Microsoft paid roughly $40/customer from Skype. The business community's first reaction was - ugh! What a waste. However, a few savvy businesspeople chimed - brilliant.

What does Microsoft typically pay for a prospect? Probably a penny more than they paid per Skype member. What does your organization pay to acquire a customer? What about a lead? Many CEOs have no idea and therefore make growth decisions that sound good, as opposed to decisions that demonstrate strong metrics.

Working for Salesforce's data division, I sell to CEOs, CMOs, VP of sales, and I always ask the aforementioned. Why do I ask? A lead from Jigsaw with complete contact information is $1.00. Typically, my prospects balk at the number. So I ask, "What are you comparing the price to?" If you have a MA tool in place, a great one, you're paying $10.00 - $13.00 per lead.

My career has taken me to the conference room of Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts, the dinner table of the CEO of Sprint PCS, and to the kitchen of the CFO of Lake Las Vegas, and my take away is simple - top of mind to these multi-millionaire businesspeople is revenue and the cost to get there. Each customer generates X and costs X equating to the bottom line. So many CEOs, owners, and presidents cannot answer the metric questions when asked.

I have spent a career driving customers to clients. And I have concluded this - the uber-successful make RPM decisions based on the metrics. A sales rep's ability to demonstrate their solution's success at driving customers based on existing clients' successes, based on process, and finally the findings of 3rd party research, positions that rep favorably when the time is right for prospect to buy. Sales 2.0

Sales 2.0 is not just about social media, email campaigns, and utilizing online networks, it's also must include properly positioning one's solution when the sales qualified lead is ready. Sales 2.0 is a blending of the craft of marketing with my work as a sales professional. In the end, my role as a generator of customers does not have to come at the expense of reputation and brand.

This press release is to announce my growing understanding as a top notch sales professional who is passionate about my relationships with the super-successful businesspeople who seek more customers and leads at the best price. In the process, strong relationships between my represented company and my clients are built into the process, creating a revenue stream - the existing current customer.

For my career growth, sales 2.0 - including the tools and the trust these tools engender - could not have come at a better time. Social media and marketing automation connect me to my prospect as the marketing qualified lead moves to me, indicating my prospect may be ready for an informative sales call. Maturity in any undertaking finds wisdom in timing.

Fortunately, the days of chasing and pitching are winding down; these tactics quickly alienate us from our market and destroy our reputation. The halcyon days of inquiry, understanding, and properly positioning one's solution have arrived. Relationships alone no longer create a reason to hit the P/L with a fractionalized tool that partially delivers as strategists buy tools that create long-term revenue streams.

Sales professionals who align with the market and their prospects have a huge advantage going forward. I welcome the current trend, and the massive changes as marketing and sales align to create more systematically profitable organizations over time.