The Long Hot Summer

We’re nearing the end of June, and I am already hearing people make excuses for not pursuing their business objectives. I have heard things such as:

• “We can’t do anything because of vacation schedules.”
• “Everyone is in summer mode so let’s reconvene in September.”
• “No one will pay attention during the summer.”

Oh, really? I don’t know about you, but Citibank still wants my mortgage payment this summer, not to mention that Stop and Shop demands cash or a credit card when I am paying for groceries.

On vacation indeed! Sure we’d all like to kick back and take it a bit easier during the summer. And some of us might even get to take off a wee bit of time to go on vacation. But putting off business development planning and initiatives until the fall or holding back from any sort of sales training simply because it is summer, well, that’s plain nutty.

In these most difficult of times, the companies that rise to the top and survive (and maybe even thrive) will be those that are serious about their growth and willing to do what they need to do to reach their goals. They acknowledge summer, sure, but that doesn’t mean they withdraw from sales and marketing activities.