On our Facebook fan page, I had asked the question “Will you slow down or will it be business as usual for you during the holiday season?” and as usual, we had a good mix of both but . . .

What’s an aspiring sales rock star to do when you want to keep working but you know (definitively) that you’re just going to spin your wheels next week?

I got you covered with this list of 8 things to keep you out of trouble and more importantly, keep you from wandering around the office pissing and moaning that nothing happens this time of year.

1) Make a list of people you plan on calling after the holidays and then dive in for some serious pre call planning! Take the time to really research both the company and your contact.

2) Make a list of people in your social network (virtual network too) that you really need to get to know better. Actually, there are probably some you don’t know at all so why not take this week to schedule sort of a “getting to know you” call. Now there’s a good chance that the timing might be bad for them now but at least you set the wheels in motion. I go into great detail in how you can set these calls up in this free report.

3) Exploratory Calls: An “exploratory call” is a call you make when you don’t have a contact name. The purpose is to get the name of the person who would typically buy your product or service so the next time you call, you don’t sound like a telemarketer. So instead of calling and saying “Can I speak to the person who ______________” you’re saying “Good morning, Joe Jones please” The way I suggest getting this info is telling them you want to get some information out to the person who would be in charge of ____________ and was wondering who you should send it to.

4) Email Your Database: This is a “Uncle Paulism” to the highest degree in that I beat this one to death with you guys. Your competitors will be asleep this week so there will be less noise but there’s more . . . You’ll get a ton of those handy/dandy “out of office” responses! Those responses contain direct lines, cell numbers and additional contacts (in many cases better contacts)

5) Do a “Drive By” I know, my New York is really shining through! A “drive by” in this context would be for those of you who serve a local area. Take that recording app on your smart phone and jot down the names of the businesses you want to contact and then get the phone numbers etc once you return to your office.

6) “Drive By” Part Dos: Go to a multi tenant building and use the camera on your smart phone to take a picture of the building directory. As many of you know, I like to hum the theme to James Bond while I do this because I’m bad ass like that. Once you get back to the office, look up the phone numbers etc.

7) Get involved in a discussion! Again, many of you feel you are too busy to get involved in a community discussion on a network like LinkedIn or Facebook. Now’s your chance to finally jump in! While you’re at it, like us on Facebook or come join us on LinkedIn!

8 Take this time to get smarter! For once, you don’t have the excuse “I’m too busy to learn” (which we both know is complete bullsh*t) so why not use this time to hone your craft. To help you, I have 95 free audio sales lessons waiting for you if you click here and all kinds of on demand training resources if you click here.

This should keep you out of trouble well past the proverbial 12 days of Christmas!

2014 Could Be Better For You . . .

Do you have a plan in place for the new year with regard to bringing your sales skills up a notch?

Our January online course might be just the ticket for you!

All in all, there will be well over 100+ tips that I will share throughout the program! Oh, and we just added some really cool freebies which include eBooks, a free review of your responses to typical objections and a few more surprises that I don’t want to spoil for you.

This could be a great way for you to start the New Year strong and stop that whole “Doing what you’ve always done” thing.

And yes, I discount for 2 or more.

Click here for more info or if you’d like information on the pricing for 2 or more, email me (be sure to include an approximate number of reps that might attend) paul@yoursalesplaybook.com