Avoid Sales Slumps: Productive Things to do in the Summer

BY Jessica Helinski
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Summer is officially here, and along with the heat comes the dreaded sales slump. The warmer months are typically slower for reps, but there are still productive things to do in the summer to keep your pipeline full. “The best thing we can do is prepare and push into the season with some good strategies,” writes Tobin Lehman in an article for Business 2 Community. He goes on to share a few that reps should adopt now through September.

Productive Things to do in the Summer

One suggestion for productive things to do in the summer is to do everything you can to keep communications with your existing clients from going dark. You need to take the time to shoot out emails or LinkedIn messages each week just to keep in touch. Even if a prospect never replies, keep up the contact (just make sure you're sending something of value, like an insightful article, otherwise your outreach will begin to seem like spam to your clients).

Lehman also recommends “planting seeds” with those communication efforts. “It’s very likely that your customer’s Q1 strategies are solved or underway,” he explains. “So by this time in the year, your potential customer is lacking in real understanding of gaps or challenges that exist.” This is where you communicate your value. Guide the prospect’s attention to the fourth quarter of the year: What challenges lie ahead for them, and what potential opportunities and actions there are to consider?

Finally, productive things to do in the summer include get-​togethers. Find out when prospects are on vacation or taking breaks and set up a face-​to-​face meeting for when they return. “Energy will hopefully be high on return and you’ll get a better chance at attention,” Lehman writes. “Make sure you have a good agenda, and the prospect is ready.” And, do the same after your own vacation. Use the time off to refresh, then you will be ready to hop into action once you are back in the office.

These tips can help you stay productive during the summer. If you’re proactive, you’ll make the most of the slower months while other reps are hitting a slump. Then, once business picks up in the fall, you will have a full pipeline and a head start.


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