Is urgency your friend when trying to close new business?
As I sat down to think about this missive, I kept on hearing Foreigner’s 1981 “Urgent” in my head. That brought back so many awkward middle school dance memories (yeah, 1981 was middle school for me…). In middle school (for me anyway), there was a huge fear of embarrassment or being seen as “uncool”. It was a fate worse than death. Asking someone to dance was the social equivalent of an extinction-level event – every fumbling attempt must have reeked of desperation. That desperation sealed the deal – my “urgency” to avoid feeling like a dork or a loser guaranteed my fate. Even when someone accepted my request, I was so self-conscious of the awkwardness that even if my dance partner was enjoying spending time with me and my middle school shuffle, my awkward energy sent them scurrying off the dance floor.
Now, it’s near the end of the year…are you thinking of asking someone to dance?
For most agency owners and business developers, this year is already cooked. It’s done. There may be 1 or 2 pipeline stragglers that crawl across the finish line, but not many. The sales or leadership team that is still pushing hard to make the quarter or year is likely to start having that awkward middle school boy “eau de desperation” funk about them. Human beings are adept at understanding things that you never say. From your tone or your breath or the number of times you send a follow up email, your prospects can sense the desperation. It is your energy that makes prospects want to wait until “after the holidays”. Let’s face it, desperation stinks, almost literally.
How about some new cologne, kid?
The clock is ticking. December 31 isn’t getting any further away. Luckily for you, your prospects probably see the same calendar. They might be feeling some desperation, too. They might have unallocated budget that they need to spend, or an unexpected staff change that makes them need immediate help, or it is just apparent that what they’ve been doing isn’t working. So they might reek a little, too.
But you can change your desperation about closing before the end of the year into an advantage for you, and change your “eau de desperate” into the alluring scent of “future opportunity”. When you are racing against the clock, you have to re-imagine Dec 31 as an onramp rather than a dead end. Your overall value proposition doesn’t change, but the way you layer the value of your process & service does.
The toxicity of “end of year” discounts…
Using a discount to close now is a little bit toxic. Your service isn’t worth less because Dec 31 is approaching. So why would you charge less? Instead of using pricing as a sales accelerator, use the benefit of what happens AFTER Dec 31 as the enticement. The simple concept of moving now so that you can move faster later is really powerful and it defeats the concepts of “nothing gets done” during the holidays. Presenting this end of the year time as a powerful period of preparation to get next year off to a racing start can be a genuine way to create urgency without desperation.
Need some help in quelling your calendar-inspired prospect-repelling funkitude? Book a call.
