The theory of the summer slump is a myth.  A fairy tale.

We called this out in a post a few weeks ago, New Business Development “Summer Slump” … Feeling lonely as a Mars Rover?.

That post argues that the summer slump is something we create by buying into the notion it has basis in reality.

Our own data supports this notion that the slump is make-believe.

A key metric we track is the number of meetings with marketers who are prospective clients of our own marketing agency clients.

We looked back at meeting counts for two years, and reviewed when they were scheduled.  The analysis said:

The summer slump does not exist.

In fact, scheduling new business meetings is rather consistent throughout the year.  Over the two year period, each quarter of the year produced about a quarter of the meetings for our clients.  No tremendous peaks; no troughs.

edited chart

This highlights three clear opportunities:

  1. Your competition may believe in the Summer Slump Myth.
  2. You can outperform yourself!
  3. Get those meetings set in the summer and set yourself up for a great end of year run!

 

When you unsubscribe from the Summer Slump Myth, you can outpace competitors who do believe in it, and take a more relaxed approach to what they are telling themselves is a “slow season”.

Plus, success drives success.  So when you pursue the opportunity that truly exists during mythical “slow periods”, the success you score energizes you to breakthrough for even more!

break through the slump

Be alert.  Don’t subscribe to the “slumps”.

 

Mark is a 30-year veteran of the consumer packaged goods, advertising, and marketing service industry. Mark started his career at DDB Needham in Chicago prior to earning his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Business School at Northwestern where he majored in Marketing and Economics. Prior to starting RSW/US in 2005, Mark was General Manager for AcuPOLL, a global research consultancy. Sneider worked in Marketing for S.C. Johnson and KAO Brands. Sneider has been invited to speak at numerous Agency events and network conferences domestically and internationally including the 4A’s, Magnet, NAMA, TAAN, and MCAN. Sneider has been featured in prominent industry publications including Adweek, Media Post, e-Marketer, and Forbes. When not working (which often seems like not often), Mark likes to run miles, go to church, and just chill with a hard copy issue of Fast Company.