I spent the day at the Boston Sales 2.0 Conference  last week. What follows are the pearls of wisdom I was lucky enough to pick up.

Enjoy! (Note: you'll find some of my comments in italics)
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Customers

"An IBM study reports that 80% of CEOs say getting closer to the customer is a major priority."
- Keith Hontz, VP Sales Line of Business Solutions - SAP America
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"Don’t interact with your customers without preparation. Three drivers: 1) access to contact specific customer info, 2) analytics to anticipate trends and 3) integration into one place."
- Chuck Penfield, VP CRM on Demand - Oracle
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"Are all your customers created equally, and if not, shouldn't that dictate compensation?" 
- Chris Cabrera, Founder, President & CEO - Xactly
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Colleen Francis of Engage Selling wrote a great blog post called 12 Ways to Get Your Prospects to Call You Back. With her permission, we have reprinted my fave 4.  Enjoy and Engage!

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No matter how persuasive, compelling or brilliant you may be, it's difficult to build a relationship with a prospect if you can't get them to call you back.

Most sales people use boring, outdated voice and email methods, which leave them sounding just like every other sales person in the world. If you want to get more return calls from your clients, then you have to do something different from everyone else out there - you have to stand out, be likeable, and actively deserve a return call.

Here are 4 of the best ideas we've found to help you stand up, stand out and make your clients want to return your calls:

OK, this is a rant so read on only if you are in the mood.

I was just catching up on some blogs & tweets from last week's Sales 2.0 Conference in Chicago. At the conference, Lee Levitt of IDC's Sales Advisory Practice, stated, "The 4th Quarter of 2009 is the most important quarter of the decade." Wow - no pressure!