Jill Konrath, author of “Selling to Big Companies” and Razi Imam, CEO of Landslide Technologies are discussing new Sales 2.0 technologies for helping salespeople win big corporate accounts. The event is being moderated by Nigel Edelshain, CEO of Sales 2.0.

I will be there as a guest of Nigel.  Will you join us there?

DATE:
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

LOCATION:
The Penn Club
30 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
New York, NY 10036

AGENDA:
6.00PM - 6:45PM Networking and Hors d’oeuvres
6:45PM - 7:45PM Presentation and Interactive Discussion
7:45PM - 8:00PM Wrap-up & Networking

Register here for this event. I look forward to meeting you there.

I’ve been reading a new blog from Geoffrey James over at BNET called SalesMachine. He’s generated some controversy, both intended and unintended, about selling. This is good for his blog, of course, because it’s getting people there to comment.

He recently posted a commentary on, “Should Sales Run the Company” where he quickly said -

Absolutely

He feels that the sales function in a for-profit organization should be leading the way. Not running the ship, mind you, but the group that leads the rest of groups to the destination. I titled my blog posting, “Preaching to the [sales] choir” because sales people already agree with his posting - we’re the only ones out on the street talking to customers and prospects alike on what’s going on and getting feedback from the only people who matter - those who buy our offering.

Of course, lots of non-salespeople are reading his blog….and disagreeing. His follow-up posting responding to these comments is an even better read than his first post. Much like one of my favorite sports columnists, Michael Silver, Geoffrey takes their comments and comes back swinging. Yeah, this is fun!

For many of us, the end of the calendar year coincides with the end of the sales year. Have you made it yet? Will you (and your customers) enjoy the time between Christmas and New Year’s because you’ve already delivered your revenue committment to senior management?

When you need a quick break from all the holiday cheer and want to recharge those sales batteries with some quiet time then consider catching up on your sales reading and learning. But don’t have time to read all the new books on selling? Would you like the Cliff Notes versions instead? The Top Sales Experts website has just the booklet for you - and it’s co-authored by many of the top sales experts.

I like “Leaving PowerPoint Behind and Make the Person-to-Person Sale” by Joanne Black, author of “No More Cold Calling” and guest blogger on this site.

Another good article is “A Glimpse at Sales 2.0 - the Potential and the Pitfall” by Keith Rosen. As salespeople, many of us started selling in the days laminated presentations and always making sure there was change in our pockets for the pay phone. Today we’re using web-based conferencing and wouldn’t be caught dead without our cell/PDA. So what’s next?

Read the article. Read them all - in the the order they interest you.

Which articles did you enjoy best?

Happy Selling!