I’m going to climb on my soapbox and share some things with you. If you were here in the room with me I would call it a speech. But since you aren’t here, I’m instead using email as my proverbial soapbox and hope you listen in.
“A soapbox is a raised platform on which one stands to make an impromptu speech.” – Wikipedia
This is a two part speech.
Part I: October. I’ve heard some grumbling around the office about how people are feeling down. Some are disappointed in their results this month. Others are playing the blame game. And many are pissed off at Craig.
Being down, disappointed and pissed off is not productive. It isn’t getting you anywhere. It isn’t helping you close more business and it isn’t going to help you have a kick ass rest of the year. So lay it down.
October is October. Every year we cross the same bridge from the crazy busy summer season to one of the slowest months of the year. This year is no different when it comes to the slowdown. I realize that we have some new agents who have never experienced a slow month. Well, now you have. This is the seasonality of the business and it happens every year.
What happens after a slow month? We ramp back up for a kick ass December and January. Here is the sales chart from last year. Now you will note that October was the slowest month, followed by February. Now look at November, December and January – we are about to ramp back up!
Now let’s look at a chart for this year below. Look familiar? The charts look really similar right? We always have a slow month after the summer rush ends. One other thing to note from this chart that perhaps isn’t obvious, but so far we are already beating our last year’s October numbers by 14.8%. That’s right… as slow as it may feel for you we are closing 14.8% more business and still have a few days left in the month. We always get a rush of last minute invoices turned in so don’t be surprised if we beat last year’s October by 25%.
Just in case you are still not convinced…. I downloaded the website leads from last October and then from this October. And guess what? As of 11AM today we have received almost exactly the same number of web leads compared to all of last October. And there are still a few days left in the month so I imagine we will finish in the range of 10% higher compared to last year.
This October is not doomsday for you. Yes it is slower than the recent six months but it is exactly what we expect for the season.
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