Navigating Year-End Sales Pressures

For many sales professionals, the end of the calendar year is also the end of the business year. This frequently means a lot of stress and pressure to close as many sales as possible and the make the numbers as good as they can be. 
In this episode Steve is joined by Debbie Airey and Jayne Green to discuss how to cope at this crucial time of the year. They discuss their own experiences of year end, both as sales professionals and sales leaders. They also reflect on the importance of not forgetting that a new business year is just around the corner, and to ensure that the focus on year end doesn't mean a poor start to the new year. 

Steve Vaughan, Jonathan Cooper, Pru Layton, Christian Walter, Pascal le Floche,  Jayne Green  and Jonathan Slasinski are Sales Trainers from george james ltd.  You can email the show at:  Podcast@georgejames-training.com

 The trainers on LinkedIn:

 Steve Vaughan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-vaughan-salestrainer/
Jonathan Cooper https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-cooper-18716b1/
Pru Layton https://www.linkedin.com/in/pru-layton-b46a3528/
Christian Walter https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-walter-a1857b1/
Jayne Green https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-green-salestrainer/
Pascal Le Floch-Riche https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-le-floch-220ba46/

Jonathan Slasinski https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-slasinski-449a655/

george james training website https://georgejames-training.com/

Transcript

Steve Vaughan (00:01)
Hello again and welcome to The Lookers For Choice, a B2B sales and business podcast brought to you by the training team of George James Limited. My name is Steve Vaughan. I'm a senior sales trainer at George James and I'm also the host and producer of this podcast. Well, we're recording this episode on the 4th of December. So for those of you that run a financial year that goes from January to December, I guess you'll be busy chasing year end business. Always an exciting time of the year.

So that's what we're going to look at today. How do we navigate? How do we cope with all the stresses and pressures of year end? And today I'm joined by my two colleagues, Jane Green and Debbie Airy. So ladies, how are you both? How are you coping with your end for that much, your end for that much? How are things going for you both? Jane, how are you?

Jayne Green (00:44)
Yeah, I'm very well thank you Steve. It's fast approaching, hey? I'm thinking of well done on the things I've done, patting myself on the back. Not many pats, I'm thinking my goodness, not long to go, loads to do.

Steve Vaughan (00:50)
Yeah, it is. Yeah.

Absolutely. I just can't believe it's December. Where's the year gone to? How are you doing, Debs? How are things for you?

Jayne Green (01:04)
I know.

Debbie Airey (01:06)
freezing. I am so cold it's unbelievable. yeah in amongst holding on to the radiator and wearing a ton of blankets at the moment I am just I'm planning out my social media activity at the moment so I can be nurturing some prospects.

Steve Vaughan (01:24)
Yeah, great. And of course you're very active on social media and on LinkedIn, course, as well. So let's look at what we're sort of talking about today in a bit more detail. you know, if you do run, as many companies do, run a December to January or January to December financial year. You know, we are in the last month of the year. And of course, December is always a short month anyway, because of the Christmas period. I've worked in businesses where we've done 40 to 50 % of our business in the last six weeks of the year.

which can be quite high stress and quite high pressure. So from a sort of top perspective, really, Jane, when we are working at this time of year, we're all chasing business. It can be quite exciting. It'd be quite motivational, can't it really? I think it'd be a fun time. It doesn't necessarily have to be a stressful time.

Jayne Green (02:13)
Absolutely, if you know that this is a big time for your business and this is when the orders come in and the things that you've been working on throughout the year, all of your action points may lead to these last couple of months or last few weeks. So it is actually quite a thrilling moment. Of course, it can feel a bit throughout the year like a bit of a roller coaster, you know, but you're just going into that area where it's like, weeee!

Steve Vaughan (02:33)
Yeah, completely.

How does it go?

Debbie Airey (02:36)
Thank

Jayne Green (02:41)
I don't know but I did put my hands up for anybody that's listening to that in the car.

Steve Vaughan (02:44)
No, exactly. It can be a fun time, Debbie, can't it? It can be quite an exciting, everybody's, you know, all hands to the pump and all those other cliches, can't it? It can be a fun time, yeah.

Debbie Airey (02:55)
It can, it can be that time of year where as a sales manager as well, you can really get stuck in with your team and have end of year team meetings, award ceremonies, and really just enjoy and look back on the successes of that year as well.

Steve Vaughan (03:10)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think you make a really good point actually that for the managers on the, this, listen to this podcast, it's not just about pushing the team, we pin the team as hard as we can. think there's, and I certainly always try to this as a manager. think there was a role for the sales managers to get their sleeves rolled up, to get on the phone, you know, to get the emails going out, to be part of the sales team and actually get, you know, get the hands dirty. Another cliche in terms of working with.

the team rather than just sort of cracking the whip harder. Do you agree on that one, Jane?

Jayne Green (03:44)
Yeah, absolutely. think, you know, let's all, you know, many hands make light work. You know, yeah, we're good at them today. I've got loads of them actually in my head. I need to restart. But yeah, we as a manager, certainly to encourage team, this is, you know, help focus, but in a really positive way. And actually, how can we help each other? Because it may well be on a team that, you know, some parts of the team are absolutely.

Steve Vaughan (03:49)
Mmm another cliche

Debbie Airey (03:51)
Yeah

Jayne Green (04:12)
They're hitting their targets, they're way beyond target, they've exceeded. And of course, other members of the team might actually be struggling a little bit more. So how can you motivate team to work together, encourage one another, and actually, you know, put the best ideas forward? Who can do what? Who can get involved?

Steve Vaughan (04:26)
That's a super point actually because just because as an individual we've hit our targets doesn't mean that we sort of, you know, put our feet up and not off for the rest of the year. We've still got a part to play. Yeah. So I guess it does depend, Debbie, in the nature of our business. So Jane and I, instance, we've worked mostly in high value capital equipment where if it's not a pretty close to a close date now,

it's too late really because of the time it to ship things. But you you've worked in slightly different businesses where perhaps the sort of sales cycle is a bit shorter. So, but I think, you know, it's a case of really focusing on what we can do as opposed to what we can't do now really, and sort of, you know, focusing on things that will make a difference. Is that the thought?

Debbie Airey (05:12)
It can very much be, I think, as a sales manager at that time as well. I might add on to what Jane said about helping one another. It's also about the cross-functional management as well, because every other department is also going to be under shorter time constraints at that time. So how can the sales manager ease the pressure for other cross-functional teams as well? And that is just as important to ease the burden on the team, because while they're out selling, there may be issues

Steve Vaughan (05:25)
Mmm.

That's a really good point.

Debbie Airey (05:42)
for example, where they need to deal with credit control or purchasing supply chain, et cetera. Maybe the manager can step in and help at that point as well and support those other teams too. And yeah, with high level or more speedier sales processes, shall we say, yeah, you can get more out the door before Christmas, but there is also the warning of don't push it. make, still make sure it's the right product going out to the right customer.

because what we don't want to do is then come to January and have to mop up incorrect sales. So I think the lesson is, yeah, even if you can do it speedily, do it right, still do it right.

Steve Vaughan (06:17)
Yeah, because the potential for mistakes is great at this time of year when we're all doing things at a rush. We cut corners, we can potentially get sloppy. We miss things off quotes. You make a great point though, and perhaps one that I hadn't thought of before this call, which is, we as a sales team think we're the ones under pressure. We're the ones, you know, pushing the needle to 11, but so are order processing, so are credit control, so are service, because they probably got to install things.

Jayne Green (06:21)
Mm-hmm.

Steve Vaughan (06:45)
So logistics, every part of the business Jane is under pressure at this time of year, aren't they really?

Jayne Green (06:50)
They are, and of course, so have our customers. Because, you know, actually, what about the customer's process? Because customers have got to get their orders through, and they have the sign-offs, they've got the finance teams, the purchasing teams, they've got to get their orders out. Because if they also align with our year end, they may be needing to spend their money and get that push through really quickly. So it's across our company and across the customers too.

Steve Vaughan (06:53)
Good point.

completely.

Great point.

Great point. And I think also when we do sales training, one of the things we talk about early on in the sales training, you particularly the schedule training program that you'd run now, Jane, you know, the foundational sales skills, as we call it. One of the things we talk about quite early on is something we call the comfort zone. And the comfort zone is something that we all have. often when we're working at this time of year, are in, we're certainly in the stretch zone.

And, know, look this up guys, if you want to know more about this, but, but often we can end up in the panic zone, which is that sort of far to the right, of the, of the model of, of comfort zone really. And I think there's a danger there for us, Debbie, that because we are pushing ourselves so much that we potentially don't look after ourselves quite as well as we should do. We don't think about our own mental wellbeing at this stage. I know when I've been chasing gear ends,

Debbie Airey (08:12)
Mm-hmm.

Steve Vaughan (08:15)
know, running sort of quite big businesses, it would take me certainly December 27th, December 28th before I started to come down from it all really, know, Christmas has gone then really. So what are your thoughts around that Deb, because I know that's something you're very, very passionate about in terms of people's mental wellbeing.

Debbie Airey (08:24)
Mm.

Definitely. We must also consider that this time of year can be very challenging to individuals on a personal level as well. So as managers and members of the team, it's a really big time to actually demonstrate some emotional intelligence to our colleagues and a high level of empathy. And it really is important to, when you ask somebody if they're okay, actually wait and listen.

Steve Vaughan (08:49)
Mm-hmm.

Debbie Airey (08:59)
So I would I would 100 % agree with that. It is a very stressful time. Everybody like you said is pushing the needle up to 11 and tempers can be fled as well. So it is it is really, really important to actually ask if people are okay. And like I say, demonstrate that emotional intelligence.

Steve Vaughan (09:09)
Yeah, good point.

So mutual respect, understanding, tolerance, guess, Jane, all those kinds of things as well, yeah.

Jayne Green (09:23)
Yeah, absolutely. It's just, you know, we look after ourselves, don't we? And we we're very focused on what we're doing, but we need to keep an eye on each other as team. You know, managers do need to be aware of the different pressures outside and inside of work, you know, for the team. Let's just be aware of that. I think one of our colleagues actually recently put something up about a podcast about or blog about burnout, you know, and it's such a big thing, isn't it? With the pressure gets to year end and actually

Steve Vaughan (09:39)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Jayne Green (09:53)
Maybe it's some of the pressures that we put on ourselves to achieve. Let's identify what the pressures really are. You know, is this self-inflicted pressure? Because I'm feeling a little bit hands up for me. Disorganized in moments when I'm feeling a little bit of a stretch, you know, to get things done. Or is there real pressure there? What can I do to minimize that? You know, and it's just, you know, taking that giant that is before us

Debbie Airey (09:55)
Mm-hmm.

Steve Vaughan (09:56)
Great point.

Yeah, good point.

Jayne Green (10:22)
and actually breaking it down, going, what is this really? Why am I feeling this level of pressure? Then what can I do about that in a very practical way?

Steve Vaughan (10:32)
super and I guess also taking a step back and thinking well why are we running like a hundred miles an hour at this time of year is it just how our business is is it always like this and as I say some businesses I've run they are they are that way or is it a symptom perhaps that we've not been doing things quite so well throughout the rest of the year in terms of managing ourselves funnels making sure ourselves funnels are clean and healthy

keep prospecting, keep filling the funnel, all the things that we talk about in all our training. So perhaps if we've not done those things quite so well, know, Debbie, during the year, that means we've now got to start peddling like hell to try and make up for the things that perhaps we haven't done quite so well in the year. Is that a thought?

Debbie Airey (11:18)
Yeah, if you've not

prepared yourself during the year accurately, then you can have an increased workload and increased pressures towards the end of the seasonal year or the end of the financial year. And that goes the same for sales managers and any of the managers have in the business as well, because, you know, often things might be left to the last minute. it's almost the panic then comes because it's a holiday season. Let's get it all done. Let's clear our plates before we go on holiday. And then the pressure's on. And the danger is again, from a management level,

Steve Vaughan (11:38)
Hmm.

Debbie Airey (11:50)
is that that pressure is pushed or cascaded down to the team. And then unfortunately, that pressure is then put onto either other people in the business, naturally, because that's what happens, or often onto our customers, because then, you know, we contact our customers to try and force sales through perhaps deals that we wouldn't normally do, etc, etc. So it is just about being very, very aware and conscious of the message that you're sending.

to your teams. If yeah, that is definitely what I would say.

Steve Vaughan (12:25)
Great point, yeah. And also what we're sending to our customers as well. And you made a great point, we were chatting before we started recording, Jane, about how we can educate our customers by our behavior at this time of year. Do want to say a bit more about that?

Jayne Green (12:36)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think, you know, sometimes we can get into a real sort of pattern of behaviour where we get to the end of the year and we're keen to get some extra business in or we, you ease the pressure because we've still got a target to meet or we just want to go, you know, having, you know, really blasted through our target. And so there's this real danger, isn't it? Before the end of the year approaches, we start offering deals, great deals to customers. We want to pull business in. So what do we do?

Mr. customer, if you can place the order by the end of the week, putting them under pressure, you know, that might mean another percentage or two of discount. And so, or more, yeah. And what happens, a customer remembers that. If we do that in a repeated way, customers then go, well, actually I know if I contact Jane towards the end of the year, I know that she's going to give me a discount. She's going to give me a better deal. I'm going to hold off.

Steve Vaughan (13:16)
more sadly, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jayne Green (13:35)
You know, and we've educated a customer to spend with us in a specific time to get a better deal. And it's a real danger for us. And if we are doing that, then there's a time it's reversible, it's okay. We can re-educate to say, actually, you know, throughout the year, and when people come to say, you always give me a better discount at this time of the year, we go, actually, I'll give you my best price. You know, and then we start talking value and we look at what that, you know, what that really means in terms of the purchase.

Steve Vaughan (13:37)
Yeah.

Jayne Green (14:04)
but let's not educate them to expect extra discounts at the end of the year because it will only hurt ourselves.

Steve Vaughan (14:08)
There's some pretty clammy customers out there. I saw you nebbing, nodding Debbie at that point as well. So what are your thoughts on that one?

Debbie Airey (14:16)
Yeah, I concur it. is, I think discounting at certain times of the year, it's strategically, if it's a strategic decision to make those discounts, then absolutely. If it's in sales fever mode, which often it can be, then no, it's not because what it will actually do is damage the brand as well.

and really hurt the price to the marketplace. And yeah, and not only do I think it sends a great sense of message to the customer as well, but actually what we're doing is breeding that behavior within our competitors too. Because often when one goes, the other one will offer a discount as well. And then it becomes a bit of a shark frenzy. And as I use the term the race to zero, and it's just not right because it's devalued to the brand, also the product.

Steve Vaughan (15:05)
Yes.

Debbie Airey (15:05)
and people's perception of the product or the service that you're actually selling is completely devalued. And of course that doesn't happen overnight, but over a matter of years of the same behaviour, then it will do. So that is hard to pull back.

Steve Vaughan (15:19)
And also what I often find at this time of year is that we'll say things to customers like, well, the price is going to go up 5 % next year if you don't get the order in now. And sometimes they can't for whatever reason. And guess what? The price doesn't go up 5 % next year. We've just kind of told the customer that. So we look a little bit, well, dishonest almost really. And if the price is going up, that's fair enough.

Let's look in perhaps in terms of what specifically we can do then, because we've talked about the pressures and coping with it, but inevitably lots of businesses are in this particular situation right now chasing year end business. And I guess it does depend a lot in terms of what it is that they sell and the nature of their business. But what kind of things could we do that might move the needle this late in the day, Jay? What are your thoughts around, assuming that it's reasonably high value?

order levels, what kind of things could we do, where would we start?

Jayne Green (16:16)
First of all, I would want to look at and encourage people to look at the South Funnel. You know, what have you got in there? What opportunities have you got in there waiting to close? And maybe we haven't pushed them forward or we haven't got the next step, but actually what are the next steps? Which are the ones that are kind of close to the end of the funnel that are about to close? know, be very aware of that. So we then not need to start thinking closing mode. Do I know the information? You know.

Steve Vaughan (16:43)
Yeah.

Jayne Green (16:46)
Do I know that they're ready? Let's start to make sure that we're having those conversations with the right people in the organisations to be able to close that business down. But of course, in an equipment world, there may be all sorts of things that of course we can do. We might have some equipment that needs turning over. We might have some ex demo stock. know, often in equipment businesses that may happen. And it's still at the right value for us and it may bring some of those orders in.

Steve Vaughan (17:10)
Yeah.

Jayne Green (17:14)
but it's looking at what are the biggest opportunities, chances I've got to actually convert some of those orders now. I need to give those my full attention, make those my priorities.

Steve Vaughan (17:24)
So yeah, things that we've got surplus stock, excess stock, even things that possibly perhaps not quite as high cost, high price, I say, know, like accessories, add-ons, know, auto samplers, those kinds of things potentially. What about in the world that you're more used to, Debbie, what about the sort of things that you perhaps would have done in your career to move the needle at this stage in the year?

Debbie Airey (17:49)
If I was moving the needle in this stage of the it would have been exactly the same the add-on sales training You know that that those yeah those type of things that you can get done And will have an immediate effect

Steve Vaughan (17:54)
Right.

Training is a good one. Yeah.

Debbie Airey (18:03)
But actually, if you're, for example, a new manager stepping in or a manager looking at what the trends are, then this is sometimes you can't move the needle. Sometimes it's actually the time to sit back and strategize and actually not put the pressure on the team if it's not going to happen, especially if you're so far away. Because if you're so far away and you start pushing, that's the time where it becomes pointless.

Steve Vaughan (18:13)
Mm.

Debbie Airey (18:30)
and people can see that it's pointless and it's just an additional stress for absolutely no reason. Now at that particular time is the time to strategize and it's the time to put your plans on paper, bring the team together, understand how you're going to change it for the next year or the year after that, for example, and then put that to your sales director or the board, whoever you're reporting to, because there's always time for an honest conversation. So if it's not going to happen and you're too far away, sometimes

Steve Vaughan (18:31)
That's a really good point.

Debbie Airey (19:00)
step back and use that time properly to strategize.

Steve Vaughan (19:04)
That's a really good point and Jane, you and I are going to record a LinkedIn live later this week. By the time the listeners heard this podcast, it would have gone, but it will be available on our LinkedIn company page. we're going to do it all about planning for 2025. And I think that's a really important point that Debbie's made there, that when we're all so, you know, gong-ho, chase the year end, close, close, close, you know, we can't remember, we've got to tell somebody in January.

Jayne Green (19:09)
Mmm, yes.

Mm. Yep.

We have.

Debbie Airey (19:32)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (19:34)
What are your thoughts on that? How do we make sure we sort of keep our mind mindset focused on not just the short term but the sort of middle, well slightly longer term then next week perhaps.

Jayne Green (19:47)
Well, I think we certainly need to keep those in balance actually. This is for me what is the pressure because we might be under pressure now but we might be already starting to think about next year. You know, am I pulling, am I trying to pull all of this business in then what happens? So if we're talking this time of year what's happening in January, February if I'm trying to grab all of this business in really quickly now and we have to start thinking, you know, I've got a plan, go back to my plan.

Steve Vaughan (19:53)
Mmm.

Yeah, should be.

Jayne Green (20:16)
What does that say? How do I then align with what that looks like? You know, and I think we just have to keep that in mind continually. If we're working from a territory plan, it's time again that we continue reviewing that. You know, where am I going to be getting the business? What is the drive of the company this year? You know, but certainly for the now moment, you know, in this moment, who's still spending money? And actually what does...

History say what does our historical data say if we go back on our CRM or our databases? Which customers tend to be placing and we talk about this habit of the way but it's possibly the way their funds come who's still got money at this time of year? Let's get in contact with them because we know that some people need to spend their budget, you know by the end of the year, you know Let's make sure that we are in relationship with them and we're having the conversations meaningful conversations to speak to them

Steve Vaughan (21:09)
Hmm. Hmm. Yeah.

Jayne Green (21:11)
but let's not forget that we're planning for next year as well. So in those conversations they might say, money's gone now but I know what my budget is for next year. Let's not ignore those conversations.

Steve Vaughan (21:23)
Really important point and again I've been involved in businesses you know perhaps going back a number of years now earlier in my sales career when the business all were perhaps was slightly different but we've brought so much forward into December that in January for the first three or four weeks we don't sell anything. Yeah and all we've done is created a problem for December next year because we brought so much forward we're already behind the game chasing year end so I think you know and Debbie you're nodding again I think there's some really important lessons to learn there aren't there?

Jayne Green (21:38)
painful.

Debbie Airey (21:39)
Mmm.

Jayne Green (21:42)
Mm-hmm.

Debbie Airey (21:52)
Yeah, there is, there is. Can I also add it can be a really fun time. I always use Christmas as the time to pull the team together to have a nice Christmas meal where everybody's enjoying each other's company, but award ceremonies just to share the success of what everybody has done. And the most successful award ceremonies have been a bit out the box thinking. So it's not just how many, you know, what have you sold effectively, but I've asked the team.

Steve Vaughan (21:57)
yeah, completely.

Okay.

Debbie Airey (22:22)
to recognize each other and so that they can choose their own star performer within the team so that it helps. Yeah, was just so wonderful doing it because then they're voting for each other and they have a description of why they're voting for each other so that that can be read out as well and the value that the team felt over that was just wonderful. So I've done that where I've been so I think it's something nice to do for your people.

Steve Vaughan (22:27)
Super.

Jayne Green (22:28)
Love that.

Steve Vaughan (22:48)
Yeah I love that and you would do that before the year end because a lot of companies would probably wait until the new year to do those kind of things you do those before the year end

Debbie Airey (22:58)
I do definitely because again, I try to do it more on what the company values are and the company goals. the, for example, the awards, the specific awards would really relate to the company values. So do the right thing, who, know, who's been the most helpful in the team over the year, those type of awards. And then people can vote on those with a description of why they're voting on them. So they're not actually linked to financial, but it's about behavior.

So it allows the sales manager to recognise good behaviour and I think it's nice to do that outside of an appraisal.

Steve Vaughan (23:35)
That's a great point because I guess the thought was in my mind as we were talking that we may not know the final results if we're doing, or we wouldn't probably know the final results if we're doing these in the middle of December. But the point you're making, which I think is super one, it doesn't necessarily have to be purely numbers. It's behaviours, it's attitude, it's mindset, it's all those things, isn't it? Yeah.

Debbie Airey (23:41)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Steve Vaughan (23:56)
Is that something that happened in your career at all, Jane? Have you had those sort of end of year meetings before the year finishes? I think I ever have, no.

Jayne Green (24:03)
I guess not more recently, although in a company when the end of year was sort of halfway through the calendar year, yes, figures weren't quite out. And so there were always those get together meetings that kind of felt like summer meetings, but they were really good. And of course people then were awarded, you know, for, you know, the most sort of prompt reports.

Steve Vaughan (24:12)
Good point.

Jayne Green (24:32)
I remember some funnier awards coming out and all sorts of bottles of, you know, nice brandy and whiskey and things being given out and awards for people for just some of the practical aspects of the job. You know, being the most helpful again, it just really builds team morale. You know, it encourages team to work together, which is what we want. You know, we can sometimes feel like a bit like an island, can't we, Saling? Because we're out there and we're so focused.

Steve Vaughan (24:54)
Hmm.

Jayne Green (25:02)
talk about being blinkered, where we see just the way that we're going, actually we work in as a team. And for any company that we work with, they see us as a team to bring in a number. And the way we do that is often about the way we work together and the morale that happens within that. So I love that.

Steve Vaughan (25:11)
Absolutely.

I was looking at some statistics for this podcast the other day and where our listeners are. And we do have a significant number of listeners in Australia and New Zealand. So of course Christmas is their summer. So they will be having their summer meeting around Christmas time. should of course bear that in mind. So, okay, so some super thoughts there. I must admit I've not sort of done that myself. We've had Christmas parties and again, perhaps those days have moved on, but not.

Jayne Green (25:29)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (25:45)
not the sort of way that you've talked about, Debbie. I think there's a real takeaway there. I think it's a great idea as to because for many businesses, the year's done, isn't it really? And I should point out, the way, I do recognize for many people listening to this, that December isn't your year end. So if your year end is April or even June, just pause this particular podcast and come back to it again in three months time or six months time. So one final thought, I guess, from both of you then. So, you know, if anybody's listening to this podcast and is feeling

under pressure, feeling stressed, feeling burnt out with the end of the calendar year, whether it's a financial year or not. One final thought, one final recommendation from you both. We'll start with you, Debbie. What are your thoughts there?

Debbie Airey (26:27)
Talk about it. Talk about absolutely just talk about it because no one knows what I touched on it earlier what external pressures that individual is going through. So talk about it. Definitely speak to either your manager or HR or somebody within the business that you can just have a sit down conversation with colleague, whoever it may be just just openly talk about it. It may be something that the team members can help with if it's something practical.

Steve Vaughan (26:29)
super.

Debbie Airey (26:55)
or it could actually just be something that you're building up yourself and it's your own pressure you're putting on yourself and just letting steam off will help.

Steve Vaughan (27:05)
Yeah, great point. Yeah, that doesn't mean going home and kicking the cat by the way, you know, please enter that.

Debbie Airey (27:08)
No, please, we don't advocate, we don't, no one to the listeners, don't advocate animal cruelty.

Steve Vaughan (27:13)
Please don't do that. I don't want to get banned off the podcast world. Definitely not that. As a podcast to yourself, Debbie, you know about that. No, guess, I know for instance, you do a lot of running, you do a lot of physical exercise and that works for many, many people in terms of a way of...

Jayne Green (27:20)
Ha!

Debbie Airey (27:20)
You'll have to start ticking the explicit box when you upload this, Steve.

Yeah, that is...

Steve Vaughan (27:38)
letting off steam for me at this time of year it would be walking, would be family time so yeah great point certainly. Jane what about for you one sort of final thought or recommendation for anybody feeling that sort of burnt out pressure this time of year?

Jayne Green (27:52)
Well, I love what Debbie said. I think that is so vital. So last weekend, just as a side, I had a bit of pet therapy, so we're not kicking the cat. But actually, don't kick them. find that sort of outlet that really works. But also don't lose hope. You know, we do get orders that come out of the blue. We've always seen them, you know, and I think they're called, and I didn't even know the name that's

Steve Vaughan (27:54)
Me too.

good.

Debbie Airey (28:01)
Yeah, was gonna say don't, don't.

Steve Vaughan (28:04)
Don't.

That's a great point.

Jayne Green (28:20)
people call them, but they're called bluebirds. You know, we get some orders that come out of the blue and they are often from specific customers and sectors. So, you we may have done everything that we can do. And when you know that you have, do you know what, be satisfied that you've done everything that you can do. If the result isn't quite what you expected, just keep positive and go, I've done my best and just be happy with that.

Steve Vaughan (28:36)
Yeah.

Absolutely.

not sure my age now, but it was an exciting time sitting by the fax machine at this time of year waiting for those orders to spit through. Okay, thank you very much. You're not that much younger than me. Yeah, thank you. Okay, I think we'll stop there. it didn't come by stagecoach or by highwayman. Kirin Akivich. Okay, guys, I'm a bit older than you.

Debbie Airey (28:49)
Sorry Steve.

Jayne Green (28:50)
What's a fax machine?

Debbie Airey (28:57)
Did you use dial up as well Steve, I guess?

Jayne Green (29:03)
you

Debbie Airey (29:06)
By carrier pigeon.

Jayne Green (29:06)
Yeah.

Steve Vaughan (29:14)
It always serious ladies. Thank you very much indeed for your thoughts on there. And if it did you right now, dear listeners, feeling a bit stressed and pressured by everything. The sun will come up again on 1st of January. know, guess what? You will have a new target. You won't know what it is probably, but I'll guarantee it'll be bigger than this year. So it's a great time, as Jane said, to think about planning and to think about what you're going to do next year, particularly when perhaps you have a bit of brain in neutral time over the next few weeks as well.

So great time to do that. you know, historically, that's always weird when you record the podcast and it goes out a few days later, but hopefully you, if everything's gone well, Jane and I will have talked about that on LinkedIn and you better go back and check that on our LinkedIn page. Don't forget also check our LinkedIn page as a company LinkedIn page, because there's lots of useful hints, tips, useful articles there. So the George James training LinkedIn page is a great place to go and find out a bit more about our content and about the things we do.

Also our website, is just www.georgejames-training.com. All our new scheduled training courses are going up there for 2025. So if part of your planning for next year is to get yourself or your team member on a training course, and why wouldn't it be? All the dates are now going up on our website for our introductory sales training, more advanced sales training, sales management training, and channel management training. lots of exciting courses there too.

Debbie Airey (30:39)
Ha

Steve Vaughan (30:41)
to go and find out more about. I'll be back again in two weeks time for our final podcast of 2024, where we're going to be looking at another aspect of sales, more sales management, and that is why don't my team do what I tell them to? I remember that feeling only too well. Yeah, let's not go there now. Happy selling out there, folks, and we'll talk to you soon.

Debbie Airey (31:01)
Brilliant.

Steve Vaughan (31:08)
Bye bye ladies. Bye bye.