Top 10 Takeaways From ZoomInfo Summit

This was the second annual conference by ZoomInfo held at the Revere hotel in Boston. Honored as a speaker in the Sales track, I spent a lot of my time learning in the Marketing track. It is awesome to have these two tracks together in one conference. Naturally I also spent time at happy hours, making new friends, and heckling my speaker pals.

Here are my top 10 takeaways:

1. ZoomInfo nailed it with this conference. Amazing speakers, nearly no “pitch” talks from vendors, awesome food, plenty of learning options, fresh faces on stage, about 300 people, and time between sessions. It’s just what you’re looking for in a conference (oh yeah, and some free drinks. How was that not number one?). Side note: I love a “Medium” conference. With 350 – 750 attendees, every other person isn’t a vendor, the audience is well targeted, and it feels like a community vs. an overwhelming barrage. My other favorite BTW is the AA-ISP Leadership Conference.
2. Seth Godin loves pop tarts and Star Trek. Who knew?
3. Even though “hot trend” sessions like Ai and ABM are packed, when you talk with people 1:1, there are more people just trying to figure out consistent execution at the 101 level. Folks, make sure your sales conversations are good before hiring robots to get you more (that’s Ai right? JK).
4. I can spot a sales person vs. a marketing person with 99% accuracy at a lunch table and 97% in an elevator.
5. Dennis Dube is my new favorite person of 2017. I love finding uber smart and witty people. Bonus when there’s no ego and an eagerness to help others. Good to meet you buddy!
6. Seth Godin teaches to market to the fringes. LB translation: let your freak flag fly and incorporate it in your message! That’s authentic and you’ll draw the right people to you – maybe even build a tribe.
7. LB (who will liberally steal from Seth Godin here) says: Sell this way too! Don’t teach your people to sound like a professional sales call. We all hate these. The best calls are genuine, authentic, funny, engaging – REAL. Just one more reason that I hate scripts.
8. SDR reps seriously need more love. Find ways to help these guys win and feel like a bad-ass at least once every day.
9. The magic circle for marketing is Blog – SEO – and Social Media – all driving back to your website. This is why I’m writing a post-session blog.
10. No conference is the same without Peter Weyman. Missed you buddy!

Where am I headed next? You can catch me on October 11th, 2017, co-hosting a webinar, 10 Ways To Scale Your Inside Sales Initiative. Come join me, Jeremy Wiggett, Senior Director Sales Development at Salesforce, and Chase Larson, Chief Technology Officer at SixPackShortcuts as we talk about processes, people, systems and implementation methods to achieve success in inside sales. Register here.

P.S. If you missed us at ZoomInfo, you can still get my inside sales bad-ass tips to share with your team. Register here.