Clever Counsel #2 - Prospecting during the holidays

I know a lot of consultants who stop building their pipeline around this time of year.

Either because they’re busy wrapping up project work for Q4, or they feel it's pointless to do much in the way of outreach. After all, everyone is winding down for the holidays - right?

Instead, most consultants are currently plotting big things for January. They're going to stay relatively quiet between now and the first of the year, and then launch into action.

This is a big missed opportunity.

There are two ways I’ve successfully nurtured relationships and secured new clients during the holidays.

You can take either of these actions right this minute. And you should.

1 - Offer to be a lifeline

If you’re willing to work over the holiday break (especially if it means securing a valuable new relationship), broadcast that to your network and ideal targets. Demonstrate empathy for leaders who are trying to find a way to reach their end-of-year numbers while also accommodating rampant vacation requests from their teams. A short message like this can work wonders:

“Happy to be on-call for you over the holidays to help ensure your deadlines are met - I’m going to be on and available for key contacts this season. I’m sure many of your most valuable players are going into vacation mode, so let me know if I can provide a lifeline!”

You’d be surprised how often this works to get you noticed. While others are checking out and taking off, you’re ready and eager to dive in to make life easier.

2 - Send ideas for their 2025 reset

Make a list of your top five audiobook recommendations - ideally a mix of professional development, personal development and just-for-fun picks. Share this list along with a short holiday / end-of-year message. Something like:

“If you’re anything like me, you’ll be using some of your upcoming time off to hit the ‘reset’ button ahead of 2025. To help inspire you, I'm sharing my top 5 audiobook recommendations - all of these made me think differently (or elicited a good laugh) this year. If you end up reading one or more of them, send me your thoughts!”

To make an even bigger impact, invest $200 and gift an Audible book to 10 of your top prospects.

This gesture always elicits a response, and makes it easy to follow up later to discuss their takeaways from the book.