If You Wait Until Fall, It’s Too Late...
Let’s cut through the excuse-making: Summer isn’t the problem. Your pipeline is.
The worst mistake sales leaders make is hoping Q4 will save them. It won’t. And it never has. If your team is coasting, blaming buyer vacations, or pretending stalled deals will magically resurrect in September, you’ve got a bigger issue: a lack of accountability and false confidence in a bloated pipeline.
Here’s the hard truth: If you’re not building and advancing deals in July and August, you’re already behind. Depending on the length of your sales cycle, the activity your team does now will pay off in 90 days or 9 months.
Now’s the time to make the moves that will actually show up in Q4 revenue.
1. Run a Brutally Honest Pipeline Audit
Stop managing fiction. Pull the team together and go deal by deal:
What’s the pain that justifies this opportunity staying in the pipeline?
Has the client agreed to a clear next step, or are we chasing ghosts?
Who owns the deal’s momentum: us or them?
If the answer to any of those is unclear, it’s not a real opportunity. Pull it. Kill the false positives. Nothing erodes sales culture faster than pretending your pipeline is healthier than it is.
This isn’t punishment; it’s clarity. You don’t need 30 weak deals. You need 10 that can close.
2. Set Summer-Specific Expectations
Your team doesn’t need motivation. They need clarity.
Use your team meeting to set expectations:
Weekly pipeline movement: what’s getting added, advanced, or removed
Minimum number of decision-maker conversations each week
One clear ask on every call: timeline, access, or commitment to a next step
Summer is when discipline matters most. When the world gets casual, you go counter-cultural. Expectations don’t tighten in Q4, they happen week in and week out.
3. Double Down on Up-Front Contracts
Buyers are more distracted. Schedules are unpredictable. That makes your Up-Front Contract more important than ever.
Remind your team: if there’s no agreement on the purpose, timing, or outcome of a meeting, it shouldn’t happen. Train them to say:
"Before we jump in, can we agree on what this call is about and what a productive outcome looks like for both sides?"
It’s not aggressive. It’s professional. It eliminates guesswork and post-call confusion, and it forces both parties to engage seriously.
4. Drive Internal Coaching Like There Are Two Minutes Left in the Fourth Quarter
You want winning drives in the fourth quarter? Run July coaching like it’s the playoffs.
Every rep should know:
Their number
Their real pipeline
Their next best move on every deal
Call debriefs should be happening weekly. Pre-call plans shouldn’t be optional. This is where leadership shows up—not just as cheerleaders, but as coaches.
The summer is your chance to fix what’s broken before it's too late. Reinforce what works, and set the tone for how the team executes under pressure.
Here’s the Bottom Line:
If you wait until fall, you’ve already lost. Summer is the truth serum of your sales process. It exposes whether your team can lead conversations, drive urgency, and own their process without hiding behind "seasonality."
Leaders who win in Q4 don’t push harder later. They get real sooner.
You want to make your number? Make your moves now.
Need some help, let's chat.
