Benchmark Business Group

Keep the Momentum Going All Year

September 18, 2018

Do most of your sales happen in the 4th quarter? If so, you are not alone. In fact, most financial services professionals have their biggest revenue-generating months in the last quarter. And, several agents and advisors have the majority of their annual revenue generated in these last months. 

It isn't surprising, this is often when urgency kicks in to achieve the year's goals. A hard look at the pipeline, an increase in activity, analyzing open cases and outstanding quotes frantically becomes the top priorities. This often leads to burnout, and then a slow start to the first quarter of your next year; which, of course, then leads to burnout again by the fourth quarter.

If this sounds familiar, we challenge you to have a different mindset going into this year-end. We want you to consider shifting the mad-dash of the fourth quarter into a consistent series of activities throughout the year. Take a moment and imagine the possibilities, opportunities, and results if the momentum of the last months of the year - less the panic - are maintained throughout an entire year.

If you're a fourth quarter sprinter, you have proven that you know what it takes to find prospects and close sales. What you haven't proven, but are capable of, is to apply the same strategies and techniques on a consistent basis. As you can imagine, the benefits would be extraordinary. Not only would you have consistent sales, you would have less stress and anxiety.

If a year with consistent sales appeals to you, now is the perfect time to start. By capitalizing on how you plan your year-end push, you can design an annual strategy to achieve consistent sales.

Consider these questions:
  • In what way is your business different in the last months of the year? 
  • What changes in your activities?
  • How do you communicate differently with prospects and clients?
  • Do you more closely scrutinize and scrub the pipeline for the easy closes? 
  • Do you do a better job of making those follow-up calls to people that you haven't quite gotten back to yet? 
  • Are you more focused during the day? 
  • What doesn't happen; or, what changes do you and your team make during these last months that could be applied year round? 
    • Is non-urgent paperwork completed later? 
    • Are social and leisure conversations with colleagues shorter? 
    • Do meetings take less time, but are more productive?

By leveraging what you've already proven you can do out of sheer necessity, you can redesign your business to achieve consistent sales. The year-end strategy becomes the year-long strategy - without the chaos, stress, and anxiety of the fourth quarter sprint. Consider these best practices for consistent sales: 

  • Scheduling regular times to work on the business
  • Consistently reviewing and scrubbing the pipeline
  • Having each day structured and focused
  • Using other resources to complete the tasks you should NOT be doing
  • Having a defined sales process for better follow-ups with prospects
  • Making small incremental changes to activity and tracking the success of those changes
  • What else?
Whatever it is you do differently for the last months of the year, we challenge you to make it a permanent part of your business strategy for the next year. Design your business and change your mindset to keep the momentum going. It will provide you with a better business and lead you to a better life.

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