Holiday Shopping Guide for the Sales Pro in your Life!

Black Friday! Cyber Monday! 24-hour Wal-Mart!

With so much holiday shopping to do, isn’t it great that we have all these great options for consumer spending thrown in our face every year around this time?

We’re only half-kidding – while there is something ironic about fighting over the last $20 juicer with a stranger at Target around Thanksgiving, nobody can deny that there are great value deals to be found. And we all have long lists of people to buy presents for, including the sales professionals in our lives.

But what exactly should we buy for these sales reps and managers? For this group of busy, hip, tech-savvy and cutting-edge individuals, it can be difficult to find just the right gift for them. That’s what we’re here for!

Here are 13 gifts that any sales professional in your life would be thankful for.

Sportline HydraCoach Water Bottle –

You might know that we’re big fans of data and analytics, but did you know that we’re also big fans of staying hydrated? Unfortunately, many sales reps are so busy working the phones all day at work that they forget even the simple things. Like making sure they drink lots of water!

Enter the Sportline HydraCoach, the perfect marriage of data and hydration. Billed as the world’s first interactive water bottle, this very smart piece of technology calculates your personal hydration needs and tracks your real-time fluid consumption, helping you stay hydrated, even as your throat is parched from all those great sales conversations you’re having.

Cost: $29.99

FUUT Desk hammock –

Sometimes we spend so much time at our desks at work that it only feels like we’re living there. If that’s the case, why not make your desk experience just a little bit more comfortable, with the FUUT Desk Hammock.

The clever ergonomic design of this product allows you to literally kick up your feet and take a load off – all in the discreteness of under your desk. After all, resting your feet on top of your desk wouldn’t be a very professional look. This handy-dandy hammock solves that.

Cost: $79.99

Lumo lift –

Carrying all that weight and stress of trying to hit your number each month – while being stuck at your desk for 10 hours a day – can be hell on your posture. Even if we remind ourselves to sit up straight, or get a standing desk to solve the problem, it can be easy to forget to do this amidst your daily grind.

The Lumo Lift, your personal posture and activity coach, aims to solve that. It vibrates when your posture is at suboptimal positions, a subtle little reminder to tell you to, “Stop slouching!” Your mother can’t be at work with you to remind you, so the Lumo Lift will have to do.

Cost: $99.00

USB Desktop Aquarium –

Keeping up with the theme of permanently moving into the comfort of your desk, what home would be complete without an aquarium? Sales can be a stressful job, and research has shown that watching fish swim around can have a very calming and relaxing effect – so-called Aquarium Therapy.

This USB Desktop Aquarium is the perfect workaround solution for your workspace. Simply connect this fully functioning aquarium to your computer and enjoy the hassle-free water recirculation, and the captivating color-changing LED display. Note: goldfish not included.

Cost: $30.25

Noise cancelling headphones –

The sales pit can be a pretty noisy part of the office, a neverending cacophony of sales calls, inside jokes and loud celebrations. When you’re not actively making calls and working on other projects – prospect research, building out org charts, etc – the din of it all can make it a tough work situation.

A good pair of noise cancelling headphones can take care of that, shutting all outside noise out and leaving you to your quiet thoughts and your work. Try these on for size and see your productivity soar in a much more peaceful environment.

Cost: $169.99

Voice Activated Recorder Pen –

When you’re having a great conversation with a prospect at an event, it’s tempting to want to jot down important notes to reference when you get back to the office. That’s not always possible, or you might scribble down some details on a business card but forget the truly important trigger points.

What if you could record the conversation while also taking notes? This Voice Activated Recorder Pen allows you to do just that, with simple transferring of the recorded audio file to your computer. Using this pen will ensure that you never miss an important detail in any conversation again.

Cost: $79.95

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Tablet –

For traveling reps who hate lugging their laptop around on the road but don’t find enough power or functionality with their tablet, Microsoft has come up with the perfect compromise – the Microsoft Surface Pro 3.

This laptop / tablet combo runs Microsoft Office, has a wide enough screen to actually do work on (without being too cumbersome), doesn’t skimp on the specs and has a slick keyboard to type on and a stylus pen to write on the screen with. A host of great gaming and entertainment applications will also come in handy on those long plane rides.

Cost: 64GB model starting at $799.00

Pebble Steel Smart Watch –

Checking your phone for emails and messages at a meeting or a professional event can be very rude. Considerably less rude? Discretely reading those messages on your smart watch.

The Pebble Steel Smart Watch, for iPhone and Android devices, is the best on the market. It notifies you of incoming emails, texts and calls, while also giving you access to your calendars and some of your favorite apps. It doesn’t hurt that the watch is also a great fashion accessory.

Cost: $199.99

Professional laptop backpack –

Briefcases are so 20th century, but you still need something to carry around your laptop and other important work documents and items without looking like you’re back on campus on the way to Psych 101. You need a professional laptop backpack, like the eBags TLS model.

For starters, this backpack just looks slick, evoking a smart and tech-savvy young professional rather than a college slacker. In terms of functionality, the fully padded and lockable laptop compartment is completely isolated and secure, the three zippered mesh pockets allow you to safely store small items, and the embedded organizer keeps your files – and your mind – on point.

Cost: $108.99

LinkedIn Sales Navigator –

Jill Rowley, the Queen of Social Selling, is adamant that a sales rep who isn’t working heavily in LinkedIn in today’s modern sales landscape is not unlocking their full powers. Simply put, social selling works, especially on this network. Most reps have a free LinkedIn account – spoil your favorite rep by upgrading them to a LinkedIn Sales Navigator account.

With a host of new premium features – including enhanced messaging, lead recommendations, list builders and real-time sales intelligence and actionable insights – a LinkedIn Sales Navigator account is a powerful asset to help reps find new opportunities and close more deals.

Cost: $79.99 / month, or $779.88 / year

To Sell is Human –

There are lots of great sales books out there – and even some that are not explicitly about sales but are great resources for reps – but for our money, To Sell is Human by Daniel Pink is one of the very best.

Of the many reasons this book is so good – lots of great stories and anecdotes, data-backed research, etc – perhaps the most resonant is that it’s not about sales tactics, per se, but rather serves as a reminder that above all, a sales rep’s job is to make a human connection.

Cost: $7.99 on Amazon Kindle

Healthy snack subscription from NatureBox –

When the 3pm slump hits the sales team, it’s tempting to reach for a bag of Doritos or M&M’s to quell your hunger and give you an energy boost…but is that really a healthy or sustainable option? Instead, we recommend healthy snacks, which can pack an even greater energy boost without any of the bad sugars and calories.

NatureBox is a subscription service that delivers 5 curated healthy snacks straight to your door every month. Subscribers can either handpick their favorite healthy snacks – I have a weakness for the Dark Cocoa Almonds myself – or simply let the curators at NatureBox choose your snacks for you.

Cost: Starting at $15.95 / month

Gift certificate for a massage –

It’s been a long, but successful, year for the sales professional in your life. Reward them by treating them to the perfect stress reducer – a massage from Massage Envy. Your sales managers and reps have all sacrificed much of themselves for the team and company this year. It’s time for some “me-time.”

Cost: varies