December strategies to CRUSH IT in January
1.Book yourself silly for January
We all know that December is challenging for recruiters because you have about a 2 1/2 week window of guaranteed productivity before the “holiday lag” sets in. During this time, you’re probably trying to finish up projects and get orders closed so you’re extremely busy. However, what do you do during the down time of the last few weeks of the month? The answer is… start prepping for January. This is the time of the year when you should be reaching out to every current and prospective client as a way to book business opportunities for 2013. Before you know it, you’ll be hitting the ground running in January and the December “holiday lag” will be long gone.
2.Reprioritize WHO and WHAT
To piggy back on strategy #1, I suggest you reprioritize WHO you focus on, WHAT you focus on marketing to them, and craft a timely and purposeful MESSAGE to those needs. This year is ending and there are lots of businesses that run their fiscal year on the annual calendar and need to make some important decisions about the budget for the upcoming year. Completely reprioritize your prospecting list to those types of clients that have these year-end closing challenges and opportunities. Focus your service offerings to meet those needs and adjust your marketing messaging to communicate to those needs.
3.Make deposits into relationship accounts
I think it was Stephen Covey who defined relationships as emotional bank accounts. During any exchange, or transaction, you are either depositing money or you are withdrawing it. What we know for sure is, just like a real bank account, you cannot withdraw any money if there is NO money in the account. The month of December is a great time to make large deposits into lots of relationship accounts. The goal is to walk into the new year flush with cash. The way to do this is to give, give, give in December.
