I used to work for this crazy, super aggressive, publicly traded, very large household name telecommunications company back in the (never mind…don’t need to share that date).
While many things they jammed into me were very painful at the time, one lesson in particular I’ve cleaved to my heart and applied each year to our business.
September meant everything.
September was their spark for the next year.
Not that they were giving up on this year. Not them. They gave up on nothing. Yet, September was special.
September was the month they lit the fuse for seven months of revenue reaping.
You know how slow the 1st quarter can be for all of us? People recovering from the holidays. Businesses without their spending budgets in the early months.
Your efforts don’t yield much…at least not as much as you targeted…and you start the year behind. Then you spend the rest of the year running to catch up…or worse, believing it’s too late to catch up.
Their solution? To have a great 1st quarter you have to have a great 4th quarter.
To have a great 4th quarter, you begin killing it in September.
Guess what?
It’s September. Give it to me…it’s close enough.
If they were still around (moment of silence…okay, that was plenty), they’d be prepping for their annual sales conference…in September, rather than January when most companies start the party.
My former employer began each new year on a high note. They were ahead of their revenue plan because they ended the year on a high note.
I guess you can see where I’m going with this.
September starts your high note.
Shake off your summer (or winter if you’re down under). I don’t care if you’re ahead or behind your money objective.
Your Prosperity Drive starts…now.
Get ready.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha Hanlon and Chris Williams
P.S. Stumped on how to start your Prosperity Drive?
What have you been putting off? What can you move forward? Who should you be calling, emailing…following up with?
I’m not talking something complex. You know exactly what to do. Do it.