Sales Prospecting Perspectives

It's that time of year again.  The time of year when the AG Team never ceases to amaze with its holiday cheer.  

We once again had a wonderfully mistake filled holiday party.  Tomorrow we'll be having an employee driven Holiday Pot Luck for lunch.  All great stuff for sure, but none of it compares to my favorite  helping out those in need and this is where the AG crew truly shines.  

Now that we’re getting to the end of 2011, as most of us do, I’ve begun to reflect back on my year. There are typically a couple of simple questions I like to ask myself. What went well this year? What may have I done differently? With the benefit of hindsight..I usually have a few I would change, but I can say that over that last few years I’ve been fortunate enough to check off more in the positive category than the negative.

Sales Prospecting Perspectives in pleased to bring you a guest post from one of our newer BDRs, Elizabeth Guerra.

It’s been said before, and it’ll be said again, but December is a tough month. And I don’t just mean in terms of sales and teleprospecting, though that is glaringly obvious to anyone working in those fields. December is a time where everyone is attending parties, fiendishly shopping, and trying to figure out how to cram as much as possible into as many hours of the day as they can. Just the other day I found myself complaining to a friend about how the days are simply not long enough, which got me thinking of ways to overcome these challenges.

It’s December 1^st, what’s more predictable then a holiday inspired blog. Some are playing Christmas music from their cubes, people are traveling and leaving early for family gatherings and your Company is probably leaving early at one point for their own Holiday get together. Everyone is really excited for the Holidays and the New Year and somehow you feel like your business is in a crisis.  How will we ever overcome! Bah Humbug!

It's that time of year where every blogger in the universe posts what they are thankful for, or tries to work what they do into a Thanksgiving meal metaphor.  Given my general lack of creativity I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR.  I love it because I can do a top ten list of things I'm thankful for.  This has been a banner year for AG so I have much to be thankful for.  I consider myself a lucky man to be a member of this team and to truly enjoy what I do. Without further adieu, here are the top 10 Professional things I'm thankful for this year....

Santa must do awesome in his yearly reviews. Aside from his food addiction issues and a penchant for the dramatic entrance via fireplace, his boss really has nothing to complain about. It would appear Santa is doing pretty well for himself too. Sales people often judge their peers based on possessions. Nice suits, accessories and of course a sweet ride are all signs of a rain maker. No offense to my colleagues driving BMW’s and Mercedes, but the man drives a mahogany sled with mythical flying reindeer as the engine. That must cost a fortune! When it comes to the suit, well I don’t think I really have to go into it, but I assume a weatherproof size XXXL velvet suit goes for big bucks. So how does he do it? I think we could all take a page out of Kringle’s book to become better sales people in 2011.

We conducted a very rudimentary study of our monthly performance over the past 8 years and the results may surprise you.  How many of you have had inside sales reps come to you and say “the holidays are killing me, I can’t get anyone live on the phone”..or some variation of that line.  I used to feel the same way until I actually took a look at the numbers and realized that statement couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

A Special Holiday Thanks to my Team: