As we drift into the warmer months of the year it's tempting to look at the funnel our sellers have built over the first 6 months and think, “that looks pretty good. My sellers tell me that most of this is going to come across the finish line by the end of September if not by the end of the year. Let's go enjoy some holidays.”
Then we get back in September and our sellers say, “hey boss, yeah so budget got cut” or “things got pushed in the next year” or “contact changed” and that robust funnel has shrunk down to something more resembling a drinking straw. Now we're not really enjoying the conversations that we're having to have with the CEO and the Board.
To avoid those future awkward conversations in the present we can give our funnel a summer makeover so we can truly enjoy our summer and set our sellers up for success both now and in the future.
The first step in giving our funnel a summer makeover is to have each of our sellers take out of their funnel every opportunity where they do not have a clearly agreed next step in their calendar and their buyer's calendar that is designed to move that opportunity forward. If they don't have that conversation booked or that that conversation is a check-in call that opportunity gets punted.
That opportunity can go back in real quick if our seller gets a mutually agreed upon conversation with their buyer confirmed in their calendars within the next 45 calendar days that it actually is designed to create movement in that opportunity (like gathering additional qualifying information or advancing to the next stage).
Once we've culled the opportunities down to what is real and what actually has motion the second step is to co-build with our sellers a proactive summer prospecting plan. July used to be the best month for me for closing business and when I share that story people would ask, “well why is that” and I'd say, “because I don't take my foot off the gas.”
A lot of sellers will take their foot off the gas in June and December and coast into the summer and into the next year. If we want to support our sellers in keeping their funnels full and, by extension, us realizing our target what we must do is keep proactively prospecting all year round.
Of course I accept that in the summer I'm probably going to have to do a lot more activity to reach the number of conversations I need to put the number of qualified opportunities in my funnel but also I would adjust my prospecting activities over the summer to more networking events or connecting with current or past clients, inviting them out for a conversation, possibly on a patio, and ask them to bring someone in their network who they would want to introduce me to. Now I'm having two potential opportunity conversations instead of just one.
Once we have culled down our funnel and co-built our proactive prospecting plans with each of our sellers, our sellers will probably uncover some opportunities over the summer that they never would have if they had taken their foot off the gas and simply coasted on the hope that what was in the funnel was going to come across the finish line.
By doing these two activities we avoid micro-managing conversations in the future and we also avoid that potential awkward conversation with the CEO or the Board when they're wondering why that wonderful forecast turned out to be more of a fore-guess.
Until next time…. go lead.
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