This morning after a 95-degree day in Boston where I was yesterday doing booth duty with the DurraPanel team, one of our new very exciting investments, I was thinking in the bumper-to-bumper traffic, as to the various interpretations as to when the summa' begins:

• Of course, the technical answer is June 20th based on the whole solstice thing.
• Most people think of the kickoff as the 3-day Memorial Day weekend full of family barbecues.
• The end of the school year is another benchmark for my Tufts students and fellow professors.
• For me, it's the end of the sales quarter followed by July 4th when everyone is out on vacation.

I've always regarded Q2 as the most important sales quarter of ANY year:

• The January Sales Plan has been tested, rationalized, ripped apart and rewritten.
• Q1 and Q2 Playbooks have been worked through, smoothed out and are being used.
• There's enough CRM analytics that future forecast predictability is "pretty good".
• We know what "A" players we can count on and where to apply extra training for the B's.
• Most importantly, we now have a solid foundation from which we can launch H2. 
  
  

A Tried & Proven Best Practice:

So, coming out of this June, it's the perfect time of year to plan on taking a day during the second week in July with the entire sales and marketing team to meet outside the office to plan out the balance of the year:

• Take an analytical review of "H1 Lessons Learned".  Focus on the highlights, define what tools and what tactics worked and which did not.  This meeting is not a detailed QBR!  It is a fact-based, energy-filled, passion-filled coaching overview of the first 6 months full of metrics and customer win stories to kick off the day. 
• Add in one or two short 45-60 minute, high-impact, detailed skills training programs-one late morning, one midafternoon if you're going to do two and actively engage the team.  Leave them with a specific playbook and an accompanying video and test for their own use.  
• Work through an updated Q3 team playbook for Q3 and take the time to get full commitment.  This becomes the crux for the meeting and the primary takeaway for the team.  One thing I know very well from 20 years of teaching at Tufts and MIT is that active engagement and dynamic team involvement inside the classroom is absolutely critical to the real learning and absorption being done outside the classroom.
• Wrap it up with some fun and a barbecue while applauding and thanking the key H1 contributors with small recognition awards.  Nothing resonates better than recognition from the sales leader in front of peer salespeople.  

Given that July is going to be a month of vacations and interruptions, think about this idea today, kick it around with a few people on Monday and let the team know next week so that people can block out the time.  We've been doing this for years, and it always works!  If you want to work through the specifics, just connect with me at any time either for a few hints, or we can talk about how we could facilitate the process for you.  

Off to Boston for another day of exciting booth duty.  Nothing is better than being face to face with potential customers at a booth being able to deliver true value-selling!   Enjoy the weekend!

It's time to update your own Sales playbook! 

Think about taking a day out of one of the first days of June to work with us to tune up...or maybe actually create your first sales playbook.  

Here's our free how-to ebooks for a few ideas:

"Writing the Winning Sales Plan"
"Writing the Winning Business Plan"
"Writing the Winning Marketing Plan"

We outline ideas on structure, models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best people.  We're real salesguys who continue to play and coach the game every day.  

Connect with me any time at jack@derbymanagement.com and let's discuss.