Industry Views

Pending Business: Planning & Organization

By Steve Lapa
Lapcom Communications Corp
President

On a scale of one to 10, where would you rank yourself on planning and organization?

If you are the #1 seller on your team, how do you rank your ability to plan and organize? If you are working your way to the top, how prepared and organized does the #1 seller on your team look?

Planning and organization don’t mean every hour is filled. Top-tier sellers know interruptions are a given. Demands change on a moment’s notice and change is a constant. The day-to-day selling environment is rarely a walk in the park.

The underlying question is how do you prepare to plan? How do you evaluate the opportunity flow to determine what to emphasize and what to abandon? Which projects do you add, and which ones do you delete?

These are tough calls – these drop/adds – as you painstakingly review time, effort, and emotional attachment in each of your sales projects. But here is the good news. All of us, every seller and every manager, can use fresh eyes on planning and organizational skills. To that end, here is my simple gift to you. A timeline of 13 upcoming sales opportunity events that should be income generators. Let us liberally countdown the sales lead time from today, Monday, March 27 to many of the income producing events that drive your sales calendar. Your specific station may not directly tie-in, however, many of your local sponsors are planning right now. So, let us get busy:

Mother’s Day              6 weeks
Memorial Day             7 weeks
Father’s Day               12 weeks
Independence Day      14 weeks
College Football         22 weeks (Season kickoff)
Labor Day                   23 weeks
NFL                            24 weeks (Season kickoff)
Halloween                   31 weeks
Election Day               32 weeks
Veterans Day              32 weeks
Thanksgiving              34 weeks
Christmas                    38 weeks
New Year’s Eve          39 weeks

There sits the 2023 friend or foe selling calendar before your eyes. Do you have the historics, wins/losses and opportunities organized? How about your competitors? What about newer digital and social media integrations that may need more lead time? Is there any turnover in decision makers at key accounts? Ready to wake up and smell the coffee?

Every high achiever knows, everyone wants to win. But are you properly prepared and positioned to win? Another three minutes of planning a day goes a long way!

Steve Lapa is the president of Lapcom Communications Corp. based in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Lapcom is a media sales, marketing, and development consultancy. Contact Steve Lapa via email at: Steve@Lapcomventures.com. Steve Lappa will be moderating the “Generating Revenue” panel at TALKERS 2023 on Friday, June 2 at Hofstra University.