Schools out! While the children are ready for their summer adventures, a big topic amongst working adults is, “Where are you going on your summer vacation?”. So we’re not all that different than our kids with a summer mentality.
We need to throw caution to the wind that sellers will begin falling into the big ‘summer’ excuse trap, “No one is around in the summer to call on.” And get derailed in sales. Plus the National Summer Learning Association claims most students lose about two months grade level equivalency over the summer months. We certainly don’t want to lose two months of selling time or sales! As parents or camp counselors create fun and interesting activities to keep the kids entertained and their brains active, let’s do the same for our sales teams. These 3 fun sales techniques entertain, engage and equip your sellers to build team synergy and skills to be able to sell more no matter what time of the year it is.
- Monthly Summer Book Club.
- Select these three books (or three of your personal favorites) – one for each summer month
Conversations That Sell by Nancy Bleeke
Agile Selling by Jill Konrath
The Rainmaker’s Quick Guide to Lasting Sales Success by Carolyn Coradeschi
- Divide the monthly book into 4 equal chapters.
- Discuss those chapters at the 4 sales meetings in the months of June, July, and August.
- Summer Bowling
- Schedule a bowling party for your sales team.
- Arrange with the bowling center for several practice rounds per person.
- After the practice rounds, bring your sellers in to a huddle
- In the huddle, make this announcement: “We will bowl 2 rounds. The first round with your opposite dominant hand and the second round with your dominant hand.” You’ll hear plenty of groans – just shrug and laugh it off.
- Let the games begin. It will be quite comical as there will be plenty of gutter balls and complaining going on. Capture each person’s score at the end of game one. Bowl the second game and again capture everyone’s score.
- Have food, fun and a good time. Before everyone leaves, hand each person a sealed envelope with this note inside: “How was this bowling experience similar to your daily role and responsibilities?”
- Request each seller to wait until the morning to read the card. Of course they will read it as soon as they get in their car! That’s okay.
- Inform the team you’ll be discussing what’s inside the note in the morning.
- Lead the morning discussion. You’ll be amazed at how many people will say things like, “I let my emotions get in the way of making changes.” “I take thinks for granted and need to be more open minded.” “I don’t adapt to change well.”
- List the common themes from their ah-ha moment and determine actions to turn those challenges around.
- Pop Corn and Movie Time
- Show a short clip from a movie each day for a week.
- Ask one or two debrief questions after each movie.
- A few personal favorites are:
Randy Pausch- The Last Lecture at the Oprah Winfrey Show. This will invoke an emotional response and inspire us all to live a better life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IjVl8xzCSk
Motivational Football Coach teaches how to overcome our limits http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozztKbU3Btk
Let’s build a filer. In order for the staff at Houston Command Control for NASA to save the lives of the astranauts on Appolo 13, they needed to build a filter with only the materials onboard. What problem does your team need to solve with only the resources on hand?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3csfLkMJT4
Go ahead, keep the summer sales slump at bay and have fun while doing just that!
