It’s the end of the quarter and everyone is scrambling. Whether you are sweating over sales metrics, pipeline, quotas, feedback or analytics you have two things in mind, growth and profitability. Did we use these past three months to our advantage? Is our business growing? Am I excelling as a professional? These milestones are often measured quarterly keeping us in line with what’s really important to our success.
Even the most organized professionals often get overwhelmed with work and fall victim of procrastination. One-off time sensitive projects come up all the time. While they are part of running an active business, they take precedence over daily tasks. The end of the quarter is a constant reminder of what needs attention.
Here are some things to keep in mind on the last day of the quarter:
- Have every piece of business accounted for. If you are a Sales Rep, close the loop on all communication. Make sure your opportunities occurred; the next step details are accounted for in your CRM or the system used to measure profitability. Pipeline cannot be calculated without close looped communication between inside and outside sales reps.
- Don’t be afraid to push yourself. This is your day to make it happen. You have a decision to make…you can shorten your lunch, take less walks around the office and really focus on strategic business conversations that will make or break your Q2. The last day of the quarter is like a “last chance work out”. If you watch The Biggest Loser you are familiar with the extraordinary measures people go through to exceed goals. Don’t leave the office until you truly gave it all you had, and then treat yourself to what makes you happy. Whether it’s a nice glass of wine, a steak dinner or a sunset run, don’t leave saying “I’ll do better next quarter”. Work hard to play hard.
- Save nothing for July 2nd. Monday is a new day and a new quarter. Any business you pass on Monday is a great start to Q3. Don’t get in the habit of saying “I’ll finish it Monday” and pushing “to-do’s” out. If it was associated with Q2, make sure it gets done. If your Sales metrics are incomplete, have conversations today with your reps and set deadlines for them to update their business by tomorrow. If you are a Sales Rep with follow ups set for tomorrow, try your hardest to have those conversations. The end of the quarter is not always an excuse for prospects to blow you off so don’t qualify them out in advanced. The weekend is right around the corner so don’t stop now. If it’s on a post-it note for Q2, have it done by Friday afternoon and then prepare for a clean slate Monday.
I challenge you to embrace the last day jitters and come up with a plan. We are all capable of extraordinary things when we focus and we would not be sales professionals if we weren’t competitive. Hard work yields results. Don’t hear yourself saying “there’s always next quarter” be proud of the work you did the past three months.
