Why 4th Quarter Is Tough

Lots of salespeople and recruiters say the last few weeks of the year are tough.
It can be tough for sales of any kind.
Many thoughts turn to the holidays, and starting the new year, and vacations.
The following are not excuses to give to your bosses, however if you understand the reasons for what is happening on the sales front you can combat them easier.

1. Open Enrollment:
Typically companies that offer employee health insurance have their plan enrollment time in November (sometimes May depending on their fiscal calendar). During this time HR people have more than enough to do so if you're lucky they will get back to you before the month is over. Keep your visits and messages brief and to the point. Don't harass them with messages. They'll appreciate it if you respect the fact they need to get back to their enrollment project.

2. Budget Process:
Usually budgets for the following year are started and finalized during the third quarter. Depending on how sales forecasts are turning out, or certain business realities set in, budgets might have to be adjusted. The company might be
conserving their remaining budget to make sure they can get through the year because revenues were lower than expected or pay for something they didn't expect to need.

3. New hiring usually gets put on hold.

If you're selling recruiting related products, hiring decisions always start to go on hold in October.

Companies don't want to hire people only to see business go down and those positions are no longer needed the following year, causing them to fire those new people a few months down the road. If it is a position they need to fill they will. Other positions might be put off until the new year. Don't forget that companies have a hiring budget. Since people will often quit without notice or get fired, HR might not want to spend the money until they are absolutely sure they don't need it for something else.

Sometimes the people who need to make the decisions aren't even in place yet to make decisions on what you are trying to offer them.

4. Companies might play it safe and hold the rest of the budget to see what happens.

For buying companies still usually have a chunk of budget available and can commit to a package before the end of October or even up to Thanksgiving and through December if it is an annual contract. If the budgets are not finalized the company might wait as long as they can before spending money just in case they need it for something unexpected.

5. Holidays are all bunched together and people are easily distracted either by the events around the holidays or the attitude of "no one is going to be around because of the holidays so why bother." Vacations and time off also play a part as sometimes the people that need to make the decisions are gone.

6. Companies hate uncertainty.

There is always optimism for the new year. There is also a bit of trepidation.

Companies like to think things will work out and plan for that, however they will also plan on what to do if things don't work in the new year.

In other words they hedge their bets.

That hedging can confuse and frustrate businesses and hiring because of the uncertainty of what is going to happen. Sometimes businesses get themselves freaked out by what MIGHT happen they become paralyzed and take no action. Usually if this is the case waiting it out is all you can do along with moving to your next prospect. Sooner or later the company realizes the sky isn't falling and makes decisions.

7. Elections can screw things up too. I recently wrote more in detail about this:

politics-does-matter in business

8. Fourth quarter might be busy for them! In retail 3rd and especially 4th quarters are where they make their money and are usually the busiest. They might love to buy what you have, but are too busy selling to get the money to pay for it. Let them sell and do what they do.

Fourth quarter might be tougher than others, however if you plan for it you can make it a prosperous quarter too. Think about all the annual deals that get closed. Plus if you keep doing the basics of calls and appointments, you'll not only have a better and easier fourth quarter than you thought, you will also set yourself up for a great first quarter as well!

Thanks for everything in 2012!

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy