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PI Calendar & Seasonality

Rankings.io internal strategy briefing
Slide 1

The PI Calendar

  • Seasonality, Demand, and How to Talk About It
  • PI ICP Oracle Series | Rankings.io Team Enablement | August 2026
Slide 2

Why seasonality matters

  • Founders judge us on signed cases. Cases move with weather, driving, and holidays.
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • The stakes
  • Explain seasonality before the client asks: you look like a partner.
  • Explain it after the 'results are down' email: you sound like an excuse.
  • Every rep and AM should know the calendar cold, nationally and by market.
  • Local knowledge (snowbirds, monsoon, deer season) is proof we know their market.
  • The core rule
  • Injury volume = exposure x severity.
  • Exposure: miles driven, people outside, risk behavior.
  • Severity: speed, impairment, unprotected road users (bikes, motorcycles, pedestrians).
  • Seasons move both. Compare year over year, never month over month.
Slide 3

Winter (Dec to Feb)

  • Cautious drivers, fewer miles, high count, low severity
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Drivers slow down, leave earlier, skip optional trips. Snow-belt crash counts rise but severity drops. Fender benders, not catastrophic cases.
  • Motorcycles, cyclists, and pedestrians are off the road, so the highest-value MVA cases thin out.
  • Premises liability spikes: ice, slush in entryways, parking lot falls. Best slip and fall intake of the year in cold markets.
  • Late Nov through Dec: search demand and hiring drop hard. Valid claims wait until after the holidays.
  • January: intake surge. Deferred holiday claims, New Year's Eve DUI crashes, resolutions to 'deal with it.' Strongest signup month for many firms.
  • Fewest miles driven of the year. National fatalities bottom out in Jan and Feb.
Slide 4

Spring (Mar to May)

  • Roads refill, motorcycles return, construction opens
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Motorcycle and work zone season
  • Riders return, cones go up. High-value MVA and construction cases start.
  • Spring break travel
  • Florida, Arizona, Texas coast, Gulf. Tourists, rentals, alcohol.
  • Thaw and potholes
  • Property damage and single vehicle claims in cold states.
  • Tax refund season
  • Feb to Apr. More cars purchased, more discretionary driving.
  • Memorial Day
  • Opens the '100 Deadliest Days' (Memorial Day to Labor Day) for teen driver fatalities.
  • Intake
  • Solid months. Volume builds from March into May.
Slide 5

Summer (Jun to Aug): the paradox

  • Crashes peak. Signups soften. Own this before the client feels it.
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Peak
  • fatalities and miles driven nationally
  • July 4
  • consistently among the deadliest days
  • Soft
  • signups per crash in Jul and Aug
  • Heat effects: tire blowouts, overheating, road trips, more alcohol, more teens driving, longer daylight and evening driving.
  • Claimants are on vacation, kids are home, decisions get pushed. Firms sign fewer cases per crash. That is claimant behavior, not a marketing failure.
  • Late August: back to school. Congestion, buses, teen commuters. Volume rebounds into September.
Slide 6

Fall (Sep to Nov)

  • Strong start, then the holiday pause
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Sep and Oct
  • Strong intake months in most markets.
  • Routines resume, people act on summer injuries.
  • Halloween: pedestrian and child injuries.
  • November
  • Fall-back (early Nov): pedestrian crash risk jumps in the evening commute for weeks.
  • Deer season Oct to Nov: Midwest, PA, upstate NY. Single vehicle and swerve crashes.
  • Thanksgiving
  • Heavy travel, high crash count.
  • Near-zero hiring for the week.
  • Demand pauses until January. Prep now, not in December.
Slide 7

Sunbelt markets run inverse

  • Arizona and Florida peak in winter, soften in summer
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Arizona (Phoenix)
  • Snowbird season Nov to Apr adds hundreds of thousands of older, unfamiliar drivers. Volume and case value peak in winter and spring.
  • Summer heat (110+) empties the roads. Jun to Sep softens. Heat cases rise: tire failures, engine failure crashes, job-site heat exposure.
  • Monsoon Jul to Sep: dust storms and flash floods, sudden crash clusters.
  • Phoenix budgets: heaviest Jan to Apr, hold in summer, ramp again October.
  • Florida
  • Snowbirds and spring break drive the Jan to Apr peak. Older drivers, tourists, rental cars.
  • Summer: tourists thin, daily thunderstorms cause wet-road crashes.
  • Hurricane season Aug to Oct: a landfall can freeze intake for two weeks then spike premises and auto claims.
  • HB 837 (2023) lowered the baseline; seasonality sits on top of it.
Slide 8

Texas and California

  • Heat and freight vs. rain and fire
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Texas
  • Summer heat drives blowouts and long-haul truck fatigue on I-10, I-35, I-45.
  • Trucking cases hold year round. Freight does not take a season.
  • Gulf coast hurricanes (Houston), spring hail, Hill Country deer, holiday travel to and from Mexico.
  • Houston and Dallas show less seasonality than the national average because of population growth. Set expectations accordingly.
  • California
  • First rains in Nov after a dry summer create oil slick crashes. Rainy season Nov to Feb raises MVA counts in LA and the Bay.
  • Summer: wildfire smoke and closures, tourist traffic on coastal routes.
  • Motorcycle season is nearly year round, so no winter dropoff in high-value MVA.
  • Holiday corridors (I-5, I-15 to Vegas) spike Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Slide 9

The snow belt

  • Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Winter
  • High crash count, low severity.
  • Slip and fall season.
  • Motorcycles off the road.
  • Dec dips, Jan surges.
  • Apr to Oct
  • Motorcycle season and construction season.
  • Highest-value MVA cases cluster here.
  • Spring potholes, fall deer.
  • Jul and Aug soften, Sep rebounds.
  • Rep note
  • Chicago and Detroit clients feel the summer dip hardest because their best cases are seasonal. Name it in June.
Slide 10

Other markets to know

  • Steadier states need a real explanation, not a seasonal one
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Nevada (Las Vegas)
  • Convention calendar beats weather. CES in Jan, fight weekends, NFR in Dec. Tourists, DUI, Strip pedestrians. Summer heat softens locals.
  • Georgia (Atlanta)
  • Mild winters, one ice event can produce a week of pileups. Back to school early August. Steadiest big market.
  • New York
  • Winter slip and fall dominates. Summer construction, scaffold and labor law. Pedestrian and cyclist cases spring to fall.
  • Colorado
  • Ski season Nov to Apr: mountain roads and I-70 pileups. Summer tourism, motorcycles, construction.
  • Louisiana
  • Mardi Gras DUI and pedestrian spike, hurricane season, offshore and maritime year round.
  • Rule of thumb
  • The flatter the market, the more a dip points to intake, competition, or campaign, not the calendar.
Slide 11

MVA signup rating by month

  • National pattern, 1 to 10. Flip summer and winter for AZ and FL.
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Jan
  • 10
  • Holiday claims land, NYE DUI
  • Feb
  • 9
  • Tax refunds, steady
  • Mar
  • 9
  • Spring break, riders return
  • Apr
  • 8
  • Construction opens
  • May
  • 8
  • Memorial Day kicks off
  • Jun
  • 7
  • Vacations start, softens
  • Jul
  • 6
  • Crashes peak, hiring stalls
  • Aug
  • 6
  • Soft, rebounds late month
  • Sep
  • 9
  • Back to school, routines
  • Oct
  • 9
  • Fall-back, deer, strong
  • Nov
  • 6
  • Thanksgiving pause
  • Dec
  • 5
  • Weakest, waits for Jan
  • 10 = best signup month of the year for a typical MVA firm. Index, not forecast. Validate against HubSpot signups by market before it goes in front of a client.
Slide 12

Sunbelt ratings: Arizona and Florida

  • Same 1 to 10 scale. Winter peaks, summer softens.
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Arizona (Phoenix)
  • Jan
  • 10
  • Snowbird peak
  • Feb
  • 10
  • Peak, spring training
  • Mar
  • 9
  • Spring break, snowbirds
  • Apr
  • 8
  • Snowbirds leave
  • May
  • 7
  • Heat arrives
  • Jun
  • 5
  • 110+, roads thin
  • Jul
  • 5
  • Monsoon clusters
  • Aug
  • 5
  • Monsoon, heat
  • Sep
  • 6
  • Cooling, rebound
  • Oct
  • 8
  • Snowbirds return
  • Nov
  • 8
  • Peak builds
  • Dec
  • 7
  • Holiday pause
  • Florida
  • Jan
  • 10
  • Snowbird peak
  • Feb
  • 10
  • Peak, tourists
  • Mar
  • 10
  • Spring break
  • Apr
  • 8
  • Snowbirds leave
  • May
  • 7
  • Locals only
  • Jun
  • 6
  • Storms, softens
  • Jul
  • 6
  • Soft, vacations
  • Aug
  • 5
  • Hurricane risk
  • Sep
  • 5
  • Hurricane peak
  • Oct
  • 7
  • Storms clear
  • Nov
  • 7
  • Snowbirds arrive
  • Dec
  • 7
  • Holiday pause
  • Sunbelt firms feel the summer dip in lead volume, not just signups. Say it in April, budget for it in May.
Slide 13

How to talk about it with clients

  • Proactive note, not reactive excuse
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • 1
  • Send it before they see it
  • Seasonality context goes in the monthly report before the number lands. 'July is historically the softest signup month in your market. Here is last July for comparison.'
  • 2
  • Always year over year
  • Same month last year, plus lead volume by channel. Month over month during a seasonal shift is how you lose a client.
  • 3
  • Reframe summer
  • Crashes are up, signups are down. That gap is claimant behavior and follow-up. Ask what intake does with a lead that goes quiet for a week. Push text-first cadence.
Slide 14

Use the calendar for budget

  • Move dollars to when claimants act
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Push spend
  • January
  • March to May
  • September and October
  • LSA and PPC dollars belong here. Make sure budgets are uncapped when phones ring.
  • Hold or shift
  • Thanksgiving through Christmas
  • Mid summer in hot-state markets
  • Reallocate to content, video, and reviews. Build assets while demand sleeps.
  • Prep the surge
  • Mid December: LSA budgets ready, intake staffed, landing pages tested.
  • A client whose phones ring off the hook in January forgets a soft July.
Slide 15

Local knowledge is proof

  • Naming their season signals we know their market better than the last agency
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • Phoenix
  • 'Your best 90 days start when the snowbirds land in November.'
  • Chicago
  • 'Bike and motorcycle season is your case value season. Summer dips are signup behavior, not lead volume.'
  • Miami
  • 'Spring break and snowbirds carry Q1. Hurricane season is your wildcard.'
  • Houston
  • 'Freight runs year round, so trucking should never look seasonal on your dashboard.'
Slide 16

How to advise clients: the summary

  • Four moves, every month, in this order
  • Rankings.io | PI ICP Oracle | Seasonality
  • 1
  • Diagnose
  • Is this the calendar or the campaign? Check YoY, lead volume by channel, and intake follow-up before conceding on marketing.
  • 2
  • Context
  • Put the seasonal note in the report before the number lands. Name their market's season: snowbirds, monsoon, deer, freight.
  • 3
  • Adjust
  • Move LSA and PPC into Jan, spring, Sep and Oct. Shift dead weeks to content, video, and reviews.
  • 4
  • Prepare
  • Mid Dec and late Aug: budgets uncapped, intake staffed, pages tested. Own the surge so the dip is forgotten.
  • Rule: seasonality explains a dip once, year over year, and before the client asks. Never twice, never month over month, never after.
Rebuilt from the source doc for the Oracle. Internal — not for external distribution.