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It's Only Common Sense: The Cure for the Summertime Blues

Dan Beaulieu's weekly audio column is available here.

Here we go again. This is the time of year when things tend to slow down a bit in this industry. Even in good years, there is usually a bit of a dip in June and July, but in the past not-so-good years, summers have been a real problem.

It begins in June when school ends and families are in transition. There are vacations and graduations and weddings and changing venues such as moving to the summer home that affect everyone. But for some reason, these events that used to take a day or two now take a week. I remember when the Fourth of July was just that, July Fourth. But now for many people, the holiday becomes a weeklong celebration that leaves companies virtually gutted for a week’s time.

The same thing can be said for other holidays now. The Christmas holiday used to take a day or two at the most, and New Year’s was restricted to one day. Now, these two holidays have merged into one or even two weeks of time off. When did this all happen? When did we start shutting down business for days, if not weeks at a time?

And now with our aging work force, people have accumulated enough vacation time to take four to six weeks off, in addition to the grossly extended holidays.

And it’s only going to get worse. For example, look at Europe. Most Europeans take practically the entire summer off, and they want more? Sweden now has a 30-hour work week. And other European countries are following suit while looking at us like we’re hardworking weirdos because we still have a 40-hour work week.  Our workforce is still the hardest working in the Western world; where once we looked at this with pride we now look at it with almost a feeling of shame.

So with everybody taking all of this time off, it becomes even harder to do business. It becomes much more difficult to make sales quotes if there is no one at work to give your sales pitch to or to book orders from. So what do you do to? What is the cure for the summertime blues?

First of all, never stop selling. Never use all of these extended holidays and vacations as an excuse to do nothing. Very simply put, you never stop selling, because here is always someone in the office somewhere.

There is always someone out there who needs your boards, always.

The president of one of our industry’s largest “no-touch” PCB companies once told me that their busiest time for online orders of PCBs was Christmas Day. I told him this was hard to believe, but he insisted it was true.

Secondly, use the holidays as a time to promote your own company. Many times your competition will just throw up their arms in disgust and shut down claiming that it’s just not economically logical for them to keep their doors open between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The same thing happens in Canada during the last week of July and the first week of August, when that country just about shuts down.

But you should do the exact opposite. Keep a crew on hand and tell the world that you are not closing down; you will stay open to meet their needs. Do this and you will get business, I can tell you that. Make sure you promote the fact that you are going to be there for customers even if none of your rivals will be. Get this message out to them. Put out a newsletter announcement to your current customers; include potential customers, companies you want to do business with.

This is a perfect time to break into a new account. That company might need boards, and if their regular vendors are shut down, it’s a great time to invade their account.

Third, break out of your niche a little bit. If you are a regular production shop, for example, take this opportunity to do some quick-turn work. Do this based on what those customers are going to need at that time.

The thing to remember is that always – always – be selling. Always try to get that edge over the other guys. Remember that the selling you do today will most certainly pay off tomorrow; if you keep selling during slow periods, you will see results. They might not be immediate results, but you will get results, so just keep doing it.

Something important occurs when you show up when all the others have given up. Think of the lasting impression you create about yourself and your company when you show up on a sales call in the middle of a blizzard. Think of what this looks like to your customers and what it means to your company’s image.

Well, the same thing applies when you let your customers know that you are there for them at all times. Let your customers know that your company can be relied upon to always be there, always ready to give them whatever they need, whenever they need it.

It’s only common sense