Tactical Tips for Closing out the Month/Quarter Strong
How to control your sales cycles and stay in front of your prospects without being annoying.
Wat Chedi Luang Chiang Mai Thailand
It’s the end of Q3, and lots of salespeople are pulling their hair out without a solid approach to closing out the month.
To avoid that fate, here are five non-obvious tactics to help you accelerate your sales cycles, control your follow-ups, and close out the month strong.
Call, don’t email
If you are lucky enough to receive a follow-up email from a prospect, don't email them back! Immediately pick up the phone and give them a call.
Here is the script "Hey Bob, just saw your note and figured it would be faster to talk this through, Have 2 mins?"
By getting them on the phone, you can knock out the next steps for the deal, right then and there, vs. playing email tag.
Own the follow-up.
At the end of each call with a prospect, always summarize the next steps and control (schedule) the follow-up. Don't say, “I will send you an email and then follow up in a couple of days." Agree on what they need to do to get to a decision, agree on the timeline, and then close the next meeting.
If they are not comfortable scheduling the follow-up, heads up, you don't have a deal. There is more work to be done.
Here is the script "Thanks for the time today, Cindy. As a next step, I know you wanted to get comfortable with the ROI numbers we reviewed today. Is there anything else you'd like to do to feel good making a decision? ... OK, great, so I'll send you those numbers as well as a case study from our client X who was in the same situation as you before working with us. From there, how about 4 PM tomorrow afternoon for a 5-minute call to tie up any loose ends and take this off your plate?"
Call/Email at smart times
Put yourself in your prospect's shoes. If you are calling into Restaurants, it is best to follow up when the Owner takes a break between lunch and dinner. Home Services? Catch them on their cell when they are driving back at the end of the day. Enterprise? Hit the top of their inbox when they are checking email during lunch. Or call them at the end of the day when they rarely have meetings on their calendar.
Better yet - follow up over text/WhatsApp. A pro-tip is to grab their mobile early/mid-sales cycle, after you have built trust but before you are following up for the close.
Here is an email script “Easier to chat over text? I’m at (555)-555-5555”
Never hurts to ask.
"The non-follow up, follow up"
Do not send "Checking in" emails. You should have already scheduled the follow-up call or set expectations as to when you would circle back. And you should have their agreement on that timeline.
If not... or if they missed the follow-up date—do not send a "checking-in" email. They are busy. Instead, find a relevant reason to send them a note. This will subtly remind them that they owe you a follow-up and help them to prioritize that.
"Non-follow-up, follow-up" emails need to be genuine and offer actual value to them. They can be personal or business-related. Just don’t be slimy.
Here is an example:
"Hi Bob, I know you are a big fan of live music, and I just saw that The Stones just announced a tour coming through Charlotte next summer. Tickets go on sale on March 5th. Bookmark that date!
I hope you're having a great finish to the quarter.
Pete”
Typically you'll get a response like "Thanks Pete! BTW I know I owe you a follow-up on the proposal. I will get back to you tomorrow afternoon."
When you get that response, you can then follow up with, “Thanks, Bob. That’s great news. I’ll give you a call at 3 PM to tie up any loose ends, or feel free to recommend a time.”
OR
“Hi Bob, I hope your team is having a great finish to the quarter. I came across this article that has some good tips for your sales team - LINK.
Hope it helps,
Pete”
“The non-follow up follow up” is a good way to give them a gentle nudge while still being human. Give it a shot.
Bonus Tip: Keep Doing Outreach
A typical salesperson, depending on their sales cycle, has between 1-10 prospects they are following up with at the end of a month.
With that, you are looking at 2-3 hours of work per day against those prospects.
So, the most impactful advice I can share is simple: don’t spend all day obsessing about the handful of deals you are trying to close. Do your follow-ups, but also continue to do your job.
Set two goals for the last week of the month.
A revenue/closed-won goal.
A pipeline-building goal for the next month.
Keep doing outreach. Set yourself up for success. You’ll be surprised, you may come across a new deal ready to go. At the very least, you’ll be having new conversations and broadening your pipeline, which can give you a better perspective vs. simply staring at your inbox, waiting for responses.
Good luck out there!
-Pete
Pete Hancock is the Principal of Hancock Consulting, where he partners with Seed-Series B startups to accelerate revenue, develop go-to-market strategy, and build & scale sales teams. For more info: petehancock.me