Field sales/work from home book/advice?

[crofty1984]

Hi all, starting a new job soon. It's working from home field sales engineer.
I've always worked in engineering sales, but whilst I've travelled for work it's been mainly go to India/Chile/Kuwait for a week every couple of months, not day-to-day sales rep type stuff. I've never worked from home before. I really want to make a good go of this so if appreciate any advice or recommendations/books.
Thanks.

[AmosMoses]

Take your dinner break away from your desk, otherwise you never feel like you get a break.

[LordGrover]

I guess it depends on your personality type.
I'd spend even more time here and flitting about the Internets, but my car would be spotless and the garden would also be perfect.
I need to 'go to work'.

[Henners]

AmosMoses said:

Take your dinner break away from your desk, otherwise you never feel like you get a break.

This.

Always build in some downtime - so many people think that because they wfh they need to work more than if they were in the office - they feel guilty.

[Puggit]

Sounds a bit like IT presales? I'm the techie part of the IT sales process.

Start at 08.00-08.30. Work through to lunch, dog walk, work the afternoon. Finish off late afternoon.

Get a fitbit that advises you to take a walk. Every hour mine wants me to take 250 steps and prompts me at ten to the hour if I haven't. Don't snack when you're bored!

Oh, and this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk

And make sure your wife/gf knows that working from home doesn't mean doing chores all day.

[Puggit]

You can claim a little bit of tax relief too: https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/workin...

[T1547]

Puggit said:

Oh, and this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co_DNpTMKXk

Having worked (shirked) from home for a few years previously I'm definitely in the need to go to the office camp. Occasional day here and there at home if I have plenty to do is fine but continuously gets a bit isolating and literally anything (cleaning the oven, cutting the grass etc) becomes more attractive than making sales calls.

I found going to the library (for emails) or a shared workspace somewhere to make calls I got much more done.

[robemcdonald]

To clarify. Are you working from home everyday? Or is it on day a week and the you are visiting customers?

[crofty1984]

robemcdonald said:

To clarify. Are you working from home everyday? Or is it on day a week and the you are visiting customers?

I imagine it will be 3 days driving round visiting clients. So thankfully I'll have a good bit of face to face interactions, not an email robot. If it was much more "at home" I'd look into renting a desk somewhere. Still might, bit until I've been there a few months I won't properly know the lay of the land. I start in a month. Then get married 4 days later!

[robemcdonald]

Do you have a set call rate (3-4 calls a day)?

What type of customers are you selling to? Contractors, consultants, distribution, end users?