Latest / Partnerships Unraveled / 039 - Summer slowness: Ways to avoid the Seasonal Slump

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039 - Summer slowness: Ways to avoid the Seasonal Slump · Partnerships Unraveled

• 0:07
  Welcome back to Partnerships Unraveled the podcast where we unravel the mysteries of partnerships and channel on a weekly basis.
• 0:15
  My name is Rick van den Bosch, and I'm the CEO and founder at Channext.
• 0:18
  And I'm here together with Alex Whitford, VP of Partners.
• 0:22
  Alex, how are you doing today?
• 0:22
  Yeah, really good.
• 0:24
  It's summertime officially, excited to be here.
• 0:27
  Yeah.
• 0:27
  Great, you're wearing a jumper actually, while it's hotter than it's usually here in the Netherlands.
• 0:33
  Yeah.
• 0:33
  We're going to let everyone know behind the scenes how this works.
• 0:36
  We literally recorded our last podcast 20 minutes ago and I only have a jumper and a T shirt.
• 0:41
  So for continuities differences, I'm now wearing a jumper and I think it's 28 degrees outside.
• 0:47
  I am boiling.
• 0:49
  So if I suddenly pass out apologies.
• 0:51
  Taking one for the team.
• 0:51
  Awesome.
• 0:54
  Yeah.
• 0:54
  And I think actually when this episode is going to air, it will be in the first week of July.
• 1:00
  So it's actually summertime has really started.
• 1:03
  Indeed, like the grease outside, the weather is already very summerish, but officially in the Netherlands, the summer start on the 21 June.
• 1:11
  And I think from that perspective it will be interesting to dive into the summer.
• 1:15
  We're all in sales, right.
• 1:17
  In partnerships it's always a bit slower, like how are we going to attack this period of time?
• 1:22
  Besides of course, some very well deserved vacation and relaxing.
• 1:26
  But what are we going to do around that?
• 1:28
  Yeah, my old mentor used to say it's the most depressing time of the year because revenue comes slowest.
• 1:32
  So yeah, maybe an insight into him.
• 1:35
  But yeah, for sure you've got to build your business around this period.
• 1:39
  Right.
• 1:39
  Because it's great for the summer but especially in certain parts of the world you're going to take a massive amount of time off and you got to factor that into how we continue to drive sales.
• 1:47
  Yeah, 100%.
• 1:48
  Because I think that's one of the things right.
• 1:50
  Like a lot of people go on holiday, everything slows down a little bit, et cetera.
• 1:55
  What is one of the first things like when you approach such a summer?
• 1:58
  What are some of the things you have to think about when you still make sure over the year that you hit your target?
• 2:05
  Yes.
• 2:05
  You've got a plan for the drop.
• 2:06
  Right.
• 2:06
  So I've spent a lot of time in my career setting out sort of twelve month, 24 month business plans.
• 2:12
  And even if you're scaling like crazy you will see a dip in July and August and especially if you're dealing with say, southern Europe right.
• 2:22
  Great countries who clearly prioritise the right things and that's having a really good healthy summer holiday.
• 2:27
  And in France, most of August people take a good two weeks off and sometimes those two weeks aren't the same two weeks and it just causes deal sort of sluggishness.
• 2:36
  Right.
• 2:36
  So you've got to really plan for what you're going to do when in the year and recognise that it's not going to be a linear growth, even if you're growing, that it's going to be flatter in Q3.
• 2:47
  And then you've got to predict that spike in Q2 and that spike in Q4 to really make up for it.
• 2:53
  Are those always also in channel, like, the strongest quarters in terms of sales, Q2 and Q4?
• 2:59
  So we got to make sure we do this the right way around.
• 3:01
  In England, it will be September to December will be your second strongest, and then January to March will be your strongest.
• 3:09
  That's because the fiscal year really ends in England in April, whereas in Europe, typically, it's tied to calendar year, and so you're going to see a much stronger Q Four.
• 3:21
  So September to October to December, you're going to see that's going to be your strongest quarter, and then you're going to see the quarter before summer be your second strongest quarter.
• 3:30
  Yeah, I agree.
• 3:30
  There like, I've been an entrepreneur for nine years now and always Q Four always based from the Netherlands, but was always the strongest quarter.
• 3:38
  Indeed, yeah.
• 3:38
  You'll hear different types of businesses in the UK, which I think is a bit of an odd case, as the British typically are.
• 3:45
  Government contracts are always terminating end of March, so there's lots of budget burn, lots of big deals closed.
• 3:51
  So if you're selling into public sector in the UK, that typically that's going to be your big spike, which is always exciting in England, because basically you can make your year in H Two because you've got the two strongest quarters sort of back to back.
• 4:04
  And so even if you've had a rubbish H One, you can really make miracles happen as you get into the sort of closing year.
• 4:10
  Yeah, interesting.
• 4:10
  So H2 is really important.
• 4:12
  Like, if you screw up that one, then it's game over the UK.
• 4:16
  Yeah, I think I much prefer the balance of the balance of Europe.
• 4:20
  Where you've got the second quarter of H1 is really important, the second quarter of H2 is really important.
• 4:24
  And so you've got this a little bit of a more linear progress that you can really drive impetus.
• 4:29
  When you're planning for the drop, let's say our listeners.
• 4:32
  Now, we're already in the summer, of course, but when you usually create your year planning, is there a certain rule of thump for the summer?
• 4:39
  Like, is it a certain percentage less than other quarters?
• 4:42
  Or how can you plan for that properly?
• 4:44
  Yeah, the great thing about channel is channel is fairly predictable, especially a channel at scale.
• 4:48
  And so the best thing to do is look at previous years, right.
• 4:50
  Go back and look at your growth and look at it month over month.
• 4:56
  And what you'll see is you can average out 8% a month if it's completely flat.
• 5:01
  Right.
• 5:01
  Your 8% of your revenue comes each month and you'll see, well, that's not true.
• 5:05
  More like 18% will come in December but maybe only 4% in August.
• 5:09
  And so you can start to map out very predictably what you need to do and then you drive behaviour from there.
• 5:16
  And so what some businesses will say is actually we're fine with that and we're fine that August is going to be horrendous because we're going to make up for it in December.
• 5:25
  Some really hate that because it's very high risk.
• 5:28
  A couple of deals slip and your whole year falls apart.
• 5:30
  And so they want to actually grow August and get a bit more linearity, flatten that curve slightly so you don't have these horrendous hockey sticks at the end of quarter.
• 5:40
  So you want to sort of lean into the strengths of the business and see what you can do to bring the right balance.
• 5:45
  But you've got to be realistic.
• 5:45
  Realistically.
• 5:47
  In the summer you are going to struggle to match March and December for example.
• 5:54
  For example, you build a spreadsheet.
• 5:56
  You take the last three years and in every year you take the revenue of that month and divide it by the total twelve months of that specific year.
• 6:04
  And then you get to those percentages.
• 6:06
  You take averages and then you can give like an estimate.
• 6:09
  Okay, last three years in August, 1 time it was 8%, one time six and one times seven.
• 6:15
  So the average is going to be 7% there.
• 6:15
  Yeah.
• 6:18
  What you want to do is break out each month as a percentage of annual revenue and you'll see that you get a percentage broken out per month and it might be 4% for August or whatever it is.
• 6:28
  And then you know what your this year goal is, right?
• 6:32
  If you're going to go oh, we're going to hit 10 million, well, you know, 4% of 10 million is going to land in August.
• 6:36
  Right.
• 6:36
  That's there.
• 6:38
  And then you want to work your rotation around.
• 6:41
  Okay, if we think August is going to be bad, where do we need to be strong?
• 6:45
  And what's really important if you are trending behind that number I E, you were predicting March to be 12% and it's only 10%.
• 6:53
  If you're still going to hit your annual target, you need to make up some of that number through the rest of the year.
• 7:00
  And you probably don't want to be putting that pressure in the summer months because things like contracts just won't get signed.
• 7:07
  Right?
• 7:07
  So if getting speed of deals through the door, if contracts are a big issue, you don't want to be reliant on August and especially in some countries because they'll just be off.
• 7:17
  And if the lawyer is on annual leave and he's the one that's got to sign it, guess what?
• 7:21
  It's just not getting signed.
• 7:22
  It doesn't matter how good a salesperson you are, you can't make that happen.
• 7:26
  And so I would be making sure that you are allowing for consideration that deal velocity is going to be a bit slower through the summer, that deal conversion is going to be a bit lower.
• 7:35
  And so you're just flexing your prioritisation around, make sure you get the deals in before July, make sure you get the deals in after August, so that you're not reliant on really landing deals in that month.
• 7:48
  Yeah.
• 7:48
  I also really think that when I look at my own experience, for example, that it can really help you by creating a good planning and really taking account into account what we actually expect for the summer, that it can help you to enjoy the summer a lot more and your holiday, et cetera.
• 8:02
  We are all preparing for the Q4 end sprint, always around after the summers.
• 8:06
  So I think from that perspective, indeed, what you really want to do as well, if you know that your number, like what I did in the past, for example, was every month it grows, it grows, it grows, it grows in the summer, it just keeps growing.
• 8:17
  But realistically, you need to take into account but July and August is indeed a bit slower, and then from September you ramp up again.
• 8:24
  And I think if you take that into account, it can actually really help you as well.
• 8:27
  Like, okay, it is good at this moment and we know we'll make up for it later on in the year.
• 8:32
  Yeah, exactly.
• 8:33
  And I actually, it's funny, we've had this debate a few times, the sort of French system where most of the country takes a couple of weeks off in August.
• 8:42
  It's actually a brilliant system because it means almost no work will get done, but then it means everyone is back and in September they're ready to go.
• 8:49
  Whereas it's really typical for people in England to take holiday in September because it's cheaper, because the school kids have gone back to school, so flights are cheap and then suddenly, oh, you need that lawyer, and you go, he's an IBA, having a big weekend.
• 9:01
  Oh, I can't get him to sign the contract.
• 9:03
  It's actually, in some ways, a more elegant system that you just have everyone go on annual leave, everyone budgets for a down month, and then we're all back at the races come September, ready for the sprint until Christmas.
• 9:14
  Yeah.
• 9:14
  I think it's also super common in the US right, that everyone takes off in August.
• 9:18
  Yeah, exactly.
• 9:19
  I think they even closed down congress then, right.
• 9:21
  Everyone is just it's just agreed.
• 9:23
  And I think that's a much more logical system.
• 9:26
  Pretty busy on the beaches, I imagine, but yeah, that just makes sense.
• 9:30
  But when you can't organise and coordinate your teams that way, it's important you're organising, coordinating your forecast, because the last thing you want to be doing is chasing people.
• 9:40
  And I've seen it burn bridges, where you're calling someone chasing a contractor and they're like, I'm on holiday, I don't care, leave me alone.
• 9:47
  I'm with my family and like, oh my God, I need this deal.
• 9:50
  And so, yeah, you want to be getting your work done up front or after.
• 9:55
  Yeah, I think also, like when you manage a bigger region, like full EMEA, then it's also really good to have a clear understanding of what the school holidays look like, et cetera, in certain regions, so you can actually plan for that as well.
• 10:08
  Like your total budget of course consists of multiple regions that you're managing, so France and Benelux and UK, DACH, et cetera, but by really understanding when. It's very different, like which country has holiday during which period, et cetera.
• 10:23
  So therefore you can also plan and really building up that model, so to say, with the local regions building into your total model.
• 10:30
  And if you plan for that, then, you know, the Germans get holiday a bit earlier, so they are slowest in the beginning while all the French are off in August, so that's where I'm going to put the slowest month in August, with France, for example.
• 10:42
  Yeah, and it's a great point and what you want to be able to do is measure that by region, right?
• 10:47
  And so that's one of the things that people will just mess up.
• 10:49
  They'll go, oh, we're having a slow January.
• 10:51
  Well, why?
• 10:53
  And actually you're not having a slow January, you're having a great January.
• 10:56
  Oh, but Germany in this case is being really slow for whatever reason and that doesn't mean you call up France and say, what the hell are you playing at?
• 11:03
  No, you go and you understand the problem in the particular area so that you can go and solve for it.
• 11:07
  And that's good financial planning, good sales coordination.
• 11:10
  But I think the root of the matter is leave as much of the revenue out of summer as humanly possible, try and make hay everywhere else and be very successful and then anything that you do achieve in the summer, it's a bonus, it's a win.
• 11:25
  Yeah, I think there and if you look at it, what we are really not saying is take your foot off the gas right during summer.
• 11:31
  Like you still need to push hard when you're working, et cetera, because every revenue is contributing to your target, but it's just you need to plan accordingly to it because otherwise you put an amount of stress on yourself and the business.
• 11:44
  That's very unhealthy.
• 11:45
  It makes you less relaxed when you are on your holiday, et cetera, if you plan properly for that summer break.
• 11:51
  Indeed.
• 11:51
  And from that perspective, still really give it your own all the revenue opportunities that are there, try to bring them in.
• 11:57
  But then indeed, like, if you overachieve during summer, it will give you more bandwidth towards the end of the year and you can maybe even push to overachieve target.
• 12:05
  Yeah.
• 12:05
  And the bit for me, it's not just I'll take your foot off the gas, it's actually you still do the same amount of work, it just might be different work.
• 12:13
  And I think that's actually one of the real opportunities in summer.
• 12:17
  The things that don't work in summer are chasing through the end of the deal.
• 12:21
  But starting up deals, building stronger relationships, doing more of the nurturing element is much easier in summer because some of the pressure is off internally and with your customers gets you some more breathing room and you can actually go and get things like project feedback and product updates and foster relationships and do some of that more cultural stuff, more fun stuff, which is going to set you up for success further down the line.
• 12:44
  And that's actually one of the really useful elements is when everyone knows the deal is not going to happen for another six weeks, you can actually start to get some of the more tactical stuff done.
• 12:54
  Yeah, I think it's an excellent opportunity to work on strategic projects.
• 12:58
  I'm a big fan of the Eisenhower metrics for our listeners.
• 13:02
  Please google it like it's really good.
• 13:03
  And there they always talk around what kind of projects are you working on and what kind of tasks are set rendering you have, for example, highly urgent and high impact, that is closing deals.
• 13:15
  They are highly urgent because we're working towards a deadline, but they also highly impact your result eventually.
• 13:21
  But the projects that are really hard to work on are the very important projects, but not urgent.
• 13:26
  So, like optimizations within your partner programmes or really like rearranging your partner tiering, et cetera, stuff like that, it takes a lot of time.
• 13:34
  You know, it's very important for the long term health of your channel and of your partnerships, but usually when you are in the weeds in the deals, et cetera, you can't find the time for it, right?
• 13:43
  Like we have it all the time as well.
• 13:45
  And therefore summer is an excellent opportunity to work on projects like those.
• 13:50
  Yeah, it's expense season, right?
• 13:51
  That's when every single salesperson finally does all of their expenses for the whole year.
• 13:55
  But it is a useful moment where you can start to catch up with some of the stuff that is important but not urgent.
• 14:01
  And sometimes those things over the time really can pile up and if they don't get done, you're not going to drive the long term progress that you need.
• 14:08
  But obviously, sales is typically an on fire game, right?
• 14:12
  It's, oh my God, there's a deal in front of me, I need to close this deal.
• 14:14
  And the, and the next one, next one, and the next one, and the next one, and that breathing room can get you to do some of the executive presence, executive sponsorship stuff that you need to do.
• 14:23
  Make sure you're sowing the seeds of success in early so that you can continue to grow very, very well into Q4, because that's the worst thing.
• 14:32
  If you've got a quiet summer from a revenue perspective, but then you've also had a quiet summer from an activity perspective.
• 14:38
  Well, guess what?
• 14:38
  Your job's twice as big come Q4 because you've not started the deals that you should have started.
• 14:43
  You've not built the relationships you should have built.
• 14:45
  And now we're into Q4 and I'm behind on revenue and behind on activity.
• 14:50
  Yeah.
• 14:50
  What I also always really like what they talk a lot about around that Eisenhower metrics.
• 14:55
  It's like working in this usually they use the phrase like working on your business or working in your business, but I think it's very relevant for the channel as well.
• 15:04
  We're always working in our channel.
• 15:04
  Right?
• 15:06
  We're working in the deals.
• 15:08
  We make sure that we push hard, that we get the deals over the line, that we build partnerships.
• 15:12
  But also you really need to take the time to zoom out and work on your channel, your partner programme, your relationships.
• 15:18
  There's such a lot to do there, and I think that's why it's so important to work on those important projects, but that are not urgent right now.
• 15:26
  But those are usually typically the project that will make the most impact a year from now or two years from now.
• 15:33
  Yes.
• 15:33
  So the one that I always see so cams, very often, they'll have their primary partners, they're eight to ten partners that they make their revenue off, but they'll always have one to two partners that they should be recruiting or activating.
• 15:46
  When deals are flowing like crazy, guess what?
• 15:48
  They're not doing that.
• 15:48
  Why?
• 15:49
  Because they got to get the deals over the line.
• 15:51
  You can't mess up in a deal, then fall out.
• 15:54
  Right.
• 15:54
  That's crazy.
• 15:56
  However, summer, that two month period when actually deal pace and deal velocity, there's just less of it.
• 16:02
  You're less constrained.
• 16:03
  That's the time to go and do that strategic analysis.
• 16:06
  Who's the partner that I'm going to recruit and activate?
• 16:08
  Who's the partner that's going to come into my top ten?
• 16:11
  Let's build a plan, let's do the outreach.
• 16:13
  Because that partners then might be the reason that next year you have a much easier run at your target.
• 16:19
  Because while everyone else was just closing the deals within their accounts, you managed to add an account or two and really get them up to speed into Q4, meaning that the next FY, you're actually in a really strong position.
• 16:30
  Yeah.
• 16:30
  100%.
• 16:31
  Those are the game changes.
• 16:31
  Right.
• 16:32
  Like, if all of a sudden, instead of eight, you have ten very successful partners, it will have a massive impact on your number the next year.
• 16:39
  Yeah.
• 16:39
  For me, the real thing that I sort of challenge salespeople on is how do you get to 200%?
• 16:46
  And what I really like about that mantra, and it's the old Formula One analogy, if you need a car to go 10% faster, you optimise the car.
• 16:52
  If you need the car to go 200% faster, you build a new car.
• 16:56
  What I really like about that process is when you challenge someone, how do I get to 200%?
• 17:00
  They'll give you a wildly different answer than, how do I overachieve?
• 17:04
  And what the context of what's in that wildly different answer is usually what they should be doing in the quiet months and setting themselves up for massive overachievement in the following year.
• 17:14
  Yeah.
• 17:15
  What are some of the strategic projects that you could work on?
• 17:18
  Let's say you're ahead of partner, ahead of channel.
• 17:21
  What are some things that could really impact your business long term?
• 17:24
  Yeah.
• 17:24
  So the first is analysis of my current channel.
• 17:27
  Right.
• 17:27
  So where are we winning?
• 17:29
  Where are we losing?
• 17:29
  What data do I have and what conclusions can I draw and really getting the team together to understand?
• 17:35
  Okay, hang on, we've seen this is working in the UK, but it's not working in France.
• 17:40
  Let's delve into why.
• 17:42
  Is it a culture problem?
• 17:42
  Is it a team problem?
• 17:44
  Is it a talent problem?
• 17:44
  Is it a process problem?
• 17:46
  Does that actually just not work in France, but it does in the UK for economic reasons or whatever?
• 17:51
  The thing is contextualise that answer and then put the plan together and you're exactly right.
• 17:55
  I'm working on the channel, not in the channel.
• 17:58
  I get to get into that helicopter view, get out of the weeds and really understand the mechanisms.
• 18:03
  And to me, that's always been a data game.
• 18:05
  The second bit I'd then be doing is analysing competition.
• 18:08
  Right.
• 18:08
  I think we're all aware of our competition, but we're very rarely understanding what they're doing, what they're doing, how they're going to market, what are they innovating?
• 18:18
  Where are they better?
• 18:18
  Where are we better?
• 18:20
  We just sort of someone does a bit of research and we say, oh, this is where we win and we sell on that and we move on.
• 18:25
  That's the time that I would really start to pour through information, understand, oh, we lost this deal.
• 18:32
  Why?
• 18:33
  And actually spend time to really think I'm a big whiteboard person, as everyone in the office knows, and I'll spend a good half an hour, 45 minutes every day analysing things so that I can start to infect and really drive change.
• 18:47
  But the really productive ones are when we and the sort of MT get away for two days and radically redesign everything.
• 18:53
  That's your opportunity to do that in the summer.
• 18:56
  Yeah, that's correct.
• 18:57
  And I'm fully on board with the competitor piece as well, because that's what we so often forget, right.
• 19:02
  We're so busy with all the stuff happening inside our company, with our partners, et cetera.
• 19:07
  While so crucial when you're designing your partner programme to have a very clear point of view of, what does my competitive landscape look like and how am I going to position how are we going to position ourselves?
• 19:18
  Like, what is our USP?
• 19:20
  The better you are able to communicate that partner recruitment will become easier, onboarding will become better.
• 19:26
  I like that one.
• 19:27
  I think that's really a crucial pillar of building a strong partner programme.
• 19:30
  And the last one I would really focus on in the summer is partners feedback.
• 19:34
  So you might be slow, but guess what?
• 19:36
  Your partners are also slow because their end users are slow.
• 19:39
  Right?
• 19:39
  Everyone's off deal velocity is way down.
• 19:42
  Well, getting hold of the people who, you know, are actually in and touching base with them.
• 19:47
  And a little tip for everyone ahead of summer, find out when everyone's on annually.
• 19:51
  Stick it in your calendar so you've got a good sense.
• 19:54
  It's also pretty good idea to text them the day before and say, hey, enjoy the holiday.
• 19:57
  It's a really nice relationship builder, but if you've got a real understanding of who's in, you can start to schedule time to say, oh, actually, now is a really good time for me just to get 2 hours of feedback from a partner and not talk about the nitty gritty of each deal.
• 20:12
  But just understand, where are we winning?
• 20:14
  Why do you sell us and you probably sell our competitor?
• 20:17
  And what differences do you find?
• 20:19
  And what you'll find is a good two hour conversation like that, done five, six times with five, six different partners and then done at scale with lots of channel account managers.
• 20:29
  You are going to have a font of knowledge, a real understanding of where you're winning and losing and what opportunities you have to make an incremental difference next year.
• 20:39
  And I think that's a really nice thing about summer.
• 20:41
  If done well, you're not going to affect Q4 as much, but you're massively going to affect Q4 next year.
• 20:48
  Yeah, I really like that one.
• 20:50
  It really builds the foundation for the rest of your partner programme and the success in the future.
• 20:56
  What I was just thinking about, we've been talking around closing deals, of course, now and I think definitely their summer usually is slower and that it takes more time, et cetera, or it's like they wait until September before closing starts happening again.
• 21:09
  But I think what I do want to emphasise, once you've been working a lot as well on the long term projects there, what's also super relevant during the summer is so the seeds so making sure that you actually start proactively building your pipeline again for Q4.
• 21:25
  Because you know that's where you need and want to end strong.
• 21:28
  And there's a lot of work actually, that you can do with account mapping, making sure you really know who am I going to target with, what partners, where are we going to focus on, et cetera.
• 21:37
  And can we already start first conversations so that we are in the driver's seat as soon as closing season starts again.
• 21:44
  Yeah.
• 21:44
  For me, the one that I absolutely love doing ahead of summer.
• 21:47
  If I know that I need to get into a sales cycle with this partner or with this end customer and they're about to go on holiday, I love to touch in and just say, hey, look appreciate you're going on holiday.
• 21:59
  We both know that we need to talk.
• 22:01
  So let's schedule some time now for two weeks after you're back.
• 22:05
  Let's get you so you've got the first week out of the way and you understand and then we'll sit down.
• 22:10
  If you go and do that, people are very amenable to that conversation because it feels very far away.
• 22:16
  They'll be very agreeable to booking meetings in because their holiday is coming up.
• 22:19
  They're all happy and they're all excited and you've been conscientious enough to say not two days after you're back from holiday, but let's pick a couple of weeks after.
• 22:27
  People will agree a much higher rate than usual when you do that and then do it at scale, get it done.
• 22:35
  Fill your diary up in September because if you do the hard groundwork through the summer, you fill your diary in September, you're going to have a very strong Q4.
• 22:44
  And that's the sort of rampant runway that you need to deliver to make up for the shortfall in revenue that's happened in July and August.
• 22:51
  Yeah, 100%.
• 22:52
  I also think that the end user will feel and the partners that there's less pressure from you, like everyone feels it right.
• 23:00
  If we're working towards our deadline end of quarter, we need to meeting now, next week or whatever.
• 23:05
  But if you in summer because you know anyhow like the closing will start probably in September and you give them a bit more bandwidth, it feels a lot more relaxed for them and they're much more open to meet probably.
• 23:15
  And when it's in the diaries, then the chance that you will get into that sales cycle is so much higher.
• 23:20
  Yeah, exactly.
• 23:20
  And for me it's always the nice one is suddenly you don't have these big intro calls and this hard pitch.
• 23:29
  It's just hey, I just wanted to touch base, appreciate you're probably going on holiday soon, so wanted to schedule something for September when worked.
• 23:35
  Oh yeah, okay, thanks.
• 23:37
  And then suddenly we're into that flow and we've skipped a lot of that cold entry and then obviously that's the scaling vector of channel, right?
• 23:44
  If you do this consistently with your channel account managers, with your high touch, people who manage end user relationships do it at scale, suddenly you're really sowing the seeds in August.
• 23:54
  That's going to really impact your success for the rest of the year.
• 23:57
  Yeah, and I think one of the last things I would like to emphasise is really not everyone is going like nobody is going on a holiday for two months, right?
• 24:07
  Like you touched upon it briefly already know when your partners, when your end users, et cetera, when the right stakeholders within the partners and the end users know when they go on holiday because that's also.
• 24:19
  How you can plan your own summer.
• 24:21
  Like, when do you want to be in contact?
• 24:23
  Oh, in those specific, the first two weeks of August, actually.
• 24:26
  Every stakeholder, all stakeholders within that partner are in.
• 24:30
  That's the moment when I'm going to our office, because we can do a big strategy there.
• 24:34
  We can do how are we going to attack Q four day?
• 24:37
  And I think in such a way, you become very proactive around it instead of reaching out and like, oh, no, everyone is off.
• 24:44
  Okay, well, I'll try again off of summer.
• 24:46
  But if, you know, in end of June or early July, like, when is everyone out?
• 24:50
  Who am I going to contact with then?
• 24:52
  You can actually build a summer plan where you still make a lot of impact, but you just have to plan it a little better.
• 24:57
  Yeah, it's a great point, but what you're really calling out there is be organised and that's what so many people mess up.
• 25:03
  They get to July and they start calling people and people are annual leave.
• 25:06
  You need to start doing that due diligence in May and June.
• 25:09
  Right.
• 25:09
  Understanding.
• 25:11
  Hey, what's your plans for summer?
• 25:11
  When are you away?
• 25:13
  I want to schedule some time with you, but obviously I want to work around your holidays.
• 25:16
  Let's get some time in the diary and let's sync.
• 25:18
  And that works perfectly.
• 25:20
  Everyone's booked their holiday in May, right?
• 25:22
  So it just unless you're me and really disorganised, everyone's done it.
• 25:26
  So you can just schedule it and organise it in May and just get going and then it just works out.
• 25:31
  And what you'll find is you will have a significant amount of impact because you're having a slow time, but so are they.
• 25:37
  And you've got this breathing room and a little tip.
• 25:41
  A few years ago, we did a distribution summer barbecue and it was one of the most attended events I've ever seen in the channel, because it was beers and burgers.
• 25:49
  Right.
• 25:49
  Everyone was well up for it and everyone's fairly relaxed.
• 25:52
  And suddenly that was a real opportunity for the 60% of people who were still available that week.
• 25:59
  I think sometimes we overestimate how many people are on holiday.
• 26:03
  It's never 90% of the business.
• 26:03
  Right.
• 26:05
  It's at max 40%.
• 26:07
  And so then you've still got 60% of people that you can build and really drive that relationship with.
• 26:12
  Yeah, 100%, I think.
• 26:12
  Indeed.
• 26:14
  Like, and even now, like, this episode is going to launch beginning of July, of course, but it's not too late.
• 26:20
  Yes, you need to plan it as early as possible, but most people are going on a holiday mid-July till end of August.
• 26:26
  Pick up the phone, call your most important partners.
• 26:28
  When are you out?
• 26:29
  When can we still schedule some time together?
• 26:31
  And I think in such a way, like, with the combination of the things we discussed, you can have a very successful summer.
• 26:36
  Yeah, 100%.
• 26:37
  And make it fun.
• 26:39
  I think that's why everyone's in a good mood and some of the sun's shining, or at least in the northern Hemisphere, and everyone's having a great time, because the whole point is, like, everyone's a bit relaxed.
• 26:48
  So use this moment to deepen the relationship, because in about four months time, you're going to be calling in favours, pulling deals in hyper, aggressively sow the seeds now so that when you call in that favour, they're thinking, oh, actually, Rick's a good lad.
• 27:02
  He did buy me those beers over the summer and we did have that great chat and that great planning session.
• 27:06
  Okay, I'll see if I can apply some pressure onto the customer or move legal to move even faster because you've got a Q4 deal and that's really why partnerships and channel the best place to be because it's a relationship game.
• 27:18
  So prioritise the relationship.
• 27:20
  Yeah, I think there are some good notes to sell for myself here on how to approach the upcoming summer.
• 27:26
  Beers and burgers.
• 27:26
  Right.
• 27:27
  Easy.
• 27:27
  Love it.
• 27:29
  Thanks for sharing.
• 27:29
  I hope for our listeners as well, you're going to have a very relaxed, but also very successful summer.
• 27:34
  And we'll see you next week.
• 27:34
  Bye.