That sound you hear? It’s the final bell ringing. Tomorrow is October 1st. Welcome to the fourth and final quarter of 2025.
For those of us in sales, this isn’t just the start of another quarter. It’s the final, high-stakes sprint to the finish line. This is where goals are met, accelerators are hit, and champions are made.
Let’s do the math, because the numbers don’t lie.
As of tomorrow there are 92 days left in 2025. That sounds like a lot of time, right? Wrong.
Let’s get real about your actual selling days. Once you remove weekends, you’re looking at a much starker reality:
- 23 business days in October
- 19 business days in November (Thanksgiving will eat at least two of these)
- 22 business days in December (And let’s be honest, the last week is a ghost town)
That gives us 64 days.
Sixty-four opportunities to prospect, present, and close. Sixty-four chances to turn a “maybe” into a signed deal. Sixty-four days to define our entire year.
The time for casual prospecting is over. The time for “I’ll get to it tomorrow” has passed. Every call, every meeting, and every proposal has to count. It’s time for ruthless efficiency and strategic targeting.
Your Q4 Vertical Hit List: Where to Aim Your Firepower
Forget chasing every lead. In a time crunch, you need to focus on the merchants who are about to get slammed with business and feel the pain of their current processing solution (or lack thereof). Here’s where you hunt:
1. Healthcare & Wellness (Dentists & Chiropractors): The “Use It or Lose It” Goldmine This is the most potent, time-sensitive pitch you have. Patients are scrambling to spend their “use it or lose it” FSA/HSA dollars and use up their insurance benefits before deductibles reset on January 1st.
- Pain Points: Front desk chaos, inability to accept FSA/HSA cards, no way to offer payment plans for larger treatments.
- Your Pitch: “Are you prepared for the end-of-year patient rush?” Ensure their terminals are properly coded for healthcare payments. Pitch recurring payment plans for procedures not fully covered by insurance. This isn’t a “nice-to-have”; it’s a critical tool for them to maximize their Q4 revenue.
2. Automotive Services (Auto Repair, Tire Shops, Towing): The Winter Rush As the weather turns, vehicle needs become urgent. People need new tires for snow, get cars serviced for holiday travel, and unfortunately, need towing and repairs from weather-related incidents.
- Pain Points: Large, unexpected repair bills for customers. Towing companies need to take payments on the roadside. Inefficient invoicing for fleet accounts.
- Your Pitch: Offer terminals with built-in consumer financing options. Pitch wireless terminals and mobile solutions for tow truck drivers. Highlight security for high-ticket transactions. You’re selling them a way to make a stressful, expensive customer purchase much smoother.
3. Home Services (HVAC & Plumbers): The Emergency Call Lifeline The first cold snap is your trigger. Furnaces break, and pipes freeze. When a homeowner is in an emergency, they care about speed and reliability, not just price.
- Pain Points: Invoicing in the field, collecting payment on-site, managing emergency dispatch calls.
- Your Pitch: Equip their technicians with mobile payment solutions (Pay-by-Text, QR codes, mobile swipers). Offer a virtual terminal for the office to take deposits over the phone securely. You’re selling them a way to get paid faster and more efficiently during their busiest and most chaotic season.
4. Retail (The Obvious Goldmine): This is their Super Bowl. From small boutiques to large storefronts, they are bracing for the holiday rush.
- Pain Points: Long lines, slow terminals, poor inventory tracking, no gift card program.
- Your Pitch: Modern smart terminals (Clover, Poynt) for faster checkouts, integrated inventory management, and a branded gift card solution you can get up and running in a week. Sell them efficiency and a better customer experience.
5. Restaurants & Catering (The Holiday Party Kings): Office parties, family gatherings, and event catering are about to explode.
- Pain Points: Taking deposits over the phone, managing invoices for large parties, needing to take payments at off-site events.
- Your Pitch: Virtual terminals for secure card-not-present transactions, invoicing solutions, and wireless terminals for catering gigs. You’re not just selling processing; you’re selling them tools to manage their busiest season.
6. E-commerce (The 24/7 Cash Machine): If a local business isn’t selling online, they are committing financial suicide in Q4.
- Pain Points: No online store, clunky payment gateway, high risk of chargebacks during the holidays.
- Your Pitch: A secure payment gateway (like Authorize.Net or NMI) that integrates easily with their website. Offer them a path to capture the massive wave of online holiday spending.
The next 64 days will fly by. What you do right now—the calls you make today, the verticals you target this week—will determine where you stand on December 31st.
Stop reading. Get Up and Get out and Go hunt!
What verticals do you target this time of year? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy Selling,
David
Payment Lynx Daily 