Know When to Hold ‘em & Know When to Fold ‘em

If you are in a sales position where you are soliciting a product or service, there is some advice that might be helpful when speaking to other businesses. There are times during a year that are good times and other times that might not be so good. As I always state in any advice I give, every market is different, so this is more of a generalized theory than anything else.

Rather than get wordy and lengthy in my explanation and reasoning, I’ll give best and worst times:

Best Times for B2B selling:

• The months of January and February. (First of year numbers start over)
• Between the dates of the 10th through 25th of any month except December. (Meat of month less bills)
• Between the 5th and 20th of December. (moves up a bit due to holidays)
• The last week in December. (Some companies like to dump excess funds to escape taxes)
• First of January, April, July & October (Typically first of each quarter for quarterly companies)

Worst Times for B2B selling:

• Any holiday period. (companies may be closed)
• The week leading up to the tax deadlines. (business owners stressed and sometimes facing big bills)
• The last week in December. (This is either hit or miss. While it can be the best, it can also be the worst)
• The end of March, June, September & December. (End of quarter for quarterly companies)
• Weekends. (This one is obvious, but Saturday and Sunday are probably the worst)

Again, these are generalized timeframes for business to business selling. If it’s business to customer, it’s a completely different ballgame because weekends are great for customers, along with holidays. You should always try to sell 365 days a year in some fashion, but put more emphasis towards the prime, or best selling times.