The fourth quarter is a time that makes most sales managers anxious — especially in a down economy. No wonder. If you’re behind on your numbers as you enter the quarter — and if achieving your company’s revenue goal by year-end is mandatory for your own survival — you rightly realize that the next few months are make-it-or-break-it-time.

But it’s not too late to turn things around, says George Ludwig, author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code (available at Amazon.com). “Sales leaders, like football coaches whose teams are behind at the start of the fourth quarter, must retool if they want to win the sales revenue game,” he notes. “Managers must adapt to the current economic downturn and find the smartest route to score big and score fast.”

Ludwig offers these three effective techniques to help your sales team hit its revenue goals before the clock runs out:

1. Make believers out of them. Pull everyone together (in-person is best, but use the phone if necessary) and talk from the heart about your belief that the game can still be won. This is where you must convince people that you can lead them to victory. Your speech must highlight all the specific company and marketplace beliefs that are necessary for success. This speech doesn’t need to be more than 10 minutes long, but it must speak to the emotions and values of the team in a way that fosters commitment. Then reinforce the message with some one-on-one coaching.

2. Aim for the fruit closest to the ground. Consider a Q4 selling promotion targeted toward your current customers. In hard economic times, customers want to make safe choices with their limited funds, so they look to companies and products they know and trust. This is a good time for sales and marketing to team up and offer one or more specific price promotions targeted to hit the sweet spot of your current customers who are in the best position to purchase by year-end. Selling to existing customers also costs less than acquiring new ones and takes a lot less time.

3. Stick to your salespeople like glue. Now is not the time to let salespeople fly free. Instead, the sales management team should be travel with salespeople and coach them right up until year-end. They should be there not only to encourage salespeople, but also to make sure the company’s specific sales prospecting techniques are being executed at every customer interaction. Coach and teach salespeople to improve key skill sets and you’ll help make sure every sales call ends with as positive an outcome as possible.

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