Summer is a great time for B2B Sales Prospecting

Summer can be the best time to start lead generation programs and begin new relationships with prospects and thus find those hidden nuggets of gold.   This is an article that a Canadian company wrote about prospecting in the summer and every point made is something that we subscribe to at It’s Your Call. Here are four reasons why summer prospecting works.

Some people think that for a sales rep summer is all about golf, drinks on the patio, and taking off early on Friday.  Summers in Canada are great coast to coast, and yes people due take more vacation than other parts of the year. The summer, however, is a great time for sales prospecting.  In late May I read a blog from Inc. called how to sell in the Summer.  The focus of the blog was on managing existing accounts; here are the reasons you should find new customers in the summer.

Out of office notifications: These are very helpful in determining when to best follow-up with that new contact.  From here, you can plan your future activities to match the cycle.  This is most easily done when utilizing a CRM.  Remember that decision makers rarely take the whole summer off.  As a best practice, I like to follow-up a day or 2 after the contact gets back from vacation so they have time to get caught up on the emails and voice mails that accumulated when they were gone.

Gate Keepers take vacations as well: Sometimes the hardest aspect in cold calling or using targeted emails is getting intercepted by the gate keeper.  A gate keeper could be an executive assistant or receptionist. Formulate a strategy for how you will handle the call if a gatekeeper is out of office.

Planning and strategy time: For many industries the summer is a little slower than other parts of the year.  This means will there not be as many employee requirements but also that organizations spend more time on planning.  This could be the time frame you need to introduce a new idea to a prospect.

Prospects are more laid back: This is a bit of a generalization, but I do find that people are a little more open and relaxed in the summer.  Not driving to work and then home again in the dark can get people in a much better mood.

http://www.vapartners.ca/summer-is-a-great-time-for-b2b-sales-prospecting/