Let’s Make Sure Your Firm Has Happy Holidays
Professional services firms are traditionally fee-for-service so, when your office closes down over the holiday break, your revenues STOP! Not something we like to acknowledge out loud to our team, but something we must inevitably plan for each year.
There are plenty of highs and lows in cash flows for many businesses. That’s precisely why keeping the cash coming in can be a tricky thing to do before or during the holidays; when that task essentially becomes a fine art.
So, how do we cover these highs and lows? Simple – we have to plan for them.
Planning is everything
The key here is not only planning but how and when these plans come to fruition. First, you must plan to build the revenues right before the break starts, and then reignite them again quickly as soon as the break ends.
The plans you make can help you get through the break without stopping the cash flow entirely.
How to properly do promotions
How do you do this you might ask? Through promotions! They will get you through the break. But with professional services, the retail approach to holiday sales is not the right way to do it – ye olde 50% off sale on Boxing day just won’t cut it! Consider your market, your services, and time constraints. Find the way to make the promotions work with what you do, make an overarching theme for them that fits into your business model, your service delivery framework and your client niche. The main thing you need to think about is how to connect the promotions with the time constraints to create a good motivator for the clients that will encourage and lead them to action.
While retail and professional services are worlds apart, there is a lot to learn from those retailer who successfully use time based promotions to generate leads and make sales. SO, take some time out to read about their success, particular the way the US retailers use significant sale days like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and year-end blowouts to make revenues skyrocket and get new clients running in. They use time urgency to create a nice cash injection during and after the large events.
The examples that can help you
Whether you’re getting new clients or not, you certainly want to build your appointments with them to generate new business. With that in mind, you can use themes related to this time of year to create time urgent promotions.
Here’s a few examples…
‘New Year, new goals’ is a great way to spur action before the holiday season starts and also once business re-commences in the New Year.
If you’re a wealth management advisor, this is the perfect time in the year to seize the day and use your clients’ New Year resolutions of savings and convert these wishes into a wealth management plan.
A legal or financial advisor can consider a different approach – you can promote getting the house in order in the year that’s coming by providing technology, compliance, or IP audits.
As you can see, making sure your firm has happy holidays is still achievable, despite the holiday break. Closing the doors doesn’t have to mean ending everything; it can still be a golden opportunity that can bring you new clients and more business.
The Thought Leadership Initiative can help you here by understanding your business model, providing insight into your clients and teaching you the marketing tricks that can help you in improving your marketing strategy and eventually increasing sales.