Beating The Summer Sales Slump

Before I get started, I have to tell youabout this great new book I read, it totally transformed how I do business over lunch and dinner. It is called Business Class by Jacqueline Whitmore.

As I write this it is blazing hot here in Boise, Idaho about 102 degrees to be exact.

Which made me start thinking that it would be a good day to abandon my work and go drink a nice cold ice tea and sit in front of the air conditioner.

But I stopped myself short.

While I could have easily rearranged my calendar and put off writng you this email until tomorrow . . .or next month, I didn't. While the call of comfort was very compelling, the call of accomplishment was even stronger.

That's what I want to talk to you about today . . .accomplishment.

I just did a sales webinar for a great company called Zoominfo and the topic was beating the summer sales slump. In fact, if you want to review the presentation you can see it and hear it at:

http://about.zoominfo.com/PublicSite/webinars_archive.asp

And here is the thing about slumps and sales cycles. Most of them are self induced. That's right, they are caused because we decide to not focus on accomplishment but rather we focus more on doing something completely unrelated. In the seminar I give a number of very specific techiques that you can use to break out of a slump but the one that works best is to focus for one hour each day. Simply take one hour where you do nothing but focus on moving your business forward. During that hour you make make calls, you make work on your accounting, you may design a new ad. Whatever it is that you decide to do for that hour, you have to do it non stop. You can have no interruptions self induced or external. Shut your door, turn off your phone and get to work.

I actually schedule the time in my calendar and treat it like a client appointment . . . and it works wonders.

Here is what I want you to do right now.

Grab a pen and a piece of paper and write down the three most important things you need to accomplish in your business in the next thirty days.

Next, schedule an hour tomorrow and if not tomorrow no longer than the following day where you can work on the first item on your list.

On your appointed time and day, get busy. I mean it.

Close your door, turn off all your phones and don't check email even once. NOTHING will happen that is so important it can't go without your attention. If the sky starts to fall someone will open your door and tell you.

You'll be absolutely amazed at what will happen if you'll follow this one simple process. There are dozens more on the zoominfo webinar, be sure to listen to it.

If your sales are not where you want them to be today then I want you to do this: Go to the Making Marketing Work page on my website, there you'll find the solution to getting more clients and more business fast. Here is the link if you don't already have it.

http://www.boldapproach.com/mmw

Also, if you need more sales specific techniques, I want you to read this book: Moving The Sale Forward by John Klymshyn. You can get the book on amazon.

I'm going to be writing more to you very soon so stay tuned, I look forward to helping your business grow like never before in this final stretch of 2005!

Comments

[Dale Wolf]

Dave,

Good advice on focusing. Let me add a few thoughts of my own to yours. I used a similar technique when I was running sales for my promotion agency. I kept a large framed sign on my office wall: Dale, what have you done today to move one step forward?

And as to keeping focused on the right things, here's what I did:

Most of us have trouble sorting the wheat from the chaff. But we cannot be all things to all people. Take the first hour to develop the list of potential opportunities. Take the second hour to winnow. Take the third hour to validate. Take the fourth hour to develop a strategy. Take the fifth hour to communicate this business focus. In one week, you will be amazed at how far you have energized yourself and those colleagues from whom you need help in delivering on your business focus.

Keep the one-hour appointments with yourself for 30 days.

Then shift to a new business opportunity that needs the same level of intense focus.

That's the short version of what I posted at www.contextrulesmarketing.blogspot.com where I commented about your advice.

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