales cycle?\u201d they stop and think for a moment and say something like, \u201cNinety to a hundred and twenty days.\u201d And there\u2019s a reality check moment as it dawns on them: It doesn\u2019t matter how excited they are \u2013 those deals aren\u2019t closing in time. Remember, we are talking about prioritizing your time, effort, and resources so we can finish as strong as possible before the end of the year. If your closing cycle is ninety days, guess what? You don\u2019t&nbsp;<em>have&nbsp;<\/em>ninety days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe launching a new deal is&nbsp;<em>not<\/em>&nbsp;what you should be putting at the top of your list right now. In these final weeks, you may instead want to prioritize the deals that are far enough along in your sale cycle to deliver revenue before the clock strikes midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BEST PRACTICE NUMBER TWO: DISQUALIFY, DISQUALIFY, DISQUALIFY.&nbsp;<\/strong>You have no time to waste. That means that you&nbsp;<em>shouldn\u2019t<\/em>&nbsp;be talking to people who are simply not qualified to buy. So as the year draws to a close, make absolutely sure you&nbsp;<em>eliminate from consideration&nbsp;<\/em>those leads who really aren\u2019t motivated to work on solving a problem you can solve for them (because they are feeling little or no pain and are basically happy with the status quo) \u2026 or who don\u2019t have the budget to buy from you \u2026 or who don\u2019t have a clear decision-making process in place, and won\u2019t set one up so they can work with you before the year ends. There\u2019s a technical term for these people:&nbsp;<em>unqualified<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s amazing how many sales professionals focus on what they&nbsp;<em>hope<\/em>&nbsp;to be the case in terms of pain, budget, and decision process \u2026&nbsp; rather than on what people in their pipeline have actually&nbsp;<em>demonstrated&nbsp;<\/em>to be true about their buying intentions. Identify them, and don\u2019t waste any of your precious time, effort, or energy on unqualified prospects as you make your final push of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BEST PRACTICE NUMBER THREE: BE UP FRONT WITH THE PEOPLE WHO REMAIN IN YOUR PIPELINE.&nbsp;<\/strong>So far you\u2019ve set aside (at least for now) those opportunities that&nbsp;<em>won\u2019t&nbsp;<\/em>close in time for you to hit your year-end goal \u2026 and those who&nbsp;<em>can\u2019t&nbsp;<\/em>be expected to buy from you right now, because they\u2019re unqualified. Whoever is left on the list is precious! Reach out to each of them and have an adult-to-adult conversation. What are their priorities? What, specifically, are they trying to accomplish between now and the end of the year? What next steps might make the most sense \u2013 for you and for them \u2013 in turning those goals into reality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen to what people tell you during these conversations. Find out where there is a potential match. Then use your resources appropriately, set clear up-front contracts \u2026 and see what you can make happen before New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"\/resources\/whitepapers\/3-questioning-strategies-to-help-you-close-the-sale\/\">Download your FREE guide here for three ways to help you close the sale!\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are only a few weeks left in Q4, which means that lots of sales professionals are asking themselves a familiar question right about now:&nbsp;How do I make the most of the time between now and December 31? Let\u2019s take it as a given that a) time is precious, and b) how you choose to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":11175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1026,1322,1229,1105],"class_list":["post-11174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-prospecting","tag-sales-cycle","tag-sales-pipeline","tag-sales-process"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three Prospecting Best Practices to Close Out the Year Strong | Sandler Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are only a few weeks left in Q4, which means that lots of sales professionals are asking themselves a familiar question right 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