The holidays aren't your signal to slow down - they're your chance to pull ahead while everyone else takes their foot off the gas.
In this episode of Sales Assassins, Joe Blackburn and Jason Croft break down why November and December are actually prime time for relationship building and setting up massive wins for the new year.
Joe shares his proven holiday game plan that turns standard seasonal networking into real business opportunities. His approach? Pure gratitude and strategic generosity.
Key takeaways:
- Why waiting until January to restart your momentum will cost you until March
- The exact framework for picking your "Focus Five" relationships to nurture
- How to turn holiday parties from awkward mingling into real connections
- Smart ways to get in front of your clients' entire family during the season
- The "Mayor Strategy" that makes you the most visible person in your market
Most business owners use the holidays as their excuse to coast. Top performers use them as their advantage.
Between charity events, social gatherings, and natural opportunities to show gratitude, the next 60 days are filled with chances to strengthen your network while your competition hibernates.
Jason pulls out practical tips through targeted questions, while Joe provides the strategic framework and mindset shifts needed to maximize the season.
This isn't about aggressive selling during the holidays. It's about authentic relationship building when people are most open to connecting.
Want to crush Q1? The work starts now. Listen to learn exactly how to make it happen.
00;00;00;01 - 00;00;19;07
Joe Blackburn
You know, Black Fridays for shopping for most people. It's also when your client's families are home. So if you had something delivered on Black Friday or you hand-delivered it, everyone's gonna say, who's that? Oh, that's my financial advisor. And retention in all of our businesses is multigenerational. So that's a way to make big impact. Say thank you, do some nice I mean, there's so much good that can be done.
00;00;19;08 - 00;00;28;00
Joe Blackburn
This is a big part. And it's not time for you to take the foot off the brake and get balance or whatever bullshit someone's telling you you need.
00;00;28;03 - 00;00;52;12
Jason Croft
Welcome to Sales Assassins, the podcast that unveils the lost art of word of mouth marketing for professionals just like you. We cover everything from building relationships and nurturing connections to overcoming the challenges of modern marketing. You'll learn how to stand out in a crowded market. Charge confidently for your services and create an army of people recommending you without hesitation.
00;00;52;15 - 00;01;00;17
Jason Croft
Now let's dive in and make you deadly effective at sales.
00;01;00;19 - 00;01;03;29
Jason Croft
Welcome to sales assassins, Joe. How's it going, my friend?
00;01;04;01 - 00;01;05;21
Joe Blackburn
Outstanding. Great to see you.
00;01;05;23 - 00;01;10;11
Jason Croft
Oh, yeah. Let's let's jump in. I just, I stopped you from talking.
00;01;10;13 - 00;01;12;12
Joe Blackburn
Have those? My feet everywhere I go.
00;01;12;17 - 00;01;33;20
Jason Croft
Yeah. No small feat right there. So that we get this recording. This is great. This is a topic that came up, this idea where we're heading right into holiday season. That means a lot of things for a lot of different industries. What it actually means and what we think it means are two very different things. This is where where you were going.
00;01;33;23 - 00;01;37;03
Jason Croft
What's come up? Just this, this past couple of weeks around this.
00;01;37;05 - 00;01;55;20
Joe Blackburn
So I our call last week, I had another facilitator on the call and I happened to watch it and the the topic came up and I could see within the group that there was a sign of relief that the holidays were coming and that this was going to be a time where they were going to kind of take the foot off the gas.
00;01;55;22 - 00;02;16;20
Joe Blackburn
And I brought it up in our call yesterday and confirmed that basically there wasn't a real plan for the holidays. There wasn't an intention of what they were going to do, was kind of like, hey, I'm going to I'm going to enjoy the holidays, which I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy the holidays, just do it strategically. So that's what came out of yesterday.
00;02;16;20 - 00;02;43;12
Joe Blackburn
And I and so when I think about that, and I think all of us naturally want to have a decompression period. So if you took the week off from Christmas to New Year's and in this year we got Christmas Wednesday, New Year's, Wednesday, so you might get two weeks where it's a little a little less. But taking the mindset that it's time for me to kind of put the brakes on in our type of business and especially around pillars, I think is is a huge misstep because this is prime time for pillars.
00;02;43;12 - 00;03;12;11
Joe Blackburn
This this is, you know, the holiday spirit, so to speak. So even you get Halloween, then to Thanksgiving and then on into Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever it is in that time period. That is prime time, pillar time. That's when you have so many opportunities to really set yourself up for a big next year. Also, thank all the people you're grateful for and not be, you know, running around trying to make sales and people spaces that a holiday party wouldn't do that.
00;03;12;18 - 00;03;19;27
Joe Blackburn
But this is this is what I would call prime time. You know, this this is when you are really going to make some strides.
00;03;20;00 - 00;03;50;16
Jason Croft
And I could see that from just there's there's more there are more social opportunities out there. What what is the holiday pivot? We'll call it right to sort of you know, that people are leaned back in terms of business owners making decisions, but then may be more receptive to that. What's great with word of mouth and finding those pillars, that casual conversation and open to new relationships?
00;03;50;16 - 00;03;53;11
Jason Croft
What what is the holiday pivot? How do we go about that?
00;03;53;19 - 00;04;11;04
Joe Blackburn
So I would say the first thing is, is start with your, you know, who you're actually thankful for. You know, who are the people. And we did this yesterday, by the way, and I asked everyone why these people. It's called we did a focus five for the holidays. I said, why these people? Why like why are you picking these by people?
00;04;11;04 - 00;04;41;00
Joe Blackburn
And the answer across the board was this person supported me. This person was helpful to me. This was a great partner. I mean, it wasn't. I think I can get this from this person. It was how this person helped me and my business and vice versa throughout the year. So I would, you know, I had him walk through a a simple exercise where start there like who are between now and let's call it New Year's Day, which you can you know, everybody loves a New Year's Day football and all the food and everything.
00;04;41;06 - 00;04;59;14
Joe Blackburn
But between now and even, you know, a couple days before Christmas or whatever holiday sell right there, who do you need to be in front of that? Just you're just going to go have a lunch, have a coffee, go to their holiday, whatever it is, and just say thanks. Okay. We had a great year. I wanted to say thank you.
00;04;59;14 - 00;05;15;15
Joe Blackburn
Like start and gratitude. And you should I mean, it can't be false because they're going to snip you out. So I wouldn't I wouldn't go into these with like any other things keep social social or our we describe that I would go at it like I'm going to go thank the most important people in my life and do something special for them.
00;05;15;15 - 00;05;30;20
Joe Blackburn
So there are a lot of ways to go about it. You don't have to be extravagant. You don't. You know, we had one guy talk about he goes in a Santa Claus tuxedo to one of the parties and and that's hilarious and makes a big impact. And so you can make it fun, but we get really intentional about who you want to say thank you to.
00;05;30;22 - 00;05;51;24
Joe Blackburn
And when you have an opportunity to do that, that's when you can start having conversations about what did they you know, what they do this year or what are they doing next year? Who's coming home from the holidays? I mean, you know, Black Fridays for shopping for most people. It's also when your client's families are at home. So if you had something delivered on Black Friday or you hand delivered it, which would be ideal if you could, everyone's gonna say, who's that?
00;05;51;25 - 00;06;12;00
Joe Blackburn
Oh, that's my financial advisor. You know, that's the person that does it. So like and retention in all of our businesses is multigenerational. So that's a way to make big impact. Say thank you do some nice I mean there's so much good that can be done just in those little gestures. So if you start there, you know, there's a lot of different things you can do.
00;06;12;00 - 00;06;14;26
Joe Blackburn
But just starting with who is it yet you want to say thanks to.
00;06;14;28 - 00;06;41;11
Jason Croft
All of those creative approaches to. And again, this goes in that category of strategic and authentic. And you can be both. Yeah, strategic in who you're talking to and what you're putting in front of them. Yeah. If it has your logo on it, you know, it's going to sit out on the table for guests the night before Christmas because it's a or d'oeuvre tray or whatever it is.
00;06;41;11 - 00;06;51;28
Jason Croft
You know, gift box. That's great. Like there's no reason to shy away from it. And it's also coming from a genuine place of thanks.
00;06;52;01 - 00;07;08;04
Joe Blackburn
Well, I mean it. Tis the season. We've got clients as an inner circle. They'll have, you know, they'll have seen it at their office so people don't have to wait in line at the mall. I don't know when the last time you went to mall was, but I don't. I didn't enjoy it. But if I'm going to, you know, that's that's helping a parent out.
00;07;08;04 - 00;07;29;15
Joe Blackburn
Helping a grandparent out. I mean, it's the little things like that. And plus everybody is having their events, you know, the the local community and charity and all these. So you could look at the next two months and essentially readjust your calendar to make sure you go to these and give like go, give your time, go give it, you know, if it's toys for tots, if it's Salvation Army.
00;07;29;21 - 00;07;47;18
Joe Blackburn
I mean, I don't know if you've ever rang the bell in Illinois when it's, you know, 20 below outside freaking shoe Carnival. However, you know, someone's got to do it now. I think they have it. I think these days they don't have someone out there anymore. But they used to. And so this is a time to give back.
00;07;47;20 - 00;08;07;20
Joe Blackburn
And, you know, like the good book says, you have to give to receive. So your motive is I'm going to give without expecting something back and say thank you. I promise you, if you spent the next two months doing that and went to all the places and, you know, if you just looked at the top people that you really wanted to impact and say thank you to you could give them a gift.
00;08;07;20 - 00;08;24;20
Joe Blackburn
Most people that you work with probably don't need a gift, but, you know, a perfect gift. We say it's unique, useful, you know, and thoughtful. So like, is it something that's unique? Is it useful as a thoughtful, not extravagant, not as it did you strike a big check because most people don't need stuff. They need someone to care about them.
00;08;24;23 - 00;08;40;27
Joe Blackburn
So you can go with that for your pillars or your top people. Look at your if you're involved in a charity, I guarantee you they have something. If you're in some sort of association, I promise you they have something. And if you know you like to do some socially every everywhere you play does something at the holiday season.
00;08;40;29 - 00;09;05;25
Joe Blackburn
So your calendar, a lot of people kind of pull back and and decompress and everybody needs that. I'm not saying not to. I'm just saying don't just take your foot off the brake now and go into November, December thinking it's over. You could finish really strong and set yourself up for huge success. If you're strategic about the next two months and make it about others, like be real about I'm gonna, I'm going to this is when I'm going to give.
00;09;05;28 - 00;09;22;29
Joe Blackburn
And I promise you, the law of reciprocity will take hold and you'll receive probably more emotionally than you will anything. And by the way, at some point the money becomes irrelevant and you get to, you know, a lot of us get to that point where it's like, I want to impact. I want to help people. I, you know, where I came from.
00;09;22;29 - 00;09;52;20
Joe Blackburn
They have this thing called winter. I'm in Alabama now, so we don't really have one. Although I saw a guy walking his dog stocking out of a 64. But that was weird. But, you know, we and our church in Illinois, we put 3000 coats on. Kids in town. I mean, like, you know, some some little kids don't have a coat, some don't get a Christmas present, some, you know, I'm going I'm not trying to preach to what everyone, but it's it's that if you're going to be a player, if you're going to be in pillars and pillars of lifestyle, this is a big part.
00;09;52;20 - 00;10;10;22
Joe Blackburn
And it's not time for you to take the foot off the brake and get balance or whatever bullshit someone's telling you you need. It's it's time to go give. And I just I sensed it and then I confirmed it and not anything back. All the assassins are going to watch this and be like, you know, whatever. But they it was true.
00;10;10;23 - 00;10;25;29
Joe Blackburn
Like no one had had. I think it had occurred to them no one had an actual plan in place, like no one had an account. They are not looked at that far out into the calendar and and it'll sneak up on you. So that's where that came from.
00;10;26;02 - 00;10;45;02
Jason Croft
Yeah. That's great. Is there is there any new words to during this time when we talk about shifting to the appointment the in it may be further out. Right. Like hey, let's get together in January kind of thing or there is some nuance there.
00;10;45;04 - 00;11;02;29
Joe Blackburn
And I have to tell you something, one of our inner circle said, we have a new drinking game. Anytime you or I say nuance or paradigm, it's a drink. So, Gary, if you're watching that. Cheers. Yeah, I, I think, you know, if, if we were teaching how to overcome objections and all that stuff and, whatever, people don't want to be close.
00;11;02;29 - 00;11;31;04
Joe Blackburn
They want a relationship. So if you're here to learn closing tips, you're in the wrong place. If the relationship's strong enough, they call themselves. So I think what you want to do is they're naturally going to want to engage business wise. And if you did in November, but if you're creeping up on Thanksgiving, you might as well gather the intelligence and the information to follow up and say, hey, let's let's get together first a year and do this because it's going to be January 6th.
00;11;31;07 - 00;11;50;08
Joe Blackburn
Weird date, say out loud, but it will. It's I think it's the first, you know, a full week in, in January where that's when you can start to reengage. And like I said, you're kind of storing, you know, you're getting your leverage. You're storing now all that Intel and goodwill and then you can start the business cycle over.
00;11;50;10 - 00;12;06;22
Joe Blackburn
But if you take your foot, so do the math. If you took your foot off the brake, let's say on Halloween, you you bag it, which a lot of people do, they just kind of coast into the end of the year and they relax and whatever. I'm not judging people. I just, you know, I'm the people that are assassins are trying to get somewhere, right?
00;12;06;22 - 00;12;07;00
Joe Blackburn
Yeah.
00;12;07;01 - 00;12;10;00
Jason Croft
You can judge. You can. It's okay. You can, you can say you judge people.
00;12;10;06 - 00;12;30;13
Joe Blackburn
You know, teach their own. If you're here, it's because you want to do things that are extraordinary. So you know, if you bag it now, it's going to be March before you get back on track. Like, think of it. That's how this kind of conversation went yesterday. It's like lead lag. So if I if I just say, hey, I've had a great year, it's the last couple of months I'm going to enjoy life.
00;12;30;13 - 00;12;48;17
Joe Blackburn
And that's generally a I mean, I know where I'm going to take this the wrong way. That's generally an employee mindset, by the way, if you're, doing what we're doing, like you, you're running your own show. You're responsible for you. This is your prime time. And I've said it like a hundred times now, but if you pay the price now, that first quarter is going to be outstanding.
00;12;48;17 - 00;13;13;21
Joe Blackburn
If you if you coast and take it, you know, just don't do a lot, then you're going to start over in the first quarter. So like you'll start seeing the the lagging result in March versus coming in hot in January, ready to go and spreading that out over the year. I just I've seen it a lot. And you know, I'm not saying you have to work on Christmas Day, although I've done a conference call in one month.
00;13;13;24 - 00;13;36;02
Joe Blackburn
But, you know, running I'd say running into Christmas Eve, like run to Christmas Eve be you know, I told a guy this morning that is in immersion and I said, if they were electing a mayor on January 1st, it should be you. Like you should be good. I mean, he's a freaking killer. He's he's an immersion. And this young dude just crushing it.
00;13;36;02 - 00;13;52;01
Joe Blackburn
And it's like, okay, what do we do the next to him? I said, if they held an election on 1st of January, it should the ballot should be checked your name because you were at all these places. You were seen so much impacted so much. So that's how I would view it.
00;13;52;04 - 00;13;56;10
Jason Croft
I love it there tastic. I think we wrap it there. That's that's a great point.
00;13;56;10 - 00;14;01;06
Joe Blackburn
Merry Christmas. Yeah.
00;14;01;08 - 00;14;06;02
Jason Croft
Hope, hope everybody tensed up just a little bit but in a good way.
00;14;06;05 - 00;14;18;19
Joe Blackburn
Yes. And and by the way, it could be the most fun you have all year. I mean, it's not like you're going to, you know, you're not carrying water, you're going to holiday and good cheer and doing great. I mean, it should feel wonderful.
00;14;18;21 - 00;14;27;03
Jason Croft
Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, I hope so. For folks. Yeah. To be around people and just do more of being a connector, being. Yeah. Engaged with people.
00;14;27;06 - 00;14;30;11
Joe Blackburn
Correct. Tis the season. That's how. And it.
00;14;30;14 - 00;14;39;04
Jason Croft
That's right. And we'll just say new once again just for the heck of it at the end. And paradigm and paradigm, there's a nuance to our paradigm here at Self Assassins.
00;14;39;06 - 00;14;42;22
Joe Blackburn
Gary's going to be drunk. Let's very.
00;14;42;24 - 00;15;14;01
Jason Croft
All right. We'll see you all next up. All right. Praise. It a sea of endless digital noise. Your ability to connect and generate authentic word of mouth is your deadliest weapon. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to break through to the next level. The principles we discuss here are your blueprint for success. It's all about being the most trusted and valued in your network to maximize what you've learned today, visit Join Sales assassins.com to see how you can become a true sales assassin in your industry.
00;15;14;03 - 00;15;42;28
Jason Croft
Until next time, keep sharpening your skills, expanding your network and remember, in the world of sales, the true assassins strike silently but effectively by doing what nobody sees coming, building genuine connections and powerful relationships. Stay deadly. Stay authentic there. We'll see you on the next episode of Sales Assassins.
00;15;43;01 - 00;15;50;06
Joe Blackburn
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