What do catastrophic blizzards and major federal holidays have in common? If you guessed days off of work for millions of people, you would be correct. However, the real question is who gets the ‘luxury’ of taking the day off — employees or employers?
If your sole weekly objective is to book appointments with potential commercial clients, then I suspect you’re like me in that your goal is to secure those appointments with owners, presidents or C-level decision makers rather than lower level administrators, office managers, or the dreaded HR department.
Brian M. Kalish
If a blizzard or a federal holiday shuts a business down for a day or a number of days, do the owners or executives in charge still have the responsibility of paying the rent, utilities and processing the payroll? Of course they do. Try explaining to your employees that you can’t make payroll because the federal government decided that the company should be off in observation of a major holiday.
Let’s think about this for a moment. If the owner and the executives are the only folks working during a blizzard or on a federal holiday, wouldn’t those be ideal days to reach your intended target to book an appointment to discuss whatever it is you’re selling? Well, is it easier to sack the quarterback if the defenders aren’t around? Remember that the employee administrators, office managers and the dreaded HR department that always block your calls, send you to voicemail, or hang up on you aren’t working — thus making it infinitely easier to get your employer prospect on the phone.
While it might be nice for us as sales professionals to take off during a blizzard or on a federal holiday, you’d be doing yourself a major disservice, as it’s just as silly and impractical as a server taking a break during the lunch-time rush.
Be an elite professional
It’s been proven that elite sales professionals in the midst of building their book of business will be immensely more productive marketing to business leaders when the majority of typical employees are not working — before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. However, most folks have never thought to or greatly underestimate the power of marketing during major weather-related emergencies or just before, during and after federal holidays.
“If you’re a sales manager, I urge you to keep your eye on the weather and engage and entice your sales team to come in the office.”
Think working smart vs. working hard. Does working when gatekeepers and other employees aren’t working guarantee you’ll always get through to your intended target prospect? Of course not. But it does greatly increase your odds, and the more intended target prospects you get on the phone, the more appointments you’ll naturally secure.
If you’re a sales manager, I urge you to keep your eye on the weather and engage and entice your sales team to come in the office. Plan your activity-based marketing and appointment-booking contests around upcoming weather challenges, such as snow and ice.
This same thought process also works especially well for marketing around already scheduled federal holidays. Here’s a list of the top remaining federal holidays throughout the year. Don’t miss your opportunity as a sales professional or sales manager to capitalize on these widely untapped marketing days and times:
- Good Friday (morning) and Easter Monday
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Veterans Day
- Thanksgiving (day before and morning of)
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday
- Christmas Eve (morning)
If you’re a commission-only sales professional, then you’re an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs work when no one else is watching. As entrepreneurs, we must never forget that nothing is more expensive than a lost opportunity. We can always make more money, but we can never make more time.