January 12, 2017 // 8:30 AM (Original Post date
Written by Leslie Ye | @lesliezye
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It’s January, and that means it's time to set professional goals for the coming year.
If you’re anything like most salespeople, you’ll aim to sell even more and better than you did this year. So how do you achieve this lofty objective?
Professional conferences are not only an opportunity to meet industry leaders (and maybe do a little prospecting!), they’re also a way to break yourself out of your usual routine and pick up new skills you can take back to the office.
But you have to choose carefully. After all, as valuable as conferences can be, they’re still time away from the office. So we’ve compiled a list (in chronological order) of the top sales conferences you should attend in 2017.
The Best Sales Conferences Happening in 2017
SaaStr
2/7/17 - 2/9/17, San Francisco
SaaStr is a conference for -- you guessed it -- people working at SaaS (software-as-a-service) companies. Whether it's hearing from top execs on how they make purchasing decisions or entrepreneurs on scaling and managing your first sales team, sales professionals at all levels will come away with valuable insights.
Speakers include: Dharmesh Shah (HubSpot CTO and co-founder), David Baga (Lyft Chief Business Officer), Dustin Moskovitz (Asana CEO and co-founder, Facebook co-founder)
AA-ISP Inside Sales 2017
2/15/17, Dallas; 6/8/17, San Francisco; 9/7/17, Boston
AA-ISP’s Inside Sales conference focuses on helping frontline inside sales reps and managers in their day-to-day roles through a combination of talks and workshops. Sales leaders can explore a technology and service expo to peruse sales technology for their teams.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
SiriusDecisions Sales Leadership Exchange
2/22/17 - 2/24/17, Scottsdale
Focused on B2B leaders in sales, sales operations, sales enablement, and channel sales, this conference touches on every aspect of hiring, scaling, and developing a successful sales organization.
Speakers include: Phil Harrell (SiriusDecisions advisor and former HubSpot vice president of sales), Heather Cole (SiriusDecisions Service Director), Stephanie Sissler (SiriusDecisions Research Director)
Digital Growth Conference
2/28/17 - 3/3/17, Virtual
This four-day virtual event covers four core pillars of sales, marketing, and enablement alignment: Strategy, people, content, and technology.
Speakers include: Jill Rowley (Social selling evangelist), Jamie Shanks (Sales for Life CEO)
Rainmaker
3/1/17 - 3/3/17, Atlanta
Rainmaker's objective is to bring sales organizations into the modern age and update their behavior to match buyers' so they're "no longer merely sales teams." Content is tailored for those in sales development, sales operations, and sales leadership roles.
Speakers include: Kyle Porter (Sales Loft CEO)
Revenue Summit
3/7/17 - 3/8/17, San Francisco
Designed for salespeople and marketers, this conference teaches best practices for both disciplines tied to the metric that matters -- revenue.
Speakers include: Lisa Skinner (Localytics Senior Director of Demand Generation), Lars Nilsson (Cloudera VP of Global Inside Sales), Julie Sokley (Autodesk VP of Global Sales Operations)
Sandler Sales & Leadership Summit
3/9/17 - 3/10/17, Orlando
The sales training juggernaut's conference will address key sales management and coaching challenges. Sessions include "Managing the Contrarian Salesperson" and "Is Your Vision Theirs?"
Speakers include: Dave Mattson (Sandler Training CEO and president), Sam Reese (Vistage Worldwide CEO and president)
10X Growth Conference
3/17/17-3/19/17, Hollywood, Florida
Run by the team behind sales expert and bestselling author Grant Cardone's Cardone Inc, this conference features entrepreneurs from all industries who will teach attendees how to "10X" their own businesses.
Speakers include: Grant Cardone (sales trainer and bestselling author), Jay Abraham (business strategist), Les Brown (motivational speaker)
TOPO Sales Summit
4/12/17 - 4/13/17, San Francisco
The sales summit’s six tracks (sales leadership, sales development, sales ops and technology, sales effectiveness, marketing ops and technology, and account-based everything) are a valuable resource for sales leaders looking to jumpstart their teams' success.
Speakers include: Craig Rosenberg (TOPO Chief Analyst), Jeffrey Ma (Twitter Director of Business Insights), Scott Keane (Google Director of Global Sales Development)
AA-ISP Leadership Summit
4/18/17 - 4/20/17, Chicago
Attendees -- sales leaders ranging from managers to directors to vice presidents -- will learn about new sales and productivity tools, recruiting and hiring best practices, and call coaching. Past conferences have covered account-based selling, career advancement for sales leaders, and trends like gamification.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
Sales 3.0 Conference
5/1/17, San Francisco; 9/18/17 - 9/19/17, Las Vegas; 12/4/17, Philadelphia
Sales, sales operations, sales enablement, and marketing executives will learn to improve sales team results. This year's topics include machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies. This year's agenda has not yet been finalized, so conference attendees can vote on the topics they're most interested in.
Speakers include: Jeb Blount (Sales Gravy CEO), Gerhard Gschwandtner (Selling Power CEO and founder), Alice Heiman (Alice Heiman LLC Chief Sales Officer and founder)
Pulse
5/9/17 - 5/11/17, Oakland
Mark it down on your calendars: 2017 is the year salespeople need to start taking customer success seriously. Sales doesn't end with a closed deal -- a good customer experience is crucial to cross-sells, upsells, and a booming referral business. Learn tactical tips and get inspired by the best in the business.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
B2B LeadsCon
8/21/17 - 8/23/17, New York
LeadsCon focuses on professionals responsible for generating, nurturing, and converting leads -- AKA marketers and salespeople. You'll learn about brand-building, lead response tactics, and how to run succesful campaigns.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
INBOUND
9/25/17 - 9/28/17, Boston
An annual event that brings together marketing and sales professionals from around the world, INBOUND features inspiring keynotes from speakers like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Anna Kendrick. For the second year, INBOUND will offer a sales-specific track -- past speakers have included sales professionals like Jill Konrath, Trish Bertuzzi, Jill Rowley, and Daniel Pink.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
Sales Force Productivity Conference
10/16/17 - 10/18/17, Atlanta
Learn new ways to streamline your sales team’s performance in areas like technology strategy, operations effectiveness, and sales manager development.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
CEB Sales and Marketing Summit
10/17/17 - 10/19/17, Las Vegas
“Smarketing” isn’t a fad -- it’s a necessary business practice. Learn how to bridge the Sales-Marketing gap at this year’s summit.
Speakers include: Brent Adamson (CEB executive advisor and The Challenger Sale author), Mike Derezin (LinkedIn VP of Sales Solutions), Andrea Austin (InsideView VP of Enterprise Sales)
Dreamforce
11/6/17 - 11/9/17, San Francisco
Each year, Dreamforce gathers salespeople from all over the world in a near-takeover of San Francisco. Past speakers have included will.i.am, Melinda Gates, and Tony Robbins.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
Digital Sales Engine
Fall 2017, Virtual
Digital Sales Engine is focused on helping sales teams build effective technology stacks to improve business performance. Past years' sessions are available to watch online now.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
LinkedIn Sales Connect
TBD
Focused on social selling best practices and trends, Sales Connect brings together experts and practitioners to help sales teams find leads in new places. Past speakers have included author Malcom Gladwell, IBM vice president of marketing Julie Currie, and Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
Sales Acceleration Technology Summit
TBD, Virtual
InsideSales' annual virtual event will explore the changing role technology plays in sales, as well as provide tactical tips for leaders and salespeople alike to incorporate these shifts into their processes.
Speakers include: Not announced yet
What sales conferences will you be attending this year? Let us know in the comments below.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2014 and has been updated for accuracy. Should your event be listed above? Tweet me the information at @lesliezye.
