Often September brings with it a sense of new beginnings every bit as intense as entering a New Year, so we thought we’d create a new season To-Do list to motivate you to do great things between now and the end of the year.
The summer season for many businesses is slow (except perhaps for readers in the hospitality and tourism sectors) and if we are not careful, we can take this sales lethargy and let it slip into September and beyond and never quite get our momentum going. So, think about your sales strategy for the good sales months of September through November. Knowing what you expect from the next quarter is an excellent way of ensuring you reach the goals you set.
As mentioned above if you don’t set goals you’ll never know if you have reached them. It is amazing how effective setting sales targets can be. Imagine you are working out in your local gym and lifting weights. At just the moment you decide that’s about as many reps as you can do, one of the gym rats comes along and says come on Bill give me another five. Inevitably you grit your teeth and manage another five reps and if he, or she, pushes you, you could probably pump out another three or even more. What they did, was raise your target beyond what you were comfortable with and you managed it. If a target is set too low, we become satisfied when we reach it, even though we could have achieved more. Set them too high and we get demotivated when we don’t reach them. The art of setting targets is to set them a little beyond your comfort level.
The fall is a great time to touch base with all your existing customers. Even if it’s just an email asking whether they had a great summer. September is the time when many of your customers will be taking stock of their businesses, planning new campaigns, and open to new ideas. Put your company at the forefront of their mind and you never know what business might come out of it. For many businesses and non-profits, the fall is a time for preparing budgets so again think about how you can get your products or services front and centre during budget preparation time.
Think of the fall as the final quarter of a football match; rally your team and give them a pep talk. Ask them how they think you can make this the best quarter of the year. Listen to their suggestions, let them come up with goals, provide them with incentives if they reach those goals and you will energize your team to enthusiastically embrace the challenge. Arrange to meet every few weeks to ensure the team is on track and if not, adjust the sales and marketing strategy based on what you have learned.
Too often we get into a rut and continue to do things the way we have always done them, because, well…that’s the way we’ve always done it! This fall, embrace change because if you don’t it will embrace you, and not in a good way. The economy is changing, industries are changing, markets are changing – you can’t get away from it. Take a long look at how you operate your business. If you want to grow and have your business grow, you must learn how to embrace the changes that come your way, rather than fight them. As an example, take a look at the way you operate and see if there any obvious inefficiencies that can be corrected; if you manufacture something re-assess your raw material costs, or check out what new technology is available in your industry. Taking a step back and seeing how the world around us has changed can be an eye-opener that leads to increased profits.
Make fall your best season of the year by creating your To-Do list of action items and watch your sales increase.
