What Should Your Sales Team Be Focused On Between Now and Year-End?

September always feels like a bit of a reset. People are back from summer holidays, diaries start filling up again, conversations restart, and businesses begin to think more seriously about what can still be achieved before the end of the year.

The wider market may still feel fairly flat in places. Business confidence is mixed, investment decisions are being scrutinised more closely, and many customers remain cautious.

But for sales teams, that does not mean sitting back and waiting.

In fact, this is probably the point in the year when focus matters most.

The question I would be asking is:- 

What can our sales team actually influence over the next 12-14 weeks that gives us the best chance of securing business before year-end?

Not everything is within your control.

You cannot control interest rates.
You cannot control wider economic confidence.
You cannot control government policy.
You cannot control geopolitical events.

But you can control activity, discipline, follow-up, customer engagement and how well your team manages the opportunities already in front of them.

1. Start with what is already in the pipeline

Before chasing new leads, I would look hard at the opportunities you already have.

Too many businesses spend a lot of time generating new activity while live opportunities quietly drift.

Ask the sales team:

• What open quotes or proposals are still live?
• Which customers have shown interest but not yet made a decision?
• Which opportunities have gone quiet?
• What is holding them back?
• Is there a clear next action and date against every live opportunity?
• Who in the business needs to help move the deal forward?

This sounds basic, but it matters.

A live opportunity with an identified need and an engaged customer is generally worth more than a cold prospect.

The priority should be to move opportunities forward, not simply add more names to the CRM.

2. Revisit lapsed and previous customers

Another area I would focus on is your existing customer base.

Who bought from you 12 months ago but has not bought since?

Who used to buy regularly but has gone quiet?

Which customers have changed personnel?

Which customers may now have a different requirement?

There is often significant opportunity sitting inside past relationships.

The key is not to contact them with a generic "just checking in" message.

Give them a reason to engage. And show genuine interest,

Ask what has changed.

Share something relevant.

Understand whether their priorities have shifted.

A customer who already knows and trusts you is often easier to re-engage than a completely new prospect.

3. Follow up properly

One of the biggest gaps I see in sales activity is follow-up.

Salespeople often do the first part well.

They make contact.
They have the conversation.
They send the quote.

Then they wait.

That is not follow-up.

Proper follow-up should be structured and purposeful.

A good sales team should know:

• when the next contact is due
• what they need to find out
• what the customer's decision process looks like
• who else is involved
• what the likely timescale is
• what could prevent the order from moving forward

Every live opportunity should have a clear next step.

If there is no next step, it is probably not a properly qualified opportunity.

4. Get back out into the market

This is also the time to increase visibility.

That might mean:

• attending industry events
• visiting customers
• booking face-to-face meetings
• reconnecting with referral partners
• attending local business networks
• following up with people met earlier in the year
• being more active on LinkedIn
• getting salespeople out from behind email and CRM systems

Networking should not be seen as a soft activity.

Done properly, it is part of business development.

The objective is not to collect business cards.

It is to create conversations, build relationships, understand what is happening in the market and identify where future opportunity may come from.

5. Be selective about prospecting

New business still matters.

But I would rather see a team target 20 well-selected prospects properly than contact 200 businesses with little thought behind the approach.

Ask:

Who are our ideal customers?

What sectors are active?

Where are we seeing investment?

What problems can we genuinely solve?

Who are the decision-makers?

Why should they speak to us now?

That is much more effective than broad, unfocused prospecting.

The current market rewards relevance.

6. Do not default to discounting

When customers are cautious, the temptation is often to reduce price.

That should not be the first reaction.

Discounting may help secure an order, but it can also quickly erode margin and undermine the value of what you are selling.

Before discussing price reductions, ask:

• Is the customer clear on the value?
• Have we understood the real objection?
• Is timing the issue rather than price?
• Could the scope be changed?
• Could the work be phased?
• Is there a different commercial structure?
• Are we competing on the wrong things?

Price matters, of course.

But if the first response to resistance is always discounting, that usually points to a weakness somewhere earlier in the sales process.

7. Focus on conversion, not just activity

Sales activity matters.

But activity without outcomes can create a false sense of progress.

I would be measuring things such as:

• customer meetings
• qualified opportunities
• proposals issued
• follow-up actions completed
• proposal-to-order conversion
• average order value
• margin
• lapsed customers reactivated
• new customers won
• pipeline value by likely close date

The aim is not to create a spreadsheet for the sake of it.

It is to make sure the team understands what activity actually leads to orders.

8. Protect margin

As year-end approaches, there can be pressure to "get the number in".

That is understandable.

But securing turnover at poor margin is not necessarily success.

Sales teams need to understand that margin matters.

So do payment terms.

So does the cost to serve.

So does the quality of the customer.

A £100,000 order that absorbs huge resource and generates little profit may be less attractive than a £50,000 order with a sensible margin, straightforward delivery and repeat potential.

Good sales management is about quality of revenue, not just quantity.

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Ask the team to focus on five things

If I were setting priorities for a B2B sales team between now and the end of 2026, I would keep it simple.

1. Convert what is already live

Review every genuine opportunity and agree the next action.

2. Re-engage past customers

Look for lapsed customers, previous buyers and dormant accounts where trust already exists.

3. Increase customer contact

More conversations, more visits and more listening.

4. Prospect selectively

Target the businesses most likely to need what you offer rather than chasing volume.

5. Protect value and margin

Do not automatically discount simply because the market feels cautious.

What's above is probably enough. Too many sales plans become overly complicated. In reality, sales teams normally need clarity, priorities and consistent execution.

The market may be flat. Your activity does not have to be.

There will always be external factors affecting buying decisions.

Some customers will delay.

Some opportunities will move into 2027.

Some projects will disappear.

That is business.

But the businesses that finish the year strongest will probably be the ones that stay close to customers, manage their pipelines properly, follow up consistently and keep putting themselves in the right conversations.

The market may be difficult to influence.

Your sales activity is not.

So perhaps the question is:

If you looked at your sales team's diary for the next four weeks, would you see activity that is genuinely likely to create orders, or simply activity that keeps everyone busy?

That is probably where I would start.