I'm off to Phoenix tomorrow for the SiriusDecisions Summit (#sds11 on Twitter.) With so many companies looking to improve the integration of their sales and marketing organizations and measure the revenue contribution of marketing programs, I look forward to learning about how companies are going about aligning the functions and how that impacts their revenue results. I'm also glad to see that SiriusDecisions has organized breakout sessions around the topics of Social Media, Sales Enablement and Online Marketing. These are key areas where our clients are asking for strategy and implementation assistance and it will be fun to bring a sales leader's perspective to these conversations. If you'll be at the conference, come say "hi." I'll be at the Wednesday evening reception signing books in Clickability's (now part of Limelight Networks) booth and talking about how marketing - especially your web site - can increase selling and buying productivity. I'll be tweeting pithy take-aways from the sessions, too.
From Phoenix, I head to Minneapolis, where the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP) is hosting their third annual Leadership Summit (#ls_2011 on Twitter.) And what a year it is for inside sales leaders! Studies are showing that inside sales is growing 15 times faster than field sales. Conference organizers are expecting over 300 attendees: a 30% increase from last year. At the summit, I will be leading an executive panel on Opportunities and Challenges in Inside Sales. I will also be presenting Social Selling for Executives: What the Management Team Needs to Know to Succeed with Today's Customer as part of a special Social Selling University workshop immediately following the Summit.
Hope to see you there! Any information you'd like me to report on from either conference? Questions you'd like me to ask the panel of sales executives? Packing advice for both Phoenix, where it is 90 degrees F as well as Minneapolis, where it is 60?!