It is vacation time. We've got a couple ideas on how to stay focused and enthusiastic during the summer vacation periods.

As part of your overall selling and marketing strategy you should know everything about your competitors and customers ~ their products and services, their pricing, their strengths, their weaknesses and last but not least, their vacation schedule.

Contact your competitor's customers the Thursday or Friday before your competitor goes on vacation and schedule a meeting for the first of the week. If you get the appointment, bring your best team, state your best case, and close the sale, complete with a follow up meeting before the end of the week ~ your competitor might come back from vacation with a few less customers.

Likewise, contact your customers in advance of your own vacation and let them know you will be on vacation and out of the office. Let them know you have assigned someone on your team to cover their business and that they will be checking in during the week. Make sure all anticipated orders, promotions, special pricing, and deliveries are booked as far out as possible and inform your customer outstanding customer service will continue, even while you're not around.

I know! Hard to believe things will go on without you around.

Do everything you can to prevent your competitor from getting any chance of scheduling an appointment, and enjoy your vacation.