By Keith Rosen

For those of you who attended the first-ever Sales 2.0 conference in San Francisco recently, you’re probably thoroughly overwhelmed as well as in a state of awe like many of the people I met with.

It’s a testament to the new age of selling and the role technology will play in how we sell. Sales 2.0: The conversion of technology and sales and the symbiotic relationship between the two and how they can be integrated together and co-exist in harmony. As I was walking through the aisles where these vendors were displaying their innovative solutions, it was mind-blowing to see that a majority of these well established high-tech companies were less than 5 years old.

The conference was a huge success, not only in the higher-than-anticipated number of people who attended but in the sheer number of thought leaders who shared their vision of the future of selling and the technology that will drive it.

To that end, the keynote I delivered, “Managing the MySpace Generation: Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions” was available for online viewing the next day in its entirety along with a searchable transcript of every word I uttered.

I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing a number of these innovators and CEOs who are charting this new course as it relates to how salespeople sell, how they are managed and how they are trained and coached.

Sales leaders, business owners and sales managers need to prepare for the next evolution of selling and what it’s going to take to make their sales team a leading force in their space.

These are just a few of the companies providing revolutionary and unique services that assist sales teams in developing and maintaining their competitive edge.

Yet, with all the technology that is going to change how salespeople sell and manage themselves, I was surprised to hear the comments made by some of the people who spoke at this event. Here are a few observations I heard that certainly stirred up quite a reaction in me as well as in many other attendees:

— Cold calling is dead.

— Technology is going to replace the salesperson.

— Companies are going to rely less and less on the high-caliber, professional salesperson who can take a prospect from the beginning of the sales cycle to the end when closing the sale.

— Automated, asynchronous training solutions are going to replace training and professional development delivered by a live person (face to face, over the phone or through the Internet).

Sure, technology will automate and streamline many of the functions and tasks for which salespeople and management are currently responsible.

More specifically, what will change includes how they manage their sales pipeline and the stages of their selling cycle, how they qualify and mine for new prospects, how they network with other business professionals and how they maintain their contact database as well as how they communicate with their prospects and customers.

Still, I know that people like to buy from people. As such, the longer your sales cycle and the higher the price tag on your product or service, the more solidified your need will be for talented sales champions to drive sales and growth.

I have already seen the negative impact that some of these advancements are having on sales teams across the globe. Many managers spend far too much time reviewing a thread of e-mail conversations between salespeople and prospects when attempting to uncover how a great selling opportunity was lost.

Moreover, there’s the ever-widening communication gap that some of these new technologies promote between the younger, MySpace generation and that of their boss, especially as more and more sales teams are built on a virtual platform where there’s little, if any, face-to-face weekly interaction with their manager.

Salespeople are expecting their Webinars, proposals, Web sites, online marketing campaigns and collateral materials to do the selling and prospecting for them. And what’s worse, some salespeople attempt to close a prospect or overcome objections via e-mail rather than simply picking up the phone for a direct, one-to-one conversation that could appease a person’s concerns.

While more applications such as the ones I’ve mentioned are infused throughout each stage of the sale, the technology of maximizing human potential is far from tapped.

And as more technology emerges to simplify the selling process, there will be an even greater demand for the elite salesperson that can manage and leverage technology as well as effectively communicate their message to their targeted audience.

The technology of interpersonal, result-oriented communication — the language and true art of selling — will still reign supreme in the selling profession.

Keith Rosen is an executive sales coach and best-selling author of several books including “Time Management for Sales Professionals” and “Coaching Salespeople Into Sales Champions.” E-mail Keith at info@profitbuilders.com.

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