Keith Eades, CEO of Sales Performance International, Is Keynote Speaker at Microsoft Event

Keith Eades Will Appear at Microsoft's Greater China Region Sales Conference in Beijing, China

Sales Performance International (SPI), a leading sales training and performance improvement firm, announced today that Keith Eades, Founder and CEO of SPI, will be the keynote speaker at Microsoft's Greater China Region Sales Conference in November. Mr. Eades will address more than 400 Microsoft employees and business partners in Greater China Region about the positive impact that adopting a Solution Selling Sales Process can have within their sales organization.

SPI is the exclusive owner of Solution Selling® -- the gold standard for sales process and methodology training for today's sales and marketing professionals. SPI has enabled thousands of salespeople to master the six key dimensions to world-class solution selling. For 20 years, SPI has collaborated with each client and shown them how to be a trusted partner and build a high-performance sales culture.

Microsoft is a strong supporter of the Solution Selling® methodology and has made it part of their sales process for the last seven years. During the formative years of this initiative, Kevin Johnson served as Microsoft's Group VP of Worldwide Sales. Mr. Johnson wrote the forward to "The New Solution Selling," (2004, McGraw-Hill), the book authored by Mr. Eades, and now available in six languages including Chinese. Mr. Johnson wrote, "We have put the principles of Solution Selling® at the core of our selling process -- helping all of our 5,000-strong sales professionals, and thousands of Microsoft's business partners, consistently apply proven sales principles to make a real difference to our customers and meet expectations. 'The New Solution Selling' describes how top-performing salespeople behave, and how this behavior fosters success -- for both the customer and the salesperson."

Mr. Eades has been a frequent speaker at Microsoft events, and is excited to be attending the GCR event in Beijing. Recently, he appeared at Microsoft's event for their Latin American sales organization. Mr. Eades feels strongly that, "Supporting our clients at their events is a key part of our relationship with them. It's important that we do what we can to motivate the employees and build that momentum at the beginning of the sales year. I am absolutely dedicated to helping them and am honored that they asked me to come talk to them."

For additional information about SPI, Solution Selling® and our thought leaders, including Keith Eades, please visit www.spisales.com.

About Sales Performance International

Sales Performance International (SPI) is a global sales training and performance improvement firm dedicated to helping the world's leading corporations drive measurable and sustainable revenue growth and operational sales performance improvement.

Founded in 1988, SPI has been the leader in helping global companies successfully transition from selling products to marketing and selling high-value solutions. SPI is the exclusive owner of the Solution Selling® Suite, an end-to-end sales training and professional development platform for sales professionals, managers, and marketers. SPI has assisted more than 600,000 professionals in more than 50 countries and 14 languages achieve higher levels of performance. Today, SPI focuses on five industry segments: technology, professional services, financial services, telecommunications, and manufacturing.

SPI clients include: Microsoft, Heineken, Hitachi Data Systems, Manpower, IBM, WIX, and Verizon. For more information, visit www.spisales.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

To view additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft's corporate information pages.