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I’ve been heads down writing my annual Trend Report and my Hotlist of what’s IN/OUT in Inside sales for 2011. Here’s a sneak peek to learn what’s in store for the year and how to best prepare. Enjoy the read!

The theme this year is the Socially Smart Buyers. These buyers are in control, and it’s about time salespeople get on their good side. The prospect must really “like” you, or talk with enough other people who like and trust you before they will consider your solution.

Think about it: Whenever you want to make an online purchase, you search through social sites to read comments, reviews, likes, and dislikes. That influences your choice much more than someone calling you and pushing their services.

Purchase decisions will also be much more collaborative as we move into a new year. Even reading the news is collaborative: the Huffington Post’s example of  Aaron Sorkin’s blog post about Sarah Palin’s Alaska, which generated nearly 100,000 Likes on Facebook; a news story on a possible cure for HIV, which brought in over 300,000 readers from Twitter; and Michael Moore posting bail for Julian Assange, which saw 30,000 Likes and Facebook shares.

What can you do to generate some “likes” in your court? Pump up your LinkedIn testimonials and recommendations, write some articles, post blog comments, and update your Facebook site. We walk the talk: Check out TeleSmart’s  testimonials section and stay tuned for some great happy customer videos in the next few weeks.