Recently I shared the story that my testing the BlackBerry z10 mobile device had me visit the local AT&T store at the Silverdale Mall to get a new SIMM chip. All good.
It was a slow Tuesday, and that afforded me the opportunity to speak with a Retail Sales Consultant and the Retail Sales Manager on the floor. We discussed my upcoming SMB Nation Spring Conference that has a focus on sales and business practices with a tip of the hat to Cloud computing and mobility. I was in good company with these two “sales agents” from the telecom world. They shared that the “Scorecard” relates to promoting mobility and yes, the Cloud conversation.
Digging one layer deeper, I discovered these two individuals are really geeks at heart. Readers might not know that this AT&T Silverdale store is located near two large Navy facilities: Bangor Subase and Bremerton Navy Shipyard. The military is a fertile training ground for IT Pros. Over the years, I’ve been amazed at how many SBSers and SMB IT Pros where in the military where they earned their Geek chops.
What I witnessed that day is what we all want (SMB IT Pros, vendors, sponsors) and that is “new-new” in the community. As an aging demographic, we’re all looking for youngins’ to attend events and user groups meetings. We want the community newbies to participate in our online forums. And I assert these two AT&T sales agents are ready, able and willing to do so. You can meet Jared and Paul, the two individuals featured in this story, at my SMB Nation Spring Conference May 3-5 at Microsoft Redmond. Learn more at spring.smbnation.com.
