Three moves to fill your summer calendar
Here is what I see every year. Firms get to mid-June, look up, and the consults have thinned out. Then they spend July wondering why. The truth is, summer does not slow down on its own. It slows down because nobody planted anything in late spring.
So if you want a summer that hums instead of one you survive, do these three things this week.
First, reactivate the people who already raised their hand. Pull a list of every prospect from the last six months who scheduled a consult and ghosted, asked for information and disappeared, or attended a workshop and never circled back. These folks are warm, not cold. Send a short, personal email. Not a pitch. Something like, “It is May, and I was thinking about our conversation back in February. If life is finally settling down, I have a couple of openings this month and next.” You will be surprised what comes back when you simply remind people you are still here.
Second, plan a summer workshop now and put it on the calendar before Memorial Day. June and July are family-gathering months. Adult children are home. Aging parents are visiting. Conversations about long-term care, the will nobody updated, and the trust that needs new trustees are happening at backyard cookouts whether you are in the room or not. A mid-June or mid-July workshop gives those families somewhere to send each other. Pick the date today and start promoting it Monday.
Third, get in front of your referral partners before they leave for the lake. CPAs are finally breathing again after tax season. Financial advisors are heading into mid-year reviews. Real estate agents are watching closings stack up with families relocating before the school year. Every one of them is talking to your future clients right now. Take three of them to coffee in the next two weeks. Bring a one-page reminder of what you handle, asset protection, Medicaid planning, trust administration, powers of attorney, special needs, the whole list, so they remember you are not just the will guy.
That is it. Three things. None of them require a new website, a new ad budget, or a new strategy. They require a list, a date, and three coffees.
If your summer ends up quieter than you wanted, it will not be because the work is not out there. It will be because nobody on your end planted anything in May.
Plant something this week.
Planting now so you harvest in July,
Laura Lee