Ever wondered how a day in the life of an Inside Sales Rep looks like? Today is your chance – see what I do from dusk ’til dawn :
7:00 am – Upon waking up, I get my dog and go for an early morning run at his favorite dog park. When I return home, I tell my wife good-bye as she is walking out the door, and start making coffee. I then start to get ready myself for work and eat breakfast. My goal is always to get out of the house by 8:40 to get to work on time and avoid traffic jams.
9:00 am – I usually arrive at the office before 9:00, coffee in hand, ready to start the day. My homepage is set to the US Times, with my accounts listed in my favorites section, to keep up to date on any information about them. I check my inbox by subject and then respond to emails and catch up with colleagues. I always leave myself action items from the day before as to where I left off or what I need to tackle first. The rest of the morning is spent finding new opportunities by calling customers and touching base on existing sales opportunities. Speaking with new customers is my favorite thing to do, so starting my day off doing that, really puts me in a great mindset. I love taking the time to speak with customers, ask questions and find the solution that best fits their IT needs.
11:00 am – I take the time to do sales or product training when I have a hour of downtime, which is extremely helpful for early career reps. This is the time where we can speak with our Solution Architects and technical resources on any questions or challenges we are having. It is also a great opportunity to collaborate with different business units within HP, to see how we can work better with each other. This allows me to remain a student of the business and expand my knowledge of our vast EG portfolio.
1:00 pm – I usually break for lunch around 1 PM to make sure I’m taking the same hour off as my customers. This is a great time to socialize, as well as go through any issues or experiences my peers and I are facing day-to-day. Once a week, the entire sales team will go out for lunch together, which has really helped us to become a closer knit team, as well as friends.
2:00 pm – After lunch, I always have another cup of coffee before I touch base with my team of enterprise account managers. We talk about the upcoming closing opportunities we have and strategize on how to see them to close. We also talk about other business units at those customer sites, so we can tap into new business. Many of the field reps and specialists I work with started at HP in my position, so they are able to relate to my challenges and offer sales advice. The rest of my afternoon usually consists of connecting with channel partners, calling customers I haven’t been able to reach, and answering emails.
4:00 pm – Typically there are a few different things I do at this time. My field team and I either do an account forecast call, or, if we are not scheduled for that, I set aside more time to call new customers, to understand their business needs and future projects we can help with.
5:30 pm – At the end of the work day, I usually do some administrative tasks, such as updating my Salesforce and organizing myself for the next day. I like to make myself a couple of action items, as to where I’m leaving off and what tasks are imperative for the next morning.
6:30 pm – When I arrive back home I get my dog and we go for a second run, while my wife finishes dinner. Once in a while, our team will plan an event and meet outside of work at some of the local hot spots. Most recently, we went to a local golf course and played 18 holes! This gave us an excuse for team bonding and some friendly competition. The inside sales team definitely works hard, but we know how to play hard too!
