Welcome to our first sales meeting of December. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday and re-entry back into the real world on Monday wasn’t too much of a struggle.

Right off the bat, I will admit before I go any further that I am a bit of a Scrooge. Ok, maybe more than a bit. And, the truth is, most of why I am that way has to do with work more than anything else. I am a workaholic. I am that guy who if I won a huge lottery tomorrow, I’d be at work the next day. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself anyway. I work. My hobbies include working and checking in on work things.

So, when everyone else decides that because the calendar hit the last week of November into December, it is time to turn work off for a month or so, I struggle. I’d rather be in the office coming up with new ideas to sell or new people to meet with to figure out how we can partner up to help grow their business.

Unfortunately, we know what is coming. Several different versions of ‘Let’s talk after the holidays’ or ‘Call me after the first of the year’. It’s maddening really. I mean who doesn’t want to talk about advertising the day of Christmas Eve? I’m working, where’s everyone else?

As I have gotten older, I have realized I’m fighting a losing battle and need to come up with other things to keep me occupied as we get closer to the December holidays. About a decade ago when I was a Market Manager, it hit me that this was the best time of the year to do certain things. One of those is to reflect on the past year and how I can be better the next year. The other is to pull in the other people in the office who also don’t have as much work as they normally would and spend time brainstorming in groups.

As far as reflection is concerned, if this isn’t something you do, how can you get any better? The beauty of sales is that there is a scoreboard, although the most important one is your own score. How did you grade yourself against your own expectations for the year? Did you do same, better or worse financially than you did the year before?

The key here is to dig in. Hopefully you have some good notes you have taken throughout the year to refer back to but at the very least, go through all six steps of the sales process and judge yourself in each step. How was your prospecting this year and what can you take away from that prospecting this year that can help you for next year?

Look at your success rate booking appointments with the people or businesses you tried to reach out to. Then, think about the meetings you had this year. What was your success rate on meetings run versus sales closed? Was there anything you noticed, specifically, about the ones where you had the CNA, made a presentation and did not come away with a sale? If you could run any of those meetings over again, what might you change?

Lastly, how have you done servicing your clients this year? Did you make time to visit your clients at times when you weren’t trying (directly) to sell them something? Did you entertain them at all this year by taking them out to dinner, to a game or to a station event? It is so crucial these days to keep the clients that you have, as we all know how difficult they are to replace.

As for the second part, I am a big fan of getting small groups together to talk things out together. For example, as a GM, I would like to do small groups of people from various departments. Mix sales, content and office staff together in groups of 8-10 and talk about everything from the office itself to what they think or hear about the programming of your stations.

For sales, specifically, gather a small group of your colleagues and talk through challenges you faced this past year and how you overcame them. I know role-playing is despised by most but just think of it as you are a sports team and this is your practice (yes, we are talking about practice!) – how can you get better without practicing something?

Salespeople can also pull in others from the staff to brainstorm new business targets or talk about creative ideas to present to clients. Get with air talent you haven’t spent much time with and get to know them, ask them where they shop, where they eat, what their hobbies are.

The bottom-line is don’t just shut down because decision makers won’t take meetings with you the next few weeks. Use this time to your advantage while you have it. If nothing else, it will help pass the time to the real most wonderful time of the year – when clients start buying again.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.