Your Summer Slowdown Starts NOW!

Welcome to the first day of spring! It is time to get your summer slowdown going. That's right! Because the selling cycle is typically 3-6 months (the time period between, "Hi, my name is Bill" and "Thank you for your first order"), you'd better get going if you want to have your fabled slow sales period. To make it easy for you, Promo Marketing has sanctioned me to offer you an easy check list:

1. Make the assumption that summer slowdowns are inevitable. There is nothing you can do about them.
2. Don't make any new business calls (either to new or existing accounts).
3. Put in a minimum amount of sales effort.

That ought to do it, gang. Good luck.

Oh, and Promo Marketing also asked me to balance out the equation and write something to the minority who believe in the insane notion that sales effort now and for the next, say, two months will actually result in a busy summer of sales.

I know. Crazy, right?

It's as if the summer slowdown is—get this—avoidable! The theory is that by putting in an extra number of calls now, sales in June, July and August will be brisk and profitable.

Hey, some people believe we actually walked on the moon, too, so go figure.

To those misguided few, I offer the following as a way to avoid the summer slowdown:

1. Make a commitment to sales. That is, make it a priority that any and all opportunities will be taken to make outgoing sales calls.
2. Starting this week, make an extra number of sales calls. Five a week between now and the first day of summer is enough to create ten new sales appointments. That's just one extra call a day.

It's actually pretty simple: commit to sales and make the calls, make the calls, make the calls. I guess these people don't care about playing golf and going to the beach in the summer. They'd rather be stuck in the office writing up orders.