How to Stay Top-of-Mind with Clients During the Holiday Season

With the busy holiday season upon us, it’s easy for sales outreach and account management to lose momentum while clients focus on end-of-year tasks and much-needed personal time with family. For insights and other professional services firms, staying top-of-mind might not seem necessary as you are often scrambling to meet their year-end deadlines for important engagements. But your interactions during this time often amount to only transactional. How can you still carve out time to connect in ways that are authentic and meaningful?

Here are three ways to help you maintain visibility with your clients while adding real value during the holiday season:

1. Offer Custom Insights as a Gift

Instead of generic holiday cards or fruit baskets, consider giving your clients something that demonstrates your expertise and their importance to your business. Share a customized “year-in-review” report highlighting trends in the industry or data relevant to their business goals. This could include patterns you’ve observed, predictions for the year ahead, or actionable recommendations.

2. Host a Virtual Holiday Networking Event

The holidays are a perfect time to connect with your clients and industry peers. Hosting a virtual lunch or happy hour can be an uplifting and creative way to spend some time building those relationships. Organize a short Zoom or Teams event. If it’s a lunch, offer to send an Uber Eats order to their office or home office. Or you can do a happy hour and ask people to make themselves their favorite holiday cocktail and share the recipe. Plan a fun online activity like trivia while you eat or drink together. Or ask them what their favorite holiday movie is and why.

3. Send Genuine, Personal Notes of Appreciation

As a reprieve from the mountain of emails, chat sessions, meetings, and reports, a heartfelt message of reflection or thanks can go a long way. Take the time to express gratitude for your clients’ partnership and trust. Hand-written notes are still a great touch, but in today’s environment with so many people working from home, a hand-written note sent to the office may not reach them in time. In this case, an email is still acceptable but try using a different font or send your thoughtful note as an attachment rather than just typing in the body of the email message. This shows you took additional time to share your appreciation.

The holiday season offers a unique opportunity to reflect on the year with your clients and show your appreciation for their business. By offering thoughtful insights, creating opportunities for authentic connection, and expressing genuine gratitude, you can stay top-of-mind while fostering long-term trust and loyalty.

At SKAIL Consulting, we help professionals create impactful client engagement strategies. If you’d like to discuss more ways to strengthen your client relationships, we’re here to help.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Here’s to setting the stage for success in the new year!