goldenlazard

Senior SDR

WWBJD: American firm wants us EU/UK&I booking meetings in December despite the fact the continent shuts down

I work for a pretty aggressive publicaly traded US based company. it's great fun, high energy, and the RSUs are insane.

the one downside of being a public company is the pressure to deliver good numbers to Wall Street. to this fact, the US leadership team are giving us basically 4 days off over December and expect us to sell/book as much

there's only only one problem. Unlike in the states where y'all work 20 hours a day and take 2 days off a year, in the uk (and most of Europe) we shut down over December. There’s no way I’m ringing a northerner between Christmas and new year trying to book a meeting-I’ll be murdered over the phone. (I don't mind working over Christmas personally btw)

Obviously I won’t hit target, but no one will. What advice do you have for me? I’m thinking fake dials, or call a few and if I do connect with someone in the second half of the month-saying something like: “hey fuckface, yo ho ho merry Christmas and all that-appreciate you want to get back to drinking with your family and don’t want to take a sales call, when in January do you reckon the hangover will have worn off for me to throw a 5 minute call into your calendar?” Essentially using the second half of December to build pipeline.

christmas gr/meetings

Attached poll

yeah make peace with not hitting target get a ball of “snow” at the start of the month and try and hit quota in the first two weeks i wonder what the story is over at Gong? dolphin thing

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

🙅‍♀️ Objections

👑 Sales Strategy

👨‍🌾 SDR

18

20 comments

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Sunbunny31

Politicker

8

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Grind like hell the first part of the month, I like your approach to sassy greetings if you catch somebody the back half of the month, and do your best.

On the other hand, does your company not have management in the EU who can help them understand the critical differences to working with EU companies? When I worked for a global company, we had a separate EU team, APAC team and EMEA team, with different expectations. Anyway.

Good luck!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

5

🦊

Yeah it seems to me they should understand EU rules/customs. 🤔

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Right, and adjust. If half of December is written off, then redistribute quota. For EU, you'd have to also pay attention to August - EU employees have actual vacation time. But honestly, structure the year in advance to match up to reality.

Pachacuti

Politicker

4

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Show the effort. Document it. CYA.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

4

Sales Rep

Unfortunately you most likely will need to put in the work and have high numbers. US owned so they will expect US results

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Many global companies based in the US are better at navigating these differences, unlike this one.

jefe

Arsonist

4

🍁

Definitely go with the cheeky acknowledgment, but despite the ridiculousness of the ask you'll just have to give 'er and make a bunch of dials. Do as much as you can in the first half.

Fenderbaum

Politicker

3

Retired Choirboy🪕

I agree with showing the effort and all. But, there's gotta be someone in your chain of command who is aware of this cultural difference during December. If not, someone needs a little edumacation.

Diablo

Politicker

2

Sr. AE

The max you can do is to try as much as possible and not sit idle. Things you can’t control is you can’t control.

eyris

Fire Starter

0

Business Development Intern

Agreed

CorporateSis

Contributor

2

Account Executive

Hi @goldenlazard, I politely don't agree with this statement. I have been working the UK/EU market for the last 5 years and most of us work until 23rd of December, which falls on a Friday this year -- perfect timing. It is true that everyone is off between Christmas and NY, but before that, there are tons of projects to be closed, finalised and implemented, so everyone can start with a clean slate on the 2nd of January knowing they delivered in 2022. I once closed a major deal on the 31st of December at 11.30 pm, with a whole bunch of people sipping champagne. It often is my most successful month of the year.
Don't let the gossips influence you; there's enough people at work and you might even find them at a timing that they have less meetings. Seems like an opportunity for me! Good luck anyways, as some cultural difference are definitely true, but don't let that have too much of an impact!

goldenlazard

Politicker

1

Senior SDR

Thanks for your comment @corporatesis

I’m barely 6 months into my sales career so I’m glad you disagree 😅

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

1

Officer of ♥️

Love that template haha - Dolphin thing *SCREEEECH*

gettingitdone

1

Sales Director

Well this might be a bigger question than do I press on making dials. If as you described, the management is not going to relent and recognize the territorial norms, maybe you might consider working for another company in country/region that does. As others have commented, I have worked for companies that had global regional leadership. And startups where we created the culture and business practices to adapt to their markets being served.

TennisandSales

Politicker

0

Head Of Sales

for sure gotta put to work in at the start of the month! i feel you on this though.

I hate it when leadership doesnt use common sense.

eyris

Fire Starter

0

Business Development Intern

Exactly

SaaSam

Politicker

0

Account Executive

These are the kind of expectations that encourage sandbagging. So, if you're in a position to do so, sandbag. If you're not currently in that position, you've got the rest of this month, all of November, and most of December to set yourself up.

Gotta pinch a little from each month to make up for lost time but not enough to jepordize any one month either. This kind of stuff is why sales is so much more than just selling.

whatsquota

0

Enterprise AE

Never heard of this and I’m a yank whose lives in Australia for 10 years. Aussie take off 6 weeks in the winter it’s also our summer holidays so from Mid Dec to late Jan NO ONE I mean NO ONE is around. I would do as much as you can early in the quarter and then flag with your management. It needs to change or else they will deliver un attainable expectations to the market which is worst than just setting a lower bar and hitting that. Are they new to Europe?

NoSuperhero

Politicker

0

BDR LEAD

Sometimes you have to accept not meeting quota and December happens to be one of those horrible months.

eyris

Fire Starter

0

Business Development Intern

Show them how it’s done

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