101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas
IDEA 68:
GET OUT OF HERE
A break can do you good. The right sort of break can do your sales results some good.
Idea
From the world of training…
Here is something that will perhaps be regarded as something’s of a luxury. But it can have real value, and be cost effective too. It can take various forms, but in one company I worked with (now taken over and merged away), one category of senior people were allowed to take six months (paid) leave after working with the company for a certain number of years. In consultancy – a fee-earning and time –dependent business – this represented a significant cost. However it was a business in which many people did not habitually take long holidays, so in some ways the time off was a quid pro quo.
Certainly it was highly motivational, both to these entitled to the break and to those who aspired to be. I cannot now remember whether it was compulsory, but the extended periods of leave often included a project, something to which no time would otherwise have been given. For example, people sometimes wanted to travel, and this linked usefully to the international development of the business. They were able to carry out more leisurely research and investigation than might otherwise have been done. If this was coupled with some fee-earning work, it made good sense all around. I had my six months, and in the course of it I attended a major training conference and exhibition in the States. It provide a wonderful learning experience.
In practice
Among the aspects that could be varied are the:
- duration selected (it could be quite short)
- number and level of staff involved
- purpose (or lack of it) given to the gap period – in this Context it might be focused on sales, market investigation, or something similar
- Arrangements for reporting back, if appropriate.
Whether the break is long or short, it’s easy to think of all sorts of things this system could be used for, and one is certainly development. This is something else to seek out or suggest, perhaps, with an eye on longer-term skills and sales development.