I’m having a great time working with Nancy Nardin, CEO of Smart Selling Tools. We are writing an eBook together on Smart Selling Tools for Inside Sales 2010 because we believe since inside teams drive up to 50% of a companies revenues and have traditionall sold from “inside” they are the early adopters of tools. This ebook will provide tool fuel and focus as we recommend the top “must-have” tools for inside sales. And when we present these tools, they will each wrap around one of the ten essential skills featured in my Smart Selling on the Phone and Online book.

We met with sponsors last week at the Sales 2.0 conference and Paul Simon from AllBusiness interviewed us as the “Smart Girls”  and I mentioned that Sales 2.0 is about having smart women in sales.

I attended two fantastic sessions at the Sales 2.0 Conference on Tuesday, the first was the Sales 2.0 Training panel discussion and the second was the Social Networking & Sales presentation.

Welcome to San Francisco- if you are here for the Sales 2.0 Conference, it’s the place to be. I’m tightening up my schedule and can’t wait to check out the line-up of great sessions. Just in case you are still not sure what Sales 2.0 is all about, I’ve organized some past blog posts to help you understand what it’s all about.

My Monday Social Media Workout- New sales activities create different results.

Sales Productivity Sounds- The sounds of Sales 2.0 are different - you hear keyboards clicking, the tweetdeck bouncing, cell phones vibrating, and text messaging chirping.

Data Consumption and Digital Distractions- The most common complaint with all sales organizations today is time management- Sales 2.0 is about saying NO to distractions.

The good- Forget preparing an elevator pitch when you can be filmed in living color with a video flip camera. Yes, that was the gadget du jour at today’s Sales 2.0 conference. And what usually followed were questions such as ”what does Sales 2.0 mean to you?” or “tell me about your book” or “do you think salespeople are ready to adopt some new tools?” This fun tool brings a new element to communicating. “

The Sales 2.0 Conference is alive and kicking, great turn out today and wonderful to connect with old friends. Gerhard and Umberto delivered their keynotes in front of a crowded room @ the Four Seasons in San Francisco. Four years ago, Sales 2.0 was just a buzzword and today,  we have arrived prepared to implement new ideas. As Umberto said, “you are here because you know you have to sharpen your saw” and continued to encourage everyone in the room to “Act- do something because if you demand better results you can deliver better results.”

Where does one start? Your welcome committee is the  Sales 2.0 Alliance. A group of 6 companies who are all well aligned to support the Sales 2.0 message at the team and manager level by supporting them with sales productivity web based tools. Other companies within the Sales 2.0 alliance include:

1. InsideView- Sales intelligence tool throughout the entire sales process

2. Marketo- Marketing automation and best practices (they also wrote a totally Marketing Cheat Sheet about Sales 2.0)

Sales 2.0 Conference is SOLD OUT!  Cool news- we’ve come a long way in spreading the Sales 2.0 wisdom all these years. When I first started blogging, I didn’t know much about Sales 2.0 but knew the sales profession was in the midst of an overhaul. One of my first posts on this was back in 2007, when I wrote a post titled, Sales 2.0 A Report from the Front Lines which focused on the sales evolution and the changes in the past 25 years.

Then in October 2007, the first Sales 2.0 Conference happened and in Drum Roll Please…..Sales 2.0 is Here I made the official announcement Sales 2.0 had arrived and even presented at that conference. The first Sales 2.0 conference back in 2007  attracted too many “looky loos”…..(don’t worry, this term doesn’t mean I’m gonna go Sarah Palin “you betcha” on you) these were conference attendees who just snooped around with inquisitive minds asking “What does Sales 2.0 mean and how far from it am I?”

It’s time to stop begging for leads and effectively work the ones you have. There is a huge need for strong lead nurturing strategies and stats to support the fact that a large percentage of leads that marketing provides sales are not effectively nurtured. It’s easier to look to other departments, individuals, processes, tools for what is needed than to work with what you have.

I enjoyed watching the talented Amy Black, from Kadient in her music video rendition of “I need a playbook sales hero” which explains why she is tired of living in ”sales portal hell” and believes if she has a “playbook” this will solve her lead nurturing process and make it more efficient. 

I agree that inside salespeople need a road map because the level of paralysis they struggle with isn’t getting them too far on the lead nurturing process. So next time you complain about not having any leads, spend time working what you have and work it right.

I had lunch with Rob Stump, CEO of ANI, an extremely reputable sales training company I partner with. Since we both run training companies, we shared similar struggles we have faced in the last year. Training is always the first to go when there is a downturn but how quickly it goes is most concerning. I compare this to getting laid off from a job. You usually walk into the office in the morning or after lunch and have been informed it’s your  last day and you need to get your things because security will escort you out. Just as you run back to log-out, your password has already been changed and you have no access. That’s how fast training gets slammed, no matter how long you have taken to design, develop and deliver the training, the number of participants signed up, it all disappears at the flip of a switch- poof, it’s gone.

Now, training is making a comeback- a fast one.  Everyone wants it NOW but it must be different than before, virtual, updated, revised and translated for every global country in the western hemisphere by tomorrow. It’s this new NOWISM that I refer to as Corporate ADD (one minute we want it and the next minute we shelf it) and believe we must take this NOWISM very seriously.

Why does sales training get some a bad rap during a fragile economy? I swear I have introduction paralysis when I’m shaking hands with someone at a conference or at last week’s Telebusiness Alliance meeting when everyone had to get up and introduce themselves, I thought long and hard about my intro. Should I say I’m an “author” and say that I’m President of TeleSmart, a sales training…….(oops better not say sales tttttraaaaaaning…because it’s a big bad word)  or perhaps I can substitute sales training with sales enablement (because it sounds better and still is undefined) or as Dave Stein refers to it officially as ”performance improvement provider.” 

This week it’s all been about me giving back to my unemployed friends. No I don’t mean cooking them dinner and doing their laundry, I mean listening to their challenges and struggles as they look to secure a spot in a completely saturated unemployed market. I have these two friends which are among the 20% of unemployed males looking for work these days- that is a huge statistic. My heart goes out to the job seekers, the ones who get up each day and start their search. Some don’t know how or where to look while others don’t know what gets them excited anymore.

In the movie Up in the Air where George Clooney plays this hachet guy which is brought into companies with the lovely task of firing people.  We watch how some react to the news, the fear, the humiliation and even the promise of suicide after hearing the tough news. At the end of the movie, some of them are back in front of the camera sharing their journey being unemployed and they all have a sense of resolve about their situation. They sound hopeful and have unexpectantly found a new path they never expected.