In our recruitment and interview sessions for the Sales Consultant position, candidates often ask us to describe a “typical day” at work and I think that this is an important discussion to set reasonable expectations. Well heck, I’m a pretty typical guy. So here is my typical day as a Sales Manager selling Meltwater Buzz:

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7:35: My primary job is to manage a sales team and to pitch our social media monitoring software to companies and organizations in the U.S. The office typically starts its day at 8:00 am, but like any responsible manager (who also happens to be documenting his day for the company blog), I show up early.

8:00: My team consists of me and two sales consultants, Patrick and Zack. We normally start our Wednesdays with a team meeting. I think today’s meeting is fairly typical; on a scale of typicalness, I’ll give it a 7. Here we discuss the sales cases the team is currently working on and we use this time to help each other uncover any holes in our sales strategy . There is a lot of work involved in making a sale, so it’s important that each consultant has a good plan in place.

8:40: I get together with the office’s Managing Director, Scott, for a quick management meeting. We talk about how my team is progressing and the areas that we should focus on for the rest of the week. Keeping people motivated can get tough at times, so it’s my job as a sales manager to make sure things don’t get monotonous and that everyone on my team continues to learn and develop.

9:00: Finally, I have time to get back to my desk and hit the phones. Given a choice, this is how I would spend my entire day. I’m fortunate because my primary job centers around talking to people, and that is something I very much enjoy.

In phone sales, the best use of time is always going to be spent on the phone. It sounds obvious, but I find that this is something that needs to be stressed and re-stressed. Selling all boils down to a numbers game, so it’s in the team’s best interest to put ourselves in front of as many companies and contacts as we can. It’s hard work to make the initial contact and set up product demos, but it’s by far the most important aspect of the job.

9:18: I speak with my contact at a US Senate office in order to follow up on their demo from last week. My contact says that everyone loves the tool, but it is “significantly” out of his budget.

In this case, I’m not too discouraged. It sounds like the campaign office has interest, and with elections coming up this fall, timing will be perfect to monitor social media buzz.

9:30: While on the phone with a receptionist, I start choking on my coffee for no reason. When she asks if I’m still there, I explain that yes I am, but not to worry because I’m OK. She doesn’t seem to really care, though, and just puts me through to my contact.

9:46: A co-worker corrects me. Phuket, Thailand, is pronounced “pu-ket” and not what I originally thought (and just said out loud). Heh, go figure!

10:45: I take some time out from making calls to respond to a few emails. Sending good emails is a big part in the strategy of sales. Here is an opportunity to visually present ideas and explain the value in your service, especially to contacts that are hesitant to commit to time on the phone.

Looking back, I made 24 calls since 9:00 - a respectable number in my mind. When I call a company, I always have at least a general idea of how it would use the Meltwater Buzz tool. Talking to someone on the phone is the most efficient way to get across this vision, especially because I want to hear what the contact thinks and adjust my pitch accordingly. Right out the gate, this is what sets me apart from the other vendors that might be reaching out.

In a given day, I would say 70 outgoing calls is a good goal to shoot for. This number decreases as you get more experience and a better hit-rate, but in the beginning, your primary job is to reach out and present the service to as many people as possible, so a high call frequency should be your focus.

12:00: I’m taking my team out for lunch today. But before leaving, we get in a few games of ping-pong. Ping-pong is huge at Meltwater in general, but the Chicago office is lucky; we not only have a ping-pong table, but also an original NBA Jam arcade game.

I dominate Zack and Patrick 21-14 and 21-15. You could argue that I have an unfair advantage: I play extra hard knowing that I will later blog about this.

1:05: We’re back from our team lunch, which went well. During lunches like these, I try to talk about anything but work. More than anything else, it’s just an opportunity for the team to hang out as a group and relax. Our conversation ranges from the glory days of high school football to OCNN to this guy who really hates the Tennessee Volunteers.

1:30: Patrick debriefs me on a demo he had this morning. I always want to be caught up on the cases my team is working on. Here, I give insight when it makes sense, but also want to make sure everyone feels a healthy level of autonomy. It’s an important, and sometimes challenging, balance to maintain.

2:28: Eating yesterday’s leftover birthday cake. Fast life, baby!

3:17: I’ve been cranking out calls most of this afternoon. On this last one, I tell the receptionist that I’m calling from Meltwater Buzz. Her response, “Melt-wa-wha-what??”

4:33: I make a few last attempts at reaching some colleges on the West coast and start to wind my day down.

Our day is typically over at 5:30 pm, so I always give myself time to send follow up emails and information. Like I said, you want to be as productive with your time as possible; during the meat of the day, your time is best spent trying to reach people who are at work. Unless it’s time sensitive, save your time-consuming e-mails for later.

5:40: I beat Zack again in ping-pong

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Looking back at the day, it seems uneventful in a lot of ways. Aside from ping-pong domination and leftover birthday cake, I took a few losses and experienced a couple of setbacks.

“Melt-wa-wha-what??”

I’ve been around long enough to know that setbacks come with the job; it’s the nature of sales. In sales, you run across a lot of people that say “no” but that’s what makes it even better when they say “yes”.

But check it out! You got exactly what you were looking for today, right? A typical day from a typical guy. A typical guy who dominates in ping-pong, that is.

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