It’s officially over folks. We are going back to slide rules and abacuses. Throw away your computers because there is a report that in the first 23 days of November online sales overall is off – gulp- 4%. That’s right 4%.

Forrester Research recently hosted a "Sales Enablement" roundtable, which featured sales and marketing executives from technology companies like Intel, NetApp, Borland, Informatica, Sun, Interwoven, Microchip, Renesas, Juniper Networks, Trend Micro, and Thoughtworks.

In a world where more and more households are connected to the internet, bandwidth is becoming an issue and brownouts have been predicted to occur in the next few years. With the strain on the infrastructure of the internet this makes having an efficient, fast loading website all that much more important.

Sometimes you have to be careful not to too broadly apply the results of a study. In this case, I’m not sure if I can help it. Just call me out (as you often do) in the comments if you think I’ve done so. Two recent studies showed a strong correlation between sex hormones and monetary risks.

And that kind of explains everything. Like…

Only Apple knows exactly how many MacBook Airs it expected to sell, and thus, only Apple knows whether current figures are disappointing.  Still, new findings suggest that people are doing more looking than buying, and that by year’s end, transactions involving the Air will account for only 16 percent of Mac sales.

As the economy tanks, it’s likely that we’ll have to write about more and more people getting fired from their jobs.  Luckily, Steve Pogorzelski, Monster.com’s executive vice president of global sales and customer development, appears to be leaving under better conditions.

Call it a consequence of the free market, the law of supply and demand, or just good old-fashioned opportunism. I’ll leave the ethics debate up to you. After all, is it really any different than selling Guitar Hero III for $9,000?

Sales isn’t an easy gig. Cold calls can be a pain. But there’s an art to the sales call which involves knowing how to build rapport with a lead. It also involves not calling your lead "stupid." 

Want the newest figures relating to Internet sales in the UK?  Well, they’re not very fresh, but we have ‘em: the Office for National Statistics (ONS) says that the value of sales was up by 29.1 percent in 2006.

Internet users who read online reviews are willing to spend around 20 percent more for services receiving an "Excellent," or 5-star, rating than for the same service receiving a "Good," or 4-star, rating, according to a new study from comScore.

Digital music spending in the U.S. will comprise over a third of consumer music purchases by 2012, but will not make up for lost CD sales during that time according to a new report from JupiterResearch, "US Music Forecast, 2007-2012."