I had office hours today. I hadn’t had one in a few weeks because of the holiday, Dreamforce, and a busy client travel schedule. Doing them again today reminded me of how much I love doing them.

For those of you who don’t know what office hours is, each week I set aside three 2o minute sessions for anyone who wants to talk sales shop, has a sales problem they need help with, or any other topic they want to discuss. The time is the participants, not mine. They get to set the agenda.

There is something awesome about engaging someone in a completely free and open environment on their terms. There is no contract between us, no selling being done and no “agenda.” It’s simply two people talking shop, solving problems and trying to improve.

In one of today’s sessions, I talked with Abel. Abel is a successful, experienced sales person who was having trouble cold calling and setting the first meeting. He said he had been selling for over 10 years and has been very successful. But, he noticed he wasn’t getting the cold call hit rate he used to. We talked a bit about his cold method, the messages he was leading with and how he engaged his prospects. After a few minutes it became pretty clear where his challenges were. We made a few tweaks, changed what he led with and reoriented him to his clients issues and problems and boom! Abel had a new lease on life. I loved it. Abel was excited. I was excited and I met a cool new person. I don’t know if I’ll ever talk to Abel again, but the 20 minutes we spent on the phone solving a small cold calling problem was fun.

I love office hours. They are one of the highlights of my week. I forgot how much I liked them. Thanks Abel for reminding me. Good luck my man. You are now armed and dangerous!

If you want jump in on one of my office hours, you can sign up here. I’d love to hang with you. They start at 2:00 pm EST every Wednesday. (2:00, 2:20, and 2:40)

I’m looking forward to the next one already, they rock!