Well Wimbledon is finished and the tennis circuit soon moves on to the hard courts of the US. Every year it strikes me the grass court season is now ridiculously short (although not as brief as the participation of British Tennis players at Wimbledon!).
At work I get the same frustration with the brief amount of quality selling time now available as we seem to lose more and more time to holidays. It doesn’t seen long since we lost half of April to Easter Holidays and had selling time in May limited by two bank holidays, and now we’re entering the silly season of summer holidays. This of course extends beyond the school holidays as people without children take advantage of the cheaper packages.
All this means we have to maximise the key selling periods and for many this time rests in late September/October and early November. These months are absolutely key as budgets are being set for the following calendar year and therefore this is the ideal opportunity to be guiding clients in what they will need to purchase and helping them build their business cases.
The summer months therefore have to be used to ensure everything is in place to hit the streets running in September. Market propositions must be clear, sales and marketing plans finely honed and appointments booked. Don’t treat this as dead time but as the opportunity to align every little detail to ensure a tremendous Autumn of sales.
I would also add, don’t give up on sales in the summer as well. While mass market activity may not be possible, if your proposition is compelling and targeted you can still get some traction in the summer. Most success though will come with propositions that are small and focused, avoiding a large list of signatories. Focus your efforts and you can still have a profitable summer.
