Why I Can’t Talk About This form of Rejection Anymore

I want to ask for your help.  Please read these two rants and then comment – I really need your comments, inbound links and outrage to support my position.

Rant #1: How many of your salespeople are immune to rejection?  

How would you react if I told you that I just violated somebody’s trademark by asking that question?

Last week I received an email from some guy who said just that.  He owns a trademark on the term “rejectionproof“.  I don’t know about you, but I felt something boiling up from way, deep down inside of me – outrage – at the possibility of this being true.  My companies own trademarks and copyrights and everything I write on this blog is copyrighted.  B U T – if someone can simply be awarded a trademark for a commonly used expression, one that was surely being used prior to the award, one that Objective Management has been using in all of its assssments since the early 1990’s, and then use that mark to extort money from people who are simply using the term in conversation….

He may have gotten lucky and had a computer determine that “rejectionproof” as a word was unique. To have the nerve to go after everyone who has ever used the common phrase “rejection proof” and tell them to stop using it (as in remove it from everything you’ve ever written.  Remove it from my books?) and send him money…well I think that is extortion!  [Update – according to my attorneys, this guy CAN do this]

What do you think?  Please comment below.

Rant #2 – Sales 2.0 Stupidity

I mentioned in yesterday’s article that senior executives still aren’t getting the sales pipeline.

At the same talk in DC, I asked the audience if they were familiar with the term Sales 2.0.  Same response. Nobody.  It seems that outside the blogosphere, and especially the more marketing focused sites, business people have no clue what Sales 2.0 is, and even fewer have heard of Customer 2.0.  The bloggers and readers at CustomerThink.com and SalesEdgeOne.com will be outraged over this but let’s face it.  Except for a small percentage of sales experts, Selling Power, who hosts the Sales 2.0 Conference, and most of the inbound, customer focused marketing experts, the terms Sales 2.0 and Customer 2.0 have no legs.  They aren’t catching on.  They don’t matter.  And we should stop forcing it down the throats of business.  While Sales 2.0 is about getting found, it’s really the art of using the new social marketing and sales tools.  They’re tools!  Selling, even with the tools, is still selling so let’s stop confusing people and talking about stuff they don’t care about.

What do you think?  Please comment below but indicate whether you are a sales or marketing expert, or a sales or business leader at your company.