The busy days of summer are over, we’ve taken our beach vacations and had our final hoo-rah on Labor Day weekend; so now it’s time to get back into the swing of things and fall back into our normal routines, right? Wrong.
September is the time when you need to buckle down and get to business because that CEO or VP that you’ve been struggling to get on the phone is no longer on vacation which means, with the proper approach, he or she could be ready to take your call at any given time. There are no more “Out Of Office” responses in your inbox, and no more excuses for not getting prospects on the line.
When I came back to my desk to begin the month of September, I thought of a few goals that I wanted to achieve in the next 30 days…
- Hit the ground running – There is NO time to waste. September typically starts with a short week due to the holiday, therefore you need to get down to business right away, or else the days will catch up to you and the month is half over before you know it.
- Reach out to those who were on vacation – We all have inboxes flooded with Out Of Office responses, and probably 90% of them let you know that they are “on vacation and will be back after the holiday”. Sift through all of these auto responses and CALL CALL CALL! Use the knowledge of their vacation to your advantage; ask them if they went anywhere special and let them know you understand they are catching up on a lot of work, but you would like to get on their calendar in the next week or so to chat.
- Close out the quarter strong – If you struggled in August, then any downfall needs to be made up for in September. Goals have to be met in order to retain clients and in order to get paid.
- Build pipeline for Q4 – We all know that November into December can be another tough time to get prospects on the phone; start nailing them down now so that you can avoid any added stress to the holiday season. Build a strong pipeline in September and October and get ahead of the game before the holidays hit again.
I’ve set these objectives for myself, as well as smaller daily tasks to help me achieve my overall goal and I highly suggest others do the same. At the end of each day, look back at your goals to see whether you’re on pace and, if for some reason you’re not, determine what you need to do the next day to bring you back up to speed. It’s extremely important to use September to finish the quarter on a strong note and get yourself ahead of the game for Q4.
