Back to School Sales Doldrums

August is the start of the end of summer.  Many families are trying to sneak in that last trip to the beach, cabin, or mountains to enjoy time together before school starts back up.  College and NFL football is back as training camps begin across the country and Major League Baseball’s division races are warming up.  The heat is still here, but some days you can start to feel just a little crispness in the air. It is the time to finish your summer reading list, check off items on the summer bucket list, finish landscaping projects and back to school shopping.  Sometime in Mid-August, schools start back up, and another school year begins. 

With all these distractions, how do you continue to succeed as a business developer?  Yes, sales are tougher and, in many industries, slow to a standstill during the first 3 weeks of August.  With so many decision makers out of the office or focused elsewhere, how do you keep making steady progress towards your sales goals?   

Continue to prospect.  So many business developers stop emailing, calling or cold calling during the month that you can stand out from the crowd by continuing to be tenacious.  Plain tenacity will only get you so far, it helps to change up your message also.  Add in levity and humor into your pitch but try not to mention how hot out it is.  The last 10 people through the door, salesman, vendors, and customers have already mentioned the heat. While you are making slight changes to your messaging, make in kind changes to your social media campaigns.  Look for summer events, new networking opportunities, charity golf tournaments, coffee meetings and anywhere else that you may meet a prospective customer.  When you are at these events, make sure to meet as many people as you can and steer some of the conversation to work.  

While it is true, the back to school sales doldrums do exist, they are not a reason to sit back and not work for the first 3 weeks of the month.  Get out and find some events, refill your sales funnel, network with a purpose and don’t mention how hot it is!