I started my sales career in July, 1995, and got crushed for a few months. The harder I worked, the worse it got. Then, after about four months, the sky opened and the results came pouring down. I wasn’t familiar enough with sales cycles, or ebbs and flows to realize that my positive results were simply the outcome that happens to most people that prospect for half a year. I just thought the success happened because I was awesome. I cruised along through the following winter and spring, having money in the bank for the first time in my life and wondering what I was going to do after retiring by my 30th birthday. Then it hit… 4th of July weekend.
Upon returning to the office after the holiday, I thought I’d step right back into the same ratio of calls to results. Not even close. The few people that were not on vacation were either covering for those that had left or were catching up from their vacation. I wasn’t getting anyone to meet with me. When I did, I couldn’t nail down a demo or any other type of appointment. I was in a slump – that’s all I could imagine. All great performers have slumps – that’s all this was… at least that’s what I told myself. I started doing different routines to get out of my slump, but nothing worked. In fact, the results worsened. I was all over the place trying to fix a problem that wasn’t a problem – it was the reality of selling in the summer. Finally, about half way through August, I got some advice from my boss Steve Swain, and I learned our first strategy to making summers productive…
Strategy #1: Stick to your prospecting and business development routine – don’t veer off the plan. Summer is slow. There is nothing you can do about it. Don’t think you can outsmart summer. You can’t. However, you can stay diligent and focused on your prospecting and business development efforts. The ratios will decrease, but as long as you stick to it you’ll be ok. In fact, you might meet other people that influence decisions because your intended contact is out of the office. The real delays come in the later stages of the sales cycle – getting people to return calls about proposals or scheduling a walk through. Your prospecting and business development will deliver different results during the summer, but possibly better results. However, you have to stick to your routine.
If you think I can help with your sales strategy throughout the year, please click here to schedule a consultation call.
