The holiday season is a festive time, but it can also be stressful, especially for B2B companies looking to generate leads and keep their sales pipelines full heading into the new year.
Prospects can be harder to reach this time of year, and even those you do reach might be too busy or stressed to worry about finding new partners or suppliers. This can be particularly challenging for B2B companies offering big-ticket items with complex sales processes.
But that doesn’t mean you should give up entirely on your holiday lead generation and appointment-setting efforts. Some prospects might have more time to talk during the holidays, especially if they’re working during a time when their office is relatively quiet and there are fewer distractions. And with plenty of B2B sales reps taking time off this month, there’s not as much competition vying for prospects’ attention.
Here are five tips for effective B2B holiday marketing:
1. Know your target market and their needs
It sounds obvious, but without a firm understanding of your ideal prospect’s typical buying habits, you’re not going to get very far in the sales process. This is true any time of year, but especially around the holidays.
Knowing exactly the right decision makers to pursue, the times they’re most likely to be available and willing to talk, and the sales messaging that will resonate the strongest is essential to any effective holiday marketing campaign.
VSA works closely with all of our clients to determine what days and times make sense to call around the holidays. For B2B companies selling into the educational space, for example, it’s often smart to ramp up calls to prospects while students are on holiday break since administrators might have more time to talk at that time.
Ultimately, no two client programs are exactly alike, even within the same industry, which means no two calling schedules are exactly alike. All of VSA’s lead gen programs are customized to ensure our clients are getting maximum productivity from their calling hours.
2. Be respectful of your prospects’ time
It could be something as simple as acknowledging the hectic time of year at the start of a prospecting call. Or it could be something more data-driven, such as determining when prospects in a particular industry are typically most stressed and avoiding calling during those days.
Regardless of how you approach it, showing your prospects that you appreciate their time and are aware of their seasonal challenges can go a long way toward starting a business relationship on the right foot. Having Business Development Representatives (BDRs) who are empathetic and respectful on the phone can make all the difference in a prospect’s willingness to move forward with the sales process.
There’s also a fine line between reaching out to a prospect too often and not enough. You don’t want to bombard someone with calls or emails, but you also don’t want to let them slip through the cracks. VSA has the experience and expertise to develop telephone, voicemail, and email cadences that make sense for each client, and we rely on data accumulated during the campaign to adjust these cadences if necessary.
3. Adapt your messaging
Just because you develop messaging you’re happy with at the start of a lead generation campaign, it doesn’t mean you’re locked into that exact wording. Tweaking your phone script, voicemail, and/or emails to include seasonal promotions or other holiday references shows that you’re not just robotically delivering a canned message to prospects. Even warming the tone of the message to reflect the holiday spirit might increase a prospect’s willingness to engage with your reps.
VSA prides itself on maintaining true collaborative relationships with our clients, meeting regularly to ensure we’re taking whatever steps are necessary to achieve program excellence. Over the years, we’ve had multiple clients adjust their messaging around the holidays to resonate more strongly with prospects. Our team has the flexibility to quickly implement these changes—or any other program adjustments that increase the chance of productive conversations with your prospects.
4. Show gratitude to your existing customers
The holidays are a perfect time to reach out to existing customers to let them know they’re appreciated and inform them of special offers, new products, or other promotions. It’s also a perfect time to see if they need additional support or services. Such goodwill gestures will strengthen your customer relationships and can lead to referrals and other opportunities for new business down the road.
The challenge can be finding time to reach out to these customers, especially with your internal sales reps likely taking more time off around the holidays. Partnering with an experienced lead generation and appointment-setting call center like VSA can fill this void and ensure your customers never feel ignored. We have developed multiple calling campaigns involving clients’ current customers and are committed to immersing ourselves in the culture of each client to best represent their brand.
5. Increase your outreach
This might seem counter-productive since a lot of your prospects might be harder to reach around the holidays. But not all of them. According to a recent poll of 881 professionals conducted by FinanceBuzz, 36% of Americans plan to take three days off or less this holiday season, with 10% saying they’re taking no time off. And even when they’re off, they’re not completely unplugged from work—33% of respondents say they’ll still check emails and messages while taking time off for the holidays.
Increasing your lead generation efforts during the holidays, especially if your competitors are temporarily scaling back, can set your business apart and improve brand awareness. Even if a prospect is not ready to make any purchasing decisions before the end of the year, such holiday outreach could give you a leg up come January.
Conclusion
Planning your marketing strategies around the holidays can be a challenge, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a productive time for your business. Sure, you don’t want to waste your reps’ time pursuing difficult-to-reach prospects, but you also don’t want to miss out on genuine opportunities for new business. It’s imperative to have a firm understanding of your target audience and to be able to demonstrate the value of your product or service.
VSA has been helping our clients achieve these goals for 21 years. If you’re looking for new ways to grow your business and fill your pipeline in 2023, give us a call. Regardless of what time of year it is, we’re always committed to developing the most effective lead-generation campaigns on your behalf.