Ah. Black Friday. That magical day after Thanksgiving that people in the United States channel their inner desires to hunt for the best deals on products that they don’t really need. It’s the sign that we are coming into the holiday season where the retailers hope to turn their books from red to black. And, it is my favorite sales day of the year.
Black Friday is the one day of year I truly look forward to going into the office and prospecting. While everyone else is out camping out for this year’s hottest Playstation deal, I am setting up mass email campaigns, checking on prospects who I haven’t been able to contact for weeks, months, or even in some cases, years, and I am blasting out as many emails as I possibly can.
So why do I love Black Friday so much? The answer is simple-Out of Office Messages! I absolutely can not wait to get those special little treats from 90% of the emails I send out that day. These little nuggets are usually inclusive of all sorts of information that I am not normally able to get about my prospects during regular outreach.
What most out of office messages include:
-Their personal cell phone number
-Information for other contacts who might be able to assist in your target prospects absence
For a salesperson, this information just opened up a world of opportunity to get closer to getting the deal done. In one single email your are usually able to add at least 1, but sometimes up to 3-4 additional prospects to your contact list. And, in some rare instances, I have even closed deals THAT DAY when calling on additional contacts from an OOO message because I now know that that person is in the office that day just like me, but likely wishing they hadn’t missed that mornings Black Friday Doorbuster.
So don’t fret fellow salespeople. The next time you are scheduling vacation for the day after Thanksgiving, or feeling like complaining because you have to work when the rest of your colleagues have the day off, remember this blog post and start pounding out as many emails as you possibly can. Trust me-You’ll start to love Black Friday work days as much as I do!
PS. For the wantrapreneurs out there whose office is closed on Friday, you better be spending as much time as possible earlier in the week setting your emails to automatically send on Friday.