Gearing up for Q4 – how to deliver peak performance during the busiest trading period

September is the final month of Q3 and for many salespeople represents the relative calm before the storm of Q4.  Depending on your category, Q4 could absolutely make or break your year.  For companies which deliver a high proportion of their revenue through gifting SKUs, e.g. Toy and Tech, Q4 is by far the most important and often frenzied time of the year.

As an Account Manager you could have performed brilliantly in Q1, Q2 and Q3 hitting all your sales and profit targets.  However, a poor Q4 performance could completely erase all your good work resulting in you missing out on your annual bonus.

How are you feeling about heading into the final quarter of 2023? Are you feeling energised or lethargic? Are you relishing the challenge or dreading the carnage of the final leg of the race?

Whichever way you’re feeling, here are some tips on how to gear up for Q4 and put yourself in the best position to deliver your best performance.

Be crystal clear on your targets and deadlines.

Get absolute clarity on your Q4 target and how that breaks down by month.  I’m stating the obvious, but ideally if you can over-deliver in October and November this is going to take the pressure off the final month of the year.

Before you go head into Q4 it is worth spending time in September to scrutinise your forecast.  If possible, have a conversation with your Buyer to create a joint weekly or monthly forecast and position the purpose of the exercise as wanting to ensure that they get most of their stock as early as possible, which will give them competitive advantage. 

The other aspect of knowing your targets inside-out is understanding the deadlines for shipping stock.  There will always be a cut-off at the end of the year for last orders before Christmas Day and every year without fail I’ve had Buyers come in at the last minute with requests to increase their forecast. 

I often feel sorry for the poor Demand Planners and Supply Chain managers who must move heaven and earth in the days leading up to December 25th to tweak pallets on trucks for major customers who have left it to the last possible minute to place their orders final orders having reviewed their EPOS data.  You will gain huge kudos with those teams if you’re not one of the Account Managers banging on their door to rearrange trucks and pallets on the final day of trading!

The sooner you align on your Q4 targets and forecast with your Buyer(s), the better it will be for you, your customer and your virtual team.

And don’t forget about your communication strategy to the rest of the business during this period.  Understand which metrics are important (e.g. sales out or sell-through vs your customer’s forecast) and then proactively and frequently update key stakeholders in the business.  No one will ever reproach you for over-communicating during this critical trading period.

Expect the unexpected.

Even with the most meticulous planning, Q4 will always throw up surprises and unexpected events.  This has been exacerbated in the last few years due to the impact of COVID on many businesses’ production schedules.

Whilst it is impossible to predict the unpredictable, mentally preparing yourself for the unexpected will make it easier to overcome stress or anxiety and bounce back with solutions and laser-focused action.

Past examples I’ve had include stock delays, which resulted in the late cancellation of big promotions with the customer.  Or having to take one for the team and surrender my customer allocation to provide more volume for a larger, more important customer in the business.  I’m sure that you can think of countless more examples!

Once you accept that the appearance of “black swans” is inevitable, this will allow you to be calmer, whilst others around you are flustered.  This in turn will have a positive contagion effect on your direct reports and other team members and help galvanize the necessary stakeholders to develop viable solutions and quickly action them. 

Take time out for yourself.

When your back is against the wall and you’re under pressure in Q4, the WORST thing you can do is let your wellness routine fall by the wayside. 

Wellness can take many forms.  It can involve spending quality time with your family or a fitness regimen.  Whatever shape your wellness routine may take, it is so important to consistently carve out the time for it in your diary during the stress-inducing periods of that final quarter.

The temptation is to continually burn the midnight oil, especially when others around you are doing the same thing.  However, that course of action is a sure-fire path to burnout.  And when you are constantly in that state of high alert, it becomes more difficult to approach your work with passion and energy.

Finding balance through wellness activities helps to quieten the left regions of the brain responsible for your survival responses and stimulates the right regions of the brain which generate positive emotions like curiosity, empathy and creativity.  When you take that hour for yourself to go for a run or spend time with loved ones, it actually improves your performance and productivity by charging up the right regions of your brain.

How building Mental Fitness can help you deliver peak performance.

Building your Mental Fitness is essential to delivering peak performance in Q4.  Having stronger mental muscles can stop you from being controlled by negative thoughts like stress and anxiety and remain calm and have the clarity of thought to find the opportunities when things seem to be going wrong.

As is true of any lasting habit change, this takes at least 6-weeks of intense work.  If you are interested in this game-changing program then take the Positive Intelligence Saboteur Assessment https://www.positiveintelligence.com/saboteurs/ and then book a free 30-minute coaching call with me at https://www.expcoaching.co.uk/