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This post is to remind all racing drivers that now (August / September) is the window of opportunity if you want to race next year.
Now is the time to pounce, to really hit the phones, the email, to shake hands and take names.
If you leave it any later then before you know it companies are too busy thinking about the Christmas holiday season, then they may have to tighten their belts a bit through January and February and after that all the decisions are already made for next year so really, this is it.
August and September are great times to talk and sell your plans to people both inside and outside the sport.
The Reasons For This
There are more than the three reasons but this gives you an idea:
1 - It's the time of year when most companies are either planning how to spend the last part of their marketing budget or they are deciding on what to spend next years budget on. Race teams are the same, they are also very conscious that they need to get their driver line up and racing plans penciled in now before they miss the all important window so they too need to start make a move.
2 - Many of the 'decision-makers' in business and sport have been away on their summer breaks, on their vacations, they have had time to reflect on how things have been going this year. They have had the chance to see things from a different perspective and this is also a time when many CEO's or team owners are coming back with motivation to do better. If you call them up with a valuable proposition at this time then they may be more interested, compared to speaking with them mid December or later.
3 - The third reason why this is the right time is that if you leave it any later then you will run out of time, at least as it stands you have 5 or 6 months to get things sorted. You don't want to spend yet another year feeling let down...yuk!
You can leave it late
OK there are always deals to be done very late in the day so if you call up teams and offer them all you have in February or March then you can get a good deal, but that shouldn't be your only tactic, instead make all the contacts now, get to know all of the people involved, sell your heart out from this very moment, every single day until February and see what happens, then maybe you can pick a late deal up.
Just don't depend on it, act now.
Imagine this
It's August 21st and if you made it your goal to speak with just 2 people per day (lets give you Sundays off) from now until February, then you have 164 days available to you so that means you will have 328 conversations with people who can either help you, give you advice or who you can sell to.
If you haven't sorted things out by that time then you gotta think that maybe there is something you are not quite doing right.
Believe me after just a few weeks of doing this you will already know if you are going the right way or whether you need to change your tactics. Or change your goal, if you have to downsize your goal to make sure that you race next year then so be it, that's a win.
At least you will be racing.
Attack it now with everything you have
Be relentless, do not give up and rest on your laurels after 4 days of contacting 2 people per day, you must follow through and keep this ball rolling because it is the only chance you have of succeeding or at the very least, of finding out the truth.
This is a challenge but it needs to be done.
Enzo
