Final spurt in 2026 or kick-start in 2027: Why companies should set the course now for additional sales and a quick start to sales.
Year-end business and the start of sales in 2027 are more closely related than many plans suggest. Companies with strong Christmas business should now specifically activate open offers, inactive customers and existing customer potential. Companies with a quiet end to the year can use the weeks to prepare target groups, CRM data, campaigns and first appointments for January. Both paths need timely planning, clean contact details and sufficient capacity – and the decision to do so will be made now, not in December.
⏱️ Reading time: approx. 8 minutesChristmas comes sooner than you think.
It was just summer – and suddenly the year-end spurt is beginning in companies. Budgets are to be used, sales targets achieved, open offers concluded and at the same time the course for the new year is already being set.
But if you don’t think about what you want to achieve before Christmas or how sales can get started in January, you’re often too late.
The starting position varies greatly depending on the company. For some, the last weeks of the year are particularly profitable – every open sales opportunity counts here. For others, it gets quieter at the end of the year – and it is precisely these weeks that determine how quickly sales and marketing are able to work in January. In both cases, the prerequisites are created now.
1. Christmas doesn’t come as a surprise – but preparation is often lacking
The date has been fixed for years. Nevertheless, many companies repeatedly experience the end of the year as a bottleneck. The reason is rarely a lack of knowledge, but rather day-to-day business, which leaves little room for preparation. Many companies are familiar with the situation:
- Day-to-day business ties up all available capacities.
- Decisions about campaigns are postponed again and again.
- Open leads, offers and existing customer potential remain unused.
- Preparations for the new year do not begin until shortly before Christmas.
- In January, the first thing to do is to create lists, define target groups and coordinate processes.
The result: valuable weeks are lost and existing sales potential is not used. In December, many decision-makers are only available to a limited extent, budgets are often already planned. And in January, the first weeks pass with preparatory work that could have been done long ago.
This delay can be avoided – with a clear decision about what role the end of the year plays for your business.
Two starting points, two strategies
Two paths, one decision: final spurt in 2026 or kick-start in 2027 – both must be prepared now.
2. Strategy 1: Use the final spurt in 2026 in a targeted manner
For companies with strong year-end business, the coming weeks will not be about opening up new markets, but about systematically activating existing opportunities. The potential usually already lies in their own CRM: in open offers, in customers who have not ordered for a long time, and in existing customers who are not yet familiar with other services.
Possible measures at a glance
Two paths, one decision: final spurt in 2026 or kick-start in 2027 – both must be prepared now.
2. Strategy 1: Use the final spurt in 2026 in a targeted manner
For companies with strong year-end business, the coming weeks will not be about opening up new markets, but about systematically activating existing opportunities. The potential usually already lies in their own CRM: in open offers, in customers who have not ordered for a long time, and in existing customers who are not yet familiar with other services.
Possible measures at a glance
Prioritize instead of making random calls
Important: Don’t call as many contacts as possible indiscriminately, but prioritize target groups and create concrete conversation opportunities. A call with the sentence “We wanted to ask again” rarely brings results. A call with a specific reason, on the other hand, does – such as an offer that is valid until the end of the year at the current conditions, a remaining budget with the customer that must be used before the end of this fiscal year, or a price adjustment as of January 1.
A B2B retailer has 60 offers from the second half of the year in its CRM that were neither accepted nor rejected. Instead of treating all of them equally, they are sorted according to volume and topicality. The 15 most important ones are followed up personally by the sales force. The rest are taken over by an external team: They clarify the status, take up objections and, if interested, make an appointment with the responsible sales representative. In this way, the sales force stays with the deals – and no offer remains unanswered.
The timing is crucial for this path. In many companies, remaining budgets are planned in October and November. If you don’t call until mid-December, you will find full calendars, vacation replacements and completed budget rounds.
3. Strategy 2: Prepare for the kick-start in 2027
Not every company achieves its highest sales during the Christmas business. In many industries – such as capital goods, services with longer decision-making processes or project business – things get quieter at the end of the year. However, this time should not simply pass. It can be used to prepare sales for the beginning of the year.
Six steps to ready for January
The database in particular is often underestimated. Duplicate data records, outdated contact persons or missing lifecycle phases in HubSpot or another CRM slow down any campaign. If you clean up duplicates, update positions and neatly segment contacts in December, you will save yourself exactly the weeks in January when other providers are already talking to your potential customers.
Additional information is provided by customer surveys and quality calls: What projects is the customer planning for 2027? Where is there dissatisfaction? What services do they not yet know? This information flows directly into campaign planning and shows where needs arise in the new year.
A software vendor knows that there are hardly any purchasing decisions in December. He uses November and December to research 800 target companies, identify decision-makers, and maintain the data in HubSpot. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, initial conversations are held – not with the goal of closing, but to make appointments for the second week of January. Sales starts with a full calendar instead of an empty list.
The goal: not to start preparing on the first working day of the new year, but to start with concrete contacts, discussions and appointments.
The timetable for both paths
4. Why internal capacities are often not sufficient
Both strategies are clear in terms of content. In practice, they rarely fail because of the concept, but because of the implementation. Especially at the end of the year, several requirements come together:
- The operational business continues.
- Employees reduce vacation or overtime.
- Annual financial statements and plans have to be completed.
- Customers and interested parties should still be reached reliably.
- At the same time, the New Year must be prepared.
Hiring and training new employees usually takes longer than the remaining weeks until Christmas. External support creates additional capacity without having to set up new internal structures at short notice. A partner with trained teams can get started quickly as soon as the target group, conversation goal and data basis have been clarified.
The division of tasks is clear: your sales department concentrates on consulting and closing. The external team takes care of follow-up, qualification, reactivation and scheduling – with results that are documented directly in the CRM.
5. How ComCare360 can support
ComCare360 does not see itself as a pure call center, but as a partner for conception, preparation and operational implementation. Depending on the initial situation, we take over individual measures or complete campaigns – from the first target group workshop to reporting.
- Telesales and reactivation
- Customer reactivation and customer penetration campaigns
- Qualification and scheduling
- Telephone support for product and campaign campaigns
- Quality calls to existing customers
- Preparation of target groups, conversation guidelines and campaign workflows
- CRM and HubSpot support
- Lead Sourcing and Lead Qualification
- New customer campaigns
- Customer surveys and market research
The goal: not to start preparing on the first working day of the new year, but to start with concrete contacts, discussions and appointments.
The timetable for both paths
4. Why internal capacities are often not sufficient
Both strategies are clear in terms of content. In practice, they rarely fail because of the concept, but because of the implementation. Especially at the end of the year, several requirements come together:
- The operational business continues.
- Employees reduce vacation or overtime.
- Annual financial statements and plans have to be completed.
- Customers and interested parties should still be reached reliably.
- At the same time, the New Year must be prepared.
Hiring and training new employees usually takes longer than the remaining weeks until Christmas. External support creates additional capacity without having to set up new internal structures at short notice. A partner with trained teams can get started quickly as soon as the target group, conversation goal and data basis have been clarified.
The division of tasks is clear: your sales department concentrates on consulting and closing. The external team takes care of follow-up, qualification, reactivation and scheduling – with results that are documented directly in the CRM.
5. How ComCare360 can support
ComCare360 does not see itself as a pure call center, but as a partner for conception, preparation and operational implementation. Depending on the initial situation, we take over individual measures or complete campaigns – from the first target group workshop to reporting.
- Telesales and reactivation
- Customer reactivation and customer penetration campaigns
- Qualification and scheduling
- Telephone support for product and campaign campaigns
- Quality calls to existing customers
- Preparation of target groups, conversation guidelines and campaign workflows
- CRM and HubSpot support
- Lead Sourcing and Lead Qualification
- New customer campaigns
- Customer surveys and market research
The process is deliberately pragmatic: Together, we clarify the goal of the campaign, which contacts are to be addressed and how success is measured. Then the conversation guide, data basis and reporting structure are created – and the campaign can start.
As a certified HubSpot Solutions Partner, we also ensure that call results, notes, and agreed appointments end up cleanly in the CRM. Your sales department can take over seamlessly, and the results remain usable for planning in 2027.
6. Conclusion: Now it is decided how 2026 ends and 2027 begins
The Christmas business and the start of the year should not be considered separately from each other. Those who reactivate customers in the final spurt gain conversation opportunities for 2027. Those who prepare the kick-start will have the first talks as early as December. Companies should therefore decide now:
Those who answer these questions in time will end the year in a more controlled manner and start the new year with much more momentum.
Would you like to support the year-end business in a targeted manner or prepare your sales department for a successful start to 2027?
ComCare360 supports you in the conception and operational implementation of suitable sales, reactivation and scheduling campaigns.
Ingo Marggraf, Geschäftsführer der ComCare 360 GmbH, ist ein erfahrener Experte im Bereich Marketing, Vertrieb, Telemarketing und CRM-Systemen. Mit seinem umfangreichen Wissen und seiner Leidenschaft für innovative Lösungen hilft er Unternehmen dabei, ihren Umsatz zu steigern und erfolgreich zu wachsen.
Ingo Marggraf, Managing Director of ComCare 360 GmbH, is an experienced expert in the fields of marketing, sales, telemarketing and CRM systems. With his extensive knowledge and passion for innovative solutions, he helps companies increase their turnover and grow successfully.
