In the Summertime...
How to cope with imposter syndrome during the slow period.
We need downtime. Just as an engine running at maximum revs burns down faster so do people.
During the holiday season, many companies talk about downtime, slowing down, or simply about shutting down, because "customers have holidays". Your employees naturally do the same.
C-level executives often misread this as an excuse for slacking off. That is not the case. Unless you are part of the HORECA or Entertainment Industries the market slows down naturally. Work habits and procedures shift and your staff is looking for a way to adapt to new circumstances. Not knowing what to do at work is one of the biggest sources of anxiety. That why you need to help your staff out. And this is exactlly the right time to do it.
Not knowing what to do can help develop an imposter syndrome at work.
“a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as an "impostor".
How to help them out? Easy, show them the way! Show them all the opportunities they might have been missing out on.
In this way, your company is not wasting the opportunity to do all the things for which "there was no time" all year round. Use this moment to finally get on with topics that are always putting away on a sidetrack.
Below is a list of ideas for tasks that you can do during the holiday season. Copy the ones you like and forward them to the right departments. Pick 10, it should be enough.
MARKETING
Insert remarketing pixels on your website.
When you collect the right number of users, start a remarketing campaign on Google and Facebook. If you're already remarketing, update your old remarketing lists and creatives in Google and Facebook Ads.
Run a warm-up phone or email campaign to potential customers who didn't buy in the first half of the year.
Run a resurrection phone or email campaign for departed customers.
Write 30 blog posts to be published during the second half of the year.
Complete the work on the website or replace it completely.
Prepare a list of prospects for a cold mailing campaign and do the first mailing.
Write or commission the overdue case studies to be written.
Ask your clients for references and recommendations on advertising websites.
Ask your customers for permission to publish their logo on your website.
Refresh the company footer, Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
Develop or refresh to version 2.0 a persona.
Run the Google Analytics goals test and get rid of errors.
Test all contact forms to make sure they work.
Order a usability audit of your company's website.
Order an audit and implement SEO corrections on the website.
Improve the way you collect customer e-mails for your newsletter.
Write an e-book to use it to better collect e-mails with the use of popups.
Analyze the behavior of users on the website in Google Analytics.
Analyze your big competitors with web analysis tools.
Watch the videos from Hotjara. Lots of recordings.
Add social evidence on your website to generate more trust among your visitors (testimonials, logos).
Check the calendar of events/holidays that are important from the point of view of your industry until the end of the year in order to prepare dedicated posts/promotions related to the holiday/moment of the year.
Improve the texts on the website.
Make a segmentation of the mailing database.
SALES
Convert Excel to CRM.
Refresh the quote templates.
Define lead qualification and analyze the data.
Refresh email templates for sales and customer service.
Conduct a competitor analysis, ideally with mystery shopping research. Probably a lot has changed with them since the last time.
Organize a Meetup, mini-conference or business breakfast for potential clients and / or employees.
Complete overdue data in CRM if something is not completed kosher enough (admit it is not, right?).
Refresh your company's UVP and USP.
Analyze the cost of customer acquisition (CAC) broken down by lead sources.
Prepare a sales forecast for the quarter ahead.
Call satisfied customers and ask for recommendations.
Do an analysis of the reasons for lost sales opportunities in CRM - and if you don't measure them, then start.
Develop an elevator pitch and train everyone in the company.
Organize a travel campaign during the holidays.
Go to Berlin, London, San Francisco to support building a network in countries where you want to be present over time.
Create a list of the 100 most desirable customers of your company. Start working towards acquiring them.
Refresh the offer sent to customers.
Make a list of the events you want to attend in the second half of the year. Buy airline tickets, book hotels and pay for tickets to save money.
Update older blog entries (links + new solutions, if any).
Summarize how the strategy for 2019 worked in Q1 and Q2. Share your conclusions with your team.
Based on the reflection from point 20, refine your strategy for Q3 and Q4.
Calculate your client's value over time (LTV).
Check your cash-flow and plan debt collection, deal with unpaid invoices.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Send the NPS survey to your existing customers.
Submit a CSAT study.
Visit the top 10 customers - and when you are there, make sure to meet two or three more partners, customers or potential customers.
Ask customers what they need (in a survey, newsletter or post) and learn from the information they receive.
Prepare customer segmentation.
Recreate or redevelop version 2.0 of the client onboarding process.
Create and test the MVP of a new service.
Develop checklists of repeatable processes in the company.
Plan to use your company's resources by the end of the year.
Analyze project work time and project profitability. If you don't measure them - start.
Order a cybersecurity audit of the company.
Team and development
Recreate or redevelop version 2.0 of the new employee onboarding process.
Read 10 books.
Plan and conduct internal training for employees.
Dismiss the employee.
Make a trip or an integration event, e.g. in the form of a barbecue or bonfire.
Hire new people, spend more time recruiting.
Refresh existing job advertisements.
Take the enneagram, XVI Personalities, Strenghtsfinder test yourself or with your entire team to better understand and understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Go to a training, conference or meetup.
Talk to employees and project owners about customer problems. Maybe you will come up with a new service or a way to optimize the process of delivering the value you offer.
Prepare a list of prospects for employment for the future, search LinkedIn.
Change your office to a larger or smaller one.
Make an appointment for 30 coffees with 30 people in the area whom you want to hire as managers within 3 years.
Hire an assistant to help you embrace yourself.
Buy an online course and learn something new.
Review the policy of employee benefits, delete those that no one uses and allocate money to initiatives that will be better.
Read overdue articles that you accumulate in Pocket (e.g. all Casbeg entries).
Test a new tool that will facilitate the work of you or your team.
YOU
GO on vacation! Catch your breath before the second half of the year. Your people need you rested and with a fresh mind. Just like in the Snickers campaign….You are not yourself when not rested.
Seriously, there won't be a better opportunity.