Because of the bean counters in our office, we close our month early. Closing the month is not a bad thing, in fact by closing the month early, I now have two opportunities to garner end of month business. The first is the bean counters end of month and the second is the calendar end of the month.
For me, the number of selling days that I have for September 2015 business is only twenty and a half. I’ll be losing one day due to the Labor Day Holiday and by noon on the 4th of September, I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that most decision makers are gone for the Labor Day weekend.
Thus, I know in advance that September will be a short month when compared to some of the previous months. There’s no time to slack and if I’m to hit my goal of $100K in revenue then I’m going to need to have at least $300K in my pipeline. Do I have $300K in my pipeline now? No. Do I have half of that? No. Geesh, all of these no’s are bumming me out!
Let’s see, short selling month, no real pipeline to speak of, kids going back to school, traditional Labor Day weekend is a week late this year, and yes the odds are stacked against over performing.
Thus, I plan to add almost three extra selling days to the month. For the entire month of September I plan to get in the office one hour earlier. Doing this over the course of the month will add 20 hours or 2½ selling days. Those extra hours will only be devoted to returning e-mails, researching, and producing proposals and quotes. The rest of the day is reserved for prospecting, appointments or returning a call to close an order. I may be able to squeak in a Saturday appointment; not sure if that will happen, however, if the opportunity presents itself I will offer it up.
So, I have a plan, and having a plan is a great start to reach your goals. Having no plan equals never reaching your goals, and having no goals is just a waste of time and effort. The biggest key to having a plan, is to stick to the plan, don’t deviate, and keep moving every opportunity forward. If I hit the numbers that I want, I’ll be super excited and if I don’t, I’ll know that I put every effort forward to get there.
Only in the last few years have I really given much thought to the amount of selling days per month. What that means is for the last 30-some years I was flying by the seat of my pants with no plan. If I could only have been better at planning in my younger years!
For all of you newbies out there, what can you take from this? Be sure to have a plan to reach your goals, be aware of how many selling days you have each month, be prepared to add extra days when you need them, and when you reach your goals make sure you reward yourself with some extra “me” time.
Good selling!
