It’s that time of year for a lot of people in sales don’t look forward to – end of year, holiday stretch.

Why the End-of-Year Sales Slump Happens

For many they view it as the ‘slow time’ of year.

Usually, it’s the result of the potential customers being distracted, busy, or on vacation. If the buyers aren’t around to talk to, how can you sell much?

For others, they feel like everyone is taking time off (see previous sentence) so no reason to push very hard – might as well as take time off as well. Time to check out, mentally and physically.

For a select few, the end of the year is a mix of busy and slow – they have customers who check out and disappear, but they also have ‘use it or lose it’ budget type customers. I had a consulting client who designed and delivered custom branded products to companies (think – company name/logo on a water bottle, hats, iPads, and even shoes). They had a good segment of their customers that had marketing budget funds remaining at the end of the year and if they didn’t spend it – they lost it, the budget reset January 1.

Why Some Salespeople Ramp Up

And then for another group of salespeople, they don’t stop. They might even ramp it up. It could be due to the awkward, manufactured ‘end of year’ schedule of sales pressure, to meet quotas or to move inventory. It could be to their own internal pressure to finish the year strong, make more money (maybe for a goal, maybe to pay their own bills).

Of course, there are salespeople who are in an industry that benefits from the holiday season, but most professional sales roles/industries do not. 

So then the question: do you push forward with sales, and try your best? Or do you take your foot off the gas?

There Are Always Sales to Be Made

First, I want to address the fact that there are always sales that can be made. If you are in a role that involves some level of outreach, you can always find someone to talk to. Now…it might take more. More calls, more emails, more hours of dialing, more LinkedIn messages, more of whatever you can do. Very few entire industries shut down around the holidays (and if they do, then you don’t have to worry about selling either, so you probably aren’t even reading this). Of course, some of your target customers might shut down (B2B), but not everyone will. Usually it’s the big ones – the established leaders in the industry – who shut or slow down. But there are always upstarts, coming for that market share, that will keep grinding.

The Reality of Selling More During the Holidays

What I have found – whether it’s B2B or B2C – at this time of year, if you want to make sales, you might just have to do more. Your normal 10 calls a day won’t cut. Half-assing your way through LinkedIn and emails won’t get you much traction right now. It will take more.

The question then becomes – do you want to put in more?

Despite what you might think I would say, it’s okay to say no, that you don’t want to do more. You might expect me to say always keep grinding, but that isn’t always what is best.

Not just because it’s ‘harder’ (sometimes I hear salespeople complain about how slow it is, like they are a victim, and it sounds like a child complaining about having to do homework), but because it might make the most sense for you.

The Grind of Sales and Planning for Downtime

The role of a salesperson is tough. It’s a grind. Winning actually requires losing more than you actually win (If you close 30% - which would be amazing – you are still losing 70% of the time) – which is tough for our human brain that doesn’t like losing, failure, shame, etc. There is no designated “off season” for salespeople and if you aren’t careful, you can burn out or drive so hard, for so long, that you make yourself sick. Some industries have a common off season (like real estate agents generally take summers off, because they think all their clients take summer off – which of course it no actually true) where it is generally acceptable to take time off or just mail it in with your foot off the gas for a few weeks/months.

And that is totally okay – if you are doing it intentionally. If you plan for that, budget for that, work your year around that time, set up all your customers and sales pipeline. When you do it as a part of your year, then it is valuable.

Selling Less by Default vs. Selling with Intention

But what I see is many salespeople sell less by default during that time and then blame other factors. Real estate agents blame their buyers for not buying. If that’s your excuse, then it’s not a good one. My response to that: be better and find more buyers.

Again, if you want to coincide your down time with when sales is ‘harder’ – then go for it. But do it with intention, not as a victim.

A Final Warning About Your Pipeline

Just remember, if you want to keep selling then you can always find a way to do more of the things that will work during that time.

Lastly…very important note…for most professional salespeople, what you have today is a result of the effort you put in 60-90 days ago. Do some forecasting…if you put little effort in December, what do you think will happen in January, February, and March? What will your pipeline look like? If nothing else, that should motivate you into action during this time of year.