· 7 plays By Tony Fiston, fisagency Strategy Team

Q4 pure marketing

End-of-year marketing

Seven plays on one page, in order. Work the moves, log answers on the printable checklist, and scroll when the next problem shows up. No seasonal fluff, just a playbook you can rerun through December.

Save the Q4 checklist

One page to print or save as PDF. Fields for every play on this hub.

Play 16 min read

The 90-day year-end plan

One Dec 31 sentence, a kill list, and a Monday yes-or-no that ends the drift.

You do not need a bigger Q4 plan. You need one sentence you are willing to defend when someone asks for another launch, another channel, or another half-built project.

The play

  1. Write one sentence: By Dec 31, we will have ___.
  2. Cut anything that does not serve that sentence for the next 90 days. Write the names on a kill list, not in your head.
  3. Block two weekly slots on the calendar for work that moves only that outcome.
  4. Every Monday, ask: did last week move the sentence, yes or no? No story, just yes or no.

Example

By Dec 31, we will have 8 booked discovery calls from outbound, with one offer page and 200 named accounts touched twice. The team drops the podcast relaunch and the partner microsite until January. The founder keeps Tuesday and Thursday mornings for outbound only.

What good looks like

  • Before: 11 open initiatives, no shared outcome on the weekly call.
  • After: 3 named bets, 2 protected calendar blocks, Monday log in Slack with yes or no only.
  • The sentence fits in one screen. The kill list has owners, not vague themes.

One sentence, a kill list, and a Monday check you can run in five minutes. If the sentence is real, the next leak is almost always a zombie project eating the hours you just protected.

Write your one Q4 sentence in a single line before Monday.

Save the Q4 checklist

One page to print or save as PDF. Fields for every play on this hub.

Play 26 min read

Kill one half-finished project

Name the zombie, send one stop line, and steal back a weekly slot for selling.

Your Q4 sentence is only as strong as the projects you refuse to feed. The one that stalls in Figma or "almost ready" is usually the thief.

The play

  1. List every open project with no shipped customer outcome yet.
  2. Mark momentum: last date something real moved, not last meeting about it.
  3. Pick one to kill (pause, not delete). Choose what you would not miss if January started tomorrow.
  4. Send a one-line stop message: We are pausing X until Q1 so Y can ship in Q4.
  5. Reassign the weekly slot that project owned to pipeline or proof that closes this year.

Example

Pause the homepage redesign stuck in review since August. Keep the live site. Move the Tuesday design block to building a named-account list and sending 15 outbound touches that week. Tell the team in Slack, not in a 45-minute debrief.

What good looks like

  • Six open projects on the sheet; the pause target has had zero customer-facing progress in 30+ days.
  • Stop message sent within 24 hours. Reclaimed slot shows on the shared calendar within 48 hours.
  • When someone revives the old project, you repeat the same one-line pause without reopening a workshop.

One named pause, one reclaimed block, and a line you can repeat when someone revives the old project. Once the calendar is honest, the pipeline is usually the next lie: a full board where nothing has moved in weeks.

Name the one project you would pause this week.

Play 37 min read

Pipeline honesty check

Count deals stuck past 14 days and force a dated next step or a close.

You freed hours from a zombie project. Now look at the CRM: how many deals are "in progress" because no one wants to write lost?

The play

  1. Define stuck: no customer action and no scheduled touch in the next 14 days.
  2. Export active deals. Sort by last activity, not stage name.
  3. Count stuck. Put the number at the top of the sheet. No rounding up to feel better.
  4. For each stuck deal, write the next step as verb plus date: send pricing Friday, book demo Tuesday.
  5. Move or close anything that still has no real next step after the rewrite.

Example

Twelve active deals, seven stuck (58%). Three get a dated follow-up owned by a name, not "team." Two move to lost with a one-line reason. Two need a founder call before anyone writes more deck copy. Weighted forecast drops 22% and the week gets clearer.

What good looks like

  • Every open deal has owner, next verb, and date in the CRM field sales already uses.
  • If stuck deals are more than 35% of active, treat the board as fiction until the rewrite is done.
  • Monday rerun: stuck count goes down or the team shrinks the active list on purpose.

A stuck count, a dated next step on every remaining deal, and a rule you can rerun every Monday. Honest pipeline usually reveals the next sprawl: lots of content ideas, nothing shipped that sales can send.

Write your stuck count at the top of the sheet today.

Play 47 min read

Content you'll still ship in Q4

One format, one cadence, one proof line until December. Kill the rest.

The pipeline is finally honest. The temptation is to "support" it with a blog, a video series, and a newsletter refresh. That is how proof never ships.

The play

  1. List formats you could ship (email, LinkedIn, short video, case snippet, webinar).
  2. Pick one format only for October through December.
  3. Set cadence: one post every Thursday, or one email every other Tuesday. Write it on the calendar.
  4. Write one proof theme you will repeat (result, process, objection answered).
  5. Stop list: three formats you will not start until January. Share the list so no one "just tests" TikTok.

Example

Format: founder LinkedIn post. Cadence: weekly, Thursdays 8 a.m. Proof theme: onboarding time before and after for one customer type. Stop: podcast, blog relaunch, and paid tests on a new network. Sales pins the last three posts in the deal room; reps stop asking for "something new."

What good looks like

  • Before: 10 to 12 hours a week across formats, nothing repeatable in the CRM.
  • After: 3 to 4 hours on one format, same proof line six weeks in a row.
  • A new rep can find the last three assets in under two minutes without a scavenger hunt.

One format, one cadence, one proof line, and a stop list the team can see. Repeatable content only works if the offer sentence matches what you send people to. Fuzzy offer is next.

Pick the one format that stays through December.

Save the Q4 checklist

One page to print or save as PDF. Fields for every play on this hub.

Play 56 min read

Offer that does not need a redesign

One sentence buyers get without waiting for a new landing page.

You picked one content lane. If the offer still sounds like "we help brands grow," every post sends people into a shrug.

The play

  1. Finish this template: For [who], we [outcome] in [timeframe] without [main fear].
  2. Cross out jargon (innovative, leading, seamless). If a stranger would ask what you mean, rewrite.
  3. Check against what you sell today. If the sentence needs a new product, shorten the claim.
  4. Paste the sentence at the top of your deck, proposal template, outbound doc, and the page you already have.
  5. Read it aloud five times. One rewrite max, then ship the sentence.

Example

For B2B marketing leads at software companies, we build a Q4 pipeline plan in two weeks without adding headcount. Not "strategic partnership" or "full-funnel transformation." The old homepage stays up; the sentence goes in the first slide, the first email, and the Calendly description.

What good looks like

  • A cold prospect replies with timing or budget, not "what do you do?"
  • Marketing, sales, and founder say the same sentence without a slide of synonyms.
  • No redesign ticket opened until the sentence survives ten real outbound sends.

One offer sentence you can paste everywhere and a rule: no redesign until that sentence works in a cold email. Even a sharp offer dies if recurring meetings eat the blocks you protected. That is where the calendar fight comes in.

Paste your one-sentence offer at the top of your outbound doc today.

Play 66 min read

Meetings that should be async

Cut one recurring meeting and replace it with a written update people read.

You have a sentence, a kill list, honest pipeline, one content lane, and a clear offer. None of it ships if Tuesday is still a round-robin about work nobody did.

The play

  1. List recurring meetings for the next four weeks.
  2. Mark purpose: decide, inform, or habit. Habit is the cut.
  3. Pick one to delete or halve. Start with the lowest decision value.
  4. Replace with async: done, blocked, need, due before the old slot.
  5. Keep one optional live block for questions only, not readouts.

Example

Drop the weekly 60-minute marketing sync (6 attendees). Post a Slack update every Monday by 10 a.m.: done, blocked, need, due. Optional 20-minute call only if someone tags blocked. About 5 hours a week return to outbound and the Thursday proof post.

What good looks like

  • Async post read by everyone who used to attend, within 24 hours (check reactions or replies).
  • Live time on the calendar drops; deal and ship blocks do not get overwritten.
  • Nobody schedules a "quick sync" to replace the one you cut without tagging blocked.

One meeting removed, one async template, and hours back on the calendar. After you cut the habit meeting, you need one number on Monday that tells you if the week moved the Q4 sentence.

Delete or halve one recurring meeting before next week.

Play 77 min read

Metrics you'd look at weekly

One Monday number plus two guardrails so Q4 stops becoming a debate club.

December is loud. Dashboards multiply. You need one number you will defend in ten minutes on Monday, not twelve charts no one opened.

The play

  1. Write your Q4 sentence from play one on this page (or draft one now).
  2. Pick one primary metric that moves when the sentence moves (booked calls, qualified pipeline added, shipped campaigns).
  3. Add two guardrails: one quality check and one cost or time check.
  4. Every Monday, log primary plus guardrails in one row. Yes or no: did last week help the sentence?
  5. Share the row with whoever owns the weekly slots you blocked.

Example

Primary: new qualified opportunities added (target 4 per week). Guardrails: proposal win rate stays at or above 28%, paid spend under $12k for the month. Week of Oct 6: 3 new, win rate 31%, spend $9.4k. Answer: no, sentence not moving. Team shifts Tuesday block from creative to outbound list work.

What good looks like

  • One spreadsheet row, same three fields every Monday, no new chart requests.
  • Debate stops at "did the row help the sentence?" not at definitions of "engagement."
  • When primary is flat and guardrails are green, you revisit the sentence, not the team.

One Monday number, two guardrails, and a one-row log through December. Reread play one at the top of this page and run the arc again whenever the team drifts. Keep the checklist open for the next pass.

Pick your Monday number and two guardrails before the next standup.

Want someone to pressure-test your Q4 sentence?

Bring your one-line outcome and kill list to a growth audit call. We will map what to stop, what to protect, and what to measure weekly through December.

Want the full Q4 plan on one call?

Book a call with fisagency to turn these seven moves into one protected outcome for your team.

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