Top Tweets from #ASTD2013 International Conference & Exposition

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

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+

Video: Growing Your Most Important Accounts

Research revealed revenue from Strategic Accounts growing at a rate nearly twice that of average accounts.

How can you turn strategic account management into a growth engine for your business?

To find out we visited with Bernard Quancard, President and CEO of the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA), the organization that 50 years ago created a new profession: the Strategic Account Manager.

In this new video get answers to questions such as:

Customers can’t all be strategic, so which ones should be considered strategic?

What are the key elements for operating an effective SAM program?

What metrics should be used for managing a successful SAM program?

3 Ways to Make Executive Sales Calls Less Intimidating

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.

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

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.

2 Sales Filters to Qualify Sales Leads Found in Customer Annual Reports

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.

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 !

Secret Sales Insights Inside That Other Annual Report: Form 10-K

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.

The Four Key Sections	What to Look for in This Section
Item 1: Business Overview	Comments made on the future outlook of the business, good or bad, that offer potential points of solution alignment. Lines of businessspecifically identified as growth engines which naturally receive higher levels of funding. Cited suppliers and partners common to you and your customer who may be leveraged as an entry point and to build your credibility.
Item 7: Management Discussion & Analysis (commonly referred to as MD&A)	This section describes the results of operations, changes in financial condition, risk management strategies and other areas of the business in more detail than the Letter to Shareholders. Mine this section to identify sales opportunities and other areas where you may align the impact of your solution
Item 7a: Disclosures About Market Risks	This section discloses "what-if" scenarios involving potential changes in market conditions, technological trends, significant investments, etc., and the potential impact of those risks on future earnings, fair values of assets or cash flows. Mine this section to identify areas where you can help the account spur growth and reduce risk.
Item 8: Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	Within this supplemental financial data you may find schedules or disclosures that could enable you to more specifically build your business case, identify meaningful metrics and pinpoint your impact.

Find Out Just How Useful 10-Ks Can Be

Pick one of your publicly traded accounts (if you sell to privately held companies, pick one of their publicly traded competitors)
Download their most recent 10-K from their Investor Relations website or the EDGAR database
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. P rioritize your best selling opportunities with the information you've mined from your customer's annual report.