The JF Guest Author Spot

Tom Canning – Connectize Inc.

Sales 2.0 Conference shakes it up in San Francisco

The Sales 2.0 Conference is now two weeks old. Thousands of tweets were twittered, and hundreds of sales bloggers have blogged. I’m still driving by the Intercontinental Hotel hoping that someone still might be there. Is there anyone I can speak Sales 2.0 with?

Living in San Francisco has its advantages. I get to go to events like Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and Sales 2.0, and almost every week, something NEW 2.0 starts at about 5:30 pm and costs fifteen bucks. This conference was different. It seriously triggered my sales DNA and got me excited. It was like a high school reunion yet I was re-connecting with a thriving sales ecosystem of sales people, vendors and customers. But like any reunion – things had definitely changed!

So what is Sales 2.0 and why is it imperative to understand what it is?

• Sales 2.0 is real-time

• Sales 2.0 is an evolution

• Natural selection suggests great Sales 2.0 professionals will emerge

• Genetic drift suggests there will also be Sales 2.0 superstars

Sales 2.0 is real-time

Everyone was thinking, talking, tweeting, and toasting to what they hoped and believed the new age of Sales 2.0 would bring. There was real time collaboration between participants and the sharing of best practices and experiences. Twitter voting of presenters and the tweet feeds of key information helped share the deep kept secrets of the conference and offered real time transparency to those not in attendance. This event and everyone’s participation was happening in real time.

I enjoyed a lot of great conversations outside the presentation room. Like hanging out at a customer’s water cooler – you can learn a lot through conversation. My highlight was dinner and a real time conversation with Nigel Edelshain and Jill Konrath, two of the top Sales 2.0 visionaries. It was the perfect way to end the day.

Sales 2.0 is an evolution

Was the conference full of wild and primitive Sales 1.0 savages all hoping to be part of the first genetic shift to this new elite race? No, evolution doesn’t work like that. Sales 2.0 will be a gentle process. It will require the alignment of sales, marketing (really the whole company) and the CUSTOMER. We can’t over evolve and model the sales process and leave the poor customer in pre-historic times. Maybe next year we will see a Customer 2.0 track.

Everyone left with Sales 2.0 speak-ability. Alignment of this new language to the pace of the customer is key. There is no one-size-fits-all or master framework to follow for Sales 2.0.  And nor will there ever be.

Sales 2.0 needs to be simple, both in definition and in ability to action. As we evolve the sales organization – there should be small steps and recognition of the changes and associated successes. Not everyone or every industry can or should evolve at the same rate.

Natural selection suggests great Sales 2.0 professionals will emerge

We have to get used to sharing, collaborating and aligning our interests with our customers. New sales people will be born into this new way of thinking. Most existing sale people will successfully make this transformation and emerge. But others, like the dinosaurs, will get trapped in the tar sands and perish. Survival of the fittest will naturally occur across existing sales organizations.

The conference crowd was a mix of young and old, but surprising more weighted to the older side. Many great sales leaders are older, and come pre-packaged with Sales 1.0 processes and methodologies. It’s this group that will need to make a more dramatic transformation. The new and younger sales generations are generally already on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and others. Social media is part of their sales and social world. And they’ve done so very openly and naturally. Has the process of natural selection already started?

Genetic drift suggests there will also be Sales 2.0 superstars

This genetic drift concept is interesting – since you might be thinking this conference produced 450+ Sales 2.0 robots. Fortunately, our ability to absorb, interpret and action new information varies by person, location and industry. This represents an opportunity.

How will superstars emerge? My opinion is that true Sales 2.0 superstars will leverage these new processes and applications and successfully align these capabilities with their customer’s buying patterns. Superstars will add their own unique personality and reasoning in the application of Sales 2.0 – something a robot can’t do just yet.

Conclusion

The evolution has started as evidenced by this conference. It is now the time to decide if you will perish or emerge as a Sales 2.0 superstar. Your customer is waiting.

Tom Canning is CEO and founder of Connectize Inc.  Connectize is a real time social collaboration application for sales professionals who need sales intelligence and who want to promote and monetize their knowledge. Visit Connectize at http://www.connectize.com. You can follow Tom on Twitter @tomcanning.

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Today’s News: It is of course St.Patrick’s Day, and I wanted to wish all my friends, colleagues and Top Sales Experts based in the Emerald Isle, and in many other parts of the world, a wonderful day.

Here is a small surprise from the TSE HQ Team, to make you smile – just click here

Tomorrow: I ask: “Are You In Control – Really In Control?” and give you yet another FREE ebook, so be sure to join me.

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