Our Prospect Has a Year-end Budget Problem and We Can Help

Around this time of year, buyers on a “use it or lose it” type budget tend to get itchy. The itch comes from having money left in their budget that they have no plan to spend this year, but they won’t get that money again next year if they don’t make a purchase before January 1.

Our salespeople can scratch that itch for their clients but calling up their entire list of business to say, “got money to burn this year?” is awkward and will likely break rapport.
To reduce the mental friction that our salespeople have with asking their clients if they have a portion of their budget left to spend this year, we can support our salespeople with following three activities:

1. Build a list of “change moments” with our sales team – brainstorming the types of events that have prompted clients to buy at the end of a year in the past creates energy and excitement, which usually prompts action in our salespeople.
2. Create an “end of year buyer” avatar – using the list of “change moments” to build an avatar that our salespeople can easily identify in their client or prospect lists reduces the “I’m not sure who to call” objection.
3. Holding “touch” calls with clients who resemble the avatar – with an avatar created, our salespeople can easily curate a list of clients who resemble that avatar and make “touch” or “thinking of you” calls. A key part of supporting our salespeople in having successful calls is to practice framing the conversation about the future (e.g. “was curious what projects you are planning for next year that we might be able to help out with.”) because that takes the pressure off our salespeople and allows their client to pull them forward into an opportunity for the end of this year (e.g. “oh, I’m glad you called. I was meaning to call you because my boss just dropped a project on me that I need to get done by December 31…”).

As Jody Williamson said at the 2020 Sandler Summit, “it’s unethical to sell something to someone who doesn’t need it and it’s unethical to sell something to someone who does need it.”

Having our salespeople reach out to their clients to discover if a client has money they need to use or lose before the end of the year is a client support activity. If we get the sense that one of our team is attempting to push products on clients who don’t need them, we must address and kill that behavior before it damages rapport with our clients.

Until next time… go lead.