The B2B Summer Sales Slump is Real, and it is Here!
The heat is on. Summer is all about vacation and relaxation, and the same goes for leads and prospects as everything in your pipeline becomes less predictable. On average, salespeople are 20% less productive during this time of year, with July and August identified as the worst-hit months, and 42% of businesses are doing nothing proactive to counter it! However, if you change your approach, you can still achieve excellent sales results in the summer when you keep moving forward and stay ahead of your competitors. Just recognize that your numbers probably won’t post as high as they do in other seasons.
How Summer Affects the Focus of Your Leads
When your leads and contacts don’t pick up the phone, the majority of your employees would rather be on the beach, and a third of your sales team is on vacation, your motivation fades, and it becomes easy to lose focus. While some may use the summer to slow down and relax, it is crucial to stay productive. Now is the prime time to set goals to up-sell current customers, obtain new leads from conferences and events and increase the clickthrough rate on your outreach emails. These tips will generate positive effects on your sales process. On the other hand, while it may be a difficult time of year to find new leads, focus on the ones you already have. Existing customers are a valuable resource throughout the year, but when there is downtime, they can help you make connections, give referrals and promote up-selling and cross-selling.
Come rain or shine; the weather can offer you a powerful way to target your audience. Of course, we already know that summer weather affects sales, so try to focus your marketing efforts on specific product categories. For instance, harness the power of summer weather to create brand awareness and generate new leads by associating your brand with being there at the right time. Timely ads mean that you can be there even before your customers are looking for you. It can also make for excellent ad campaigns and impact your acquisition strategy.
How You Should Shift Your Priorities During the Summer Months
Since sales are more unpredictable during the summer months, it’s more challenging to set and meet revenue goals. Thus, it is essential to change up your initiatives to up your sales game come fall. Think outside the box and make plans that will help your business move forward. New objectives can help motivate employees, and new challenges get people thinking in different ways. Investing in salespeople is always beneficial, and now is the time to add knowledge and expertise with additional training. Have managers spend extra time coaching reps to increase their average deal size and make improvements to help your business thrive. Summer slumps can be used to revamp and reinvigorate. So, rework your social media strategy with engaging content to inspire your audience and plan for future blogs to avoid a last-minute scramble for ideas.
You’re likely to have some free time at the office during the summer months, so spend some of that time improving your database. Since your sales database provides the main foundation of your results, it should be solid. A few things that can decrease the quality of your sales database include inconsistent formatting, outdated contacts, duplicate contacts, old product information, and outdated sales collateral, so utilize the summer to solve these issues. In addition, it will help you out in the long run when the pace picks up again.
The Importance of Nurturing Leads During Seasonal Changes
When the seasons change, people’s minds change along with them. Holidays and other activities tend to take precedence over everything else going on, so it is imperative to check in on your leads. For instance, instead of focusing on the total amount of revenue during the summer slump, emphasize setting up appointments with your contacts after Labor Day. This way, when summer is over, your calendar is on track for when your prospects are up to speed. By arranging these meetings early on, you’re well on your way to obtaining positive effects on your sales process come autumn.
Summer slumps are inevitable, but we’re always ready for a challenge. So keep driving your business forward and reach out to our experts at DemandWorks Media so you can proactively minimize next year’s slump!