Our popular hot list is back. What’s OUT and What’s IN for 2005?
The economy is waking up at last and there are more reasons than ever to charge forward. We asked what’s different this year in the Inside Sales world. Here’s what’s happening, what’s smart and some pop culture too!
| What’s Out | What’s In |
|---|---|
| Dissolving inside sales | Creating worldwide inside sales organizations |
| A silo-ed approach to customer interaction and selling | A Consolidated approach to customer interaction and selling |
| Expensive sales training that doesn’t demonstrate ROI | Sales training that demonstrates tangible increases in productivity, revenue and performance |
| New business prospecting | Re-establish up-sells, cross-sells and renewal opportunities with the installed base |
| Webcasts, webinars | On-site training |
| Rambling demos that showcase ALL applications, features and benefits | Targeted demos that showcase what the customers needs |
| Random hiring | Succession planning |
| Voice mail | Combining voice and email messaging |
| Lengthy proposals and RFPs | One page snapshot or dashboard |
| Instant messaging | Blogging |
| Providing field sales training for inside sales | Providing specific inside sales training for inside sales |
| Telephone customer care | Online LivePerson customer care |
| Meetings | Desktop productivity |
| Talent that went off and reinvented itself in completely unrelated fields | Can’t find the talent to fill the open headcount |
| Networking | Bluetooth technology |
| BlackBerry | Treo |
| SUVs | Hybrid SUVs |
| PDAs | Smart phones |
| Martha Stewart at Camp Cupcake | Martha Stewart reality show |
| Kobe Bryant | Dwayne Wade |
| John Edwards | Barack Obama |
| Wine bars | Cereal bars |
| Consolidation | Convergence |