Signal · Service-mix

Seasonality smoothing

Calendar months that consistently run below the annual mean — the trough months worth targeting with proactive outreach.

Service-mix

What the signal measures

Calendar months that consistently run below the annual mean — the trough months worth targeting with proactive outreach.

Why it matters

Every services business has quiet months — August, December, February for many UK consultancies. They are typically reacted to (a slow month, then a hustle), not planned for. This signal identifies the calendar months that consistently run below the annual mean over multi-year history, so you can proactively target outreach into those months rather than fighting them after the fact.

How to act on it

The drafted action is a seasonal outreach checklist — for the trough month, which clients typically have discretionary budgets to spend, which projects would suit that timing, and what specific reactivation-shortlist candidates fit the window. Two weeks of lead-in beats two weeks of scrambling.

Worked example — fixture consultancy

On the fixture, invoicing tends to dip around the summer months in a repeatable pattern. Compass flags the two lowest months and pairs the finding with a shortlist of clients whose historic pattern shows they are amenable to shoulder-season work.