Three ways to set up a BIG sales month

It’s mid-month. How are you doing against your monthly sales goals? If you’re on track or ahead, congrats (and don’t let up). If you’re behind, you’re not alone. In this market especially, getting traction on deals throughout the month can be a challenge. In many selling environments, especially those with a relatively short sales cycle, the single most important thing you have control of to have a big sales month is what you do at the beginning of the month to set up above-quota sales through the rest of the month.

Here are three things you can do the beginning of every new month to hit your sales goals:

1. Focus on Setting Appointments: In the first couple days of the month, put a concerted focus on setting appointments with leads you already have. Use an external incentive or accelerator if need be, but work hard through your existing contact or lead list to create new appointments and presentations for the next few days. More appointments means more active opportunities that can close by the end of the month.
2. Incentives for Quickly Closing Slipped Deals: Every new month starts with a handful of deals expected to close the previous month, but that for some reason slipped. Most sales organizations dump these into the overall “expected to close” bucket for the next month, but why shouldn’t these deals close within the next few days? Put a focus on closing slipped deals immediately to give yourself a jump on your sales goal and to goose momentum for the month overall (for yourself and the rest of your team)
3. More Leads Timed to Start of Month: If you’re marketing for a sales organization, do everything you can to generate new leads towards the start of the month (or quarter, depending on your typical selling cycles). At the beginning of the month, sales professionals are the most focused on building their pipelines. Leads that come in at the end of a month are more likely to get ignored as sales focuses on closing existing opportunities.