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08/04/2026

Your August Sales Plan

Source: Bill Farquharson, August 3, 2026

If you think about the year as a whole and break it down into chunks of time, August stands alone.

August is a big vacation month. Up my way, Cape Cod is so laden with tourists I am surprised it doesn’t sink into the sea.

Hey, if you are throttling back this month, good on ya. You’ve worked hard to earn your time off. But if not, here’s your August sales plan…

Let me begin at the end. All summer long I’ve been telling you two things:

  1. First, September, October, and November are the three most important selling months of the year. What you do or don’t do in this roughly 90 day period will determine how your 2026 ends and how your 2027 begins. It’s that important.
  2. And second, I asked you back in June to envision where you wanted to be on September 8, the day after Labor Day when customers get their head back in the game.

With those two things in mind, you are encouraged to use August to make a plan. If it helps, here’s my thinking:

  1. Create multiple sales campaigns and a process for each;
  2. Have a pool of companies and people ready to call on;
  3. Be ready with something of value to say, and…
  4. Sharpen the saw so you are tanned, rested and ready for the sprint to the finish.

There are five Mondays in August. That gives me five opportunities to use these short Attention Span Sales Tips to do what I do and get you set up for success. That list I just gave you? I will focus on a different item each week.

For today, your homework is pull out a pen a piece of paper and answer my question. It’s Tuesday September 8 and you are headed to the office:

Where do you want to be?

Answer in a general sense, in terms of new business, motivation, sales activity goals, AI knowledge, etc. There are no wrong answers.

Dumb answers, but not wrong answers.

Next week, I’ll tell you exactly what you should be preparing to do.

Watch Bill present this week's sales tip


The Sales Vault, created by Bill Farquharson, is a subscription-based resource and sales community featuring a calendar packed with live workshops, on-demand sales courses, peer-to-peer discussion groups, and 35+ years of sales training content all searchable by sales challenge. Think of it as a sales conference where the seminars and workshops, full of instantly applicable ideas, are ongoing and more programs are added constantly.

The Sales Vault is available on a monthly subscription basis, normally at a no-brainer monthly price of $45/participant, but… GMA members can take advantage of an exclusive offer: FREE membership for 30 days followed by a discounted monthly subscription price of just $40/participant. 

Bill has been a friend of GMA for many years and is, no doubt, known to our members as a top sales trainer and content creator for the graphic arts.

Other Vault resources:

  • NEW: Replays—Insider exclusive recordings of Office Hours sales discussions
  • Downloadable prospecting letters
  • One killer-good intro letter only the bravest of the brave send out
  • A downloadable voicemail script
  • 15 on-demand video sales courses
  • Archived sales content searchable by sales challenge

Check out the Sales Vault!

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