By: Andrea Mac | July 19, 2023

If you can only take me in small doses, here's what's new:  

What I am working on this week: Most of our new client work begins with a diagnostic, so my energy this week is focused on evaluating sales processes assets and identifying the most significant opportunities – lots of reading and thinking. I am also building a training curriculum for a client and revising a presentation on client experience that I am delivering in a few weeks.   

What I want to work on that I still need to get to: I would like to catch up on email and respond to those of you waiting patiently for me. I would also like to work on our content plan for the Prequal blog. Although this is our team's responsibility, I enjoy this part of our work.   

A Personal To-Do: I am dropping off my first-born at college in a few weeks. I have a list of priorities that have to get done before then. Why is there so much to buy?

Building Prequal (#5): Happy Pedal To The Metal Season

I have come to love July. It's my favorite month of the year, not because of the vacations and certainly not because the kids are out of school. I love it because it's the best business planning season.   

Because July falls squarely in the middle of the year, it becomes the month when businesses do a check-in on their New Year's goals. They evaluate, pivot, and sometimes reset.   

July is what I like to call "pedal to the metal" season. All the goal-setting that people do at the beginning of the year and all the things they wanted to do should have taken shape in some form. July is when you're forced to reckon with the version of where you thought you'd be this year. This is the month where the rubber meets the road.   

People start evaluating their goals. They start putting money and effort toward their goals, and they really start trying to do some shiz.   

We've seen a huge uptick in RFPs and pitches this month (yay!) because so many company leaders are ready to put muscle behind the goals they've set (double yay!). That muscle often comes in the form of sales training, business development coaching, and client experience design – all things that Prequal excels in.   

It's truly an exciting time to be in business because we get the privilege to help these companies and individuals take actionable steps to achieve the goals they set. It's more exciting work for us, more revenue for us, and more revenue for the companies we work with. My number 1 Strength Finder strength is competition, so more than anything, I really love to set a goal and achieve it. I'm completely swept up in the excitement of this time of year. (You can bet I'm a super chill participant at board game nights.)  

At Prequal, we also get reflective in July. This month, we pulled out and reevaluated our own plan. We looked at it with fresh eyes and have made minor tweaks and adjustments to more accurately reflect how the year has gone and what potential lies ahead. Whereas January feels like pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking, we now have six months of data, experience, and real-life examples to pull from and inform the second half of our year. The goals we set now feel far more realistic.   

So cheers to mid-year planning and pedal to the metal season. Happy July.  

A.  

P.S.  If you could care less about what I am up to and are just here for the sales tips and business advice, subscribe to our Prequal newsletter instead. Or follow both?