It is tempting. I’m struggling with it a bit myself – a desire to slow down, go to the beach, read on the deck – basically behave like I did in elementary school and September seemed a very distant possibility.
But don’t give in to that temptation because you’ll miss out on some of your best business growth opportunites this year. Summer is a perfect time to reach and inspire your prospects.
Before you stop reading because you think I’ve lost my mind, consider this – two of the main reasons it is difficult to reach our prospects and capture their attention are they are overwhelmed and are experiencing (as all of us are) decision fatigue. But in the summer …
They attend less meetings because colleagues and team members are on vacation. They spend less time travelling because their prospects are on vacation. They are making fewer decisions because projects are on hold while people are on vacation. They are answering their phone because their receptionist or executive assistant is on vacation. And they … like many of us … are using these less hectic moments to be in the office and get things done!
What I know to be true after 30 years of sales is … senior decision makers rarely take two months vacation. And senior decision makers seek out opportunities throughout the year to think, plan and … make decisions. Summer is one such perfect opportunity.
In the past three weeks I’ve had three training sessions postponed to the Fall because team members will be on vacation. But the senior managers organizing these sessions? They will be working, with a holiday planned for late August or early September.
While prospecting in the summer can mean you dial a bit more, and listen to a few more vacation messages than usual, when someone does answer … they are not in a rush. They have time to listen and the capacity to give thought to your ideas and perhaps even … make a decision.
Of course, this isn’t true in all industries or across all cultures, but my consistent success with cold calling in the summer has me settling in to do some serious dialing over the next six weeks. And, as my colleague Linda Daley of Daley Progress says: Summer Action Leads to Fall Success.
Enjoy your phonework everyone!
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