We have reached the middle of July 2024, and summertime is well in motion. The days are longer and hotter, and the evenings give us the opportunity to relax around the picnic table or barbeque. All of these are great things to distract us from the grind of the workday. During this same time, summertime daydreams also fill our time at work as we wander off in thought of vacations, weekends at the cottage, and just good times at the lake, campground, or wherever we go to place that space between us and our workload. The mental and physical breaks are definitely essential to recharge and rejuvenate ourselves. We don’t always have the chance to find these moments of silence to step into and find some rest and peace.
As valuable as these are, everyone, including business owners and leaders, needs to take advantage of them; we must recognize our focus on the business dynamics, which allows us all to take advantage of these summertime moments. Knowing that during these warmer months of the year and the abundance of fun distractions, we need to have a strategy to keep bringing our minds back to the workplace so that we continuously keep filling the sales pipeline. Much like gasping after turning on your shower first thing in the morning only to find no water, your business cannot afford to run out of sales pipeline activity.
Granted, your clients and customers are in the same situation as you when it comes to summertime distractions. Planned vacations, unplanned days off, and any number of reasons people need to be more mentally engaged in their regular roles and functions. These all influence the productivity of each and every business. It is not that these should not take place. JKL Associates is a firm believer in taking quality time away from the office and coming back ready to take on all challenges. At the same time, it is not wise to abandon responsibilities with the hope that everything will simply be dormant and that when the team returns, it will all pick up where it was left off. This is rarely the case if ever.
As business owners and leaders, part of your role is to lead by example. Demonstrate your desire for team members to take time off and enjoy summer’s fun distractions. At the same time, it is not a good practice to lower the standard of work expectations either. If you allow for there to be fluctuation in work effort throughout the year, then you will get fluctuations in pipeline quality and, thus, in revenues. The peaks and valleys your business goes through can be traced directly back to the energy and effort put forth in prior cycles of the work year.
If you have metrics and measure pipeline value, you can determine the ebb and flow of pipeline building and pipeline decrease. When the pipe fills through specific efforts, revenue follows. The same is true for when cash flow decreases at times of a weaker sales pipeline.
This week, take a solid look at your sales pipeline. If you have quality metrics to look at the trends of pipeline value, you should be able to see if the value in the pipeline is stable or weakening. This gives you an opportunity to take positive action so that the revenues designed to contribute in the early fall can be realized, and you don’t spend the fall playing catchup.
Sales is the lifeblood of an organization. Interested in how your organization can have metrics to keep a solid pulse on your revenue projects, forecast, and progress? Give JKL Associates a call at FL (407) 984-7246 or MI (313) 527-7945
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