How to Maximize Sales During Key Events

2 months away from Black November! I have 10 BF/CM seasons under my belt (agency & brand sides). Here are 5 things you MUST iron out before Q4 is upon us👇 1. Understand Your Audience One surprising insight I gathered from last year’s BFCM post-purchase data (s/o KnoCommerce) is that 1st-time buyers during BFCM typically fall into two categories: - known about your brand for 12+ months - just discovered you w/in the last month 1st group is waiting for the perfect deal to make their move. 2nd group is made up of deal-hunters who are ready to purchase if the offer is right. This means your BFCM strategy needs to cater to both audiences—long-time observers waiting to strike & new customers who are deal-driven. Consider different deals for different audience segments. 2. Inventory Forecasting The most common & impactful mistake I continue to witness. Overshoot or undershoot- both equally painful. Under-stocking can completely wreck Q4. Gain confidence in inventory forecasting by tracking your competitors with Particl. When (& how much) are your competitors replenishing each SKU? You still have 2 months to account for any potential inventory shortfalls in November/December. Correct course ASAP. 3. Clear and Immediate Communication BFCM is a frenzy of deal shopping- consumers are bombarded with offers. I stress the ‘half-second rule.’ Your deals need to be understood w/in half a second of seeing your ad. If the deal isn't clear & understood w/in half a second, consider the prospect lost. Also, the offer must be clear throughout the customer journey. If a prospect clicks on a 25% off ad, that discount should be visible from the product page through checkout. Don’t expect them to hunt around for it — they won’t ✌️ 4. Create Urgency Urgency drives action. W/o a clear end time for the sale, customers may assume they have more time than they do and end up getting distracted by other offers. Use sticky countdown timers on your website, make the end date date clear in your ad and email copy, and make sure you iterate urgency throughout your comms... like "Stock Limited" 5. Agility and Segmentation Flexibility is your secret weapon during BFCM. BFCM planning and strategy does NOT stop once Black Friday begins! If a particular offer isn’t hitting your goals, don’t wait—pivot quickly. Yes, that means you may have to scrap all those creatives and ads you made that highlighted the particular offer you went live with. Use templates so you can easily edit your assets to reflect the new sale you're pivoting to. Additionally, segmentation is key. Tailor your email & SMS offers based on customer segments. EX-- offer a more aggressive discount to 1yr+ email subscribers who never purchased vs. a segment that that is less price sensitive. I see the same issues nuke DTC brands' most critical weekend each year. No margin for error in this 4-day span. It can make or break your month, quarter, or year. It's your Super Bowl. You only get one shot.

Amazon Sellers: Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t as distinct as they used to be—but that’s a good thing. When done right, Cyber Monday can create urgency and drive shoppers who missed out on Black Friday back to your store. Here’s how to smoothly transition from Black Friday to Cyber Monday and maximize your sales: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆: Move overstocked items from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, repackaging them into exclusive deals. This reduces excess inventory while keeping your Cyber Monday offers fresh and enticing. 𝟮. 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Black Friday left breadcrumbs. Use them: > Target ads at visitors who didn’t convert. > Focus on cart abandoners and last-minute shoppers with urgent, scarcity-driven messaging. > Refresh your ad copy to emphasize “last chance” vibes. 𝟯. 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 Your data is gold. Here’s how to mine it: > Analyze which products performed best and why. > Spot the underperformers and learn from customer feedback. Use these insights to optimize Cyber Monday offerings. → Optimize listings: Ensure your descriptions, images, and prices are on point. → Create personalized bundles: Use recommendations to create personalized product bundles based on Black Friday browsing behavior. → Double down on winners: Highlight Black Friday’s best-sellers with limited-time Cyber Monday discounts. Remember, every big sales event brings more competition.  If your only hook is a low price, customers will leave as quickly as they came. Instead, deliver a shopping experience they’ll remember—and come back for: high-quality products, seamless navigation, and personalized touches. Satisfied customers bring their friends. That’s your edge. More detailed tactics are in the cheat sheet below. Check it out!

We’ve managed $100k+ ad budgets promoting online and in-person events and here’s what we’ve learned: 1. Timing matters. The majority of ticket sales or registrations happen in the weeks leading up to the event. We account for this by allocating the majority of the spend closer to the day of the event. 2. Social proof converts. For one client, we searched LinkedIn for anyone who posted about the event after the fact and ranked them by engagement. We then promoted those posts as thought leader ads in anticipation of the next event. 3. Promote transparency. If you are at liberty to do so, why not give away the attendee list? If you have a high value audience and have your targeting dialed in, try a campaign where you gate the attendee list. We’ve seen this tactic promote great conversations that directly lead to ticket sales. 4. Ads that feature as many speakers as possible tend to perform the best. Generally we see ads with faces perform well, so try combining all the speakers into one post. You can then split those ads up into individual speaker ads, use them in carousels, etc. Above all, we’ve learned that preparation is key to promoting these events. For one client, we put together a schedule of ads that would go out as we got closer to the day of the event. This included “countdown” ads where we’d say “the event is 1 month out!” etc. as we built a sense of urgency. Because we put together this plan we were able to get creative requests to our designers early. We had all the creatives ready to go months out from the event and had all the campaigns built and scheduled so that they would pause and activate as the countdown got closer. We’re always testing new strategies to promote these events and it’s impossible to fit all of our experiments into one post. For example, LinkedIn has built in event ads which allow people to register for a LinkedIn event directly from the ad. The key to improving performance for that ad unit is to build up as many organic registrations as possible. Since you can see how many people registered directly on the ad, we’ve seen that a higher number of organic registrations directly impacts the conversion rate on the paid side. Interested in hearing more about how we promote events via ads? Feel free to reach out. We have a ton more ideas we’re looking to test. 🧑🔬

Last week, I talked to 5 different sales leaders who were all focused on creating urgency in their teams' Q4 deals. Here is the BIGGEST MYTH they all believed and a 3 step strategy to land Q4 deals on time: MYTH A strong ROI case drives urgency. After 11 Q4s in my career, THIS IS FALSE. A strong ROI case IS extremely useful to: Help a Champion structure their thoughts for a business case Help secure budget for an investment Help compare one potential investment to another But, it almost never helps drive urgency. Instead, get your reps focused on this 3 step strategy to land Q4 deals ON TIME: (1) Mutually agree with your prospect/customer on an ideal go live date Most seller mess up here by ending the mutual action plan or evaluation plan at the signature. Show the customer how long implementation will take, show examples from the last N customers you brought on, be transparent about potential hiccups, and explain at what point you expect to have adoption and value realization. This can not be a one way street. This must be a mutual agreement of the go live date - not the rep randomly picking when they think it makes sense. (2) Develop a business case that is heavily focused on the cost of INACTION If you and the customer mutually agree that your solution will help ramp their new reps 30% faster, increase their conversion rate on an e-commerce site by 1%, or save 10% engineering hours, you need to spell out the cost of waiting every single week/month. Now they begin to see missed opportunity and there is a cost associated with every time this deal slips. (3) "Compelling events always exist, the best reps will sniff them out" I'll never forget when my old manager said this in a deal review. The best reps know there is always a series of potential compelling events to tie to. Without a compelling event to tie to, it's hard to avoid getting deals pushed. Approach this by being curious and seeking out mini compelling events when the obvious ones don't exist. TAKEAWAY Sales teams have over indexed on the importance of ROI cases. While important, they rarely help drive urgency. If you want to go deeper on these topics, I will be talking with Chris Orlob and other sales leaders in the pclub.io community Thursday. For more info, look down.

It's time to start driving timeline with your Q4 deals. Here are the 4 ways to create urgency to close: 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 Examples:  • Contract expiring with their provider  • About to cross an employee # threshold & subject to new regulations • Tax filing or reporting deadline "Date on the calendar" events are the easiest to drive timeline with, since your prospect has to do 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 by the hard deadline. ___ 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗺𝘀 Discounts, flexible payment terms, extra licenses, etc. There are times you'll want to proactively discount as a way to drive timeline. Before proactively offering a discount, "Timeline Test" your deal: "𝘌𝘮𝘮𝘢, 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘝𝘗 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐'𝘮 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘧 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘵?" ^If you can get them to close on your timeline, a small discount is absolutely worth it. But if a discount won't actually make a difference for their timeline, you'll only look like a chump if you proactively offer one. 𝟯. 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 This is a painful problem that's impacting your prospect's business, but doesn't need to be solved by a certain date. You generally need to pair high COI with another timeline driver; otherwise your deal is apt to linger since they can always kick the problem out another week (and another, and another....) 𝟰. 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 These are events where your prospect might want to have something in place: • Buy podcast ads to support an upcoming product launch • Rollout new accounting software at the start of their fiscal year • Get your product stood up before the holiday craziness I like to 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱 soft deadlines: "𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘶𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰. 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘪𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳?" Just like high COI, you probably need to pair this with another driver. 

Creating urgency (i.e., why now) is tough in marketing. I've wanted an Oura ring for at least 2 years, and I finally bought it over the holidays. It wasn't an email that finally pushed me over the line. It wasn't an influencer. It wasn't an ad. What finally got me to purchase was my decision to prioritize my health and sleep more in 2025. This isn't unlike B2B purchases. We all want our buyers to buy now, but creating urgency is one of the toughest things to do in marketing. There are good and not-so-good ways to do this. I'm a critic of the approach of offering a discount b/c it's the end of the quarter. Does this work? Kinda. But it's fake/manufactured urgency, and you're not adding value. You're teaching your audience to only buy from you when you're offering a discount. Here's how I think about creating urgency for buyers to BUY NOW! ✅ Highlight the Cost of Inaction Clearly articulate the costs (financial, operational, emotional, etc.) of not solving the problem now. Do the math for them. HOWEVER, your math has to be believable. Otherwise, you're losing trust. Use data and case studies to show how delays have worsened similar problems for others, leading to missed opportunities. Calculators and other interactive tools are great here. ✅ Use Real Scarcity I got an email last week saying, "There are only 10 spots left for the webinar; save your seat." That's fake. It's manufactured scarcity. You're not fooling anyone. But there are ways to use real scarcity. This could be offering something exclusive—like beta access, personalized onboarding, or a VIP cohort—emphasize the limits and explain why. For example: “We’re capping this cohort at 15 teams to ensure each gets hands-on guidance.” Another option is to use real-world deadlines, like regulatory shifts or upcoming industry events. For example: “New privacy regulations go into effect on March 1. Get compliant now to avoid disruptions.” ✅ Showcase Rapid Changes in the Market Tell your buyers how changes in the market or industry trends make immediate action beneficial. Give them insights on recent changes, like regulatory changes, technological advancements, or even competitive actions that would make the buyer want to act now. ✅ Emphasize the Quick Wins Show them the immediate benefits of addressing the pain points. Show how acting now provides instant relief (pain killer) or advantage (vitamin). And I've learned that you really have to translate the value for your audience. Don't make them think. ✅ Use Social Proof to Create FOMO. Highlight stories of peers that they know in the industry who have successfully implemented your product or seen benefits from acting quickly. This is why influencer marketing is making a big splash in B2B (it's about time B2B caught up with B2C... but we're not quite there yet). I know people way smarter than me have plenty of thoughts on this. What are you doing in your marketing to create urgency? 

Creating deal urgency in a very uncertain time. Given the macroeconomy right now [gestures at headlines], I’ve heard stories of companies putting purchasing decisions on hold, and who can blame them? As a result, it’s harder than ever for the founders and sellers out there trying to close deals on a given timeline. If you're trying to move things along without sounding pushy, here are a few tactics I’ve seen that can help speed up deal urgency: 🕵️ It starts at the beginning – with great discovery I feel like every sales tip starts here—but it really matters. Do the work up front to understand if this should be a good deal, and all the why behind that. → Example: Ask early, “What happens if this doesn’t get solved this quarter?” 📅 Tie it to something real Deals tend to move when there’s a reason to move. A renewal, a board meeting, a project kickoff—anything time-bound that’s already on their calendar. → Example: “If we start onboarding in May, you’ll have live results by your Q3 planning cycle.” 🧩 Make it easy to start If a full rollout feels like too much, suggest a smaller step—pilot, limited scope, phased launch, whatever keeps things moving. → Example: A 30-day paid pilot with one team can be way easier to approve than a company-wide contract. 👥 Involve decision-makers early (& gently) If someone senior will need to sign off eventually, try to get them involved sooner. Not to add pressure—just to make sure they’re aligned before everything’s baked. → Example: A 10-min intro call between your exec sponsor and theirs can save weeks later. 🧘♂️ Don’t be too chill “We’re flexible on timing” sounds nice, but it gives the other side permission to wait forever. Instead, share a clear (but reasonable) path forward. → Example: “We’re holding onboarding slots for late May—can you commit to that?” ❤️🔥 But also don't be too intense. “Hey just checking for an update here” texts every few hours when your decisionmaker has told you they're working on it risks alienating them. See tip #1 and ask yourself if you've really found a pain to solve that merits this level of pushiness. You don't want to risk the deal entirely just to try to close it at the end of the month. → Example: “I don't want to pester you, so please let me know if you have five minutes in the next few days to discuss finalizing this partnership.” Would love to hear what’s working (or not) for others. How are you trying to drive urgency in your deals these days?