Typically inside salespeople haven’t been able to get out to networking and lead sharing meetings because they’re chained to the phones. That is changing with social networking and lead sharing groups such as B2B Power Exchange. The only group that lets inside salespeople in.

  I spoke with Chris Pareja, the Founder of the B2B Power Exhange. This B2B networking and leads group which focuses on collaborating by changing the way people discover, close, deliver new business.  

Who is your audience? Small entrepreneurs, mid-sized business owners and reps from large companies. They are usually looking for new opportunities with a large enterprise audience, or they are looking into new resources to help them close a large deal but don’t have the bandwidth or they are looking for partnering opportunities with large target accounts. 

Why do they join? It’s always a challenge to find people they can collaborate with and hook up with to deliver new opportunities. Our on-line groups are interest-specific such as people who are only targeting fast-growing companies can get on one call, or people who only want marketing executives could be on one call.

How fast is this growing? We started with a group of 30 people meeting in Dublin, California and now we are at 35 locations nationally for breakfast meeting and 38 on-line meetings. They are pulling participation from the Ukraine, Phillippines, Toronto and Mexico. Their 5-year goal is to be in 43 countries with a million annual participants.

Success Stories? Marketing consultants have come into their first meeting and walked out striking partnerships that netted them $100K opportunities within one month after their meeting. Other people has referred each other on deals as large as $800K that closed under 2 weeks.

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?

I’m the middle child of 3 girls and seem to always find myself in situations where I’m stuck in the middle. Perhaps I create situations where I’m comfortable being in the middle because I have a skill that helps me understand both sides clearly. But sometimes I get myself into trouble because I understand both sides all too well and then we get nowhere.

I can look at this in a positive light as being the glue in keeping something together or in a negative way as the one who gets lost in the shuffle.  

That’s why I find birth order to be so facinating and found a table showing some of the birth order character traits, both bad and good, associated with first, middle, last-born, and only children.

What about when we are stuck in the middle in a sales situation? When you have a client or a prospect who really wants something and your manager doesn’t agree with that request? What about when you are working with a field partner and a customer who see things in a different way than you do and clearly do not include you? 

Today, partnering is more important than ever before and learning how to build and manage collaborative partnerships is essential to your success. When you are in the middle, you can actually make things happen, negotiate with strength and execute so it’s a win-win situation for all. 

Take the high road when partnering and become the faciliatator by listening to the needs surrounding you and helping articulate it for the rest. Use the positive aspects of being the in middle and not the negative.

And for all you middle kids out there- keep up the great work in your efforts to balance and create harmony in all situations. I can’t think of any other birth order that I rather be than middle.

Have you been inspired by a great mentor in the past? I’ve been designing a mentoring program for a client and it’s reminded me of the sales mentors who have influenced my career and the importance of creating a strong mentoring partnership. Having a successful mentoring partnership provides so many benefits to both parties.

Benefits to the mentored include:

• Increased skills and knowledge
  
• Increased potential for career mobility, recognition and promotion
  
• Improved understanding of one’s role in the organization
  
• Insights into the culture and unwritten rules of the organization
  
• A supportive environment in which successes and failures can be evaluated in an encouraging manner
  
• A smoother transition into higher management positions
  
• A powerful learning tool to acquire competencies and professional experience
  
• Potential for increased visibility through networking opportunities  
  
• Development of professional skills and self-confidence
  
• Encouragement from different perspectives and attitudes about one’s work
  
• Development of a greater appreciation of the complexities of decision-making within the organizational framework