Take a REAL vacation

If you have been in sales for any period of time you know that taking a vacation can be an oxymoron. The reality is that, as sales people we are always either thinking about our next sales call, thinking about paperwork we have to complete or phone calls we have to make. Even when we are "away" from work we are thinking about work. Having an office in our home just adds to our constant reminder of task we have to complete. So the question today is, can a sales person truly take a real vacation? One where you can relax your mind, body and spirit. And if you are married with kids, can we truly take time to spend with our family and not be occupied with thoughts of work or sneaking in one last phone call. With proper planning, the answer is yes.

As a medical sales representative and one that works out of my home, I can speak first hand about the difficulty of taking time off and not doing or thinking about work. It is hard. Even on weekends, there are times that I pass my office and think, I really should get that report done before Monday or maybe I can check email real quickly. While it is important to complete necessary reports and check emails, on our time off it's more important to spend time relaxing, recharging our batteries and spending valuable time with our love ones. Many managers believe and even insist that their sales people check email once or twice on weekends. I contend that it is impossible to just "check" email. Once you are on email it's hard to get off. Managers have to remember, for a sales person to be successful they have to have down time. Technology has made it easier for you to have your downtime and still stay connected with work and customers. Blackberry is a great example.

When taking a vacation, this is truly time in which you should be relaxing. I have to admit that while on vacation I tend to check email and/or voicemail for the simple reason I do not what to face dozens of emails my first day back. I make it a rule not to spend more than a few minutes scanning messages and listening to voicemail.

To make your vacation more enjoyable and not have to worry about work, here are a few tips:
1. Schedule your vacation well in advance- this will give you time to finish up important projects and close important deals
2. Vacation during typical slow times- For me, summers tend to be slow times. many of my customers are vacationing and taking more time off to enjoy the warm weather.
3. Let management know ASAP when your vacation will be- This will avoid scheduling conflicts with sales meeting and other important company dates.
4. Arrange for coverage- Team up with another sales person, preferable one that is close to your territory. Make arrangements for that person to cover an emergencies that may come up and give important customers that sales persons contact information. Be sure to 5. Inform your customers- Let important customers know when you are going on vacation and remind them 1 weeks before you leave. Give them the contact information for the person covering your accounts.
6. Finish important projects- it's important that you return the favor when that person wants to vacations.
inish important projects and to-do list items before you leave. Nothing is worst than laying on a nice beach, miles from the nearest computer or phone and remember that you forgot to get a quote to a customer.
7. Post notices that you are away for work- Post a notice on voicemail and email that you will be on vacation and when you are returning. Leave contact information for the person who will be coverning for you.

Remember, vacation is just that, time to unwind, relax and recharge your engine, if done right you will return ready for a big finish to your year. Good selling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From Pay Phones to Cell Phones

Does anyone else remember the days when you had to drive around to find a pay phone in order to check voicemail or call a customer, and if you were luck it would be a drive-up pay phone so that you could sit in the warmth of your car and talk. How times have changed. While on one of my infamous 6 hour drives across my territory, i could not help but think how technology has changed the landscape of sales and how sales peoples conduct business. When I started selling medical supplies in the early 1990s the only technology I had was a pager and a laptop that weighted about 10 pounds and ran on DOS. On this particular day my drive took me through the Adirondacks Mountains, which I use to call the "dark country" because there wasn't anything for miles and certainly there were no pay phones or pager coverage. On some levels I liked that drive because I didn't have to worry about getting paged or returning calls because there was no communication for miles. Well those days are long gone.

Technology has given us the ability to stay connected no matter where were may find ourselves. On this long drive my blackberry kept me in constant contact with my company, customers and family. It took me a while to embrace my blackberry, I resisted the idea of being available 24/7 anywhere in the world. It was the whole, big brother looking over your shoulder mentality. But in reality this technology and many others have improved my work life balance and how I communicate with my company and customers. As professional sales people we have to embrace technologies that has the capabilities of improving our business and our lives.

Laptops, DSL, WiFi and other technologies that have been introduced in recent years have increased our ability to be productive, increased our business, improved our customer communications and improved our work-life balance. Think about it! In the past, if you were like me, you would get home around 5 or 6 in the evening, plug the phone line into you computer and wait to hear the dial tone that connected you to your company's database. Then you would do quotes, download information, inventory data and reports at a snails pace. You could go take a shower, have dinner, read a story to your kids, put them to bed, make love to your wife and return to your computer and it STILL would not be done downloading. On average, I spent an additional 10-15 hours per week, in the evenings, working at home or from a hotel room. Today i can do all of that in a 1/10th the time and only using my blackberry, everything but making love to my wife, of course.

There are three technologies that I use on a daily bases that I have found indispensable; my blackberry, laptop and GPS. These three items have helped me increase my income and sales every year. For every sales person that is looking to increase their sales and income these three items are necessities.

An important key to being a successful sales professional is embracing technologies that will help you increase your productivity and serve your customers. Because, in the end, it could help you make a lot of money or not having it could cost you a lot of business.