Budget Battles: Trigger Mentality

July 11, 2011

Special guest by Randall Yim, Executive Conversation Consulting Executive
With public entities increasingly using contingency “Triggers” to balance budgets, now is the time to critically analyze government budget plans for FY12 to identify where your solutions can help.
Federal, state and local entities will be employing a variety of budget assumptions and accounting “tricks” to prepare [...]

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Discounting: why it’s even worse than you think

June 21, 2011

Please join us Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 11:30 AM EDT | 8:30 AM PDT | 16:30 PM BST | 17:30 CET for the next complimentary webinar in our Buyer’s Perspective Webinar series.  Register Today!
Few sales professionals consistently manage this situation in their favor. Fewer still appreciate the full, hidden costs of extending discounts.
With all [...]

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Costco CFO Richard A. Galanti talks with Executive Conversation about sales professionals

June 15, 2011

Mr. Galanti joined Kirkland, WA-based Costco Wholesale Corporation shortly after its founding in March 1984 as Vice President of Finance and later became Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Executive Conversation spoke with him about retail investment trends and the factors that influence capital investment decisions at Costco.
Q: With all of the vendors who [...]

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ROI: Using Assumptions and Estimates

June 9, 2011

Presenting ROI to executives and business decision-makers can challenge sales professionals as much as any part of the job.
Why?
Common reasons we see are sellers:

Mistakenly presenting Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) numbers – which don’t recognize the required investment; only cost reduction.
Neglecting to take the customer‘s hurdle rate into consideration.
Relying on an [...]

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Changing Government Markets: An insider shares how to capitalize

May 4, 2011

Please join us Tuesday, May 17, 2011, at 11:30 AM EDT | 8:30 AM PDT | 3:30 PM GMT for the next complimentary webinar in our Buyer’s Perspective Webinar series.  Register Today!
We welcome special guest Randall Yim , previous Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for US military installations where he managed a $30 billion annual capital [...]

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Lost in Translation: What are you selling, exactly?

April 21, 2011

Leading. Scalable. Unique. Streamlined. And of course, optimized. Ever use these terms to a) sound businesslike, b) impress customers or, c) explain your solution?
If so, the good news is you are not alone. Of course, the bad news is also that you’re not alone.
Business decision-makers hear this messaging too often. It’s ineffective. It won’t [...]

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3 Ways to Make Executive Sales Calls Less Intimidating

March 9, 2011

A sales leader at one of our clients recently expressed disappointment at all the excuses she hears on why her team doesn’t call higher in their accounts: “takes too much time,” “executives don’t want to talk to us,” “we just get referred down,” etc.
She then shared her suspicion of the real barrier: they’re intimidated.
Here’s [...]

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Tell Me How the Movie Ends

March 2, 2011

We’re not talking about the Oscars…
Helping customers conduct post-project ROI analyses represents an often overlooked, always useful, means to initiate opportunities.
While accounts commonly invest substantial time modeling ROI when evaluating investments, few conduct post implementation analyses to aid future decision-making.
Why skip this sensible step?
Most customers respond: We haven’t had time to look back; we’re focused [...]

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How to Ask an Executive to Sponsor a Deal

February 28, 2011

You finally succeeded securing a meeting with a key customer executive. Now what? If you’re going to invest your time, and you’re asking the customer to do the same, then both of you better get a result.
Recognize that every executive engagement must have a clear objective. It does no good to have a meeting [...]

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SAMA Invites Executive Conversation to Speak at Annual Conference

January 12, 2011

Executive Conversation has accepted an invitation by the Strategic Accounts Management Association (SAMA) to speak at their 2011 annual conference taking place May 16th-18th in Orlando and also to deliver workshops at SAMA University June 21st-23rd in New York.  “We’ve enjoyed a long and positive relationship with SAMA,” said Eric Beckman, Vice President of Marketing [...]

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