Dec 20 2007
2007 And All That - Bring On 2008
What a year!
Actually, it is still continuing at a very hectic pace with the Top Sales Article Of The Year poll still running until December 30th with the winner set to be announced on New Year’s Eve and of course, the JF Article Community Awards winners will be posted on Christmas Eve. I will then be officially off-line until January 7th, re-charging the batteries and re-introducing myself to family, neighbours and pets.
We completed our planning for 2008 more than four weeks ago and more of that later, but first I have the opportunity to review 2007 and all that……….
Our first quarter plan involved updating the main JF site, giving the blogit a makeover and preparing to exit from The jfa Group. In practice, we completed all of that, but then we went into overdrive with a number of brand new initiatives, most of which had not been part of our original planning for the year – but that is the immediacy of the internet.
In February, we conceived the concept of delivering a single location, where every week, the very best sales related articles would be selected and showcased – with considerable originality, we called this site, “Top 10 Sales Articles” and having secured the services of some of the top sales experts in the world to act as an adjudication panel, we finally launched in April.
Initial visitor numbers as with any new venture were fairly low, but gradually we have built a huge weekly patronage and of course, the excitement leading up to the grand finale is really quite extraordinary.
So it was that we formed Top Sales Associates, to promote the very best sales related products, solutions and services
It was also in April that I was asked by b5 to take over their leadership focussed blog, Leadership Turn. This was something very new for me as never before had I attempted to post on a blog every single day of the week, but it was an immense challenge and that is what really excited me.
Within a couple of months, I had been nominated as one of the top leadership blogs for 2007 in a poll organised by “Mr Remarkable” himself, Kevin Eikenberry, who has since become a very good friend: I didn’t win and I didn’t deserve to, but I did come second thanks to an extensive address book of friends, who almost to a man and woman answered the call to arms and voted for me – otherwise I would probably have come way down the field after all, I was and still am, a relative novice at this blogging lark!
The Turn was fun and I made lots of new contacts but it was terribly time consuming and in the end I had to walk away, despite a reassuring leap in visitor numbers, because we had so many other pressing initiatives – however I remain eternally grateful for the experience made possible by my editor Douglas Hanna, for his patience and support.
In May, we began considering the viability of an autonomous site for the Top Sales Experts team, where we could all showcase our solutions more effectively than on Top 10 Sales Articles, because space was and still is at a premium.
The first designs looked superb and we drew up a list of the additional experts we wanted to invite onto the team – then wham! Nikki Owen, creator of The Sales Activator® and our sponsor on Top 10, came up with the concept of creating a specialised sales leadership resource – a one stop location, where sales captains could find tools for self-development, sales team sessions, articles, process tool-kits, newsletters, in fact everything they could possibly need to gain an advantage in ever increasing competitive markets.
By September we had launched the Sales Leadership Zone and despite a very slow take-up on subscriptions, which led us to reverse our thinking, this free to subscribe site has now really taken off and is fast becoming THE place to be for anyone charged with managing, training and developing a professional sales team.
At this point, I decided to bring all of our enterprises under one trading umbrella and we formed the Sales Practitioners Group, which is now based in London and Paris, with a further office planned to open in Cape Town at the end of 2008.
Once the Zone was up and running, my team turned their attention once more to the Top Sales Experts initiative and in my opinion, produced their best work to date.
The new additions took the Experts team to twenty six strong, with an excellent balance of established sales gurus and up and coming stars and we really do have some exciting plans to develop this site in 2008 – www.topsalesexperts.com
Which leads me in nicely to sharing with you my overall objectives for the next twelve months.
To begin with, my new consultancy – The Sales Practitioner – launches in January, with a brand new range of leading edge solutions and services. That’s all I can tell you right now, because the elves are busy designing something special ?
Certainly, I intend travelling more and accepting a greater number of invitations to speak, coach and consult because this year I have devoted almost entirely to online development and I have really missed the human interaction with clients.
That is not to say that we will not be forging ahead with further development of all our online initiatives, particularly with the Top Sales Experts team – think sales conventions, webinars, online one-one coaching and more.
It is also my intention to considerably enhance the Sales Leadership Zone, adding even more resources and at some point during Q1, I will launch a new leadership blog – tougheratthetop.com – which is very overdue in terms of my ambitions to give something back to aspiring leaders.
I have two books planned and I anticipate being prompted all the way by my publisher, Jeb Blount. I will also attempt to write more new articles and submit to the six or seven sites that I know will promote my work appropriately – I don’t need to mention them again, just look at my JF Article Community Awards nominees on Monday’s post.
Finally, I will be involving myself in a number of non-JF projects, in an advisory capacity to ensure my grey matter continues to be fully exercised. I will also immerse myself in all things Sales 2.0, but I will certainly not be dictated to by it’s supporters!:-(
I guess that’s about it: I need to thank you for coming back and allowing me to share my thoughts with you on a daily basis, it has been a tremendous challenge but immense fun.
I also want to thank all my friends, acquaintances and colleagues, new friends who were introduced into my life this year plus of course my team of incredibly talented little elves, especially Jacqueline Male, who is “Merlin” in my eyes and the “Top Graphics Guy” Bill Jeckells, for taking concepts from the “Crazy One” and turning them into reality.
To all of you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for making 2007 a very special year for me – words don’t do it somehow.
Have a great Christmas and do take a break from present wrapping/mince pie making/turkey stuffing etc on Monday to find out who has won the JF Article Community Awards – oh, and if you haven’t voted yet for goodness sake get over there – www.top10salesarticles.com
My Very Best
JF
PS: I am very happy to be a member of the Concord Society, because you cannot buy your way into that and neither can you bullshit your way in. Who?
“What we fear is not suffering or even death.
What we fear is that we have wasted life.
In our darkest moments we are afraid that our highest calling will go unanswered.”
