Beating Seasonal Slumps

I hear from a lot of salespeople that it's tough to sell in the summer. Or during "the holidays." Or in early January. Or at tax time. Or...(fill in the blank with your favorite time of year for not being able to sell) Lots of contacts are on vacation, it's hard to get appointments, you can't get people to make decisions. Here's what I have to say about that...BALONEY! Unless you're selling snow shovels in the summer (and I'd even argue that you can sell snow shovels in summer) you should be able to sell all summer long and all winter long. (Spring and Fall too) Here's the problem... (but there's a solution) people DO take more vacations during the summer. And some people do take off the week between Christmas and New Year's. It's harder to reach them. Harder to get appointments with them. It is more difficult to get them to make decisions, especially if they need some else's approval and that person is on vacation. Facts are facts, and you can't fight the facts, but you can be prepared for them. Was your office empty all summer? Probably not, and if your office wasn't empty your prospect's office wasn't empty either. Here's the "trick." (although you're not going to like it) Prospect more than usual in advance of typically slow times. Summer usually slow? Prospect twice as much late spring. Winter slow? Prospect three times as much as usual in late Fall. It might take two or three times as much, during a slow season, to reach the same amount of prospects but by preparing in advance you can still set appointments and close business. The same thing happens for most salespeople when they go on vacation. If you (not YOU...I'm mean the average salesperson) take a one week vacation, and are like most salespeople, the week before the vacation is shot. The week before is spent talking with associates about the great vacation you're going on the following week, taking care of last minute details and shopping, dreaming about where you'll be the next week. Then you go on vacation and, of course, when you're on vacation you should be enjoying yourself. Try not to think about work or think about it as little as possible. But then you get back from vacation and spend the next week talking about the great week you just had, sharing pictures and stories. You start to make calls to set up appointments but, of course, people are busy and can't see you immediately so it takes time to refill your pipeline. The smart rep takes the week before they go on vacation and doubles or triples the amount of prospecting they do so that when they come back from vacation they can hit the ground running. Yes, it stinks but it's a fact of life. Sometimes you need to prospect more than others if you want to keep your income steady. By buying into the mindset that "You can't sell during the summer" (or whatever other time of year you think is slow for you) you doom yourself to substandard income. Don't let it happen to you. Prepare, Prospect, Prosper. As always, please call or write if I can help you. It's always my pleasure. Make It Happen! Jeff