Summer is here (I know this because half of California is on fire) and thus begins the most challenging season for a sales guy. The kiddies are out of school, the weather gets better (supposedly) and every customer or target executive seems to mentally –if not physically- check out for weeks on end. Even if you can get someone on the phone, all you hear about is “our kid’s first trip to Disney” or “American Idol camp” (which is probably a cover for Brenda’s rehab) or however your standard US business person misspends the lousy 69.3 PTO hours they get per year. Don’t get me wrong- I love summer- but it is tough time for sales people to push deals along. And unless you work for some fairyland company where the quota gets lowered to account for July and August being shot then you need to develop a strategy for not getting canned. Here are a few ideas:
1- Plan ahead and be ahead of a yearly number by now. Hahahahaha. Thanks for the tip, grandpa. Maybe next year. And I’ll clean the garage and get all my Christmas shopping done early, too. This post is not for sales people that are crushing the number- they should be on vacation, too!
2- Pipeline development. By this I don’t mean stuff all stages of the sales process into a month, try desperately to create a fall sense of urgency, discount the crap out of your product and ultimately fail miserably trying to close a deal on July 31st. I mean really examine your territory, choose what companies should be doing business with you, research who the players are, get all the time suck networking or partner stuff out of the way and start trying to have INITIAL conversations. Pipeline isn’t closed revenue, but it is something that your sales VP can enter into a spreadsheet and model to his heart’s delight. And you’ll be in a lot better position next quarter than the guy who spent the summer pounding the same four prospects, surfing Monster.com and bitching to HR about benefits.
3- Farm your client base. The quickest deals to be made are with your current customers- upsells, cross sells, accelerated sales, whatever. Check your comp plan (or better yet, go sell your manager or the appropriate accounting guy) to make sure you will be compensated and get imaginative. Is there training that could be bought now and delivered later? Professional services? Pre-pay for next year’s subscription? Remember, your company obviously prefers good old fashioned revenue, but everybody likes something over nothing and they have moving target numbers to hit, too. Besides, it is never bad to solidify that relationship with a customer who might be moving to another company soon- or be there to buy your next company’s product.
4- Conduct your internal campaign. All sales guys (including yours truly) love saying that “numbers don’t lie” and “coffee is for closers” and all that ma-cheese-mo stuff. But at least 1/3rd of your job security and recognition is directly related to how great everyone else in the organization thinks you are. Spend extra time in the CEO’s office listening to him blather on about his latest shiny object idea. Pick a night to get hammered with the VP of Sales to solidify your position as a hard nosed closer that is poised to deliver the goods by year end. Discuss why Eureka has hotter chicks than Stargate SG-1 Check (Wikipedia to get your dork rap down) with the tech guys. Humor the Biz dev guys and talk about “partnerships that will really move the needle.” Being popular pays dividends, believe me.
Above all, do whatever you can to not give into the urge to get stressed and do unnatural things (like call them on vacation) to your current prospects. Nothing kills a deal more quickly than when you let your customers feel your desperation. Labor Day will be here soon enough.
