'Tis the Season to be 'JOLLIE' - six sales tips for Xmas

Yes it is that time of year again, and as salespeople you will have a lot of things to do before the end of the calendar year. However it is also the time to start thinking about the year ahead and my acronym may help you to allocate some time in getting some of the things that are often forgotten about until well into the New Year.


January is just around the corner; traditionally this is a quiet month for many sales people and customers may not be keen to see you. But have you thought about what sales you are likely to bring in during January? Have you factored that into the following months? More importantly have you thought about how best you can use you time? You can be highly productive in January, using this ‘quiet’ time as a launchpad for the rest of the year. Are there any areas of improvement you need to address? Are there any gaps in your product knowledge or your competitor’s product knowledge? Do you have any specific training requirements or other development needs? Get it done in January when it won’t impact your sales as much.

Objectives – Have you set your objectives for the coming year? It amazes me how many people fail to hit their sales target in one year and then think that by doing exactly the same thing next year they will have a better chance! Remember to use SMART objectives and to make sure you include some degree of stretch; you do want to be a better salesperson next year don’t you?

Look closely at your customer base, have you got appropriate plans in place with you major accounts? Have you compared sales results with last year at account level? Are you losing business to competition? How much business is at risk? What are you doing to ensure to retain that business? Are you growing your business in the accounts where you forecasted some uplift in the business? Do you have sufficient prospects being developed to ensure you exceed next year’s targets?

Look at your total operation, are you penetrating your territory as well as you could? Are you maximising the sales potential within your area? What can you do this year that will enhance your performance over last year?

Invest your time in the areas and activities that will give you the best return. Remember, time is like money, you can save it, invest it, waste it and spend it, but remember, you can’t get a refund on your time!

Enjoy what you do – as opposed to, do what you enjoy! Most salespeople will customise their operation around what they enjoy, and consequently spend most of their time in their ‘Comfort Zone’. Star performers tend to establish exactly what needs to be done in order to achieve the results they insist upon and stretch themselves to work outside of their comfort zone and end up enjoying more of what they have to do.

Article by Tony Dimech, Appleton Associates and provider of Telesales Prompt Software.