Friday, July 31, 2015

Tomorrow is August 1st ... Avoid the "Dog Days of Summer." We see it year after year ... a certain apathy sets in where many of your staff seem less motivated, more tired, and full of excuses.

Here are five ways to spice things up in August and keep your team on top of their game:

• Instead of ignoring that fact that your sales staff "sometimes" fails to return late in the afternoon and we all know where they are, give them an early exit on Friday, but have a re-cap meeting at 4:30 or 5 Mon-Thurs
• Take the staff to a matinee movie. Really. Go to a noon movie. Buy the tickets and popcorn then press them to finish the day strong.
• Create an incentive for new business in the month of August -- an extra commission point or two, a contest with a prize being dinner and a free day off.
• Challenge your programming/creative staff to create a quick summer promotion that may not be a self-serving sales opportunity, but something to meet the needs of your audience. One of my stations got a bunch of popsicles and passed them out on a 97-degree day on a busy downtown street and said compliments of my station!

And call it what it is. Let them know, you know what's going on and press them to work like it's March or October ... Regardless of what page is turned on the calendar, we still have goals to accomplish, and exceed, and complacency won't get us there.