Virtual Sales Professional (VSP) - Fundamentals - Leadership - Expert Level - Virtual Seminars

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Critical Success Factors for the New Virtual Professional Sales Force

This is a large article, if you prefer a PDF click here and call 303-594-1694 or email [email protected] for details, scheduling and questions. This program is also available via TTA and other training companies.

This is both an introduction and taking action seminar designed to not just “talk the talk” but “walk the walk” in changing the nature of sales, channels and most importantly customers in the way they explore, evaluate, decide, purchase and deploy new and expanded versions of solutions in their business. 

 Fundamentals of Virtual Selling for Professional Selling Professionals

 Session 1 – Customers Bane or Boon ~1 Hour

This session will drill in to the customers mind and not react or predict but direct them to your strategy:

- Virtual Selling and Social Media Explained - presentation to everyone on what it is, what works and what leads to failure. This is internal socialization of Virtual Selling as getting people “on the same page” is a horrendous task yet without this effort, factions often arise to derail the process.

– Core Customers – potential, fans, fence-sitters, ignored, end of life – are customers “listening to what you say on social media and are you listening to what customers are saying” – who is the real buyer and who are other key decision-makers? Explore and understand the current sales cycle. 

- Build customer personas and map to social media platforms based on product/solution. In addition, an evaluation of customer buying cycles, alignments, down to the branch level. Also, what do they know, think, believe and need to know about you.  

 – Communications Media Channels – product/solution messaging and mediums used for current sales. Understand role of sales-marketing interfaces for specific campaigns, events and other sales activities. Specifically, evaluate how Virtual Selling would fit into the organization including support, product and other areas. In other words, is there a “black hole” that could impact Virtual Selling solutions to derail the process?

– Evaluate Sales Channels of Distribution – channels and partners are just one part of the means to an end, evaluation of “hot spots” and “dead zones” including self-service Virtual Selling and indepth analysis of CAC-customer acquisition costs and buying cycles (seasonal, annual, government, other).

Questions & Answers - Sales leader will be available to answer all questions.

Session 2 - Building Strategic Customer Assessments ~1 Hour

Explore the following:

  1 – Customer type – vertical, specialty, distribution, OEM

  2 – Content – what are they saying, selling telling their customers, what do they know about you (what research are you providing them to help them evaluate you) - explore their Omnichannel purchasing processes including multi-source social content syndication news gathering

  3 - Media Channels – what mainstream and other media channels are they using 

  4 - Channels of Distribution – build “agile” channel models adapting to known and emerging technologies

  5 - Apps – are customers using app(s) for selling/supporting

  6 - Technology – what Virtual Selling/media and technologies are they using – did they build or buy

  7 - Organization – where is their organization going – merge, divest, domestic and international 

  8 - Brand – is their brand something that is important to you

  9 - Random – what regulatory, political, environmental factors have on customer buying now and in the future.

  10 - Vision – where are customers now and where are they going and how can you “walk in their moccasins” now and in the future

 Questions & Answers - Sales leader will be available to answer all questions.

Session 3 – Taking Virtual Selling Action Today ~1 Hour

Develop and building a new Virtual Selling Strategy on specific elements making each element “more social” than pure selling

- Start selling – build new social “cold calling” build new Virtual Selling news feeds

- Upsell – build new means to selling “dogs” and finding “happy meals”

- Pitch-sell – build new Virtual Selling “pitches”

- Re-sell – integration of Virtual Selling with resellers, VARs, channels, partners

- Cross-sell – exploring ways to Virtual Selling multi-vendor solutions

- Follow-up selling – is Virtual Selling working, “mid-course” corrections and testing multiple approaches

- Shorter selling – build ways to shorten sales cycle, integrate CAC-customer acquisition cycles and building selling cycle calendar (no point in selling Christmas trees in January)

- Outselling – not really outsourcing options for Virtual Selling but soliciting other “sources” to help in sales

- Support selling - "constant courtesy" – integration of selling and support

- Cool selling – can toys, movies, and fun be to use

- Develop funnel buying stages

Questions & Answers - Sales leader will be available to answer all questions.

 Fundamentals of Virtual Selling for Corporate and Sales Management

Session 1 – Selling Virtual Selling to the Organization – The Hardest Part ~1 Hour

- Organizational integration of Virtual Selling - throughout the entire process identified weakness will be included in the deliverable.

- Organizational marketing “socializing Virtual Selling” to other departments - often internal selling is harder than external and what internal roadblocks emerge to divert or block the Virtual Selling strategy.

- Incorporate industry and competitive research and other “thought leadership on who else is talking about Virtual Selling?

- Evaluate Virtual Selling and integration with current/proposed compensation plans. Integrating Social Influencer aka KOL-Key Opinion Leaders involvement into the pilot program.

- Discuss critical elements of the implementation program include:

- Social media "word of mouth" social sales

- Virtual Selling is really an extension of, not replacement for being a great sales person and great selling processes, what, where and how will Virtual Selling be used to extend that process will be developed

- Social Influencer and Leadership - “you cannot manage a sales force, you lead it” and Virtual Selling leadership development will be included.

- Internal Virtual Selling leadership and external social influencer programs will be integrated into content development and delivery

Questions & Answers - Sales leader will be available to answer all questions.

Session 2 – Critical Virtual Selling Concepts ~1 Hour

This session focuses on management and the changing nature of management in the future including:

- Connections – how to create and connect with other social media influencers

- Curation - review and curate company content, provide guidance and enhanced thought leadership via influencer team

- Content – how to create content to have compelling “thought leadership” knowledge

- Collaboration – learn how to collaborate with internal and external social leaders.

- C-Level – get help from C-levels to gain access to and assist and guide others on their social media efforts along with gaining-retaining followers

- Concerns – learn key points in responding to concerns expressed by global crisis issues, cultural issues, terrorism, customer comments and others including social media. Learn how to build and monitor system for sales, support/service, IR/PR and compliance issues

- Build tools to track results for monitoring, managing, auditing and making the most of your social influencers and KOL-key opinion leaders’ program.

Questions & Answers - Sales leader will be available to answer all questions.

Session 3 – Corporate Management and Virtual Selling ~1 Hour

Here are some of the key issues addressed:

- Integration of organizational compensation systems with HR for personnel management - hiring/firing is often the greatest challenge -- integration of Virtual Selling is key to an overlay or replace to current selling processes.

- Crisis - provide crisis response team to address 7×24 tracking to avoid situations such as, diversity, racial issues, Uber (sexual harassment) Target (hack attack), Wells Fargo (internal corruption), Chipotle (incompetence) and learn how to other respond to corporate devastating consequences with live “tweetchats” demonstrating responsiveness

- Develop a Virtual Selling approach based on key elements in the buying cycle and what customers need to know at each stage, accelerating where possible, testing concepts if possible to evaluate what works, doesn’t and viable Virtual Selling “best practices.”-

Ongoing audit and assessment KPI factors - no selling or Virtual Selling practice is viable without some form of auditing and key metrics. Albeit Virtual Selling metrics are more about social media engagements, likes and other mentions and postings. Virtual Selling engages with various customer types is just one kind of metric. All content factors will be included in the assessments. 

- Integration of KPI factors with other organizational KPI metrics.

- The new Virtual Selling organizational structure

Questions & Answers - Sales leader will be available to answer all questions.

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 Expert Virtual Sales Professional

Enterprise Sales Acceleration B2B Professional Development Program

 If you like the program so far and want to talk your team, department or entire sales organization to a new virtual selling world, here is the overview and information on the individual webinars for the 14-session Expert Level curriculum:

Proven sales revenue acceleration across thousands of B2B sales professionals that:

?       Reduces sales cycle

?       Increases competitive edge

?       Reduces staff turmoil and turnover

?       Produces higher margins

?       Provides improved sales leadership

?       Designed for Small, Medium, Major, OEM, International, Channel and Enterprise Markets

?       Addresses UC, Collaboration, IT, VAR, MSP, AI, SD-WAN, Cloud, Security and other providers and channel partners

Strategic Goals for Expert Level Enterprise Sales Acceleration 

“Confidence is a demonstration of knowledge.”

Ivan G. Seidenberg Former CEO Verizon

These courses:

?       Present enterprise solutions selling scenarios.

?       Understand what customers especially enterprise business customers are looking for and expect from a provider of integrated applications solutions and networking services.

?       Understand what the situations are, success factors and solutions in making the sale and how you can make a difference in your prospective and ongoing customer relations.

?       And, most importantly, maximize the confidence-to-close factor and the customer gain-retain ratio and seek to shorten the sales cycle.

Sales Professional Goals - Gain-Retain Customers and Increase Market Position

The goal is to gain and grow:

- Skills for from salesperson's perspective it is often said, "you can't sell what you don't know.” This course focuses on guiding salespeople to be ready for enterprise customers including “better to be embarrassed here than in connect with the customer.”

- From the customer perspective, ”a confused mind always says no” as customers "don't buy what they don't know either" is the rapidly changing reality as solutions are more complex to understand, justify, implement and train users. 

- Professional skills critical to current direct, strategic sales, vital for up market channel partners and recommended for all new-hires before they are let loose on any customer.

- Current sales staff, comments have been received such as "filled in gaps from previous classes," "gained new insights" and "you cannot ever know enough as this isn't just enterprise but a very complex selling environment." 

- New-hires as this class can give sales management and leadership as well as HR insights into likely successful enterprise sales staff and sales compensation plans.

Delivered in one, two or three initial virtual sessions at a time for each Section (Note: unlike large onsite sales training classes, it is recommended virtual classes be 15 or less) from professionals with the "highest scores ever" and “award-winning” evaluations and multi-decades of experience and a satisfaction guarantee this course is a win-win experience. In addition, knowledge is delivered with a goal of a high knowledge gain-retain customer approach. 

Sales leadership can select all Sessions or any Session “by the slice” option for delivery including keynote, C-level, investor or sales meeting presentation format.

All Expert Sessions Outline : QUEST for The Accelerating Enterprise sales

Questions, Understanding, Evaluating, Systems-Support and Teaching

?       Session 1 - Top-10 Personal Sales Professional Criteria

?       Session 2 - Top-10 Enterprise Sales Opportunities for Cloud, SD-WAN, UC, Collaboration, AI, Pandemic Tech and Emerging Tech

?       Session 3 - Top-20 Enterprise Customer Types

?       Session 4 - Top-10 Key Criteria for Enterprise Sales Meeting/Presentation 

?       Session 5 - Top-10 Enterprise Proposal Guide

?       Session 6 - Top-10 Enterprise Business Issues

?       Session 7 - Top-10 Enterprise Technical Issues

?       Session 8 - Top-10 Enterprise Network Management Issues

?       Session 9 - QUEST - Questions, Understanding, Evaluating, Systems-Support and Teaching

?       Session 10 - Customer Phases - Assessment, Analysis, Selection & Implementation

?       Session 11 - Optional Role Play – Customer Case Studies – Mortgage, Newspaper & Manufacturing

?       Session 12 – Sales Manager Development for First Time, Team Turn Around and Accelerate Growth

?       Session 13 - Optional Certification Testing

?       Session 14 – Ongoing “Personal Trainer” Coaching Service and App

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The following are additional details on each Session:

Session 1 Top-10 Enterprise Sales Professional Personal Criteria

1) Knowledge – “you can’t sell what you don’t know,” get product, tech smart every day, know your competitors. 

2) Customers want trust to make sure they don’t lose their job buying your solution. “Customers don't buy what they don’t understand.”

2) Customers want help and leadership and most importantly, education to let them solve their problems.

3) Customers want business solutions, not pipes and boxes.

4) Customers want “case studies” on their industry-specific situations.

5) Customers want to see a vision and “leadership” from your company.

6) Customers want to know the ROI/TCO impact of their business in terms CXOs will understand.

7) Customers want a dialog, not just questions, an interactive conversation and consultation

8) Customers want you to shut up and listen more – 2E1M salespeople often ask too many questions. Customers too often feel they are being interrogated.

9) Network – make sure you are connected with them on Linkedin and follow their company.

10) A professional image – they see you, not the company and so dress for success.

Session 2 - Top-10 - Enterprise Opportunities for Cloud, UC, AI, SD-WAN, Collaboration, AI, New Tech

1 - Customer relationship management - CRM

          - Starts with a customer

2 - Enterprise resource planning - ERP

          - Starts at the top

3 - Research and development

          - Starts with a problem

4 – Backoffice – logistics – fleet management

          - Starts at the back dock-door

5 - Front office – workflow management

          - Starts with an encounter

6 - Human resources – hiring, compliance

          - Starts with people in groups

7 - Manufacturing resource planning - MRP

          - Starts on the floor

8 - Communications - messaging - conferencing

          - Starts with communications

9 - Personal services – docs, collaboration

          - Starts with you

10 - Facility services

          - Starts with structures

Session 3 - Top-20 Enterprise Customer Types

Quantify Customer type:

-       Strategic/Major

-       Geo/Demographic

-       Growing Business

-       Declining Business

-       Merging Business

-       Multi-location

-       Vertical

-       Channel/VAR/SI

-       Industry

-       Technology

-       Consulting

-       Advisor

-       Legal/Acct

           -        Specialty

-       Distribution

-       OEM

-       White Label

-       Executive

-       International

-       Other

Session 4 - Top-10 Concepts for Enterprise Sales Presentation

1) Before you go, check their website/social media.

2) What problems are most important for you to solve now?

3) If you could have anything fixed, what would it be?

4) Is there a telecom/IT plan? If not, can I help write one.

5) Can I borrow or make a copy of the last three month’s bills?

6) What new business applications have/want to implement?

7) Are there ways that we could help increase your revenues?

8) Are there other people that are involved in this decision?

9) Do you have a timetable? Are you moving?

10) Is there anything I forgot to ask?

?       Look for the hook to present your solutions?

?       Let them know about your website

Session 5 - Top-10 – Proposal/Quote Guide for UC & Network services

1) Executive summary - absolutely-positively only one page

2) Existing and proposed network configuration – before and after

3) Price - at the top of the page in big letters with place to sign

4) Analysis and recommendations - issues, risks, concerns, tell them the truth !

5) Technical analysis - including downtimes, SLA

6) Timetable - all the details and name-names

7) Management background - telephone directory

8) Case studies - tell them about their friends

9) Customer references to call - especially if same industry

10) Company background - they don’t really care but it’s nice fluff

Session 6 - Top-10 - Enterprise Business Issues

1) One stop shopping - can you do all of IT, voice, future - one bill too!

2) Planning - legacy to lunacy - can they take the old with the bold

3) Network capacity and coverage - to you, to others

4) Downtime - history is no guide to the future, yours

5) Scalability - can they grow with us, customize, virtualize

6) Responsibility - ability to provide end-to-end management

7) Experience - references, technology, redundancy

8) Accounting - how are calls billed, disputes resolved, billing interface

9) Frills/Futures - storage, programming, WEB hosting/design, VR

10) Business - model, expansion, growth, funding, ownership

Session 7 - Top-10 - Enterprise Technical Issues

1) Options - ranges of ports, bandwidths, distance, closet to cloud

2) Order processing - intervals, MTTR, fees, penalties

3) Features – need product details

4) Congestion management - where and who to discard

5) Expansion management

6) Carrier network engineering - route maps, lines/switches,

7) Security capabilities - multiple authorization levels - firewalls

8) Network management - device to access, routes and reroutes

9) Change management - moves/adds/changes (MACs)

10) Service level agreements (SLA) - who pays when it fails

Session 8 - Top-10 Enterprise Network Management Issues

1) Cybersecurity is now and will always be #1 – do a comprehensive checkup

2) Review traffic patterns – check current performance & model new ones

3) Update network map – build a “heat map”

4) Evaluate current “potholes” - worst case scenarios

5) Review current applications/sites, plan for new ones

6) Pilot “worst case sites” - parallel/diversity/redundancy

7) Expand as success increases - run parallel nets, SLA

8) Build test lab for new applications - video, VO, online, mobile

9) Monitor successes and model for network management

10) Develop monthly business report - gain/pain ratio

Session 9 - QUEST - Questions, Understanding, Evaluating, Systems-Support and Teaching

This is a core concept in sales training to really improve professional development.

Session 10 - Customer Phases - Assessment, Analysis, Selection & Implementation

Phase 1 – System Assessment – what do we have, what do we need now and in the future

Phase 2 - System Analysis

Understanding bid specifications - RFI/RFP/RFQ and others

Presentation preparation – elevator pitch, team pitch

Phase 3 - Vendor selection and negotiation

Phase 4 - Systems Implementation and Evaluation

Session 11 - Optional Role Play – Customer Case Studies – Mortgage, Newspaper & Manufacturing

This session brings all the content "live" with real life case studies to remind all that "it is better to be embarrassed here virtually than in front of the customer." 

Session 12 – Sales Manager Development for First Time, Team Turn Around and Accelerate Growth

This is for First Time Manager, Team Reboot, Channel Partner Sales Managers, Refresh/Update/Benchmark, Business Turnaround and Growth Accelerator Managers. This one-hour initial class will:

?       Review proven leadership concepts to ”listen, learn, lead” and build a successful and long-lasting sales performance team.

?       Look inside one’s own sales skills then engage and expand with colleagues and company culture, compensation challenges.

 Session 13 - Optional Certification Testing 

Testing is never an absolute but gives an assessment of learning gained and retained. Certificates are granted for attendance, this is a special level of custom testing for specific management levels, markets, products and other reasons.

Session 14 - Ongoing "Personal Trainer" Coaching

Personal and shadow (listening in) coaching is available and recommended not just for monitoring but facilitating consistent and improved performance for all sales staff. Like with having a personal fitness trainer, we can provide an oncall, text or email sales coach to help answer questions for unique and challenging customer situations.

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New Recommendation:

"Tom and I developed and delivered more than a dozen virtual webinars on social media, virtual selling and marketing strategies. Tom is an excellent course designer, developer and importantly has great delivery and virtual presentation skills. I would highly recommend him for any virtual presentations including investor pitch, virtual selling, virtual events professional as well as highly technical subjects including AI. His book on AI - MindMeld has been called the best business book on AI yet written. He can really help you be the best."

Evan Kirstel #1 Social Media in AI, Retail Tech and many other B2B markets.

Course Evaluations

Users:

“Leadership begins with great presentations, team building, collaboration and frankly being organized. The Procert gave me all these tools and much more to be a better CTO leader.” J.L

“Meetings are the bane of my business; however, nothing gets done without them. I needed skills and ideas to make meetings and business communications faster, reducing costs and frankly, much better. Virtual Pro did that - thanks.” M.G CEO

"This is the best course for better management communications – period.” K.E

Vendors:

“The class accelerates our conferencing and collaboration revenues reducing the sales cycle by demonstrating to our customers we are committed to user ‘driver training’ to help them make better presentations and use cases of our solutions.” D.T.

“I have been selling conferencing for a long time and so tired of hearing stories of the old conferencing system going unused because users aren’t really trained. That is, they try it and fail, especially C-levels, the course gives me a real competitive-edge showing we are committed to the customer now and in the future.” R.C.

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Q&A to "Why Buy" the VSP-Virtual Sales Prof Course Cert

Doubt this answers everything but hope it helps provide a script and some answers which we can add to resulting from customer inquiries. 

Key question I/we might ask them when they call or email:  Before you fail, flub or otherwise lose face yet again in your video sales, customer, news, investor, pitch preso, team, status, sermon, lecture, leadership or any other kind of meeting get Zoom and other meetings platforms smart today.

Problems and issues Course Buyers such as Sales, Teachers, Press, News, Team Leaders, Coaches and literally anyone who gives a presentation faces everyday 

- Giving virtual presentations of any kind seems easy but it’s really hard and even harder to do it well.

- I wonder what people are really thinking about me?

- I know a person's greatest fear is giving a presentation or speech, I need something to really help me overcome this.

- I lose face and look foolish every time I give a presentation; can anyone be of help to me?

- I stumble over my words, my slides look like s- and this isn't any fun.

- Projects are still not going smoothly nor on time, what can I do to help?

- My manager wanted me to do this but I am skeptical, I know this but know others need to know as well.

- Can this really help me or just another waste of time?

 Questions after registration before delivery

- I know I need this and hope it really helps, but I am still skeptical.

- My staff is still not responding to this virtual workplace working from home as much as I would like, if this goes well I will recommend they all go through this to "lift all boats."

- I love Dale Carnegie and know what real training is and how it can really improve me and those around me.

 Questions while waiting for start date

- I have so many questions, hope I really get them answered.

- I am bringing colleagues so if this goes well I will have a "private" class for all of my team.

- The more I do virtual meetings, the more bored I with them and with others, I need this to get my act together as I want to get this project/product approved.

 During the course

- Great preso but I still have questions, he asked me to write down the questions and said he would answer all of them, will see.

- I need to pay closer attention - great tips.

- Such simple tips to make me so much better.

- Wish I could get this dude to make all my presos great.

- I know I need others to see this, does little if they don't do it too.

 After they graduate and may want to share with others

- The Virtual Sales Pro Cert gave me all these tools and much more to be a better sales persona and leader.

- VSP is the best course for better management communications – period.

- I got the needed skills and ideas to make sales meetings and customer communications faster, reducing costs and frankly, much better.

- This was great, now I want all my staff to go through this make us a really great team.

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 Disclaimer - The author and presenter have used their best efforts in preparing this seminar and the programs contained in it. These efforts include the development, research, and testing of the theories and programs to determine their effectiveness. The author and presenter make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to these programs or the documentation contained in this seminar. The author and presenter shall not be liable in any event for incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of, the furnishing, performance, or use of these programs. Subject to change without notice.

If you have any questions regarding specific content presented or want specific topics or issues addressed, please email or call - [email protected] or 303-594-1694.

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