In any normal business cycle, there are both busy and slow seasons. This pendulum-like business activity, however, can sometimes be more a function of our ingrained belief system than a reflection of actual business activity.
Life and health insurance agents are particularly susceptible to the myth of slow summer and holiday seasons. This need not be the case, however, as you can approach this scenario in one of two ways: View this “slow season” as part of your regular business cycle for the products you offer, or chalk up your perception of a slow season to a set of beliefs under which you have operated for some time and that may result in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
With the first plan of action, you can choose to go with the flow and schedule your own down time and vacations, after which you can return to your regular business activity at some time during which you decide that prospects and clients will be open to speaking with you again. Or, you can decide to increase your business activities to find exceptions to this business rule so that you can stay a step ahead of your competition.
If you take the second approach and chalk this up to your ingrained belief system, you can either decide to maintain your present perception and resulting habits that have allowed you to attain your present level of success and stay stuck in your comfort zone. On the other hand, you can do some self-reflecting and decide to step up to break through old beliefs, habits, and patterns of behavior that are limiting your level of business achievement.
Which approaches work best?
Of the four approaches I’ve outlined above, only two make sense. You either use the time to relax and re-energize yourself with your own downtime and vacation, or you create a business acquisition model that incorporates new beliefs, habits, and marketing strategies to attract clients any time of year.
For your physical and mental health, the former approach is imperative at some point during the year.
However, vacation time should be determined before the year starts. You may want to create a yearlong calendar prior to January 1 that projects your personal and business activities. Vacations should always be scheduled first, with business activities filling in the gaps. Vacation schedules can be determined around times that may be considered natural lulls in business activity.
Unless you have created a business that has already made you independently wealthy and you are working only to keep your mind engaged, you probably won’t take a vacation of more than two to four weeks during the summertime. This leaves a minimum of nine and a maximum of eleven weeks remaining to the summer work schedule. Likewise, unless you work with an exclusive, independently wealthy client list, clients and prospects also experience a similar summer calendar. They, too, will likely be reachable for somewhere between nine and eleven weeks between the first of June and Labor Day Weekend.
Even in the unlikely event that the four-week vacation schedule of both you and your entire prospect and client base run adjacent to each other, there is still a four to five-week period during which you will both be available. There is no excuse, then, to not reach out during this time. This is also a great time to reach out to new prospects, since much of your competition is also living in the hallucination outlined above.
During this real or imagined “slow season” of reduced business activity, there are three other things you should do to maintain the momentum that will set you apart from your competition.
- Prior to going on vacation, be proactive and call your clients and prospects to schedule appointments for when you return. This way, you will have a full calendar waiting for you when you come back. You will be geared up to hit the ground running instead of trying to ramp up the marketing engine after you get back. You may also want to do this during the holiday season so you have a full calendar when January arrives. This approach will allow you to enjoy your vacation and holiday seasons knowing you will return to a full calendar.
- Send a non-solicitation mailing — via U.S. Post Office mail, not email — to your current clients and best prospects. It should include something of value that will be of interest to them either personally or professionally. It could be something relating to one of their hobbies or a business article you’ve found worthwhile that they may like to know about. This will build a deeper bond
and solidify your relationship with them.
- Identify possible business referrals you can help them identify and contact. If you have a good relationship with your clients and prospects, you should know enough about their business that you can find referrals for them. This will put into play the law of reciprocation and will guarantee they will take your next phone call.
Although every industry has real and perceived slow and busy seasons, strategic and tactical approaches can work to both reduce the likelihood of slow seasons and shorten their duration when they do occur. Either way, you will be head-and-shoulders above your competition if you use the techniques outlined above.
Skip Weisman is founder of Weisman Success Resources Inc. For more information, please visit www.weismansuccessresources.com.