Happy Memorial Day!

As the unofficial start of summer, I’m going to devote this article to answering a question that most businesses are struggling with right now: how can you boost sales during the summer?

For many businesses the summer season is the slowest time of the year.  This is especially true for professional services and most B2B businesses.  That’s because the summer is when we all like to take time off and spend more time with our kids who are out of school.  That usually translates into fewer sales inquiries and a lot of calls and meetings that get pushed off to later dates.

Of course, there are businesses where the summer is actually the peak season of the year.  For example, we work with a fireworks store that generates over 90% of their revenue in the weeks leading up to the 4th of July.

In both situations, boosting sales in the summer needs to be a priority right about now.  Either you’re about to enter a sales drought and you’re looking for ways to keep your business afloat, or you’re about to cram your yearly sales volume into a tiny window and you’re looking for ways to maximize your revenue.

So let’s now dive into 4 proven ideas to boost sales this summer.

Summer

 

1. Follow Up With Old Leads

One of the lowest hanging fruit opportunities in businesses is that list of old leads you swear are “worthless.”  I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.  Every business has a list of leads that inquired about their products or services, but for whatever reason didn’t end up purchasing.

The natural impulse is to throw those leads away and focus your time and attention on fresh leads.  However, if you do that then I guarantee you’re throwing away sales.  Just because they didn’t buy before, doesn’t mean they aren’t still interested and won’t buy now.  All you need to do is follow up!

I recommend a short and sweet email like the one Dean Jackson used for a real estate agent.  The email was simply, “Hi

[first name of prospect], are you still looking to buy a home in Boston?”

Just edit that email for your product or service and send it out to all of your old leads.  As you can see there’s very little cost in this tactic so the ROI can be tremendous.

 

2. Offer Additional Services to Existing Customers

When you think about generating new sales this summer, you probably don’t turn your attention to your existing customers.  But that’s a big mistake! Remember, your customers already know, like and trust you, so they can often be the best source for new sales.

Like the lead generation campaign above, all you need to do is ask.  Simply reach out via email or phone to see if your customers need additional help.

 

3. Run a Special Promotion

 

The 3rd tactic is to run a special promotion to your prospect database, or your existing customers, or both.  This will take a little more work than the previous two tactics, but a compelling offer with a hard deadline will help you overcome the typical summer procrastination.

For example, you could offer a discount or a special bundled package that is only available in July.  Announce the promotion to your database via email on July 1 and then remind everyone about the deadline toward the end of July.  Typically you’ll see a nice spike of sales at the start of the promotion, then a trickle of sales in the middle, and then another spike at the end when all the procrastinators realize they are about to miss out.

 

4. Advertise

The final tactic is to advertise.

In addition to running the special promotion to your database (see #3 above), I recommend testing ads in Google AdWords.  If you have a compelling offer, then Google AdWords is one of the fastest ways to generated new sales in your business.  That’s because you can get your ads in front of prospects who are literally searching for your product or service.

Google AdWords is extremely fast and easy to set up, which is also a reason why a lot of businesses lose money, unfortunately.  Many of the default settings are not in your best interest, so if you don’t change them, you’re inevitably going to waste your ad budget.  To help you avoid this, I put together the Ultimate AdWords Checklist, which you can access by clicking here.

Again, Happy Memorial Day and I hope one or more of these 4 marketing ideas can help you make this your strongest summer ever!

[google_authorship_badge]