Avoid Year-end Panic: Dealing with renewals and upsells at the end of the year

The fiscal year-end can be one of the most trying times of the year for sales professionals as they evaluate their ability to hit their numbers in the remaining months. If you're scrambling to make those forecasted numbers, take a deep breath - meeting those goals does not have to put you in a panic.

There are several factors to consider when looking at the remaining months and planning where to spend your time. The first is to keep the bigger picture in mind. Customers need you to fix a problem, avoid a crisis, or accomplish a larger goal. Staying focused on their issues, rather than your need to close the deal, enables you to examine your deals closely and uncover areas you can potentially work with. This gives you the ability to identify deals with the best potential and then prioritize based on which are most likely to close soonest.

Prioritizing those deals is best done based on your knowledge of what customers need and when they need it. It does no good to pressure them to close if your solution doesn't answer a need they feel is urgent. This type of knowledge is part of identifying opportunities that meet the criteria for your ideal customer. Knowing how closely your deals match your criteria gives you a better idea of the likelihood that they will welcome your solution and see you as a valuable partner in achieving their goals.

The next step is to review the list and evaluate the potential of closing those deals by year end. Focus on where they are today and what it will take to advance them. Use this information to develop an action plan to meet your end-of-year goals. Consider the following aspects of each opportunity:

• The customer's needs and the specific business issues s/he wants to address
• Your ability to provide business solutions and value rather than pushing an individual product
• The customer's timetable
• Who is involved in the decision-making process, their roles, and who makes the final call

Keeping these aspects in mind during your review provides a guideline for evaluating a deal's true potential for close. Focusing on your customers, understanding their issues, and knowing their sense of urgency will allow you to pinpoint the best opportunities in your funnel for year-end focus, and allow you to craft a plan to move those opportunities forward based on the customer's expectations rather than your own.