October is when you sell December's moves
Year-end moves get booked weeks ahead, and most movers are not asking for them yet. A 30-day plan to fill your November and December calendar now.
Your October calendar is thinning out, and December looks empty. That is normal for a moving company. What is not normal is waiting until December to find out how empty it will be, because the people moving that month are deciding who to hire right now.
Year-end moves are a specific crowd. Home buyers trying to close before December 31. Renters whose leases end November 30 or December 31. Families who want to be in the new house before the holidays. Retirees heading south for the winter. Corporate transfers timed to start in January. None of them are booking the week before. Most of them are getting quotes in October and early November.
Here is how to spend the next 30 days so those jobs land on your calendar instead of someone else's.
Week one: go after the closings
Real estate agents know exactly who is closing in November and December. You want to be the mover they mention.
Make a list of the 20 agents in your area who sent you work or whose listings you moved this year. Send each one a short text:
"Hi [name], it's [your name] at [company]. We still have November and December dates open, including the last week of the year when closings pile up. If you have buyers or sellers moving before the holidays, I will make sure they get a date. Happy to send a quick card they can pass along."
Then follow up with an email that has your phone number, a link to your quote form, and two or three dates you know are open. Agents forward things that are easy to forward.
Week two: catch the lease endings
Apartment leases cluster at month end. November 30 and December 31 are big days in most markets, and the renters on those leases are searching now.
Do two things:
- Post on your Google profile. "Booking now for end of November and end of December moves. Month-end dates fill first. Call or text for a quote." Add a photo of your crew and truck.
- Run a small search campaign for terms like "movers [town] December" and "apartment movers [town]," with ad copy that names the month-end dates. The Google Ads guide covers budgets and the keywords that waste money.
And check your hours. 51% of movers in our data list Saturday hours and 33.7% list Sunday. Month-end moves often fall on weekends. If you work them, make sure your profile says so.
Week three: make an offer that fits the season
Year-end customers have a specific fear: that the move slips into the holidays or the new year. Sell certainty, not a discount.
A few offers that fit:
- A guaranteed date with a deposit. "Book by November 1 with a deposit and your date is locked, even if your closing moves a few days." If you can handle a date change for free once, say so.
- Storage in between. When a closing and a lease end do not line up, short-term storage solves it. If you have storage or a partner who does, put it in the quote.
- Packing for people who cannot take time off. December is busy. A packing add-on sells better in the fourth quarter than any other time. The pricing guide covers how to present add-ons in tiers.
Week four: follow up every open quote
You probably have quotes from September and October that never booked. Some of those people are still moving. They just have not decided.
Pull every quote from the last 60 days that did not book and send one text:
"Hi [first name], it's [your name] from [company]. You asked us about a move a few weeks ago. Is that still happening? We have a few dates left in [month] and I would be glad to hold one for you."
Then call anyone who replies within the hour. A reply to a follow-up text is the warmest lead you will get all month. Speed matters here; the missed call guide covers why and the calculator shows what a slow callback is worth in lost jobs.
Why the reviews matter more in winter
People booking a December move are often nervous. It is cold, roads can be bad, and their belongings are going into a truck days before a holiday. They read reviews more carefully.
The median moving company in our data has 30 reviews and the top 10% have 427 or more. The average rating is 4.4, and 18.6% sit below 4 stars. This is a trade where customers expect to be let down, so a profile full of recent, specific reviews stands out. Every move you do in October is a chance to add one before the year-end shoppers start reading. The benchmark report shows where you sit.
The short version
December moves are sold in October. Text your agents, catch the month-end lease crowd with a post and a small ad, sell a locked date instead of a discount, and follow up every open quote. Thirty days of this and your slow season starts with a fuller calendar.
If you want the quote follow-up texts or a year-end ad campaign set up for you, the free 14-day trial covers any one service, no card: text or call (385) 396-5586.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, moving companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor