Anxious to Sell Something

Ok,somewhere on my web site, I wrote words to the effect that I would not only share my success stories with you, but I would also share a few failures. Well, this isn't exactly a failure, but the month of January has come and gone and I haven't close a deal of any significant size. Not only that, but I really don't have any big hot deals in the hopper. Normally, I don't worry about these things, because cycles in selling are a very normal part of the business. The only problem is that I am putting a lot of pressure on myself because I just started with my new company in January, and and I am anxious to get off to a good start. Well, the end of the month is upon us and I am still on the snide. Oh, I've got a few maintanence projects going on, so it's not like I haven't sold anything at all. I've also recently met with some of my largest accounts from my old job and I'm confident that they will be giving me all of their business as soon as they have something to give. And it's not that I'm getting any pressure from my boss, because they know that the the bigger the project, the longer the gestation cycle. So in time, the large contracts will come. But still, when you are hired as a heavy hitter, and you get a nice compensation package, you want to come out of the gates running. The real problem is that the last quarter of 2006 I was looking for an exit strategy from my old job. There were some issues that I was hoping to resolve with my business partner, but if I couldn't resolve them by the end of the year, I had decided to leave. But since I had no way of knowing if I was going to be there after 2006 I decided to hedge my bets and not do any prospecting on projects unless I could close them by the end of the year. Anything that was supposed to close in 2007 was off the board. That way I would kill two birds with one stone. I would still be doing my job trying to book new contracts but I wouldn't leave any more business on the books than I had to if I did end up leaving. I had such a great 3rd quarter in 2006 anyway, I was way over quota and was already going to be leaving way too much money on the table as it was if I did end up leaving. One of the reasons I settled on this strategy was because I had to make sure that I wasn't ruining my chances for my sales for 2007 if I ended up leaving to go to a new company. I mean, how much credibility would I have with a new prospect if I called on him in the last quarter of 06 and told them what a great company Convergence Cabling was, only to call them back in the first quarter of 07 tell them that now I am with Cable Com, Inc. and that we are really the best company for their needs. Anyway, my point is that I wasn't filling my sales funnel for the next quarter like I typically would to do, and I ended up leaving my old job afterall and now I am starting a new job with what amounts to an empty funnel. Remember my old post about selling being like farming? Well, basically, I am starting a new field that needs to be plowed and planted before I can harvest a crop.
The good news is that the economy is in full bloom in Austin and I am confident that I will be on the trail of some hot new prospects really soon. I have a couple of elephants that I am tracking, and hopefully, if I can just get their attention, I'm sure that I can put the old Hector magic on them and get them to stand still long enough for me to get them in my sight. Bam! I'll get back to you with more details.