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Europa Communications

Should you now focus on year-end close, or building a new year pipeline?


It’s that time again, when holidays are a distant memory and meeting current sales targets as well as sales planning are top of the agenda. As year-end approaches, it's important to focus on key demand generation strategies to maximise revenue to achieve this year’s targets along with as setting a strong foundation for the next year.

 

So how and what should you prioritise?

Naturally the answer will depend on how close you are to the current year’s sales target and to what extent you need to implement activities that will support sales opportunity conversion. However, balancing the need to close sales at the end of the year while also building a pipeline for the new year can be challenging, but both are essential for sustained growth.

 

If you are not on target, have you considered the following?

Firstly, prioritise high-probability opportunities that are closest to conversion. The deals where the buyer is in the final decision-making stages. Focus your sales team on nurturing and closing these. In terms of driving incremental revenue a direct approach to cross sell and upsell to existing customers can also help reach the revenue target.


However, you should also be allocating resources to early-stage opportunities that will feed your pipeline for Q1 of next year. This involves lead generation, qualification, and the ongoing nurture of existing leads. This is especially relevant to high-value prospects where an ABM approach should be developed. If your sales resources – account management and inside sales are stretched on closing deals, you may consider outsourcing these activities so they can run in parallel, and momentum can be built.


So, what about your 2025 pipeline?

It's always worth reviewing old leads, especially those in mid-funnel or have not had any meaningful follow up. In previous blogs we have highlighted the reasons why lead nurture can maximise ROI on the initial investment as they tend to have higher conversion rates and forge stronger relationships.


Of course, your new year plans may include entering new markets or launching a new solution. This time of the year can also be used to run market validation research to test propositions, define the market potential and uncover some initial opportunities to establish an initial pipeline and help adjust any positioning and messaging to improve campaign effectiveness going forward. Profiling a limited number of prospects can minimise investment risk and provide valuable insights.


Balancing year-end sales closing with pipeline building for 2025 requires a dual strategy that emphasises both immediate sales urgency and long-term demand generation. To achieve this, segment your focus, leverage automation, align sales and marketing, and run integrated campaigns that cater to both goals. By creating targeted offers and leveraging insights from your data, you can close more deals at the year-end while ensuring a healthy pipeline for the upcoming year.

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