Of the 9,000 Attendees at ASTD International Conference & Exposition this week a lot of great tweets were flooding the #ASTD2013 news feed on Twitter.  Here is our curated list of the best tweets from #ASTD2013.

Day 1

• #astd2013 what r u best at? What do people come to u for? This is your personal brand statement

• Look at the world around you, not just your corporate environment, when putting a learning strategy together #astd2013

• Wow. Can't stop thinking about @SirKenRobinson - "If ordinary people can find their element, extraordinary things can happen." #astd2013

• Forty years of research says yes, games are effective learning tools. People learn more from games than other types of training. #astd2013

• "Sales people have not been taught how to solve problems. They've been taught to sell product. That's a problem." Tim Ohai #ASTD2013

• #ASTD2013 - The first driver of sales team performance is the quality of their manager, coach well and drive 19% more sales

• Best takeaway from @SirKenRobinson's talk - do what you are passionate about and success will follow. #astd2013

• The bilingual brain reflects a person ability for flexible thinking!

Day 2

• CEOs measure talent management by having the right people in the right place at the right time. #ASTD2013

• 3 Core pillars are Performance Improvement, Instructional Design & Training Delivery. #astd2013

• Explaining need can get people on your side. Win-Win  negotiation #TU318#ASTD2013#appliedImprov

• Learning can move the needle for business agility. via @samuelherring#IL_Blended#ASTD2013

• Don't choose a solution and then decide if it is worth it ... Figure out the value you need and scale the solution to it #astd2013

• If you don't have anything else to learn, lie down and let them put the dirt on you! ~Ken Blanchard #ASTD2013

• People find ways to learn regardless of failure when doing something their passionate about. :-) #ASTD2013

• Feedback is the breakfast for champions #astd2013@kenblanchard

• You can guide people to insight. You have to get someone to look at a problem in a different way - then get out of the way. #TU207

• #ASTD2013#TU306 use social media before class -ask participants to find & post an article or website that supports content that will be taught
  
  
• We learn better when our brain cells are switched on and off, or with short periods of learning and breaks in between. #astd2013

• Mike from Facebook: "People end up creating the job they hate" if you are not careful about saying 'no' to your weaknesses. #astd2013

Day 3

• 2 kinds of classroom instructors: Those who tell people to put away their devices, & those who say, “Here’s our hashtag." #M209 #ASTD2013

• "If you want your people to do tough things, you need your leaders to be at the front of the charge" robert osmond@astd #ASTD2013

• It's not what is taught, but what is caught by the learner! #ASTD2013

• Golden rule for social media - don't put it online if you don't want your boss or mother to see it. #astd2013 @piedmontastd

•  “The moment you stretch your necks (or the back of your legs) you start stimulating your #brain.” Nice! #ASTD2013

• What can I do with that? (WCIDWT) instead of What's in it for me? (WIIFM) @usablelearning #astd2013

• People + trust + effective communication = opportunity #w307

• If youre implementing ROI for the first time, identify managers who will support you #astd2013

• One of many key takeaways. Stop skating to where the puck is instead anticipate where the puck will be AND get there. #astd2013

We had a great time at ASTD if you'd like to connect with Executive Conversation on Twitter follow @buyertalk or connect on  Facebook and Google+

Dedicated HR professionals are committed to helping employees grow and develop professionally.  It’s an important role that’s necessary to make a company run efficiently.  Yet a recent post on CFO.com suggests that helping the company optimize its business results is not of especially strong interest in the HR profession.  According to 2013 State of Talent Manger Report more than 40% of respondents in HR saw their role as something they did not do to help their company maximize profit.   Great HR professionals understand that unless the organization runs effectively – and profitably – talent management budgets will shrink.  The goal must be that they are equally important, and that the right employee development plans improve the company’s overall performance with a solid ROI. The two “reasons” are symbiotic, and strategically aligned in top performing companies

 “I want to help people grow and develop” was the #1 answer for the primary reason respondents where in the HR field, but #2 was “I want to help my company maximize its profitability.”  How can you achieve both goals? Executive Conversation’s build It tool structures a business case which directly links the value of development with performance within your organization. Hit both targets by improving the sales development process within your company and achieving performance at the same time.

Strategic Account Management Association Pan-European Conference
Date:          12-March, 2013 | 16:00-17:00
Location:    Berlin, Germany
Title:           Winning Access to CxOs

Strategic Account Management Association Annual Conference
Dates:         May 22, 2013 | 12:00-1:00 and May 23, 2013 | 10:30-11:30
Location:    Hollywood, Florida
Title:           Using Account Metrics to Close Business

In partnership with the Strategic Accounts Management Association (SAMA), we offer publicly available 2-day workshops throughout the year to experience our work first hand.  View overview video

• May 20-22, 2013 : SAMA Annual Conference | Hollywood Florida
• September 9-10, 2013 : SAMA University | San Francisco
• September 23-24, 2013 : SAMA Academy | Paris
• October 23-24, 2013 : SAMA University | Chicago

Next Event:  May 9, 2013 at 11:30am EDT | 8:30am PDT | 16:30 BST | 17:30 CEST

How Executives Compare Competing Sellers

You know that customers must choose:  It's either you or a competitor.

You also know that appreciating who and what you’re competing against from the customer’s perspective enables you to have business conversations that matter.  

Executives choose business partners for reasons well beyond product and price.   Understanding how they assess your company relative to competitors can directly strengthen your business relevance.  

In this rapid-paced, complimentary webinar you’ll learn through an executive’s eyes the way customers internally evaluate competing sellers.  Key takeaways include seeing how:

• New consumption models are changing decision-making preferences
• Competitive relationships and co-opetition can work in your favor
• Comparative financial data can be leveraged without disparaging your competition
• Threats and opportunities you may be unaware of factor into decisions

Follow this event on Twitter #CompetingSellers

A client sales leader recently expressed frustration at the excuses she hears why her team doesn’t call higher: “takes too much time,” “executives don’t want to talk to us,” “we get referred down.”

She then shared her real suspicion:  They’re intimidated.  They’re not sure what message to deliver.  They lack confidence having the right conversation with the right person.

The necessity for engaging higher within accounts has never been greater.  Approval for even modest investments now often rests at executive levels, and deals are much more likely to stall - or worse - when you’re unable to confidently engage customer executives.

Preparations Breeds Confidence

Preparation is the best way to build confidence for any sales call. When selling to executives, remember, it’s all about them, their business and their business performance. 

Here are 3 ways for applying business acumen to help you feel as confident having business conversations with CXOs as any other decision-maker:

1.  Know the executive’s prioritized business initiatives.
Initiate executive conversations around the customer’s stated business initiatives.  This demonstrates you’ve taken the time to understand their business.  Your objective is to validate that the initiatives you’ve identified are priorities relevant to the target executive’s direct area of responsibility.

Asking executives to ‘tell you about their initiatives’ is the fastest way to end the conversation.  Executives aren’t interested in being interviewed.  Prepare using Management Presentations, Earning Calls and other available resources to expedite gaining customer insights. 

2.  Participate in quantifying the value of your solutions.
Too many salespeople mistakenly believe that computing a project’s projected ROI is something the customer alone must own. This type of hands-off  ‘let the customer compute ROI’ is a flawed approach.

You’ve sold your solutions many more times than the executive has bought it, leverage that experience.  Prepare by getting comfortable talking about the positive financial impact you can deliver. That’s what executives want to know.

3.  Role play your executive conversation
If you’re not comfortable with role playing, get over it. It’s the best way to simulate the scenarios that can derail any well-rehearsed executive conversation and foresee how to effectively respond when the dialogue digresses.

When you role play to prepare for executive engagements, you develop the ability to deviate from your plan, yet still have a successful business conversation.

Business acumen and financial acumen are essential skills for today’s sellers.  When you understand what success looks like from your customer’s perspective, deals flow that much easier.  

All of our sales training is delivered by our seasoned team of Consulting Executives, experienced executives with careers making investment decisions.  Contact us to learn more about how their shared insight into the mindset of the executive suite can give your team the confidence and credibility to speak business.

For additional guidance, view our webinar: Reaching Hard to Reach Executives.

Let us know what you think.

As a Learning and Development leader, you’re expected to assess projected return on sales training before you invest in program.  Are you struggling to build your case?

Let’s start with the basics:  A $1,200 training program costs 50% more than an $800 program, right?

You may be surprised how rarely this is the case.  Don’t worry we will explain why.

This post shares a model for measuring your return on sales training.  Organizations compute ROI many ways, however most analyses share the common formula:  ROI = Cumulative Returns ÷ Cost to Implement

The Value Equation

When recently presenting an Eye for Impact report, this is Executive Conversation’s training ROI measure that is provided to clients, it triggered an eye opening conversation relevant to anyone involved with training, sales, and L&D. 

Let’s paraphrase a client.  This client is responsible for the Learning and Development in a successful software company.  She organizes dozens of programs for multiple teams.  Their goal is to build longer term relationships with their customers and to close deals more quickly.  This person needs training for their direct sales team and has a strict budget to manage. In L&D you must be able to articulate and measure the Return on training before you can make the investment…

• The client agreed that training investments are undertaken to deliver financial impact. 
• The client was surprised to see that the results delivered by a training program are the single largest determinant of its ROI. 
• The client shared that their training decisions pivot primarily on cost per person without considering potential returns. 

This last bullet point really stands out on why you can make better choices in your L&D investments by properly measuring your return on training.  Let’s continue to use sales training as an example to illustrate how the returns generated from training play such a dominant role to measure ROI.  Return from sales training can occur five ways:

Cumulative Returns

1. Making a sale that would not have been realized without the training
2. Closing a sale more quickly, thereby decreasing cost of sales
3. Increasing the size of a sale, thereby increasing revenues
4. Increasing margin on a sale, thereby increasing profitability
5. Deciding a better business decision is to walk away from a sale

Of course, some of the foregoing are easily quantified (improving margins), while others are almost impossible (walking away from a sale).  Our L&D client from the software company can map out that training will indeed help her team to build longer term relationships and close sales more quickly with their customers, all while making better business decisions to increase revenue.

The key takeaways to remember are to:

• identify what returns are relevant to your learning initiative
• implement a means to track those returns before training begins

Cost to Implement

As you may suspect, measuring costs is more straightforward than returns. 

What may be surprising, however, is that the cost per participant not only makes up a minor part of the total training cost; it also represents an insignificant part of the total return on training equation.

This is best explained with a scenario:

People Cost Assumptions

• Annual cost of a sales professional:  $250,000
  (Fully loaded, includes compensation, benefits & support)
   
• Number of work days in a year:  225
  (Approximately $1,100 per day)
   
• Daily instructor cost (day rate + T&E):  $3,500
• Number of participants in workshop:  20

Applying these assumptions results in over $5,000 of costs per person before the actual cost per participant:

• 2-days spent in training           2,200
• 1 day of travel time                  1,100
• Est. travel and lodging             1,600
• Pro-rata instructor cost            350
  Total                             $5,250*

* It’s easy to identify the costs shown, should this number appear high, calculate reasonable numbers for your organization. 

The result?

• When the full cost of training is recognized, this example $1,200 workshop’s total cost is $6,450 (5,250+1,200), and the $800 workshop ends up costing $6,050 (5,250+800). 
• The real cost difference between these $1,200 and $800 workshops turns out to be 6.6%, not 50%.

Conclusions

• The returns generated from training greatly outweigh the cost per participant in capturing return on training.
• Learning and Development professionals, as well as Sales Leaders, should expect vendor value propositions that enable them to make training decisions incorporating anticipated returns.

To help you build the case for your next learning initiative, and align it with your leadership’s business priorities, take advantage of our complimentary online Build-it tool.

What’s been your experience measuring return on training?

If you would like to receive ideas, selling strategies and special event invitations right in your inbox. Gain an edge on your competition, join the conversation now!

SEATTLE, WA –  March 14, 2013.  Executive Conversation, a global provider of business and financial acumen sales training, today announced it has been named to the Training Industry, Inc. 2013 Top Sales Training Companies list for the second consecutive year.

“This year’s applicants represent a competitive group of industry players,” said Ken Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, TrainingIndustry.com. “We see Executive Conversation’s focus on developing business skills as critical for building a strong sales force in what remains a very competitive economic landscape.”

Selection of this year's Top 20 Sales Training Companies was based on the following criteria:

• Industry recognition and impact on the sales training industry
• Innovation in the sales training market
• Company size and growth potential
• Breadth of service offering
• Strength of clients served
• Geographic reach

“We’re honored to again receive this level of industry recognition,” said Suzanne Sheppard, CEO of Executive Conversation.  “This further fuels our commitment to helping clients grow amid the challenges posed by elevated buyer expectations and changing market conditions."

Executive Conversation is also the first and only sales training company to be awarded Authorized Provider accreditation by International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). A universal model for learning process excellence, adherence to the ANSI/IACET 1-2007 Standard demonstrates a provider’s adherence to all aspects of program development spanning design, development, administration and evaluation of its programs.

“The 2013 Top 20 Sales Training Companies focus not only on the quality of training they provide, but also on the impact their programs have on the industry and the companies they support,” said Doug Harward, Chief Executive Officer, TrainingIndustry.com.

View the 2013 Top 20 Sales Training Companies

About Executive Conversation
Executive Conversation, Inc. works with sales organizations to build business acumen for effectively engaging and selling to business decision-makers.  

Fueled by a belief that every employee who interfaces with customers can drive top-line growth, the company’s role-specific curriculum has been delivered in over 60 countries and in seven languages.  Many of the world’s most respected organizations use the company’s integrated framework of online and onsite training to build learning plans customized to their business objectives. 

Executive Conversation is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with a regional headquarters in London.  For more information, visit www.conversation.com,  join Executive Conversation’s popular Linkedin group or follow @BuyerTalk on Twitter.

Contact
Eric Beckman
Executive Conversation, Inc.
Executive Vice President of Marketing and Strategy
ericb@conversation.com  
206.219.1447

After following the steps for mining your account’s Annual Report to Shareholders and Form 10-K annual report to identify new sales opportunities, you may find yourself with customer insight overload.

Here are two filters you can employ for prioritizing your best opportunities for understanding your customer’s business and qualifying your sales leads:

1. Rank Your Customer’s Business Initiatives

Recognize that not all initiatives are created equally.  Some directly align with your solutions, others may be a reach.  Some will be of high importance to your target contact; others will fall outside their responsibility.

 Use these considerations for ranking initiatives:

• Is it linked to revenue growth? Aligning with initiatives designed to drive revenue should always rank highly.

  ---

• Is it required for regulatory compliance? Compliance isn’t optional, and as it must be done by a specific date such initiatives can offer accelerated sales cycles.

  ---

• Does it directly link to executive incentive compensation? Initiatives tied to bonuses or strategic financial measures not only rank highly for customer executives, they should for you as well.

  ---

• What percent of the solution are you? Assess the relative degree your solution can impact the initiative vs. your dependence on partners, and then rank accordingly.

  ---

• How easily can it be measured? If you’re struggling to quantify the financial impact your solution would deliver, consider prioritizing other initiatives.

2. Corroborate the Information You Find

When you find an issue being discussed in multiple documents, you’ve likely identified a valid Business Initiative and sales insight.

For example, if you read that increasing operating margins is a key corporate objective in the annual report and then see the same statement made in a recent Management Presentation, you know it’s a high priority initiative.

What other filters have you found useful for prioritizing opportunities?

If you would like to receive ideas, selling strategies and special event invitations right in your inbox. Gain an edge on your competition, join the conversation now!

Prestigious accreditation recognizes learning process excellence

SEATTLE, WA –  March 1, 2013.  Executive Conversation, a global provider of business and financial acumen sales training, today announced that the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) has awarded the company Authorized Provider accreditation.

IACET Authorized Providers are the only organizations approved to offer IACET Continuing Education Units (CEUs). The accreditation period extends for five years and includes all online and onsite programs delivered by Executive Conversation during that period.

"Achieving the standards required to become an Authorized Provider of IACET Continuing Education Units testifies to the professionalism of Executive Conversation as a company, and to the quality of our sales training solutions," said Suzanne Sheppard, CEO of Executive Conversation.

In becoming the first and only sales training company to earn Authorized Provider accreditation, Executive Conversation completed a rigorous application process, including an onsite visit by an IACET Commissioner.  A universal model for learning process excellence, adherence to the ANSI/IACET 1-2007 Standard demonstrates a provider’s adherence to all aspects of program development spanning design, development, administration and evaluation of its programs.

Added Sheppard, “This new partnership with IACET demonstrates our commitment to the highest standards throughout our curriculum, we’re very pleased to join the elite group of IACET accredited organizations.”

“We are pleased to welcome Executive Conversation as our newest Authorized Provider organization,” stated Michael Todd Shinholster, President, IACET. “They join a distinguished group of organizations around the globe that have had their programs vetted by third-party experts to ensure the highest possible standards are met.”

About IACET
The International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) is a non-profit association dedicated to quality continuing education and training programs. IACET is the only standard-setting organization approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for continuing education and training. The ANSI/IACET Standard is the core of thousands of educational programs worldwide.  For more information, please visit www.iacet.org or call 703-506-3275.

About Executive Conversation
Executive Conversation, Inc. works with sales organizations to build business acumen for effectively engaging and selling to business decision-makers.  

Fueled by a belief that every employee who interfaces with customers can drive top-line growth, the company’s role-specific curriculum has been delivered in over 60 countries and in seven languages.  Many of the world’s most respected organizations use the company’s integrated framework of online and onsite training to build learning plans customized to their business objectives. 

Executive Conversation is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with a regional headquarters in London.  For more information, visit www.conversation.com,  join Executive Conversation’s popular Linkedin group or follow @BuyerTalk on Twitter.

Contact
Eric Beckman Executive Conversation, Inc.
Executive Vice President of Marketing and Strategy
ericb@conversation.com 
206.219.1447

Lengthy and not as widely distributed as the Annual Report to Shareholders covered in Part I of this series, Form 10-Ks hide sales insights your competitors rarely learn about.  The trick is to know which specific sections to mine.

By reading heraccount’s 10-K, one sales professional we were working with discovered that they had disclosed considerable supply chain disruption risk.  Engaging the account by directly linking her value to this known business issue enabled her to quickly initiate an unexpected new opportunity.

Here’s a summary of 10-Ks and how you can quickly navigate to the four sections most relevant to sales professionals.

What is a Form 10-K?

It’s an annual report that publicly-traded companies on U.S. stock exchanges are required to file with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) each year.  It generally must be filed within 90 days of a company’s fiscal year-end.

Is the 10-K the same as the Annual Report?

No, what is commonly referred to as the ‘annual report’ is a company’s marketing-centric Annual Report to Shareholders. While a 10-K is also an annual report, its primary audience is the SEC.  This separate document contains more detailed financial information and a much more comprehensive description of your customer’s business and related risks, AKA sales opportunities.

What information can be found in the 10-K?

The 10-K includes information about your customer’s history, markets, organizational structure, financials and subsidiaries.  Because the 10-K also features in-depth information about the company’s products, market segments, competitors and legal proceedings, it serves as a great source for prioritizing opportunities.

Where can 10-K forms be found?

The Investor Relations section of your company’s Web site, or the SEC’s EDGAR database. EDGAR is short for the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system that automates the collection of forms submitted to the SEC.

Find Out Just How Useful 10-Ks Can Be

1. Pick one of your publicly traded accounts (if you sell to privately held companies, pick one of their publicly traded competitors)
2. Download their most recent 10-K from their Investor Relations website or the EDGAR database
3. Review the 4 sections specified above to identify new opportunities for engaging your account

Check back later and let us know what you found to be the most useful, surprising or lucrative information in a Form 10-K.  If your feeling a slight customer insight overload we have a solution for you.  Prioritize your best selling opportunities  with the information you've mined from your customer's annual report.

If you would like to receive ideas, selling strategies and special event invitations right in your inbox. Gain an edge on your competition, join the conversation now!

Written in everyday language, your customer’s Annual Report to Shareholders offers a wealth of easily understood information to learn about your customer’s business and inform your sales strategy.

Use these shortcuts to capture the information most relevant for sellers.  In the upcoming Part II of this series, we’ll share a similar exercise using your customer’s other annual report, Form 10-K.

1. Start with the Letter to Shareholders

The Letter to Shareholders is your best source of information about your customer’s business.

Although published only once a year, the external factors, business initiatives, and financial metrics it cits generally have long-term applicability.  Check your customer’s Investor Relations website to ensure you have the most current version and note when the next Annual Report will be available.

Look for the following:

• External factors: What are some of the market factors outside of your customer’s control that are impacting all of the companies in their industry?   Examples are everywhere: regulatory requirements, customer trends, interest rates, fuel prices, exchange rates, etc. 

Action >  Reference external factors early in customer conversations to demonstrate you understand their business and to establish your credibility

• Business Initiatives: What strategic initiatives has the customer identified as essential to their growth plans?

Action >  Link your value proposition to achieving your customer’s stated business initiatives.

• Forward-looking statements: What insights can be gained into the company’s future plans?

Action >  Position your business case to foster a long-term customer relationship.

• Business metrics: What financial metrics, ratios or prior-year successes are highlighted?

Action >  Quantify the value of what you’re selling using these metrics.

• Significant trends: Are any market, product or divisional trends discussed that align with your solutions?

Action >  Preempt your competitors by being the first to engage with new ideas                                            

2. Next, Review the Financial Statements

• Income Statement:
• What was the company’s revenue trend over the past three years?
• Did any significant product or service mix changes occur?
• Did a significant percent of revenue change occur by region or business unit?
• What was the company’s gross margin trend over the past three years? Did any significant year-over-year percentage changes occur by region, business unit or product segment?  
• What was the company’s profitability trend over the past three year

Insights >  Any of the above that show a downward trend represent a selling opportunity.

• Assess the percent of revenue for each major expense category: R&D, sales and marketing, general and administrative, and any others that apply

Insights >  Line items showing an upward trend also represent a selling opportunity.

• Balance Sheet:
  • Over the last year, did the company’s total assets grow or shrink?
  • Did any significant asset categories (accounts receivable, inventory, etc.) record a notable change in balance?

Insights >  Any asset category (other than cash) that shows a growth trend represents a selling opportunity because decreasing non-cash assets improves cash flow,  making cash available for other investment.

Wherever you can correlate asset category trends to income statement trends there’s a selling opportunity.

3. Scan Other Parts of the Annual Report

• Management Discussion & Analysis (MD&A):
  Whether you’re already selling to a Strategic Business Unit, or looking to identify a SBU as a point of entry, the MD&A describes high growth areas.

Look for the following:

• The results of operations
• Changes in financial condition
• Risk management strategies

Insights >  High growth areas represent a selling opportunity.

• Notes to Financial Statements: 
  These notes are integral to the financial statements.  In addition to harboring hidden opportunities, they’re also useful for explaining financial trends.

Insights >  References to relationships, contingencies or other factors provide effective data points for strengthening your business case and aligning your solution’s value.

20 Minutes Well Invested

Regularly reviewing your customer’s Annual Report to Shareholders is not overwhelming or impractical to incorporate into your sales process.  In fact, it can be done in as little as 20 minutes per year.

Recognizing that most sales professionals make poor use of this rich resource, using insights gained from Annual Reports can place you on a platform far above your competitors. 

What information have you used from an Annual Report in your sales campaigns?  What questions do you have on what you read? Feeling a slight customer insight overload?  Let us know, we’re here to help.

If you'd like to receive ideas, selling strategies and special event invitations right in your inbox. Gain an edge on your competition, join the conversation now!