Amy Schwartz
Product Marketing Manager
It's that time of year again. There’s a chill in the air, stores are bustling with shoppers, your deals are starting to go cold, and your pipeline is looking more frozen than ever before. The dreaded holiday sales slump has started, yet you still have Q4 goals to hit.
How can I increase sales during the holidays?
These four sales tips will help you keep your prospects warm and close while also attracting new customers during the holidays.
- Plan your sales activities around key holi-dates
- Make your champions feel warm and fuzzy
- Sweeten your meetings
- Don’t limit gifting to December
Plan your sales activities around key holi-dates
Start mapping out key dates and major holidays on your calendar as soon as possible, so there are no surprises. Take into account that many people will be out of the office during the final weeks of the year. Plan your calls and meetings accordingly.
Weave conversation about scheduling into your discovery calls by asking prospects what their holiday plans look like. Take note of their answer so you know when to follow up with them, without getting lost in their inbox while they are OOO.
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Save time and deliver delight with corporate gifting email templates
Whether your role is a sales manager, account executive, BDR, or SDR, timing can be everything in the sales process. Getting the right message to your prospect at the right time will often make or break a deal, especially during the holidays when time is of the essence.
Sales velocity is often contingent upon one or two key decision-makers taking action within their organization to pitch your solution to their boss. Getting this action in motion before end-of-quarter can be much easier with a thoughtful gift. Explore these corporate gifting email templates for ideas of how to position your ask in a clever, authentic way. Also, explore our gift email templates for prospecting to elevate your outreach strategy when connecting with potential clients.
Make your champions feel warm and fuzzy
Schedules get overloaded with parties, events, and time away from the office during the holiday season. With all the distractions, even your champions may be slower to respond. Sales gifting use cases extend wide and far—a well-placed gift and personal note can help remind them that you are there to answer any questions they might have, and encourage them to reach out to you.
Save time during your busy end-of-year season by using the new Postal Chrome extension to send last-minute holiday gifts in seconds. Simply copy and paste your MagicLinks into an email or LinkedIn message. You can also quickly find and send new items, add new contacts, shop your favorites, and track orders without leaving your inbox or favorite apps. Postal will automatically connect with your leads and contacts and track all activity back so you don’t have a bunch of administrative work to do when you’d rather be sipping on egg nog.
Sweeten your meetings and boost attendance
Don’t let a prospect no-show on a demo and leave you feeling like the Grinch. Remind and encourage your prospects to attend the demo they scheduled last week with an eGift card for a gingerbread latte. A small gesture like coffee or cookies is a proven strategy to boost your meeting attendance rates and keep your prospects engaged. Here are some great etiquette tips if you’re looking into implementing this approach to get more meetings for your sales team.
Send customized corporate gifts on the fly
One of the best ways to encourage meeting attendance is by offering an item that’s personalized to the interests of your recipient. However, after multiple back-to-back meetings, you’re not left with much time to source and send such items to your prospects, especially when using them to sweeten your meetings.
Vendors in the Postal gifting marketplace such as Coup champagne and Noms cookies enable you to add personalization to items within a few clicks, saving you time while delivering impactful moments.
Don’t limit corporate gifting to December
The beginning of the year is a great time to run a New Year’s campaign to reignite relationships with prospects who may have ghosted you in December.
For deals that were getting close to the finish line at the end of the year, but stalled out with all the finance, legal, or security back-and-forth and OOO schedules, a “looking forward to working with you” gift in early January may be just the thing to get back on the fast-track again.
Support your sales outreach with last-minute gift options
Most vendors will have a difficult time supporting last-minute orders, which doesn’t help much when you’re working towards a deadline or redline. Corporate gifting statistics indicate that having a few reliable last-minute gift options at your fingertips can drastically improve your odds of closing a deal with a limited timeline.
Below are a few of our favorite options when you’re on a time crunch. Be sure to read our blog for more gift ideas for prospects.
Pine Tree Sweater Stemless Wine Glass by Well Told
Well Told is a custom glassware business that has supported more than 200 non-profit organizations of all sizes and causes across the U.S., from small local animal shelters to public schools to national organizations like Habitat for Humanity. Their stemless wine glass includes one 15 oz. engraved stemless wine glass decorated with a classic holiday sweater design featuring a knit pine tree pattern.
Baker’s Cookies: Dozen Cookies by Grove Cookie Co.
Grove Cookie Company is a woman-and-veteran-owned small business that uses quality ingredients from companies known for their ethical treatment of animals and commitment to sustainability. This box features two or more of the cookie flavors on Grove’s current menu.
Happy Holiday Assortment by Pretzelwich
The joy of giving sweet treats for the holidays just got easier—as an alternative to baking a huge tray of Christmas cookies (well maybe in addition to…), why not gift a beautiful box of perfect Pretzelwiches for your holiday sweet treats?
Attract new customers and sell more during the holidays
The holiday season is traditionally a difficult time for businesses to cut through the noise to reach potential buyers and customers…which makes sense when smells of apple pie, fir trees, hot cocoa are wafting through the air.
With an Offline Engagement Platform, you can systemize all of your meaningful interactions with sales prospects and customers. Get started with Postal to explore the largest B2B corporate gifting marketplace and send items that will get your champion on the phone before your quarter ends.
