Selling Technology in a Down NY Economy

The first Meetup's theme is Selling Technology in a Down NY Economy: new challenges and smart ways to keep the sales coming in. It can be difficult enough to get a prospect on the phone or set up an appointment at the best of times but with the economy in the doldrums and the financial sector in disarray the challenges of getting in front of prospects or even finding them in New York is becoming that much more difficult. The purpose of this Meetup is to discuss the challenges the current economy in New York is presenting to the attendees and to come up with ways to be smarter technology salespeople to counter the down economy to keep those sales numbers up.

We have a private conference room for the Meetup near the Empire State building and that can accommodate around 10 people. We can schedule a second Meetup on the same theme the following week if there is the demand.

Some ideas for themes for future Technology Sales and Marketing meetups are:

Moving to marketing and selling managed services
Partnering for Success (finding good appropriate partners and making the relationship work)
Innovative routes to market
Successfully selling intangibles (selling technical services and technology professional services)
How technology buyers buy technology: good and bad practice and the implications for technology sales and marketing
Getting technology marketing and sales in sync
Selling business value not technology
New opportunities in the technology markets
Effective Internet sales and marketing beyond the Website (search engine marketing, web analytics, smart self-service advisory for prospects visiting your website...)

Additional or alternative suggestions are more than welcome!