Planning for Downtime

Not counting this week, there are four full weeks until the week that includes the Fourth of July.

Insert gasp here.

This year, July 4 is on a Tuesday. Most likely, a lot of businesses — and perhaps even yours — will be shut down on the third. Many will close for the week.

This is a fantastic sales opportunity, but not in the traditional sense.

I'm sure you are like me in that you have a lot of tasks sitting on your list of things to do, which are not particularly urgent. Some of them would fall into the, "sharpen the saw" category. Others involve researching how to use LinkedIn to sell more. Maybe you need to increase your knowledge of your own CRM or other software programs you use.

That's what you should be thinking about for the week that includes July 4.

Start making a list of the kind of things that are, as Stephen Covey puts it, "Neither important or urgent." This way, you can put your head down for the next four weeks and sell hard and then catch your breath and get some sales support activities done that first week in July.

Gotta go. I need to start my own list.

Bill Farquharson’s Sales Vault features sales best practices. Join Bill and the community of reps and selling owners at SalesVault.pro. Bill can be reached at 781-934-7036.