I recently asked this question on Linkedin: Do you stop prospecting in August?
The most common response I received echoed my own view. NO. Don’t stop prospecting – if you want to grow your practice.
I have long recognised that NOT everyone goes away (even when they can). NOT everyone takes a break from work. And NOT everyone feels the need to do these things. This year is different of course but even though lots of people are taking long awaited breaks now, plenty of others are returning to their offices or are now focused on the future of their business. We should be very wary whenever anyone tells us what (they may mistakenly assume) EVERYONE is doing.
A traditional view is that August is a bad month for winning new clients. This simply means that you may not achieve the same level of success as in other months. It doesn’t mean you should stop trying for a month!
People take their holidays at different times; is your target client likely to have school-age children or are they older and likely to stay home and working during school holidays. That’s what I’ve done for years!
In the UK the only time we really close up is over the Christmas and New Year period. This is very different to, say, France where most businesses traditionally close for all of August.
If you want to grow your practice then you should be consistently seeking opportunities to market yourself to prospects. You never know when a great opportunity will present.
One accountant told me: “We’ve always had most accountancy enquiries in holiday periods (Christmas and Summer). It seems that when people slow down they have time to think about their business needs.”
You may also find that your prospects have a little more time to chat and to explore business opportunities during August than during the busier months of the year. That’s long been my experience with tax advisers and accountants too.
My favourite observation though is that the people who say they don’t win business in August or December are the ones who don’t prospect in August and December.
I will be including a link to this blog post in today’s edition of the Magic of Success, along with other shorter, quick and simple practical tips and ideas for accountants and tax advisers who want to be more successful. You can join the thousands who get this each week by signing up here now>>>>
I completely agree, Mark. Holiday period is a great time to do prospecting. You can get ahead of your competitors whilst they are winding down and your prospects will likely have fewer people selling to them in this time.
Plus accountants are almost always ‘time poor’ so holiday period is perfect for planning and coming up with some target lists and strategies.