Book Review: Sales 2.0 by Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway

Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology was written by Anneke Seley who is a former Oracle sales executive and Brent Holloway who is a practicing sales manager. The book discusses how selling has changed and how sales professionals need to leverage technology to create measurable and predictable results.  The authors discuss how sales today needs to be built around customer centric sales processes, strong relationships, and strategic allocation of sales resources.

Anneke was the twelfth employee and Oracle and designed the firm’s revolutionary inside sales operation. Her current business, Phone Works, helps firms restructure sales teams to achieve predictable, measurable, and sustainable growth. Brent Holloway currently manages a sales team at Verint Systems that has significantly increased revenue, profit, and customer retention. So, the authors definitely know their stuff.

The book is broken up into the following chapters:

Part I: Selling in the Twenty-First Century
Part 2: Your Entry Into Sales 2.0
Part 3: Profiles of Four Sales 2.0 Leaders
Part 4: Getting Started with Sales 2.0

The book is well organized and easy to follow. The authors start off with describing the old way of selling and how the new way is different and more effective. Next, they describe in more detail what is Sales 2.0. Third, they profile four Sales 2.0 leaders so you understand what it means in the context of real organizations. The firms profiled are Oracle, WebEx, Genius.com, and Syneron.  Lastly, the authors discuss how your firm can immediately start selling the Sales 2.0 way.

The book is interesting because the authors bring in a lot of real world company examples throughout the entire book. It is evident that much research was done to write this book.

If you are a sales professional, then you will probably come away with some new ideas. My guess is that many of the younger sales professionals are already using many of the Sales 2.0 methodologies because they are already very good with technology.

If you are not a sales professional, then the book is informative about what is happening in the world of sales and how technology is impacting this role. Let's face it, technology is having an impact on all roles within an organization.

Either way, Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology is worth the time to read.

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Comments

[Free and Clear]

Sales teams need to be managed in order to avail strategic allocation of resources building strong relations between consumers .

[Ken Krogue]

Sales 2.0 is:

1- Simulating the face-to-face sales call remotely using the leverage of technology.
2- Moving the sales reps Rolodex to the social network cloud while still allowing the employer to keep their database in the CRM.
3- Detecting the ‘presence’ of web visitors and interacting with them to further the sales process.