What the Future Holds for Sales and Marketing in 2012

This morning I attended a TAG Marketing presentation on “What the Future Holds: Marketing and Sales in 2012.” It was very interesting and more than a little scary at the pace of technology, where we are, and where we will be in a few short years. As I’ve been hearing over and over again, adaptability and innovation are the two most important traits for companies to survive and thrive. Change happens very quickly these days. Here are a few items I compiled from the meeting:

Antiquated -> Present and Future

Ranking Reports -> Traffic
Leads -> Conversions
Homepage -> Custom landing page
Search Engines like Google -> Searching on Twitter
Search Engines -> Decision Engines
Googling to find a plumber in your area -> Reaching out to FB friends or LI contacts to find a plumber
TV ->YouTube
User experience ->Does this convert to sales?
Laptop ->Cellphone
Generic, broad-based marketing and sales ->Niche and Personal

-more credibility in marketing and sales is necessary
-integration (of social media) with traditional media
-increased focus on usability, user experience
-social media marketing is past its experimental phase. The question is, are we participating in the conversation or not? You can’t control what’s being said about you, but you can participate in the dialogue
-single source: clients are increasingly wanting a company who can do it all
-all marketing will become interactive
-keyboards will become obsolete
-88% of the revenue comes from the top 16% of salespeople
-in sales, you must show value and solve clients problem before or by the first call
-lead with value