Selling During the Holidays:

Send every networking contact, prospect, customer and referral agent a personal email wishing them a Happy Holidays. But, you can’t say “Merry Christmas” because not everyone believes in or celebrates Christmas. If you broadcast an email, make sure it’s personalized.

Visit all your customers and bring a gift. If your company provides you with gift baskets or cookie tins, use those. If not, shell out your own dough and write it off at tax time.

Make sure you send a nice gift to your biggest referral agents. If someone has sent you business during the year or could send you some business, make sure you honor them. Use services like Proflowers and have gift baskets delivered to their homes. If you’re dealing with a man, send something he can give his wife or girlfriend. It will make him look like a big shot and he’ll want to help you out in the future.

Sponsor a holiday party. Many businesses are cutting back. If there’s a large sale that you’ve been trying to land, sponsor that company’s onsite holiday party.

Prospect. It’s easy to say that it’s the holidays and no one is working, but if you look, rush-hour is still taking place every morning and afternoon. Someone is working. If you’re out there working it, you’ll set yourself apart from the competition, business owners will admire your tenacity and everyone is in a better mood during the holidays, so they should be nicer.

Plan ahead. Write down a strategy for success to follow throughout the next year.

Set goals. Write down a list of goals you want to accomplish during the coming year.

Don’t disappear. Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than calling or emailing you and then hearing an away message or receiving a “Out of Office” email. Imagine if someone wanted to buy, called you and heard an away message? Who do you think they would call next? Your competitor, that’s who. In today’s world, with Black Berries and web based email, there’s no excuse to not check your messages. You’re in sales, if you want to disappear over the holidays, get a job at a college.