Sales Training 2.0
Even before all of the chatter about Sales 2.0 began, The Brooks Group was working on Sales Training 2.0. We began developing virtual sales training more than a decade ago and have been leading the charge ever since.
Our clients tell us that travel costs and time-out-of-the-field can sometimes make traditional classroom training difficult. We responded by developing industry-leading online sales training tools that deliver "drip" training in bursts to salespeople in virtual classrooms.
We’re particularly excited that our lead curriculum designer, Michelle Richardson, will be a presenter at the 2010 Partnering for Performance Conference scheduled for May 4-6, 2010 in Raleigh, NC.
Her presentation, called A Brave New World: Exploring Virtual Sales Training in the Second Life Environment, will focus on our clients' virtual training experiences.
Jing: A Hugely Useful Free Piece of Technology
The other day I received an email from a business associate of mine. His company, Sequential Selling, is a reseller of many of our products and programs in Canada. He had just attended a seminar which highlighted recent research detailing the reasons for customer loyalty, as well as the percentages associated with each reason (by the way – 53% of study respondents said “ease of buying experience” is a primary factor in their decision to stay with a vendor).
At any rate, the cool thing about the email he sent me is that it had text content touching on some of the information he felt was important to share, as well as a link at the bottom which he referenced as his “jing” on the topic. At that point I had no idea what a “jing” was! The link took me to a screen capture program which allowed my colleague to “talk” me through some of the slides and graphs from the program he attended. In other words, Jing is a free open-source screen capture program that allows you to share information with someone via email. The recipient can then review your email, as well as your comments, at his or her convenience.
While the uses of this tool are many, here are a couple of ideas that come to mind:
- Sharing visual and audio information with a client via email without having to schedule a conference call.
- Sending information to a prospect with embedded audio which he or she may find useful and which will position you as a valuable resource
- For use as an information delivery tool, especially if you’re in the information or consulting business
While I know that screen capture software is nothing new, I thought I’d share this particular program with you because this version is free up to a certain data amount.
To learn more about Jing, you should check it out at http://www.jingproject.com/.
Welcome to The Brooks Group – 2.0
Well maybe not, but hey it sounded good! Everything sounds so official with a version behind it; Windows 7.0, Web 2.0 — and in our industry the new term is ‘Sales 2.0’. To make a long story short, Sales 2.0 can best be described as the new age of professional selling. It entails using more technology and social media based marketing. It also means having an entire sales process in one central sales force tool including proposals, spec sheets, templates, etc.
Perhaps the real term shouldn’t be Sales 2.0; it should be called ‘Sales Maturing’. Social media is everywhere and if you’re not using Blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Jigsaw, Twitter or some of the other new social media platforms, you are missing out on critical avenues for networking, positioning and communicating with the new age of customers.
While The Brooks Group has been using blogs, forums and communities for some time, we are now focusing on using some of the popular promoting and networking options. So here I am announcing The Brooks Group on three major sites — follow us today…
Twitter - 
Facebook - 
LinkedIn - 





It’s no secret that Social Networking is at the center of Web 2.0. In fact, if you don’t watch it, social networking can become addictive, not to mention time-consuming! Every day I’m surprised at the number of old friends and non-business contacts whom I’ve completely forgotten about and who have re-entered my life by asking to “Friend” me on Facebook.com. Couple that with taking the time to examine and respond to all of the discussions going on within the LinkedIn groups I’m a member of and my day can slip away before I know it.



