There’s a little more than one month left of 2016, and if you are a top performing salesperson, you are already strategizing how you are going to meet your aggressive goals for the coming year.
Great sales reps understand that continuous learning is critical to sales success. And, to improve their sales skills, grow their networks, and exceed targets and expand their wallets, they invest in attending sales conferences.
“Over the past two or three years, sales has advanced, so it’s extremely important for salespeople to learn how to leverage technology in sales today. Sales events and conferences are now showcasing ways to use technology in the sales process, and embrace the era that we’re in right now.”
– Max Altschuler, creator of Sales Hacker
Sales conferences provide attendees with a variety of benefits – they are exposed to new strategies, hard-earned insights, and other A-Players. They also have an ROI. Research from SalesForce demonstrates their past events have been proven to increase sales productivity of participants by 30%, increase marketing campaign effectiveness by 59%, and increase customer retention by 31%.
In no particular order, here are the top sales conferences of 2017:
1. Sales 3.0 Conference
| Date and Location | • San Francisco: May 1-2, 2017 • Las Vegas: September 18-19, 2017 • Philadelphia: December 4-5, 2017 |
| Cost | TBD |
| Audience | Sales, Operations, and Marketing Professionals and Leaders |
| Topics | • Sales process improvement • Data, analytics, and metrics • Sales training, coaching, and development • Sales and marketing alignment • Social selling • Customer engagement and retention • Sales 2.0 technologies and emerging trends • Leadership, culture, and strategy |
| Description | Sales 2.0 Events are a high profile series of conferences held in multiple major U.S. cities each year. The Sales 3.0 conference brings new insight this year to help sales professionals leverage Sales 3.0 technologies and strategies to optimize operations, enablement, and marketing performance. Sales rep participants have described the events as, "a great way to spark creative ways to rethink sales." Speakers featured at the 2016 conferences included executives from LinkedIn, IBM, McKinsey, Oracle, and SAP. |
2. B2B LeadsCon
| Date and Location | • New York: August 21-23, 2017 |
| Cost | TBD |
| Audience | B2B Sales and Marketing Professionals and Leaders |
| Topics | • Getting the right measurements in place to know what is really working • Creating and repurposing content people will actually engage in and use at every stage of the buying journey • Connecting with the right people to build long-term relationships • Beating your competition to grow sales and generate “predictable revenue” • Expanding awareness to make your brand synonymous with your category • Finding new sources of leads and business |
| Description | B2B LeadsCon is the only conference devoted exclusively to B2B lead generation with a specific emphasis on lead acquisition, nurturing campaigns, and conversion optimization. What's new this year? Attendees will learn ways account based marketing tech is driving B2B lead gen results, ideas for improving sales/marketing integration and getting c-suite buy-in for new hires and tech needs, and tactics for leveraging analytics to nurture leads and boost conversion. LeadsCon features several experts in B2B lead generation including Tenisha Ramsey, Corporate VP of New York Life, and Nadim Hossain, CEO and Co-Founder of BrightFunnel. |
3. Topo Sales Summit
| Date and Location | • San Francisco: April 12-13th, 2017 |
| Cost | $795 |
| Audience | Sales Professionals and Leaders |
| Topics | • Sales Leadership • Sales Development • Sales Technology • Sales Effectiveness • Sales and Marketing Operations |
| Description | The Topo Sales Summit presents sales reps and leaders with the opportunity to learn best practices, patterns, and strategies for driving revenue growth from over 600 successful sales leaders responsible for more than $50 billion in revenue. Attendees describe the conferences as, "the only place to get an inside look at the world’s best sales and marketing organizations." Speakers from past Topo Sales Summit Events include executives from LinkedIn, Mulesoft, and Google. |
4. Dreamforce
| Date and Location | • San Francisco: November 6–9, 2017 |
| Cost | TBD |
| Audience | Sales Professionals |
| Topics | • Sales Cloud Introduction • Top Pipeline Management Reports • Sales Secrets of the Big Guns • Sales Cloud and Platform Roadmap • Salesforce Forecasting |
| Description | Hosted by salesforce.com, Dreamforce boasts a 95% recommendation rate by its past attendees. It is the world’s largest technology conference, providing attendees with a platform for idea sharing amongst peers, thought leaders, and industry pioneers. The innovation-focused event typically offers over 1,000 breakout sessions, sales-focused themes, reduced-cost salesforce.com training and certification opportunities, and a gala. Last year’s speakers included Marc Benioff, CEO of SalesForce, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, Jessica Alba, Found of The Honest Company, and Susan Wojcicki, CEO of Youtube. |
5. SiriusDecisions Sales Leadership Exchange
| Date and Location | • Scottsdale: February 22-24, 2017 |
| Cost | $1,050 |
| Audience | Senior Sales Executives and Leaders |
| Topics | • Channel Marketing and the Pipeline • Fueling Sales Teams • Alignment • Forecasting • Sales Effectiveness • Enablement-to-Revenue |
| Description | The Sirius Decisions Sales Leadership Exchange is a great event for B2B sales professionals to learn from industry experts on enhancing the productivity and performance of a sales force. At this year's conference, attendees will get access to research aligned to sales leaders’ priorities, gain insight on innovative ways to align with your buyers, and attend interactive sessions that deliver actionable best practices. This year's conference features various Sirius keynote speakers including Heather Cole, the Senior Director of Sales and Enablement. |
6. SalesHacker Revenue Summit
| Date and Location | • San Francisco: March 7-8, 2017 |
| Cost | TBD (Tickets go on sale December 1st) |
| Audience | Sales and Marketing Professionals and Leaders |
| Topics | • Account Based Sales Development & Marketing • Scaling Sales & Marketing Development Teams Locally & Globally • Enterprise Sales & Marketing From Fortune 500 Top Closers • Hiring, Onboarding, & Coaching Millennials • Revenue Growth Secrets |
| Description | This event focuses on bringing sales reps and leaders actionable and practical tactics and strategies that can be implemented immediately. The conference consists of engaging courses that teaches you everything you need to know about Account-Based Sales & Marketing, building your tech stacks, SLAs, compensation, scaling local & global teams, metrics, and building a next generation revenue machine. Speakers from Google, LinkedIn, Adobe, Oracle, and Dropbox will be featured. |
7. Sales Summit East
| Date and Location | • New York: May 8-9, 2017 |
| Cost | $795 |
| Audience | Sales Professionals and Leaders |
| Topics | • Sales Process Improvement • Sales and Marketing Alignment • Social Selling • Lead Generation • Emerging Trends |
| Description | Sales Summit East is an excellent opportunity for sales reps and leaders to find inspiration and fresh ideas, learn from the experts, network with other A-level players, and advance their careers. At past conferences, executives from marquee companies like Apple, Google, and IBM have been in attendance. This year's event features expert speakers such as Ceo Wimmer, SVP Global Marketing Partnerships at UFC, Rebecca Corliss, Director of Marketing at HubSpot, and Trevor Crane, CEO of Step Up Strategies. |
8a. AA-ISP Inside Sales
| Date and Location | • Dallas: February 15, 2017 • San Francisco: June 8, 2017 • Boston: September 7, 2017 |
| Cost | $345 |
| Audience | Inside Sales Reps and Leaders |
| Topics | • Day-to-Day Sales Tasks • Sales Technology • Lead Development |
| Description | With the reputation as the “Inside Sales” conference of the year, the AA-ISP Inside Sales Summit is a great opportunity for inside sales reps to learn new sales skills, discover the latest technologies, and network with fellow professionals. One attendee described the conference as a great opportunity to improve professionally and network, "I took away many good strategies to implement and the format was great!" |
8b. AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit
| Date and Location | • Chicago: April 18-20, 2017 |
| Cost | $1,195 |
| Audience | Inside Sales Leaders and Professionals |
| Topics | • Inside Sales Leadership Best Practices • Social Selling • Future Trends • Driving Sales Performance • Sales Culture • CRMs |
| Description | The Annual AA-ISP Leadership Summit, which has earned the reputation as the inside sales conference of the year, returns for its ninth year with all new-presentations from today’s most recognized inside sales experts. This conference is tailored to help sales leaders and their teams capitalize on some of the biggest sales trends of 2017 such as the latest tips, technologies, and proven best practices for solving some of this year’s toughest challenges and issues. In the past, the Leadership Summit featured over 75 presenters with an audience of over 800+ sales attendees, in addition to 50 exhibitors, who all came to learn, share, and network. |
9. INBOUND
| Date and Location | • Boston: September 25-28, 2017 |
| Cost | $799 |
| Audience | Marketing and Sales Professionals, Business Owners, Agency Executives |
| Topics | • Sales and Marketing Alignment • Content, Social Media, and Email • Lead Nurturing • Sales Strategy • Advanced Sales Techniques |
| Description | Hubspot bring marketing and sales professionals together in its annual INBOUND conference. The event promises to transform businesses through inspiration, education, and connections. The conference features keynotes, innovative talks, educational breakouts, hands-on trainings, and tons of networking. Learn more from fortune 500 executives about sales strategy, hiring, and sales development training. Last year's conference featured sales experts Jill Konrath, Mike Weinberg, Trish Bertuzzi, and Lori Richardson. |
10. Sales Force Productivity Conference
| Date and Location | • Atlanta: October 24-26, 2017 |
| Cost | TBD |
| Audience | Senior Sales Professionals and Leaders |
| Topics | • Technology Strategy • Operations Effectiveness • Sales Manager Development |
| Description | This conference features senior-level sales professionals and thought leaders discussing the latest industry trends and technologies. Last year's conference had over 300 attendees, 25 speakers, educational keynote presentations, panel discussions, practitioner briefings, optional courses, and workshop tracks. Past speakers include executives from ZS Associates, Sales Management Association, HubSpot, and Salesforce. |
11. MarketingSherpa Summit
| Date and Location | • Las Vegas: April 10-13, 2017 |
| Cost | $1,495 (Two-Day Summit) |
| Audience | Marketing and Sales Professionals |
| Topics | • Email Marketing • Relationship Building • Networking Using Search and Social • Customer Engagement |
| Description | This conference is aimed to help marketing and sales reps power their success with proven, practical and actionable marketing education. Although this event is primarily focused on marketing, salespeople are presented the opportunity to further develop their communication and digital-prospecting techniques with specialized guidance on subject lines, deliverability, and open rates. This year's featured speakers include Scott Dikkers, Founder of the Onion, and Catharine Hays, Executive Director of The Future of Advertising Program at The Wharton School. |
12. EMC World
| Date and Location | • Las Vegas: May 8 - 11, 2017 |
| Cost | $2,095 |
| Audience | Marketing and Sales Professionals |
| Topics | • Big Data • Cloud • Converged Platforms • Data Protection • Servers |
| Description | This conference helps professionals thrive in a constantly changing digital world. Aimed for IT practitioners and business decision makers, sales professionals will learn how big data is impacting sales. The conference features c-level executives from Dell. |
13. B2B Marketing Exchange
| Date and Location | • Scottsdale: February 20-22, 2017 |
| Cost | $895 - $1,795 |
| Audience | Marketing and Sales Professionals |
| Topics | • Test drive the latest tools and apps to create interactive content • Plan your content calendar • Optimize your database to reach more prospects within your target audience • Measure the effectiveness of your campaigns • Get an inside look at award-winning B2B content programs from current and past Killer Content Award winners |
| Description | B2B Marketing Exchange brings together the top thought leaders and practitioners in both content, demand generation, and sales. With over 50 sessions taking place featuring experts in content marketing, demand generation and sales enablement, this event provides attendees with real-world case studies and actionable takeaways on increasing conversion rates. Speakers featured include Industry Analysts, Authors, and B2B Practitioners. |
14. Pulse
| Date and Location | • Oakland, CA: May 8-11, 2017 |
| Cost | $795 |
| Audience | Sales and Customer Success Professionals |
| Topics | • Customer Success Playbooks by scenario, industry and segment • Survey templates for a variety of use cases • Collection of Rules, CTAs and playbooks to drive processes in your business • Reports and Dashboards for measure and monitor your business • Collections of best practice assets by industry and use case |
| Description | With over 500 attendees, 250 sessions, and 150 speakers this 4-day conference teaches attendees everything they need to know about customer success. The event is known for being the largest industry gathering of Customer Success Professionals. The conference aims to help attendees acquire revenue growth by driving success for their customers. Past keynote speakers include Geoffrey Moore, Malcolm Gladwell, and Michael Lewis. |
To determine which conference(s) you should attend, follow Peak’s step-by-step structured conference selection process.
The post The Top 14 Sales Conferences to Attend in 2017 appeared first on Peak Sales Recruiting.