We’ve got less than a month to go in 2017. As everyone frantically settles into the holiday season, there is one thing on every business owner’s mind and that is year-end sales. At this point, many companies are looking toward 2018 and establishing their new goals and strategies, yet there is still time left to close that deal.   

With 15 years of experience in sales and marketing, Angela Leavitt has helped more than 150 tech companies create targeted and effective marketing strategies for companies of all sizes in the B2B tech space, especially the telecom, IT, and cloud industries. She is the founder of Mojo Marketing. Known as an accomplished public speaker, Leavitt has been a regular presenter at ITExpo, COMPTEL, Channel Partners, and Cloud Partners conferences, as well as numerous corporate meetings and events. She is a champion for small business and a consistent supporter of women in business and technology.

Here are three ways you can still squeeze out more sales in 2017: 

  1. Revisit your “lost” proposal file. People who engaged you in the sales process this year obviously had a need for your services. Chances are, you are inches from gold within this group, and you could likely revive the conversations with the right approach. This is especially true for the deals you lost due to indecision, since this is the season for making decisions for the upcoming year. Have your sales team touch base with each of your lost deals to see if anything shakes out.
  2. Inquire about “use it or lose it” budget. Believe it or not, some companies are frantically trying to spend money at this time of the year. The reason? If they don’t use all of X budget (marketing, IT, etc.) that was allocated 2017, they won’t get as much next year. If this is a common occurrence in your industry, simply sending an email with the question, “Do you have ‘use it or lose’ it budget you’re trying to spend wisely before end-of-year?” can spark some meaningful conversations. The best part is they are on an external time crunch so your sales cycle will be very short.
  3. Add something special to your current offer from now until end of year. While many companies offer holiday discounts and coupons, another approach is to simply offer a little more for the same amount of spend. This technique gives you the benefit of a limited-time offer, without the risk of cheapening your brand with a discount. The difference is subtle but important. Everyone like to feel like they got a good deal, but using discounts too frequently can cause the buyer to de-value your services. A holiday “bonus” is a nice touch that will likely get fence-sitters to move.

Even though time is drawing short, there is still time to make an impact on your 2017 revenue. People are in spending mode, so if you catch them at the right time with the right message, you just may give yourself the gift of new customers this year.