Here are success stories readers have sent in, sharing how well they have done during this time.

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Art,

I work for an SBC Yellow Pages office and sell advertising in both print and online. During the days between Christmas and New Years when our office was closed, I was shopping at the business of a customer of mine. While at the check out counter, the owner talked to me about her problems with developing an online advertising plan! I was thrilled! I went back to the office (which is closed company wide) and even though the systems were down, I developed a proposal and had my last online advertising sale of the year.

The best news is she wanted to pay up front to get the tax write off, so she was very quick to close. It happened to be the third highest dollar sale I had last year. The sale also boosted my personal confidence because it took me over
my personal objective! The owner came into my office the next week and looked at new options raising the sale over $3828! She was thrilled that I took the time out of my “forced” vacation to help her business.

Joe Cameron, SBC

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Art,

I am a firm believer in calling during off hours that include those times outside of the normal 8:30AM to 5:00PM in addition to holidays.

I have found that as you mentioned, a decision maker is much easier to reach and also under less pressure to do the normal day-to-day fire-fighting at their business.

I have been marketing to a large prospect that would represent a great initial sale and also solidify remarkable repeat business each year. I have tried every technique including cold calling in person, sending notes, working gatekeepers and trying to reach various decision makers with no success. Yesterday (12/27/) I made another attempt and reached
a high level executive at the organization.

He spent ten minutes telling me all about the problems they are having and what they are looking for in a solution. Just so happens we have something exactly to meet their needs.

Although he won’t be the decision maker, he is on the committee that is tasked with solving this problem. He referred me to the decision maker who is the head of the committee.

While we were on the phone, he sent the decision maker an email (who did happen to be on vacation this week) explaining how we might solve their problem and that I would be calling on January 3rd when he returns to the
office.

Although there is still much more that needs to happen in the sales process, I am finally going to talk with the person who has the authority to make a decision.

Regards,
Clint Dittmar,Identicard
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Art,

Thanks for your weekly e-mails. I enjoy reading them and find many new tips in them.

I was reading “The best time to call” when I came back into the office on 12/28 after having two days off for the holiday. I have to admit it was hard to get into the “swing of things.” I called a few customers and couldn’t get through to them, tried a few more and couldn’t sell them anything.

I began to wonder why I didn’t take these next three days off so I would have a nice long vacation. I figured no one was in anyway and if I did reach them, they wouldn’t want to buy anything since this was “the week between Christmas and New Years.”

Then I read your e-mail. I thought, you’re right. The gatekeepers are out, the customers are relaxed, and just maybe they do have money to spend in the next few days. I thought I would change my attitude and give another try.

I called a customer whom I had been trying to reach for two months. His name was given to me by an individual within his organization but at another location. He didn’t want the program I was selling, but thought this other guy might.

I called him and was surprised when he answered. I told him who I was and who referred me to him and went on to ask questions about his responsibilities and then explained the product and how it would help him. He asked how it compared to a competitors product he was using. I explained the differences and asked him to try it for 30 days. He said now was a good time that I called because…you guessed it, he had money to spend before the end of the year. He actually told me that!

I had my partner demo the product the next morning. He bought it on the spot. He then proceeded to say that he wanted the Safety Managers in 16 of his other locations to have it as well. He wants to chat with them about it and show them what it will do for them.

I was very happy. Not only did I make the sale, but I have a potential for a much larger sale. Plus I made an excellent contact who will most likely return my voice mail messages in the future.

Thanks again for the e-mail. It made me make those calls and gave me more sales the last three days of the month! With a change in attitude, anything is possible!

Sincerely,
Joan Roberts
Sales Coordinator
J.J. Keller & Associa

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Art,

A little anecdote related to last week’s tip on using the last week of the year to contact prospects and clients to sell.

I have a new client that used our call center services the last two week of the year to renew their current clients to one of their popular products. We were able to secure sales in excess of $175,000 of which 67% were credit card sales. Not bad for two weeks of selling at the supposedly slowest time of the year!!

Thanks again and good selling,

Jack McElaney
VP of Sales and Client Services
E Communication Advantage

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Art,

Thanks for the newsletter!

We (our sales team) actually didn’t read this article until January, however the last two weeks of December were our best weeks ever!

The team made a decision in their minds that they would use the holidays and end of year as a reason to close up deals instead of a reason to get put off for later. It worked!

My team performed 14% better than the average for the previous six months.

Travis Isaacson, Access Development