I was in Amsterdam last week for the 6th time and I got hit by a bike. It’s okay, the person I was walking with was very casual about it and said that you really haven’t truly traveled to Amsterdam until you’ve been hit by a bike. Bikes are everywhere, one is surrounded by cyclists speeding in every direction. Everyone rides these old worn out bikes. Nicely dressed women in skirts and boots ride their bikes. Men in suits on cell phones ride their bike. Children sitting in handlebars or the back seat ride with their mom. Parked bikes are everywhere and it looks so normal. I don’t think any look tempting enough to steel and how would one begin to decide which to steel.

This time I stayed at the Lloyd Hotel- this hotel used to be a Juvenile Penitentiary years ago. My room felt a step above a cell room, it was creepy. The oddest thing was the bathtub. It took up the entire room. No desk, closet, chair but one huge bathtub big enough to fit a family of four.  

I had a fantastic train the trainer session with Cisco who selected TeleSmart as their new hire sales training program. They will offer their global inside sales team members and inside sales channel teams Tools, Technology and TeleSmart for the 10 days of new hire. So last week I spent time certifying the global trainers. What a talented group, they were an absolute pleasure.

When Saturday arrived, I couldn’t wait to get back home. I had started packing days before because I wanted to make a quick exit out of the Lloyd Hotel and never come back. The red room with the tub would become a distant memory.

Wait, is that Robert Scoble walking out the same front door as me. Robert is one of the biggest blog gurus out there and now he is with Fast Company TV interviewing the coolest people.  I also like reading his wife’s blog, Maryam Scoble. We shared a taxi to the airport and talked- it was most excellent. Thanks Lloyd Hotel!

Where can you go if you want to surround yourself with new technology, brilliant entrepreneurs, great looking people, tech gurus, a fun setting and great desserts? This Friday night, the 2007 Crunchies Award premiered in San Francisco. This event was masterminded by Michael Arrington from Tech Crunch and honored some of the most promising internet start-ups.

The categories were delicious- best business model, best bootstrapped startup, best use of viral marketing and my favorite, best time sink. Here are the winners from all categories.

There were lots of amusing videos and the most memorable one: Here Comes Another Bubble.

Lots of blogging celebrities were there such as Seth Godin and Robert Scoble. Of course, the highlight was watching the very brilliant Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook accept his award.

Sales 2.0 is bringing sales, marketing, technology together into one happy family.

Last week Adobe announced some restructuring in their sales organization and many talented field salespeople were let go. The good news is that their restructuring efforts will be focused on setting up a robust inside sales organization out of San Francisco. Good move. Adobe isn’t the first to do this, we will see a lot more of this in the coming year.

Setting up an inside sales organization isn’t as easy as it sounds and unfortunately many well-intentioned high level executives tend to set up inside sales organizations to fail. Here are some common traps to watch out for:

1. No defined structure- How will the organization be structured? Will there be Lead Development, Inside Sales, Renewals teams? What is the hand-off and sales process?

2. Not taking a stand- There is power in numbers and many don’t set up teams but individuals and keep them disbursed throughout the country. You must have continuity and uniformity.

3. Lack of respect from the field- If the reps in the field are weak, they rely too heavily on the inside team for the wrong reasons. They insist on half-baked leads, or cancel appts with well qualified leads, or ask the inside to help them on brainless admin tasks they could do themselves.

4. Long sales cycle- Inside sales team members need easy wins to keep them focused on the daily grind of pounding out calls. It’s important for the inside to have an easy low-cost solution to provide early adoption opportunities for their prospect. Product evals are a good vehicle and can convert to a potential sale.

5. New messaging = new confusion- When the product focus changes so much, it confuses the inside teams and this keeps them from positioning it effectively.

6. Who should buy it? Back to basics on who actually should buy your product or be a coach on buying your product.

7. Set unrealistic quota goals too late- It happens all the time, inside sales waits to get their quotas assigned and then they finally come around two quarters late and they are much higher than expected. This impacts their productivity and their focus. 

8. Marketing is disconnected- Marketing is off doing their own thing, blasting out to thousands of disqualified leads they never bothered to scrub and expect the inside teams to follow-up. When leads are so bad, this affects the lead conversion process and the inside gets blamed for it.

9. Providing training that is field focused- Skills training is great when it is most appropriate to the team receiving it. Inside sales requires a very different skill set than field sales and training that is appropriate makes more sense.

10. Too much- Before this group didn’t have enough and now they have way too much. Too much technology and tools can paralyze and create ways to avoid what they have been chartered to do. Picking up the phone and selling is a good start.

A recent Nielson study found that word-of-mouth is still the most powerful sales tool today. The study surveyed various types of advertising and found that consumer recommendations ranked the highest. That confirms the viral nature of social networks and how important it is to create evangelical champions.

I’m often surprised when I contact prospects in my space, the inside sales world, and find out they have never heard of my company. I’ve had my company for 14 years and in the sales world for over 20 years, what do you mean? The truth is that they have never heard of my company from a trusted advisor or friend or business colleague.  Most of the people who attend my training session walk out absolutely thrilled and generally very positive. The reality is that good news doesn’t travel at the lightening speed bad news travels. It still ranks 5:1 in terms of bad news spreading faster than good news.

It’s been 18 months and 388 blog posts since I first ventured into the blogsphere. Today, my writing life is full and my blog is my business partner, my confidante, my inspiration and my mirror. 

Why do I blog? Mainly because I love to write and communicate my thoughts, ideas and values to the world.  I like to get up close and personal with inside sales people as well as field sales, service and support teams.

Sometimes I think I’m moving very slow on a highway that is racing. Other times, I feel I’m speeding in a 25 miles per hour zone. Today I am going at exactly the right pace.

I want to dedicate this blog posting to YOU. Thanks for stopping by and reading a post or two, thanks for the time you take to read and comment, thanks for your kind words of support and most of all, thanks for being my inspiration. 

I have compiled my top 50 list of favorite blog post- here is the best of the Life in the Telebusiness Blog:

1. Setting Appointments.

2.  Get More Live Voices

3. Change up your messaging

4. Oops, when you realize you’re in the wrong place

5. When someone goes radio silent on you

6. 5 ways to set your non-negotiable time

7. The Dynamic Duo

8. Keep in shape

9. Clues we lose

10. Telestressed?

11. 8 reasons to test your phone courage

12. Email rejections

13. Changes lead to uncertainty of power

14. Listening for red flags

15. Are any No-Po’s lingering in your forecast?

16. Learning your No-Po lacks power before they do

17. Betrayed by No-Po’s?

18. I just have one more question

19. When a No-Po has to protect their turf

20. Winning coaching qualities

21. Are you avoiding being coached?

22. Sales intuition

23. The cancelled sales appointment

24. Is voice mail in or out?

25. Key words and phrases that lack influence

26. Trend talk

27. Sales training is like going into rehab

28. The first few times it’s tough and then it gets easier

29. Are salespeople happy?

30. Notes on motivation

31. Mr. Unavailable is a No-Po

32. Sales yoga

33. Tuesday conversation with a No-Po

34. You finally get the appointment, now what?

35. Let’s talk about trust

36. Different messages= different titles

37. End of quarter sales stats

38. Watch out- it’s the No-Po entourage

39. You sound busy so I’ll let you go

40. 10 tactics for engaging a gate-keeper

41. Looking for motivation in all the wrong places

42. Unavailable power

43. When was the last time you…..

44. Sales 2.0 prospecting

45. Opt-out of desperate discounting

46. The 3 C’s of social networking

47. Sales 2.0; A Report from the front lines

48. Top 7 responses impatient salespeople hate to hear

49. What’s on your wish list?

50. Why do we can people who have no power?

Ever have days when you just don’t feel like prospecting? How about networking? That’s a lot more fun- it’s filled with curiosity, creativity and casualness. Whether I launch my LinkedIn profile, or spy on my daughter on FaceBook, or think about growing my customer base through SaleSpider or navigate into large companies with Spoke or Jigsaw, I’m ready!

Let’s start with the basics- network responsibly. Don’t just blanket your entire business base of contacts to ask to connect. In our webinar earlier this week on Social Networking, Sherman Hu from LinkedIn mentioned that Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama is putting his profile up on LinkedIn. It’s a bit of a stretch for me if I want to connect with him in terms of helping generate budget for some Fortune 500 company I’m targeting. Keep in mind what your goals and objectives are when networking.

Next, be creative. If you are only targeting people in your space, everyone starts looking the same. The key to networking is to be open to trying new paths. For example, if I’m always targeting Worldwide Training Sales Directors, I may try VP’s of Sales, VP of Sales Operations, Sales Managers. They will always lead you back to where you want to go.

Be curious- Take time to understand everyone’s hot buttons and helping them can help you. Yesterday I took time to speak with a CEO who is building a start-up company and connected him to a few other people. No, I’m not getting any business from him but as Justin says, “what goes around, comes around.”

Be casual- I like networking because you can be yourself and not work with any canned scripts. Any formality will just distance your prospects. Your authentic self is so much more attractive.

Don’t wait to build your social network, take the time to update your profile and the more you put into it the more you will get out of it.

Last night I was invited to speak in front of the Business Planning group at the San Francisco RenCenter.  This place holds a special place in my heart because 14 years ago I brought an idea and watched it blossom into my company, TeleSmart. It is led by the very inspiring Paul Terry who has the gift of taking eager potential entreprenuers and shaping them into smart business professionals. He is one of my mentors.

I looked across the room and saw the most diverse group of business owners all working at their business plan or their roadmap to success. I always like the business ideas that float around in this space such as a Pet Retail Store, Bakery, High Fashion Clothing Store, Karaoke Bar, On-line Magazine for Alzheimers and a Life Coach.

So the interview started and Paul shot some great questions my way at the end, I shared some advise for all entrepreneurs out there:

Stay true to your niche- you will gain respect in your industry as an expert.

Listen to your customers and what the market is saying and learn to react quickly

Always find a way to say you can do something

Be fearless, open, agile, forgiving and flexible

Keep your spirit alive because you will attract business just because of your excitement

Create strategic partnerships

Hire consultants and coaches to bring you up to speed instead of spending days in training

Remember the sign of a true entrepreneur is having people tell you “it won’t work” or “that’s not a good idea” and you get to respond with, “watch. this.”

Thanks Paul for inviting me and best of luck Business Planning Class of 2007

It’s the beginning of a new week after a long and confusing holiday week which proceeded quarter-end.  How’s your motivation this Monday?  Many salespeople make the same mistake and wonder why they are getting burned out and losing their motivation. Make sure to not fall into these 5 motivational traps:

External focus- Whether you are blaming your territory, manager, product or this time of year. It’s easy to look outside of yourself for what isn’t working instead of doing more introspective work abour your values and your goals.

Comfort zone- Many of us hang out out with the familiar regardless of whether it’s the right for us. It’s what we know how to do best and what we default to. Shake things up, take a new turn and you’ll get different results.

The quick fix- Stop looking for low-hanging fruit and make something happen. This great weather can create summer laziness, our work days may feel shorter because we have other commitments so we tend to focus on where we can get the fastest results. Take that step back and design a strategy, road map and plan.

Happy ears- Any prospect who wants to talk about our product, service and solution is welcome to do so but ask them to pull the trigger and make a purchase and they bolt. Spend more time finding the decision-makers who can make something happen and listening for pain and compelling events.

Still Waiting- What are you waiting for? Decide on your top 3 priorities and make them happen now.

This weekend was Gay Pride in San Francisco All the costumes, celebration and color brightened up the city. I feel lucky to live in a city that supports self-expression and acceptance to be who you want to be.

Thousands of people are attacked every year simply because of their sexual orientation, and there’s still no federal hate crimes law to protect them. We all deserve that protection, all of us–straight, gay, transgendered, black, white, Christian, Muslim–all of us.

Check out this video produced for Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors tour this summer and pass it on.

The Friday before a long holiday weekend is always a bit slippery. People seem to cut out early, plan their weekend activities and wish one another a Great Holiday Weekend! Well, I’m doing some of that but I’m also excited about Video Blogging.
As you know, I started my blog last year and as much as I learn about blogging, I am so far from ever really getting there. Sure I have my favorites that I always look to for inspiration because they always blog and provide exceptional content.

When I want to know what is happening, I go to Guys’ blog and when I want to see who is hot in the tech world, I listen to Robert Scoble’s PodTech show. I always laugh with brilliant Scott Adam’s Dibert’s blog- as a matter of fact, if I had 15 minutes with someone amazing, it would be Scott Adams. When I want to know what is happening in the blogging community, the very hip BlogSquad ladies keep me on my toes. These are only a few.

So yesterday, I’m checking out video blogging and I came across a few I want to share with you:

1. Roxanne Darling’s Beach Walks with Roz- I’m super excited about this. Rox takes us on daily walks on the beach in Hawaii. That’s right, here I am in foggy San Francisco with the heater in my office and I get to watch and listen to the very articulate and bright Rox.
2. Since my blog is Life in the Telebusiness Trenches and completely dedicated for inside sales folks, we can relate to the phone. I’m always looking for fun stuff on about phones. Well, check out That Phone Guy- he is hysterical. If you watch very closely, you will realize he is not talking into a cell phone- it’s his wallet!
3. Of course, we can’t forget Amanda Congdon who is prolific in her use of video.

All I have to say is stay tuned for some surprises next week.