It’s the silly season (or the busy season). For most professional services practitioners, the end of year is a race to collapse! The demands of finalising client work and projects before the office shut-down means that, for many, BD and marketing initiatives will be the last thing on their minds.
However, even when time is limited, there are a few activities which are definitely worth investing in to keep your BD and marketing habits going strong. There is, of course, the small matter of client entertainment or whether to send greeting cards.
To help you make the most of your limited time during the end of year rush, I’ve collated some of the best advice, in the series of articles shown below.
Essential BD and Marketing Activities Before the Break
This is the perfect length article and the ideal tick-list of the 5 things that everyone should do before enjoying their well-earned break. It even has tips to get you ahead of the curve for next year’s break! Essential advice that’s easy to follow. Just how I like it.
We say this a lot, but this article absolutely applies to all professional services. It’s possibly too late to apply the advice on planning for this year, but use this template and get it in your Outlook (or other system) calendar now. That way, you’ll be ahead of the game and will get future seasonal greeting cards out to everyone, on time, and will minimal fuss! Smart stuff.
We’ve already touched upon the mountains of client work that needs to be finalised. There is also usually a couple of large RFPs that need to be responded to before the shutdown (usually one or two from one government entity in particular). With all these requests, and with tighter deadlines coming in, it pays to have a system in place to deal with these!
In this HBR article, Darcy Eikenberg provides practical advice you can follow to avoid being consumed in the deluge. And yes, I love the word deluge!
Yes, I wrote this – but I have added it in as the advice is specific and practical for what you can (and perhaps should) be doing at this time of year. Enjoy!
Conclusion
And that’s a wrap! At this time of year, the most important thing is to do the basics – keep up client contact and your BD habit. Don’t do too much, focus on finalising key client deliverables and ensure you have a plan so you can relax (rather than collapse) into the break.
All the best for your relaxing holiday!