Today’s Specials – Sales 2.0 – Wednesday, January 19, 2011

We’re singing “Happy Birthday” in The Sales Cafe today! (But certainly not the version written by the famous Hill Sisters.) It’s the birthday of many famous (and infamous) people today and we’re always looking for a reason for a party and a piece of cake around here.

Amidst all the mayhem, we are looking to get some work accomplished. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. In addition to the birthdays, we’re worried about Steve Jobs–Apple will live on, but who’s thinking about Steve and his health?

And what about you? Who’s thinking about you? You might be surprised…

Image via CrunchBase

1. Google Yourself. That’s right, do it now. Type your name in the Google (or Yahoo! or Bing) search box and see what happens. Let’s hope you see only happy surprises.

2. What the heck is Sales 2.0 & Why should I care? Leave it to the Hubspot folks to get the guy who coined the term “Sales 2.0” to guest write a blog post about it that has some background and depth–instead of just the typical “it’s good for you, do it or hire me to do it for you” posts we so often find on the Web. (So, yes, you can hire Hubspot, but the piece also validates our brainchild “A Marketer in a Sales World.” We’re saving that for another day.)

3. 3 Qualities a Sales Rep MUST HAVE. Do you have what it takes, well, according to Geoffrey James, the sales guru over at BNET? To us, those are the three qualities just about anyone should aspire to have, no matter what their job title is.

Today’s Specials – Thursday, October 28, 2010

Other than being obsessed with the time-traveler at the Charlie Chaplin premiere in 1928, we are just trying to avoid the pitfalls and funnels of a “rise and grind” kind of day. Here are some links that grabbed our attention.

1. Top Nine Sales Blunders. First Geoffrey James of the BNET Sales Machine blog told us about the top paying useless jobs. (But we sell services to the Change Catalysts you call tapeworms!) Now he’s telling us about the biggest mistakes B2B salespeople make. Basically, James tells us to start doing our homework!

2. Optimizing the Sales Funnel. In the old days, the wisdom was “fill your sales pipeline.” The modern-day-wise folks at Marketo offer seven steps toward optimizing leads. This is an area where sales and marketing overlap and the language barriers can cause problems. Following these steps helps break down those barriers.

3. Shameless plugging. After the last link, we thought it would be interesting to re-visit the travails of A Marketer in a Sales World.

4. SBA Guide for Women Owned Businesses. The Small Business Administration recently published a guide to outlining requirements to participate in its new women-owned small business program, which requires federal agencies to set aside a percentage of contracts for female entrepreneurs. Thanks to the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee for the link. We’ll get around to reading it later today.

5. Laugh Out Loud. We added this link because it’s so funny.

That’s about it for today. Send us some links that help move your day along or just make you laugh out loud. (shalvoy@elaconsultinggroup.com)