As someone who has developed many sales programs, hired and trained sales teams — and developed the marketing tools that support them — I know, and you know, that summer is often a slow selling season. Seems like everyone is either on vacation, planning to go on vacation or has just returned from vacation, and it can be hard to find prospects fully in the mood to buy. However, I never ascribed to the notion that we should let our summer sales effort, or our salespeople, kick back and coast just because closing sales became that much more difficult. Instead, summer is a great time to get prepared for the far busier fall selling season by working hard to identify sales leads that can be turned into revenue when the days turn cooler and everyone is back to work, physically and mentally.
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Here are some ways to make that happen:
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Use the summer to set up specific prospecting goals and schedules for your salespeople to hit in the fall. This approach is recommended by Lori Richardson on her Score More Sales blog. “Get in front of the calendar and actually block out planning hours and prospecting hours,” she suggests.
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Have your salespeople actively network for sales leads. They can spend an hour a day calling your vendors and customers to ask for leads.
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Make and tackle a list of lead-identifying activities you postponed during the last busy cycle. It could be joining your local Chamber of Commerce or having lunch with the president of another company in your town.
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Review your CRM and sales-tracking software and systems and update if needed. Any improvements you make during the slow summer could repay you with more active leads in the fall.