Whether you just started selling, or have been doing it for twenty years, you should know that you can never know everything. Obviously if you are beginning your career of sales, there is a lot to learn and you should take every opportunity you can to soak it all in. Even if you're a lifer and have more sales experience than anyone else, you still have something to learn.

While our basic human motivations have remained the same, how to access and push those primal buttons have changed. What worked in sales back in the 1950's won't really work today. No, the average customer hasn't gotten smarter; it's just that they already know those tricks. Morals and culture change and salespeople need to change with it.

Begin with admitting that no matter who you are, you can learn something about sales. To help you study, Fortune online magazine has compiled a list of eight, "must read" books for salespeople and those aspiring to sell. The first one – appropriately enough – is "Birth of a Salesman" by Walter Friedman. This book traces the history of sales in a "uniquely American" story. If you want to know where you're going, you have to know where you've been.

The next two books are ideal for those going up against big companies. Ever wondered how to get into that marbled lobby through those giant glass doors? In "Selling to Big Companies" and "The New Strategic Selling," you'll learn how to break a large corporation down into manageable chucks and navigate successfully through those big deals that take months to close.

"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" and "Getting to Yes: Negotiating an Agreement Without Giving In" address what's inside… both you and your customer. Sales are largely psychological and to be successful, you have to understand motivations and habits. If you know how to portray yourself and help people get what they truly want, you will be successful in sales.

In "Presenting to Win," you'll learn about what to do in that most crucial of situations: your pitch. All of your studies, practice, maneuvering, and relationships have lead up to the point where you finally get to present your product. Effective presentations are vital for your success and in modern day sales, technology plays a role. That's why this book covers subjects like effective video conferencing and PowerPoint presentations.

Finally, there are two books that remind us that sales is a personal voyage with another person and creating long-term relationships is the best way to sell. One book you're sure to have already heard of and if you haven't read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" yet, then it's definitely time you did. The other book is the personal habits of CEO Jack Mitchell called, "Hug Your Customers." To give you an idea of its contents, he writes that he sends a thank-you note to every customer that spends over $2,000 in his store. His reasoning is clear: if you appreciate your customers, they will return the favor.

Think for a moment; how do you get the word out about your conference calls? How do you fill them up with participants? If you don't already use registration pages, it may be a good time to do so. If you do use them, are you realizing their full potential?

Registration pages are an excellent, yet underused feature of webinars. A registration page is a web page with an online form that people can fill out with their contact information, business information, or whatever else you want to ask. People fill out this form, because after they hit “submit,” they get the time, date, conference codes, and dial-in number of a conference call.

There are many uses for registration pages other than simply collecting information. You can use them to get billing information if you are selling the conference call. If you aren't selling the call, you can put the word out and get a list of people who are interested in your products or what you have to say.

You should know that conference calls can be forever. Instead of doing your presentation over and over, you can record and make them available for playback. You spent enough time preparing your presentations; it should be comforting to know that they won't be wasted. Recorded conference calls can be accessed anytime by the people you choose.

Of course one way to choose those people is with a registration page. Include a registration page on your website and when customers are browsing your products and want to learn more, then they can sign up and get access to your recorded conference call. They get instant informational gratification and you get their contact information. Using a registration page in this way gives you a 24/7 lead generator. Even just casual browsers can be followed-up on by your sales staff.

The CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, is known for his powerhouse presentations. They include grand visuals, high-tech support, important guest speakers, and of course cutting edge Apple technology. While this is all awesome, it doesn't make him a consummate presenter. Without all the glam, Jobs embraces solid presenting techniques that make all the difference. And guess what? You can too.

Carmine Gallo of Bnet.com dissects a Steve Jobs presentation and points out the very basic, but very powerful presentation techniques used. It doesn't matter if you are standing in an auditorium, hosting a conference call, or doing a video conference, learning Jobs's speaking habits can be very beneficial.

First of all, announce a single, simple headline and make it your theme. How about: "reading this today will help you have Powerful Presentations". You want to engage your audience with this headline and give them a reason to continue to listen to you. Make your theme clear and consistent.

Follow your theme with a general outline of what is to come. "Today we will cover the four basic ways to have a powerful presentation like Steve Jobs." Your presentation should be like a story, with each section a chapter. Make it easy for your audience to follow you. When you end a section or begin another, make sure to have a clear transition. "We just covered having a theme, which is important because you have to unify each section of your presentation."

It's not only okay to be passionate in your presentation, it's required. You want your audience to be hanging on your every word, soaking up information from you like a sponge. Think of all the lectures you've been to. Like you, your audience wants to be wowed. Don't be stiff or formal, that's dull. Be energetic and passionate in your gestures, tone, and language. Use words like extraordinary, amazing, and cool. Enthusiasm is contagious, so have some and infect everyone around you.

Like you and your words, make your visuals powerful and to the point. Your slideshow should be easy on the eyes with little text, and only one or two images per slide. The information you do include should be inspiring. If you include numbers, make them meaningful. Connect the dots for your audience by comparing them to everyday things. For example, one Apple iPod has twelve gigs of space. Instead of simply saying this, Steve Jobs points out that twelve gigs is enough space to have continuous music while traveling to the moon and back. Pretty heady imagery, eh?

Don't be afraid to be dramatic. If there is something to be revealed, don't simply say what it is, keep it as a surprise. Throw a sheet over something and unveil it with gusto. Introduce new information in a startling way. Have secret guest speakers. Stand or sit suddenly to emphasize a point. Your audience wants to learn, but also to be entertained. You always want to have at least one memorable point in every presentation. Plan for it and make it happen.

Always have a "And one last thing," moment at the end of your presentation. This is an unexpected bonus for your audience that could be a reward, an announcement, or simply refreshments. It may sound insignificant, but it not only keeps your audience coming back, but also rapt with attention until the end of your future conferences.

The nine to five grind is becoming a thing of the past.  Not only are companies realizing that an employee sitting at their desk for eight hours is not productive all of that time, but keeping them there might not be taking full advantage of the technology of the day.  A company doesn't have to completely revamp themselves to take advantage of a remote workplace.  They also don't have to purchase a lot of new equipment.  With some forethought, it can be simple to make a remote workplace successful.

How much of your employee's work could be done from home?  Could their work be emailed in once they finish it?  Do you have a network they already sign into, but at work?  What changes would there be if they were to work from home?  If the answer is “not many,” then implementing a remote workplace program could be a simple endeavor.  It could even improve the bottom line.

For example, what if you offered a day each week for each employee to do their work from home?  They would save on gas and morale would go up.  What if you had all of your employees do their work from on the same day?  How much would your overhead go down?

Communication might be your most pressing concern, but with conference calls, web conferencing, and video conferencing, you can not only stay in touch, but keep a sense of togetherness, even when everyone is not in the same building.   If everyone is using these conferencing tools, then all conversations are recorded for future reference and training.  These can be archived and stored online for use when in the office, or somewhere else in the world.

Morale was mentioned above, but it is a very important point.  Your employees have work to do, but if they can get it done in the comfort of their homes, think of how much more they will be relaxed when they come back to work.  They will also be grateful that they don't have to spend any money on gas one day a week.  These are just two reasons they will be happy to work for you.

There are a few things that a webinar can't replace.  Shaking someone's hand is one example.  Another is the clap on the shoulder as you head out the door together to grab some lunch.  While a webinar can't provide these staples of a face-to-face meeting… yet, there is one thing that previously the only way to do it was to "be there."  Application sharing through a webinar makes it possible for many heads to come together – in real-time – even though they are nowhere near each other.

Application sharing is a feature of web conferencing that allows you to share an application with all of your participants.  You can allow them to directly put their input onto whatever you are working on.  You can even allow them to take control.  Application sharing is not just another presentation tool such as document sharing or PowerPoint.  Instead of you just showing your participants what you are talking about, you allow them to interact and show you their feedback as well.

An excellent way to picture a good use for application sharing is using an Excel spreadsheet for a quarterly report.  If you have all of your departments on the conference, they can input their numbers into one sheet at the same time.  This replaces getting four or five emailed spreadsheets from each department - hopefully in the same format – then spending a few hours integrating their data into your master spreadsheet.

Think about a report due, but one that requires the information, input, and analysis of several other people.  If you shared Microsoft Word with them, you could all cut and paste your work onto the same sheet, all while searching for typos, mistakes, or unneeded information.  You could go line by line and get a consensus, they can help with corrections, and soon you have a polished insightful report.

If you think about it, having five or ten - or more - people able to simultaneously see and edit the same document couldn't happen in a face-to-face meeting.  Which means webinars using application sharing is an improvement on how we meet.  Now if we can work on that handshake thing…

Your employees are your most valuable asset. There is definitely a difference in productivity between companies that have happy employees and those that don't. There are many things you can do to make your employees happy. You can have extensive employee benefits, perks, bonuses, and reward and recognition programs. Unfortunately, in these tough economic times, spending the money to keep your employees happy may be a cost too large to handle.

Fortunately, with some creative thinking, there are things you can that don't cost a lot, but can make a big impact in your workforce. On bnet.com, Carlos Bergfeld and Princess Calabrese offer some recession-friendly employee perks that will increase your company morale without increasing costs.

The first employee perk is to give gifts that mean something. They give the example of a Colorado brewery that gives its employees a custom bicycle on yearly anniversaries. Yes, it costs a couple of hundred bucks, but the gesture is extremely well received. Probably bicycles wouldn't work with your company as it does for the Colorado Brewery. They are already in an atmosphere that is "biker friendly" and embrace that atmosphere by providing ample bike parking and on-site showers. For your employees, you would need to recognize what your culture is and what would be well-received in it. With any luck, it will cost less than a bicycle.

The next perk is more intangible. You can give your employees time. One company in California did this by giving their employees two "I don't want to get out of bed" days per year. Their employees can use these to do whatever they want and not have to worry about lying about being sick or running into their boss later on that evening.

For perks that reward hard work, another company in California – a hotel -- gives tokens to employees that get good customer ratings. The tokens can be turned in for small gift certificates ($5 to $20). The reward is small, but they can be accumulated. You can devise a similar program that rewards your employees for achievements specific to your company. You can do gift certificates, merchandise from your own store if applicable, or whatever you devise. Surprisingly, it's not so much about what they can buy with their tokens, but the collection of them and the accompanying satisfaction.

Time is measured in seconds, used in hours, and lived in years. When you include time in conversations with your customers, you are telling them much for than what point the sun is in the sky, or the duration of an event. In addition to what's on the surface, you are revealing things about you, your company, and how you feel about the customer.

For example, if you have a one-hour dry cleaning shop, and you tell a customer that it will be an hour and a half until they can pick up their clothes, you reveal that you are either very busy, a machine has broken down, or your shop is unorganized. If you have a customer in front of you and you interrupt them to deal with a phone call, you reveal that the person on the phone is more important, your customer's time is unimportant to you, and you don't care that they made the effort to come to your store.

Seth Grodin of Seth's Blog wrote an interesting blog entry on time as the most overlooked secret of marketing. He holds that this secret has two parts: Show Up on Time and Cherish My Time. Showing up on time is a tool to build trust. You are telling the customer that you will do what you say when you say you will do it. You tell them that their time and schedule is valuable to you, so much so that you deliver your promises when you tell them you will.

Cherishing your customer's time is about respecting them. It's not assuming that your time is more valuable than theirs. As Seth writes, if you want someone to think you are selfish, then ask for a minute of their time and then waste it.

When you set up an appointment with a customer, you are creating an opportunity to waste their time. You can do many things to make sure you don't. Is the meeting necessary? Will you be helping them, or only yourself? Do you need to meet face-to-face or will a video conference be a better alternative? When are their busiest times of the day and is your appointment during one of those times?

As always, remember the golden rule and ask yourself, "Would I want to be bothered with this at this particular time?" If you respect your customer's time, your customer's will respect you.

Conference calls are simple to use, even with all of their features. Sometimes though, you just can't beat having a professional right there with you during a call. For example, if you have a big, important conference call, you want to make sure everything is perfect. You have to take care of your speakers, watch the schedule, handle questions, and moderate. An operator can help you stay on top of everything.

For a typical call with an operator, they will join you in pre-conference to go over any last minute details and answer any questions you may have. An operator can start the call for you, make sure recording and lecture mode is on, and even greet your participants and introduce you. Their helpfulness doesn't stop there; they will sit in the background and monitor your call. They look for lines with background noise and mute them, as well as assess the general sound quality of the call.

When you get towards the end of your call, an operator can really come in handy during the question and answer portion of the conference. All you have to do is announce it is time for Q&A. The operator will give your participants instructions for joining the queue, then mute and unmute each questioner in turn.

A major, intangible benefit to using an operator is the flexibility they can give you. While you can control a conference call using telephone keypad commands, you miss out on many options only available when you are sitting in front of your computer. An operator can do all of that for you, leaving you free to conduct your calls from wherever you like.

One of the most prevalent fears in the human race is the fear of public speaking. Something about standing up in front of a group of strangers - or even friends and family members - strikes a chord of apprehension in us that is very difficult to overcome. For some, picturing the audience without any clothes sometimes helps, for others necessity is the only thing that will get them up on that stage. With video conferencing, you have the best of both worlds. You can be viewed by a large number people, all while you sit comfortably in your office or home.

Getting over, or controlling, fear of public speaking requires time, patience, and practice. One technique that helps is to make sure to take deep breaths before, during, and after a speech. Another technique is to practice by speaking in front of two people, then three, then ten, and so forth.

Using video conferencing by itself or in conjunction with the above is a great technique as well. During a video conference, you can have the option of showing all of your participants in little window, a few people, one person, or even just yourself. Increasing or decreasing the number of people who you actually see can be adjusted to your comfort level.

As you probably know, the worst part of a speech is the beginning. You are nervous and the crowd is cold. As you begin to speak, use your icebreakers, and grow accustomed to being up there, your confidence level increases and you begin to forget that you are afraid. Using a video conference allows you to start with one person and add people as you become more confident.

Remember, it's natural to feel anxious about public speaking and it can be overcome. All you need is patience, practice, and some video conference time.

Business traditions are changing and with them the normal ways of reaching and communicating with customers. If you haven't already done so, social networking sites have become excellent ways to get in front of potential customers and interact with them and existing customers. There is more on this in a previous post about using social networking for business. If you followed that post's advice -- or did it all on your own -- and have come across some unexpected results, possibly some common mistakes are to blame.

Putting your company out there has more ramifications than starting a personal profile. After all, you want people to visit your company's profile to learn about your business and choose to buy your products. This makes it all the more important that you don't send the wrong message. In Kelly Spors article, we get tips on how to avoid some common social networking mistakes.

First of all, when you setup a profile, you need to go all out. Simply putting your name and logo with some contact information is not going to sway anyone, much less their interest. Include a blog and fill out the "About Me" section. Show pictures of your products, employees, and building. Tell about your history, hopes and dreams, and interesting things about your company and the industry. Give a visitor plenty to look at to give your message plenty of time to sink in.

Speaking of that message, don't come on too strong. You've got other mediums that extol your company's virtues, don't turn your profile into one as well. You're not selling visitors here, you're using the profile to connect with them and let them learn more about you. "Humor often helps," as Spors writes.

Finally, don't take all that time to setup a profile then abandon it for a few months. Update it with fresh content. Add a blog entry or a news item. Put up new pictures. Do a video. Do anything to keep your profile in the "Just Updated" section of the social network's main page.