The MIT Sloan Sales Conference on April 17, 2009 in Cambridge, MA was one of the best, full day sales conferences that I’ve attended. The theme was “Sell or Sink: Navigate the Crisis” and the day’s activities included panel discussions with CEOs and industry experts, workshops and several impressive keynote speakers including Dr. Robert Cialdini best known for writing the book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”.

I took detailed notes throughout the day and have summarized: What CEOs and Sales Leaders are doing differently considering our current economic conditions….

• Focusing more on pipeline building and sales planning over the longer term, instead of a more traditional, quarterly focused sales view. Focusing on “sustainability”.
• Focusing more training, coaching and retention efforts on the top 10% of their sales teams that usually bring in 80% of their business.
• Getting customer feedback AND partnering Sales, Marketing and Product people to identify and launch different versions of products & services that will be more attractive to their customers in this economy. Ex. free trials, subscription based products, adjusting credit terms. Speed to market is key!
• Adjusting compensation plans so sales reps have more accountability for profitability and bottom line results.
• Using more analytics to measure the success of different types of campaigns, then adjusting spend to fully leverage the most successful campaigns and pare back others.
• Doing more with less. Leveraging lean principles and a more scientific approach to increase efficiency and consistency in sales organizations.
• Changing the way they do training- leveraging more self paced, online modules and less face to face (Although several reported mixed results from using this approach.)
• Blurring the lines between sales & marketing driven by the increasing popularity and importance of social networking, blogging and other sales 2.0 techniques.

Here are few interesting quotes from the day:

“ Brutal innovation is key. I’d rather destroy my own business model than have someone else do it for me.” Bill McDermott. President & CEO, SAP

“ In the past, Sales Reps had all of the information and customers had very little. Selling started at the top of the funnel. Now, customers have access to a lot of information and selling starts further down the funnel. Reps need to be much more consultative.” Brian Halligan, Founder and CEO, Hubspot. Also invented the term “Inbound Marketing”

Dr. Robert Cialdini‘s entire speech on “How To Influence in Times Of Uncertainty” was fascinating. I’ll have to buy his books!

Great Job MIT Sales Club!

The MIT Sloane Sales Conference was organized by the MIT Sales Club, headed up by Felipe Castro, Club President and Dev SenGupta the Conference Director. Great job! I look forward to next year’s conference organized by Heather Ryan, Sales Club President- elect.