Sales 2.0…Phone Works, RareAgent and AA-ISP are a winning combination

March 17, 2010

Several months ago, I read the book Sales 2.0 by Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway. This is a must read for expansion stage portfolio companies who are building or redeploying their sales teams for greater bottom-line results. As a student of Sales 1.0, I found this book very useful in understanding the differences between traditional and process driven sales.

Collaborating with some of the best sales and marketing people in the software industry, Anneke Seley gained invaluable experience at Oracle Corp., which she joined in 1980 as employee No. 12. She is known for designing and building what is, perhaps, the best-performing inside sales department in the history of the software industry. Anneke started OracleDirect, Oracle’s inside sales department, in 1985 to address the need to sell newly announced, low-end products through cost-effective distribution channels. By 1988, inside sales was a 65-person, $14 million operation, yielding a 70% profit margin and generating the majority of qualified leads for the field sales force. Today, OracleDirect is a billion-dollar worldwide sales organization and one of the largest revenue-producing groups within Oracle.

In 1991, Anneke founded Phone Works, a professional services company that helps companies build high-performance inside sales teams. Today, she oversees a group of the industry’s best sales consultants who work with companies to achieve measurable, scalable, predictable results using professional inside sales teams.

Two weeks ago, I was introduced to Anneke by Marge Bieler, founder and CEO of RareAgent. RareAgent works with B2B companies providing resources, best-practices, and expertise to build and deliver calling and online marketing programs. I have known Marge for a number of years and she recently formed the Atlanta chapter of the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP). I am presently working with Anneke and Marge on an upcoming seminar for venture capitalists and their portfolio companies, as well as launching the local AA-ISP chapter. See AA-ISP Atlanta Chapter Meeting for further information and to register for the first event on April 14, 2010.

Whether you are in inside sales, sales support and marketing, lead generation services, or influence marketing, I highly recommend that you visit Phone Works, RareAgent and AA-ISP for its knowledgebase of content.

Happy selling!

Key Account Director

Marc Barry is an experienced sales leader in the Enterprise Technology Industry including Software, Cloud and Consulting. Currently, he is the Key Account Director at <a href="http://www.oracle.com">Oracle</a>. He was previously a Venture Partner at OpenView.