The End-of-Quarter Panic Playbook
You're behind. Here's the play.
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It's December 4th.
You're at 50% to goal. Four weeks left in the quarter.
Your manager is asking about your plan. Your spouse is asking about your bonus. You're refreshing Salesforce every hour like it's going to magically update itself.
I've been here. Most reps have been here. And here's what nobody tells you:
You're not going to find $50K of brand new business in 30 days.
But you CAN close deals that are already in motion faster. You CAN resurface opportunities everyone forgot about. And you CAN end the quarter at 75-80% instead of 50% - which might still save your bonus (or job).
Here's exactly what I'd do.
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Day 1: Stop Lying to Yourself About Your Pipeline
The first thing you need to do is brutal honesty. Pull every single deal and ask: "Will this actually close in December?"
Not "could it close" or "they seemed interested" - will it ACTUALLY close?
Here's how I'd categorize:
Real Shots - Already in proposal stage, decision maker engaged, budget confirmed, timeline matches. These get 90% of your time.
Long Shots - Still in discovery, showing interest but no urgency, budget unclear. These get one email to create urgency, then you're done.
Dead Deals - Gone dark, "just exploring," timeline is Q1. Stop checking on these. They're not closing.
Most reps waste half their time on dead deals because admitting they're dead feels like giving up. It's not. It's being realistic about where to spend your time.
Weeks 1-2: Speed up everything that can close
For every real shot in your pipeline, there's ONE specific thing preventing it from closing this week. Your job is to find that thing and address it.
Need approval from someone else? Get them on a call this week.
Waiting on legal review? Offer to jump on a call with their legal team.
Comparing you to competitors? Create and share a comparison chart.
Pricing concerns? Get creative - Offer Q1 delivery with Dec. signature?
The move: Create urgency without being pushy.
"I know you're evaluating options. Let me be direct - if we can get this signed by [date], I can guarantee [benefit - locked pricing, January implementation, whatever]. After that, it goes into our Q1 queue and things slow down."
Weeks 2-3: The deals everyone forgot about
Pull up every deal from the past 6 months that went dark or lost:
You'd be surprised how many deals were "no for now" not "no forever."
Situations change. Budgets open up. Competitors disappoint.
What NOT to Do (This Is Important)
Don't blast cold outreach hoping for miracles. You will not source, qualify, demo, and close a new logo in 4 weeks. That's pure fantasy.
Don't waste time on "maybe" deals. If there's no urgency on their end, there's no deal.
Don't panic-accept bad-fit customers just to hit a number. That creates problems in Q1 that make your life miserable.
The Reality Check You Need to Hear
Even if you do everything I just described perfectly, you might not hit 100%.
That's alright.
The goal isn't perfection. The goal is to maximize what you CAN control in the time you have:
Close everything that's closeable
Accelerate what's almost there
Resurface what went dark
If you execute on those four things and finish at 75-80%? You did everything right. Sometimes the pipeline just isn't there - and that's a Q1 problem to solve.
But if you're sitting here at 50% doing nothing different than you did in October? That's on you.
So stop refreshing Salesforce and start triaging your pipeline.
The clock's ticking.
Until next Thursday,
TSG
P.S. I reply to all emails.