You Reap What You Sow

When I began my career in sales and marketing years ago, everything was dependent on the "funnel". Each week I projected my potential sales for the next week based. It all boiled down to the numbers and if I followed the system, my results would be very predictable. There were times, of course, when something went wrong. 

In any given week my activity log showed me how many calls I had made, how many appointments resulted from those calls, how many prospects cancelled or didn't show, how many sales I closed and the dollar amount of my production. Pretty simple, really. If I wanted to double my income, I could merely double my phone calls and theoretically achieve my goal.  If I felt lazy and didn't make enough phone calls, the trickle down effect was very visible (especially to my supervisor) at the end of the week. 

You reap what you sow.

Summer tended to cause distractions, not only for me, but for my prospects as well. More broken appointments meant I needed to make more calls or my sales quota would be affected. The consequences of my decreased activity level wouldn't be immediate though. In about two months I'd look at my commission check and felt the pinch. Ouch. After my first year I soon realized that I needed a super strong 2nd quarter to make up for a lackluster 3rd quarter.

As small business owners, independent contractors and non-profit organizations, everything we do to promote our products and services must be part of a strategy that factors in "distractions" like summer vacation, seasonal cycles, customer buying habits and a host of other industry specific variables. 

We reap what we sow.

So for now, as we look toward the last few months of 2016, will you be ready for your "harvest"?  If you need help developing your strategy or staying on track, I'm always happy to help. #beamarketer