2009 – Are you ready for adventure and originality?
Our popular hot list of What’s OUT and What’s IN for 2009 will prepare you for a bumpy ride. As we slide into this year, the economy continues to tank, consumer confidence is at a record low, unemployment rises, and the housing market is shaky. No worries — we will survive and thrive from all of this.
Inside sales is where all the talent and brains are these days. That’s right. While field sales is busy trying to figure out how to make their quota with frozen T&E expenses, inside sales is pulling the real revenue. Be ready to get blindsided by competitors, get that log-in password to one more sales tool, and say “yes” to small deals.
What’s the best thing to do when selling in uncertain times? Get creative, get resourceful, and keep smiling!
Our Hotlist is loaded with cool ideas, as well as a splash of pop culture, to get you geared for a fantastic year.
| What’s Out | What’s In |
|---|---|
| Laptops | Netbooks |
| Lucky salespeople | Smart sales warriors |
| Olsen Twins | Obama Sisters |
| Paparazzi | Ecorazzi |
| Multi-tasking | Mono-tasking |
| Smart Car | Chevrolet Volt |
| No-Pos | Power Buyers |
| Malcolm Gladwell’s theories | Nat Silver’s numbers |
| Mama Mia | Slumdog Millionaire |
| Phone order takers | Smart sales cubicle warriors |
| Death by PowerPoint | 8-Slide Maximum Rule |
| Connecting | Strengthening relationships |
| Data dumping and hoping they will buy | Educated buyers who don’t want to be sold |
| Upgrading XP machines to Vista | Macs in the enterprise |
| Long-term projects | Automating processes to save money |
| Long meetings | 4-minute meetings |
| A glut of unemployed talent | Talent that went off and reinvented itself in completely unrelated fields |
| Being a maverick | Working together |
| Banks | Hole in the backyard |
| 20% off | 75% off and free shipping |
| Video conferencing | Telepresence |
| XBox | Wii |
| Theme parks | Old-fashioned road trips |