You Need a Fourth Quarter Plan
Welcome to Q4! At this point in the year, you're either hitting your numbers, crushing them, or chasing them.
Here's what matters now: How will you finish?
It’s time to get clear on where you are and what needs to happen in these final months. Strong finishes aren't accidents – they're decisions. Let's make yours count.
Here's my personal — and recommended — mandate for the 4th quarter: Make a list. Find the shortest routes to new sales. Write down your tasks. Execute them.
Need ideas for starting points? Here are a few.
- Prioritize Closable Prospects: You had meetings with new leads. You may have even had an opportunity to quote, but it didn’t turn into a sale. Now is the time to circle back. Get another meeting. Get another quote. Figure out what you need to do to win and do it!
- Engage Dormant Leads: Take a fresh look at the leads you reached out to this year—the ones who ignored you. Come up with a get-a-meeting campaign. Figure out what you need to do to get the buyer’s attention. For tips on that, read my article: Sales Pro, Are You Stuck on the “Safe-to-Ignore” List?
- Check in with Key Customers: Ask what they are planning for the last quarter. Tell them something new about your company. Show samples to spark ideas about what they could buy. Use AI tools to create a “cheat sheet” that reminds customers about your service offerings. And, yes, I totally believe that you shared this information multiple times. However, if they haven’t bought a solution from you, then don’t assume they will remember. Instead, give them a written reminder so they recall what you can do when they are ready to buy.
Keep Deals Moving to Win Before Year-End
Both you and your buyers are busy, and distractions multiply as the clock ticks down. The good news? That sense of urgency also motivates customers to make decisions faster. Tighten your follow-up cadence to maintain momentum and stay top of mind. Always close meetings by securing a clear next step and controlling the pace instead of letting things drift. Stay focused and you’ll turn year-end pressure into year-end wins.
The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions. Artificial Intelligence may have been used in part to create or edit this content.
- Categories:
- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Linda Bishop is the founder and president of Thought Transformation, a national sales and marketing consulting group helping printers and other companies achieve top-line growth through a combination of strategies, tools, training and tactics.
Her expertise includes all aspects of outbound selling and account acquisition, account retention and development, solution selling, marketing, and aligning sales processes with marketing strategies. Most recently, she published The ChatGPT Sales Playbook: Revolutionizing Sales with AI and believes AI will offer sales pros new tools for achieving revenue goals.
Before starting Thought Transformation in 2004, Linda sold commercial printing for seventeen years, working as a commission salesperson for the Atlanta division of RR Donnelley Company. She was one of the top performers in the Atlanta marketplace and had annual sales exceeding $9 million.
Linda has a BS degree in accounting from Purdue University and an MBA in marketing from Georgia State. She has written several books on sales topics, speaks nationally on sales and marketing, and has published many articles.
