8 Great Ways to Begin Q4 With a Bang

8 Great Ways to Begin Q4 With a Bang Well, well, well if it isnt Q4  sneaking up on us far  quicker than we ever thought possible! It feels like approximately one minute ago that I returned to work in Q1 following a couple of weeks  Christmas vacation albeit a lot heavier than I  am now, thanks  to  copious amounts of pudding and mulled wine mmm. I digress. A brand new quarter the final quarter is here and now is the time to make sure you finish the year with  a bang! Agency recruitment has its naturally hectic  and quieter periods, which generally coincide with the holiday seasons, so we know how important it is to make the next few busy months really count! Finishing the year on a bang means starting the quarter off  with a bang (Ill stop saying the word bang now). Here are my top 8 tips to getting the most out of the next few months to maximise cause for celebration come the festive season (which is just around the corner, yikes): 1.  Clean up your admin act Do you have million tasks well overdue and yet to be completed according to  your CRM? Is the reality actually that most of them were actioned months ago but you just never deleted the task in the system and updated your notes? If you know you are supposed to log  some not-critical-but-still-important information about a process, or update some client information just do it now. Set aside an hour or two to clean up your admin act. All  your admin shortcomings will clog up your brain space and slow down your productivity. Start Q4 on a new page. 2. Clean your desk space If your desk is cluttered and spewing papers, pens and crisp packets, its time to have a good old autumn clean as the saying goes. Get rid of all the old job specs, notes and bits and bobs that serve absolutely no purpose. Cleaning up your work bench will help you feel fresh; its like a physical representation of wiping the slate clean. Tip: grab a baby wipe and give your keyboard go-over. Youll be surprised / disgusted at the black grime that comes off. 3. Get new stationery Further to my above point, once youve done a bit of cleaning, reward yourself with a new notebook, fresh pens and a highlighter which doesnt stain 10 pages deep. Having some fresh tools at your desk space will again make you feel fresh and ready to go! 4. Get in early In sales, you only get out what you put in. Starting a little earlier each day and getting in before the rest of your colleagues to get ahead each day will make you feel super productive. Its amazing what you can get done when noone else is around no jokes to distract you, no laughter to interrupt your phonecalls, no last-minute meetings to wreck your momentum. 5. Analyse what went well what went wrong Analyse your last quarter in terms of statistics and KPIs. How many CVs were sent? How many meetings did you go on? How many calls / meetings were booked in? And the big one how much money did you make / candidates did you place?  Tallying up your output will gie you really good insights on your work and your pipeline, with respect to your performance. Idnetifying areas you need to improve on and put more work into will give you some direction. you can also take those stats to your manager and ask them for their input can they spot patterns in your activity which worked well/ didnt do so well? 6. Meet everyone you placed last quarter Often youll meet a candidate prior to placing them, then the rest of the process will be conducted over email and phone calls. Take a quick second to book in a meeting with your  placed candidates for a meeting at their new offices (if they have started). Even if you took them for a celebratory drink last quarter, it doesnt matter booking them in for a proper business meeting after theyve started their new role will be a great chance to ask them about other areas of the business for you to follow up on for job leads, and really cement this person as an ally for you in future! As they say, your candidates will ikely become your clients! 7. Go through all old jobs call every candidate you didnt place Once youve dealt with the candidates you did place, turn your attentions to the candidates you sent to jobs but didnt place. These candidates are obviously really good, if you were happy to represent them! Dont let them slip away into the abyss with a job lost or placed. Is there anywhere else you can send these candidates? Can you proactively make introductions with your other clients on their behalf? 8. Map out  25 top new clients Top  make sure your pipeline can stand the test of time and well, a million other odds, map out your market and create a list of new clients youre going to try open doors into! Chipping away at these target clients each week and trying to book meetings with key decision makers will make you feel like youve got some big ambitions for Q4 and will help you visualise the potential with your business! Happy  Q4!