Fresh autumnal winds: time to get productive
The kids are back to school, the nights are drawing in, the temperature is getting noticeably cooler and the strong winds are swirling leaves around on the ground. Returning from a two week family holiday I was struck with the thought: “It looks like summer has disappeared overnight and autumn is upon us already”.
Whilst I love the promise of spring and the daylight and the, all too rare, good weather of the UK summer; there is something to look forward to between now and early December: increased activity and results in your business.
There are two times a year when the business world seems to go on pause: late July until the end of August and mid December until early January. During those periods people are on holiday, those that aren’t on holiday psychologically slow down. Decisions are deferred until the appropriate stakeholders are back from holiday. UK plc productive output plummets.
Indeed a 2016 survey by small business procurement specialist Approved Index suggests that during the summer, companies could miss out on £8bn courtesy of a holiday season slowdown. 28% complained about the difficulty of doing business during the summer due to the lack of availability of suppliers and customers.
In my experience in my own business and that of my clients, people return from the summer and whilst the ad companies attempt to drag attention to Christmas, people in business are focused on what they can get done before the end of the year.
For many, the next 13 weeks will be the most productive in their business year; the defining months of the business year.
I have written before about the benefits of 12 week sales campaigns and the use of week 13th as a reward for smashing those targets. Attention, activity and action is focused with an impressive impact on results. I have also written about setting MTO goals (Minimum, Target and Outrageous goals) where the Minimum goal is what you would easily expect to achieve at your current run rate, the Target being your stretched goal and the Outrageous being a truly amazing and outrageous goal to achieve.
Using this very strategy of a 12 week sales campaign, with an impressive bonus for the sales team in week 13, I got a text this morning from one of my ‘Double Your Business’ clients announcing that they had smashed their Outrageous target with two weeks to spare!
What do most people do when they hit their target? They take their foot off the gas. These guys won’t make that mistake. They are making the last two weeks of their 12 week campaign really count so as to deliver an Olympic gold medal standard result.
What can you and your teams achieve in the next 12 -13 weeks?
Up your sales activity and deliver sales that will transform your 2017?
Develop a new key strategic relationship?
Launch in a new territory?
Deliver an innovative new marketing campaign?
Put the rising stars in your business on a development programme that will raise their game and lift the performance across the whole team?
Invest in Research & Development of a new/enhanced product (remember those attractive R&D tax credits)?
Make the next 13 weeks the defining weeks of the year.
Turn an average year into a good one or a good year into an extraordinary one. Set you and your team MTO goals and put in place an impressive incentive if the Outrageous goal is exceeded.
Impressive results can be achieved in a short period of time when you rally the troops and point them all towards an engaging and compelling target.
Track progress on a graph for your MTO goals and put that on the wall to keep the progress front of mind to all. I have seen this little strategy work wonders many times. I wish the same for you for the next 13 weeks.
To help your teams to win the inner game and develop a killer strategy for the next 13 weeks I have some powerful resources for you.
I have two killer DVD training products ͞The Business Accelerator and The Strategy Compass which combined provide about 8 hours of first class content to equip the rising stars of your organisation to grow your business.
They normally sell for £97 and £197 + VAT respectively.
I ran a summer offer in August: both for just £97 + VAT. I know a lot of people were away whilst this offer was on judging by the number of out of office emails!
I would like to extend this offer until 30 September.
Click this link to find out more about how these two programmes can help the people in your business deliver the best 13 weeks of your year and give you a very strong RoI on these video trainings.
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