This time of year we get this question a lot: “Is it a good idea to run promotions or do launches or even just sell during the holidays?”

The truth is, anytime is good when you can connect what you’re doing to what people are really concerned about.

For example, during the end of the year, people are thinking about what they’ve accomplished and what they haven’t, so great themes for your promotions would be “Have Your Best Year Ever” or “Start the New Year Strong.”

If you want to have great timing for your sales efforts, keep these three points in mind:

1. Consider your market. When you’re scheduling your event or promotions it’s most important to consider the needs of your specific market.

If you work with corporate professionals who are starting a side job, you might want to schedule your calls on nights and weekends, but if it’s a training that benefits them in their current job, you want to schedule that during normal business hours.

If your market is the mom-preneur obviously you don’t want to do a free preview call on Mother’s Day or host your first big live event on Thanksgiving weekend. But sometimes three-day weekends are a good choice for your live event because people have the day off and that gives them the opportunity to attend.

2. Sometimes it pays to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. For example, we went to the Winter Olympics last year and you would think that we’d want to steer clear of something like that because it would be so crowded, but we often felt as though we were the only ones on the mountain. We learned from that experience that sometimes rather than avoiding something because you think everyone else is doing it, it’s actually a good time to do it, because everyone else is thinking that too!

3. Schedule around your competition? People sometimes want to reschedule their own event or class after hearing that a competitor has one scheduled for the same time as theirs. Is that a good idea? It depends.

If you have a lot of overlap in your followers or subscriber list with someone, then you might want to be conscious about what they’re doing, but just because you have overlap in your target audience — say women over 50 — that doesn’t mean you have to be concerned. There are millions of people in your target market and your competitor is only going to have a handful or so in their event.

However, if your list is a close match, and you really feel that you’re vying for the same people, then it’s a good idea to reconsider your dates so that people can attend both events.

Or, you could consider the audacious idea of collaborating with that person and offer a special price for attendees to participate in both!

So when you’re scheduling your sales efforts, don’t worry too much about the calendar or the crowd or your competition, think about what your ideal client needs and you will find that your timing is perfect! Let us know your holiday sales-success stories below!

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The following tip could mean the difference between being a sought-after speaker or someone who has a difficult time getting gigs.

When you speak, you’re often going to be on another speaker’s stage. Those speakers are looking for people who complement what they do, not compete with it.

For example, let’s say you cast a wide net. You teach people how to market on the Internet and through the mail and write their ezine and speak from the stage and sell one-on-one.

If you go out there with that market-your-business-everywhere-plan, while there will be stages happy to have you, your teaching is more likely to overlap with the host speaker — and you won’t get the gig.

However, if your talk is more specific, like mine — How to Boost Sales Using Irresistible Offers — you’ll be invited onto more stages, because you’ll be viewed as a complement to what they’re teaching, rather than competition.

The same applies to soft offers as well. The more niched you are, the more gigs you can get. For example, teaching how to communicate with your rebellious teen vs just how to communicate.

You can still teach your A-Z plan in other settings, such as your mastermind, but when you’re putting together your Signature Talk, think specific.

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