4/3/2024-Q4 planning…today?

While it may feel like you have hundreds of things to take care of each week in your role, understand that strategically chasing revenue beats fiddling around in your inbox any day.

Even though today is the third day of the year’s second quarter, you cannot plan early enough for Q4

No doubt your customers have already started talking about Q4, which means you need to start doing for Q4.

You know it will take months to get meetings with the KDMs for each of your top Q4 accounts.

But don’t wait until July when you meet with that big honcho who could make your Q4. Start talking to every customer about their Q4 plans now.

Strategize for Q4 by taking stock of your rev attrition from Q4 ’23; how much new biz do you need to generate in this year’s Q4?

Consult the strategic plans you created a few months back and determine which accounts will generate your Q4 money.

What info gaps exist between what you now know about your top targets and what you wrote on your plan?

At the least, book some meetings today for Q4 business, and you’ll soon close those info gaps and set yourself up for a big final quarter.

Strategic account planning is a dynamic process that should get your attention weekly, not just at the end of every quarter.

If you believe that your best thinking comes when you can quietly sit and think, then you see the light about the keys to figuring out complex issues: time and preparation are crucial.

Every day, you’re pushed and pulled in numerous directions, but that work is not as fun as when you can thoughtfully consider each key account from a bird’s-eye perspective.

Like everything in the sales game, you must be disciplined and committed to strategic account planning, just as you are to prospecting, growing your skills, and all the other issues you must attend to regularly.

And while those other things seem to add up to 89 hours a week, understand that strategically developing and executing plans for revenue growth beats fiddling around in your inbox any day.

Who scheduled the holidays in Q4? …gnarly, huh?

This one-minute clip from the movie Elf will remind you of what’s around the corner—yup, department store holiday decorations. They pop up right after the back-to-school campaigns, and that’s only a few months away.

Beat the rush and get going on your Q4 "decorating," and you won’t feel like you’re doing all your holiday shopping on 12/24!