by Dr. Ginger Bratzel
[How to Grow Your Business By Prepping Now for Quarter 4]
The key to having a great 4th quarter by design is not waiting to the end of the year hoping and praying for that big rush to save the day. With calculated actions in the months leading up to Dec. 31st, you can optimize the time remaining.
To achieve this as business owners, we have two very important duties to help our customers, clients, prospects, or patients to get the most out of these remaining months. The first one is communicating and informing of what’s approaching quickly. It’s about generating awareness and creating real urgency to do something about it sooner vs later.
FOR EXAMPLE:
Let’s use a health care professional and see how to start that level of communication.
As a health professional, I would be communicating directly with my people at least monthly (preferably more) from September to December. I have social media, email, and text messages where I can announce “You know what, we get really busy in December. And like you, everyone else wants to use all their insurance, too. Don’t forget about medical savings accounts, either, that you set up at the beginning of the year. Use your benefits before they expire. December tends to be a shorter month because of the Christmas holiday and the end of the year. Unfortunately, we only have so much time available. So, we urge you not to wait and come in now where we have much more appointment availability and the time to take care of all your health needs so you can take advantage of all your benefits. CALL TODAY. ”
And then your second leverage point as part of your success plan is to offer special incentives for them to come in BEFORE the end of the year in September and October. In retail, we’re familiar with big savings in December to pull people into stores. And the same principle works for other industries in the earlier fall months. You can create action incentives earlier in the year to attract people to come in before the November and December rush.
For a lot of industries, September is a slow time.
At that time of the year, people are switching gears as kids are going back to school and routines are changing. They’re transitioning from summer to fall. And that creates a lag period for many business types. We help our clients turn that around by working with them to handle the “September Slump” by creating higher-level incentives to entice their customers and patients that won’t be available later. We reward fast action and giving them a reason why it’s in their best interest to do it earlier by creating urgency.
Are you a Financial Planners? People are putting that money away for tax savings. What can you do to plant that seed to incentivize them to make their financial plans for the year during September?
Who are my Realtors? What added service could you offer with your packages that would only be available in September or October to move more clients to take action during those times?
(By the way, we work with our clients to create these customize incentives that work to make their business unique so they stand out. We helped one client take September (his slowest month every year for the last 20 years!) and turn it into their BIGGEST month. If you’re interested in talking to one of our advisories, reach out at Results@GingerBratzel.com to discuss your business goals.)
In review, two things are necessary to create a productive and profitable Q4. First, you need to communicate and inform your customers and prospects that the year is quickly approaching which means less availability so they don’t miss out. And secondly, you need to create incentives for the early fall months to create momentum and draw people in.
If you would like help with either of those, please reach out to my team now to schedule a strategy call to implement your best plan for Quarter 4.
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If you want to talk more about how to do this or other strategies for your office, you want to start with the simple or you want to go with a big and you’re ready to do that and you want to get things cloned again, reach out to us and we’ll do a “Getting All The Clients You Need” session to find your next step.