Summer’s Going to be Hot! Are Your Sales?

We are experiencing the first heat wave of summer – and I hope not the last! It’s this kind of heat that I love, and one of the reason’s whyof the reasons why I escape every winter to Miami.

Another reason I love summer is that while it’s great to be outside enjoying the heat, summer is also a great time to be making sales.

I know what you are thinking…”But Colleen, every one’s on vacation. I can’t sell in the summer.”

Wrong! It’s not that you CAN’T sell the summer. It’s that you WON”T sell in summer.  My experience is that mediocre performers say it “can’t be done”simply becuase they don’t want to do the work. They would rather be on a patio, driving around aimlessly with the top down, or golfing with their freinds. “Clients on vacation” is just an easy excuse for poor producivity. Let’s be serious, nobody takes the whole summer off.

Smart sales people know summer can be a great time of year to reconnect with clients and prospects, and to meet new people who are holding down the fort.

Knowing that business can be won in July and August – and that most of your competitors are off sleeping under a tree – what can you do to ramp up sales in the heat of summer? Here are 10 ideas you can implement this week to heat up for sales:

1. Attend at least 1 networking event per week  – take 3 client’s golfing or join one of the many golf tournament’s this summer

2. Ask for referrals from clients, partners, neighbours and suppliers at least once per day

3. Follow up! Remember it’s not always critical to be the first to call a prospect but you certainly need to be there with them until the end!  

4. Make 5 more calls everyday

5. Implement a reactivation campaign to win back customers who have not done business with you in the last 3 years 

6. Get to work an hour before everyone. Put in more productive time. Make calls after 5pm – you might just find decision makers ready and able to talk 

7. Tweet, blog or update your social media status with a value message or “how to” message on your product

8. Host a client appreciation event at your office, on a patio, or at your home

9. Purchase some Dairy Queen gift certificates and mail them to your client’s as a summer treat and thank you

10. If you sell to a local market, take one day out of the office and stop in – “pop-by” your client’s to see them in person and chat about their plans for the rest of the year

 Don’t let others fool you! The summer can be a great time to sell, if you want to. All you have to do is get to work!

Dedicated to increasing your sales, (regardless of the weather!)

Colleen