Summer is a peculiar time for sales teams. Clients go on holiday, decision cycles slow down, meetings are postponed and reps ease off — that's normal. But for a sales team, the risk is real: leaving without preparing your return. In September, many salespeople restart cold, with an outdated CRM, un-followed-up prospects and blurry priorities. The result: the first weeks are spent tidying up instead of selling.

To avoid this, every rep should take structured time before leaving. Not a full day — just two well-used hours to secure their pipeline and prepare an effective comeback. Here are the 5 essential sales actions to take before going on holiday.

1. Follow up on 100% of open opportunities

The first action before the holidays is simple: follow up on every open sales opportunity. Even if the client doesn't respond immediately, even if the deal seems to be slowing down, even if the decision is scheduled after summer. A short message is always better than three weeks of silence.

This follow-up keeps the connection alive, shows that the deal is still tracked and clarifies the real state of each opportunity. It also helps identify which prospects are still engaged, which are genuinely pushing their decision back, and which are no longer really active.

A good pre-holiday follow-up can have several goals:

• confirm the prospect's interest;
• validate the decision timeline;
• propose a resume point;
• identify a blocker;
• secure a next step.

The point isn't necessarily to close before summer. The point is to leave no sales opportunity without a clear next move. In a performance context, the absence of a next step is often the first weak signal of a deteriorating opportunity.

2. Update the CRM

A poorly maintained sales CRM before summer often becomes a problem in September. When a rep comes back after two or three weeks off, they can't rely on memory alone. They need to be able to instantly find the real state of their pipeline.

Each opportunity should contain at minimum:

• the real deal status;
• the next step;
• the follow-up or meeting date;
• the identified decision-makers;
• the current objections;
• the prospect's maturity level;
• possible risks;
• the decision timing.

A fuzzy pipeline in July often becomes a cold pipeline in September. Conversely, a clean CRM makes it possible to restart quickly, prioritise actions and focus energy on the right opportunities.

It's also a major stake for sales managers. An up-to-date CRM gives them a clear view of activity, anticipates risk and supports each rep with more precision. Sales performance doesn't only depend on activity volume — it also depends on the quality of pipeline management.

3. Secure the back-to-work next steps

A rep should never leave for holidays with only a task like "follow up in September". It's too vague, too fragile, too easily forgotten. Before leaving, next steps must be secured.

This means, as much as possible, booking a resume meeting directly in the prospect's calendar. Even if it's three weeks later. Even if it's just a 20-minute check-in. A meeting already on the calendar is worth more than a forgotten follow-up.

Concretely, every rep should ask three questions before leaving:

1. What is the next expected move on this opportunity?
2. Who has to do what?
3. On what specific date do we pick this up again?

This discipline is especially important in B2B sales, where cycles are often long and involve several stakeholders. A deal isn't always lost because the offer is bad — it's sometimes lost because nobody really secured what comes next.

4. Identify the 10 priority accounts for September

The sales restart shouldn't be endured. It should be prepared. Before leaving, every rep should identify their 10 priority accounts for September.

These accounts can be:

• opportunities close to signature;
• high-potential prospects;
• existing clients to develop;
• accounts to reactivate;
• possible quick wins;
• strategic deals to accelerate.

The goal is simple: come back with a clear roadmap. From day one, the rep knows who to call, why, with what message and in what order. This prioritisation avoids one of the biggest traps of the restart: resuming activity through the easiest tasks rather than through the most important actions.

Sales efficiency depends heavily on the ability to prioritise. Identifying the 10 key accounts helps focus commercial energy where it will have the greatest impact.

5. Prepare your sales comeback plan

Finally, every rep should prepare their comeback plan before leaving. It may sound obvious, but it's rarely done in a structured way. The plan must answer one simple question: what am I concretely going to do in the first 48 hours of my return?

It can include:

• the first 20 calls to make;
• the first 10 emails to send;
• meetings already booked;
• opportunities to reactivate;
• clients to contact;
• September's sales objectives;
• the training sessions to redo to regain the right rhythm.

After a break, reopening a laptop isn't enough to instantly recover your commercial level. Selling, questioning, arguing, handling objections and closing reflexes all need to be reactivated. This is where sales coaching and sales training play a key role.

A high-performing salesperson isn't just someone who works a lot. It's someone who trains regularly, analyses their practices and continuously improves.

The role of sales managers before summer

Preparing the restart shouldn't rest on reps alone. Sales managers have an essential role. Before departures, they can organise a short check-in with each team member to review pipeline quality, at-risk opportunities, secured next steps, priority accounts, the comeback plan and coaching needs.

This is also a great sales coaching opportunity. The manager can help the rep step back, challenge the quality of their opportunities and help them better prepare their return. This is exactly the logic that companies must reinforce: moving from a sales management focused only on reporting to one focused on skills development and field performance.

Why sales training is key at the restart

The restart is often a decisive moment. Objectives resume, clients relaunch projects, budgets get clarified, decisions restart. But not all teams restart at the same pace. Those who prepared their pipeline, secured their next steps and trained their reps restart faster.

Sales training helps recreate the right reflexes quickly: asking the right questions, qualifying an opportunity, defending value, handling objections, preparing a meeting, structuring a close, adapting the pitch to each stakeholder.

With a sales coaching and sales enablement platform like Skeells, companies can support their teams through this restart in a structured, measurable and personalised way. Reps train on realistic situations, receive instant feedback and progress on their improvement areas. Managers get concrete indicators to steer skills development and reinforce their teams' commercial efficiency.

Conclusion: preparing the break well means restarting better

Summer should remain a moment of rest — it's essential to recharge and come back with more energy. But a rep who prepares their departure always restarts faster than one who leaves without securing their pipeline. Two hours of preparation before the holidays can save two weeks of performance at the restart. It's probably one of the best investments a salesperson can make all year.