Summer presents unique challenges to salespeople in all kinds of industries. Would-be clients leave town on vacations, while businesses traditionally trim their budgets during the summer to reflect the perceived lack of activity.

However, the summer months shouldn’t be an excuse to sit back and wait for September to get here. Smart businesses take this time to seek out new opportunities and strengthen relationships with existing customers. Brian Roemmele, President and CEO of 1^st American Card Service, spoke to us about how salespeople can address the difficult summer environment head on and emerge stronger and more focused than before.

BuyerZone: What typical challenges do salespeople face during the summer?

Brian Roemmele: The top challenge is access to your customer. Regardless if the economy is struggling or thriving, it’s difficult for sales people (particularly those in corporate sales) to get access to companies’ key decision makers from mid-June to mid-September. However, it’s not impossible. A lot of work can be transacted during the summer months but you need to use a different strategy, one that involves more phone calls and better relationships with so-called “gatekeepers.”

Getting someone on the phone who may have influence on the lead decision maker could help you complete the sale.

The gatekeeper in this case can be essentially a second decision maker who stands between you and the person in charge of making the final decisions on purchases. What you need to realize is that the gatekeeper – whether a spouse, partner, or office manager – can have a significant impact on decision making whether the person is part of a two-person operation or a large corporate environment.

Gatekeepers may request more details about a product or service and could play a role in finalizing a sale. They typically cultivate the relationship with the salesperson and take their time since they may have the authority to facilitate a purchase. It’s up to the salesperson to listen and field any questions as if the gatekeeper is the one who will sign the contract and write out the check.

BZ: What should companies do to keep sales staff motivated?

BR: Compensation is something that you should review. In sales, you typically pay commission based on the sale but not the ongoing relationship with the customer. This is short-term thinking because most of the important money in a business partnership comes over the long-term. Instead, find new ways to compensate your sales force for their ingenuity with finding new customers and looking for new ways to service existing clients. There are many intangibles involved in sales that should be rewarded and can’t be whittled down to a percentage of the sale.

This probably isn't the type of salesperson a small business owner wants to work with.

For example, if you have salespeople whose leads for new business have dried up, have them contact their existing clients to see if everything is going well and if there are opportunities to provide them with additional help. This shows the client that you still care about their business even though they’ve already bought from you. If the response is positive and they’ve generated interest in buying more of your services and products, come up with a financial payoff for your sales force for taking the new initiative.

Your sales team needs to understand that they’re not just selling a single item or service – they’re selling a relationship. They should be looking for customers who will stick by them for years to come in exchange for good, responsive service. As the economy slows, aggressive sales techniques become increasingly less effective. It’s forcing the customer’s hand to make a decision and will eventually cost the salesperson business over time.

BZ: Can these same techniques work for any industry?

BR: Absolutely! In fact, I can’t think of an industry with a sales team where this wouldn’t work. You always have to see yourself as developing a relationship with selling no matter what you do, particularly in B2B sales where there are name brands available from thousands of different sources. Customers will typically prefer to buy from experienced individuals regardless of brand recognition because of the ongoing relationship and mutual respect.

If you don’t love what you’re doing, the products you’re selling, or the ideas you’re presented with, you won’t be successful regardless of industry. When a great idea takes off, people find ways to make it wholly a part of their experience. True success comes when you love what you do and foster the concept of creating those lasting business relationships. Work on that and the money will follow you instead of you chasing it.

The bottom line is: all people use the same skills sets for business and personal purchases. The sales team’s job is to show the customers respect and guide them through the purchase and make their decision easy and efficient based on real value and service. That’s the best way to foster a healthy, lengthy relationship with a customer. And even if it doesn’t result in a sale, if you have a great product to offer, it lays the groundwork. You’ll get a lot further when you genuinely work to gain a customer’s trust then to strong arm them into the immediate sale.

BZ: What do you think of social media web sites like Twitter or Facebook as a way for salespeople to stay in touch with current and prospective customers?

BR: Every form of communication, when used appropriately, has value. Successful businesspeople realize that staying in touch with customers is one of the highest priorities and social media helps them quickly achieve that goal.

It’s important to stay open and vibrant to new technologies and forms of communications, even if it initially seems silly or pointless. Younger people moving up in the business world are so adapt at using social media as part of their lives that it’s become a no-brainer to integrate it into the business.  If you’re unwilling to get on board with tools everybody else is using, you’re thwarting creativity and risk dying out.

A web site like Twitter is paramount to developing strong communication with your customers and co workers. With your customers, As long as you have permission to contact them, it’s a great way to drop them a quick question, comment, or even a “thank you.” Like any other form of effective communication though, you need to be careful not to abuse it. Many companies tend to use it poorly for marketing purposes rather than a communication channel to create a dialogue.

BZ: What final suggestions can you share with businesses who want to keep their sales teams motivated year round?

BR: Businesses need to move from the hunter mentality to the farmer mentality. Most people view what a hunter does as a noble achievement, but hunters historically lose because they have a finite number of big game to go after. It’s the farmers who are society’s real winners. While planting seeds seems boring, when they take their time to cultivate it, they create an endless production of food. This applies to business relationships to as long as they have an attribute that some people lack: patience.

Instead of dwelling on the troubled economy, start innovating. The best ideas in business come during down-facing economies because large competitors are either stymied or shut down completely. Take this opportunity to take calculated risks and build yourself strong. And even when you achieve success, don’t get complacent because nothing goes up forever. Always stay creative and keep coming up with new ideas.

Finally, analyze what your business does and determine which of these three courses of action work best for you:

1. Reconnecting with your current customer base and previous clients
2. Re-evaluating your selling strategies to ensure they’re appropriate for the current market conditions
3. Reinventing your entire company from the ground up if your ongoing initiatives aren’t paying off

These things, used properly, will allow any sales team to thrive.