A modern girl's attempt at dating the old-fashioned way - through referrals, set-ups, and chance encounters

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Wanted: Sales Rep

I have found that in addition to working my regular job, I'm now a sales rep for myself and my dating project. It's exhausting.
I find myself culling for date leads. If someone tells me once that they might possibly have someone that they kind of know, that's a lead. I then have to follow up with this person to find out a few things about this possible date. Is he actually single? No. End of lead. Is he single and interested in being set-up? No. End of lead. I keep going around and around trying to find out who's an actual reasonable lead for a date. That leads me to the "qualified lead stage". Once I have a qualified lead, the next step is to connect us via email or the phone. We have a conversation and make a date. Sale complete! Well, technically the sale isn't complete until we go on the date. Once that happens the date goes towards my sales quota of 2 dates per month. January was a good month. I had 3 dates! That tied the record for all of last year.
So far February is slow. However, I'm a big believer in sandbagging. For those without the sales lingo, that means that I say I've got nothing and the last week of the month I'll bring in my sales, I mean go on dates, and hit my quota. That's pretty much what I did in January. I'm a procrastinator and work better under pressure.
I have a couple of leads for this month. They are both unqualified leads right now. Two other leads that I thought would hit this month moved to the March sales, I mean date window. I'm definitely sandbagging those and moving them for sure to March so that I hit my quota that month.
I'm still enjoying this experience and really thankful for how it's opened me up to trying out a lot of new things and experiences. I kind of equate it to getting dressed for a night out and I'm trying on lots of different outfits to see what's perfect to wear. Some pants are too loose, some shirts too tight. I'm trying to find out what's just right for me.
I had a second date with the "B" named guy from my last entry. It was nice enough but I didn't feel like the conversation was overly interesting, easy, or stimulating. My week had been really busy and I was exhausted and ready to end the night fairly early. I think that's legitimate but I think if I really, really liked him I would have been energized by his company and not noticed how tired I was feeling. C'est la vie.

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