10 Tips to Keep Sales Strong Through Summer

With Summer quickly approaching, you may be feeling the pressure of hitting your sales numbers. This is the time to hone you sales skills, and improve upon your sales techniques to make keep sales up through the summer months. Here are 10 tips to help you stay on track.

1. Do NOT assume people stopped buying, that’s what average sales people do.  If you make the assumption and don’t put in the effort, what opportunities are you forfeiting? They could mean the difference between barely making it through the summer or making your whole summer.

2. Ask more open-ended questions than ever.  The more information you find out now, the better position you will be in later.  As warmer weather nears, people tend to be in a better mood and more open to conversation.  Take the opportunity to build a stronger relationship; people buy from people they like!

3. If you have hit all of your goals, don't coast set more for yourself. Wouldn't it be nice to go into the fall with a little boost?  Don’t get comfortable, keep pushing hard.  Slowing down because you know you have hit your goal, can give off a negative impression to your manager and your customers.

4. If you have not hit your goal do NOT give up. Work with your manager now more than ever to close deals. They want to see you succeed and will admire your ambition to hit your goals, don’t be intimidated to ask for help.

5. Make sure you are utilizing your time well. People tend to get distracted with meetings, emails and other unproductive activities.  Before you know it, its already mid morning and you haven’t made a single call!  By just making yourself aware of time wasted you can consciously focus on getting on the phone more, and pushing those other activities off for early morning or after hours.

6. Longers days means more time to sell. Commit to making just 10 more prospecting calls per day over the summer months. Ten extra calls doesn't seem like that much more, but do it for one month and you have touched an extra 200 prospects or clients.  A little can go a long way.

7. Show your customers you work hard and are dependable, if you hit your numbers and go missing in action what would your customers think?  Don’t lose face with your customers or prospects because you have gotten complacent.  

8. Show customers, you are there to assist them even if they are not buying. This shows true value and credibility.  Use the nice weather as an excuse to take your customers out for a little appreciation golf. Keeping up on relationships, this will keep you in their minds even if their minds may not be on business.

9. Send thank you cards and be more upbeat on the phone. If you're enjoying your summer chances are your customers are too. Be sure to maintain the correct disposition when communicated with customers. If they seems to be causal and lax than match this attitude. Nothing is more of a turn off then a sales person giving extra pressure to buy when it's clear your customers aren't in the same mindset.

10. Don’t let the summer take over your work ethic.  Employers do not have the right to send partial salary so don’t give them partial work. Work hard and go above and beyond the call of duty. Why? Because few people will, and it will set you part. It’s called character!

Download the whitepaper: "Selling Value and Avoiding Price Objections" to give to a head start on your summer selling success