Struggling to sell?

Could it be the time of year?

Let’s see.

 

In January, no one has any money because they spent it all for Christmas.

Added to that is the fact that all the credit card bills from last month have arrived.

And just to make life a little more interesting, there’s the wrong kind of snow on the railway tracks.

 

February is a short month, and so revenues are lower anyway.

Only 20 days to sell.

Not much, when you think about it.

 

March could include Easter.

That means end-of-term.

A lot of people you had planned to call on could be gone for half the month.

Maybe you’re one of them.

 

April is just as bad.

Easter could be that month instead.

 

May has 31 days, but two of them are Bank Holidays; just like March or April, or even February during Leap Year.

That means more long weekends.

(Don’t people ever work?!)

 

How about June?

Thirty days is better than 28, but not as good as 31.

This month is safer.

Might be able to do something with it, as there are no Bank Holidays.

 

And July?

People are busy winding down and clearing their desks for . . .

 

August, when the whole country, including you, goes on holiday - for weeks.

(During the Cold War, there was a running “joke” among the military that the Russians wouldn’t invade in August because the roads would be clogged with the French. Italy resembles a ghost town during this time. So does the UK.)

 

September is a bizarre month.

School starts during the first week, but universities wait until the third one.

Parents with kids who are studying for degrees will be thinking about how to pack and transport entire bedrooms to the other side of the country.

 

In October, the wrong kind of leaves are on the railway tracks.

You can’t get to your prospects, and they can’t get to work.

 

The first couple of weeks in November might be okay provided there’s no fog.

That said, you might be unlucky and instead get swamped by an unexpected North Atlantic storm.

There’s nothing like a little local flooding to mess up your schedule.

 

From mid-November on, you might as well fuggedaboutit!

Everyone is thinking about Christmas, office parties (ugh!), Secret Santa, and two weeks of TV, not to mention “what to do with the children”.

A certain levity, if not silliness, descends into the office.

Christmas carols can be heard.

Decorations suddenly appear, as well as red hats with white bobbles.

As the days get shorter and the skies darker, momentum is lost.

Lethargy sets in.

This tongue-in-cheek assessment of the calendar year carries some truth, as you know from your own experience.

And depending on the industry, some months probably are worse than others.

 

Which one is the worst?

Consider this.

Does it matter?

If you’re looking for an excuse for not making your targets, then you’ll have no trouble finding one, though full marks for blaming it on the time of year.

You may have some success persuading your boss that if it was just next month and not this month, then things would be better.

If you’re the boss, you may even tell yourself this.

That won’t solve anything, though.

If selling in one or more months is especially difficult, then of course you have to make up for it during the rest of the year.

Nothing wrong with that.

There are a lot of seasonal businesses who face this every year of their existence.

Think about market stall owners who really can only sell the produce that’s in season.

Or seaside hoteliers who rely on the tourist trade.

Or people in the creative arts who may go for weeks without any commissions at all.

You’re not the only one who has slack periods.

If you’re working for someone else, then this can be more challenging.

If you’re working for yourself, then perhaps you need to alter the period of time in which you evaluate your success.

Let’s say that your best months are March, June, September, and December.

Instead of evaluate your results monthly, you could do it quarterly.

Or suppose that your worst months are in January and August.

Then you could evaluate your results semi-annually.

Maybe it’s not that simple, or maybe you need to look at your results more frequently.

You could compare months from one year to the next.

 

For example, you could compare January last year with January this year, or August last year with August this year.

Doing so would negate the effects of various circumstances because each period of time would share the same ones.

Another way to do it would be to take your best and worst months and average them, and then use that as a benchmark against which to compare the remaining ten months out of the year.

Or you could decide that the best and worst months were anomalies and not count them at all.

 

What’s your goal?

You have to keep in mind your goal.

You probably have an annual target, and you know roughly how much you need to sell each month in order to reach it, irrespective of the really good or the incredibly poor months.

So figure out a system that will give you an accurate means of comparison so that you know if you’re on course or not.

If you work for someone else, then this becomes more difficult, especially if you’re the only one who’s struggling to make the targets you’ve been given.

On the other hand, if all of you are in the same boat, then coming up with a different way to measure your progress might be a way to help all of you.

Nothing will be gained, however, by beating yourself up for failing to achieve targets that are unreachable due to things such as seasonal factors.

Although they don’t give you an excuse, they are what could be described as mitigating factors.

Do some homework.

Come up with a different plan for how to evaluate your progress.

Focus on the end result, after all - that’s the only thing that matters.

 

If you want to be more effective at selling any time of year click here for great ideas