Have you ever had a series of sales successes and suddenly, for no reason, nothing goes well? You are not alone.
I have been in a slump since November 2020, when our business, opened in 2015, was required to close for the second time due to COVID; the first time lasted four months. After a snail mail campaign to the target agency, we reopened mid-December. Since then, I have continued planning, but executing stalled. I had forgotten working ‘in the business’ instead of ‘on the business’ is not good.
In a three-day period this July, I was encouraged to get my head back in the game, twice… On a Saturday, our Pastor preached an updated version of ask, knock, and seek (Matthew 7:7-8). On the following Monday, I received an email sales management newsletter including an article providing ideas on how to get back on the horse…
Ask Knock Seek: Ask yourself what projects or initiatives are stalled. The answer is already inside you; it is in the planning sheets you carefully developed at the end of last year. One of our initiatives has briefly stalled because of the lawyer’s lack of focus. Literally, the man could not focus on anything. A 35-minute phone call included topics about transmissions, running of the bulls in Barcelona, history of Coopersmiths, and more!
I asked Google what to do and received an eight-page manual from the Secretary of State including step-by-step instructions on how to complete the project without a lawyer.
Commit to the next level: Before we began our business, I was networking everywhere. We needed funding. We needed a location. We needed supplies and equipment. We found a five-year planning tool on a thumb drive from Waubonsee Community College. We found funding at a networking event. We found supplies and equipment from dozens of local businesses at the Naperville Chamber. We found the perfect location with the help of a real estate expert. Now I need to find the energy I had back in 2014; commit to getting results no matter what it takes. By just increasing networking activities, F’22 initiatives will be achieved, and business results will improve.
Discipline: Diligence. Motivation. Focus on those high payoff activities necessary to make progress toward the outcome. Are surfing Facebook, Twitter, CBS Sports, or any news site providing progress? If not, avoid them. I use Google several times a day using Firefox, where there are shortcuts to our frequently used websites. Changing the settings to five websites and deleting the Facebook shortcut has reduced distractions and practically eliminated Facebook during work hours.
These dog-days of summer also provide an abundance of distractions including yardwork, bike rides, dips in the pool, planning vacation, online shopping, or leaving the office early for extended happy hour. The ‘slump’ is fueled by these hazy, lazy, summer distractions.
It takes a lot of effort, commitment, and discipline to avoid the slump and Heat Up Your Sales.
