TAG Sales Strategy Training

TAG Sales Strategy Training

 

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door."

Ralph Waldo Emerson may be regarded as one of America's most influential authors, poets, and philosophers. However, judging by this saying (commonly attributed to him), he never truly experienced being an entrepreneur.

For most entrepreneurs it isn't enough to just come up with a superior product or service. You have to be able to identify, approach, and persuade people or organizations to buy your product as well. More products have failed not because of inherent flaws in their design or superiority to existing products but because of a failure of the entrepreneur to find customers. Perhaps a better quote for entrepreneurs is given by Henry Ford who said, "Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching for what it gets."

The goal of the Sales Strategy program, provided by the Center for Professional Selling at Kennesaw State University and the Technology Association of Georgia, is to teach you to scratch like a chicken in order to grow you business. The first two sessions of this program will help you hone your skills in prospecting, needs identification, persuasion, presentation, handing objections, and closing for the sale. The third session is designed to sharpen your skills in business negotiations to gain the most long-term benefit for your business. The fourth session helps in designing, selecting, training, and motivating your sales force. These sessions can be taken in any order. However, we recommend that they be taken in the order presented below for maximum benefit. This combination of skills will result in an increase in your business and success.

The Sessions
Session 1: Turning Leads into Gold
Session 2: Dealing with Turbulence and Closing the Sale
Session 3: Business Negotiations
Session 4: Building and Managing your Sales Force

The Instructors

Testimonials from Previous Training Participants

About the Center for Professional Selling and Kennesaw State University

(Registration links per session description, please contact Amanda Shook for group and package pricing.)

Session 1: Turning Leads into Gold
by Dr. Scott Widmier

August 1, 2008 - 7:30am-12:00pm

"Without prospects you are dead before you get started." Zig Ziglar.
This session is designed to help you identify prospects, get the appointment, gain attention and interest, and adapt your presentation to your prospect's personality and needs. Most salespeople or entrepreneurs are separated from their greatest client by only a few degrees of separation. Scott will show you how to find those greatest clients and to insure you manage them for success. Once you find the prospects you then have to work through both gatekeepers and barriers of disinterest in order to gain the prospect's attention and help them see the benefits. In addition, people's buying styles can greatly impact the effectiveness of the different information you present. Scott will help you understand how to work through barriers, gain attention and interest, and adapt your presentation to the buying style of your prospect. Topics we will cover include:

• Finding and qualifying leads
• Tools you can use to manage customers and time
• How to gain attention and interest in the first thirty seconds
• Asking questions to build knowledge and trust
• Identifying and adapting to your prospect's buying style
• The power of saying the right thing at the right time
• How to listen to the spoken (and unspoken) word in sales
• The power of features, advantages, and benefits

When: Friday, August 1, 2008, 7:30am-12:00pm
Where: The Hodges Room, 75 5th Street NW, 3rd Floor, Atlanta, Georgia 30308 (Map)
Cost: $395-Members, $445-Non-Members, $385-Premier Members. (Contact Amanda Shook at (404)920-2023) for group rates)
Registration: https://www.123signup.com/register?id=tdmgj

Session 2: Dealing with Turbulence and Closing the Sale
by Dr. Terry Loe

September 5, 2008 - 7:30am-12:00pm

Don't ask don't sell
This session is designed to help you in dealing with customer indifference, objection, concerns and to ultimately be able to ask for the sale. It is often too easy for a salesperson completely familiar with their product to discount or gloss over a customer's concern. However, this may create feelings of distrust in your customer. Terry will show you how to welcome objections as a sign of interest and build trust when answering. Asking for the sale (closing) is the most important step but is also the most often skipped step of the sales process. Many salespeople don't want to come across as "pushy" or "obnoxious" and believe the customer will buy "on their own time." These are just excuses for both not knowing how to ask and fear of what the answer might be. Terry will show you both how to ask and the joy in asking for the sale. The topics that will be covered include:

• Basic causes of concern
• Successful objection handling methodology to maintain trust
• Seeing through the smokescreen to the real concern
• Responding and confirming
• Identifying when to stop presenting and start closing
• Always be closing, the power of the trial close
• Asking for the right amount at the right time - maintaining margins
• Power closing techniques
• Dealing with yes and dealing with no

When: Friday, September 5, 2008, 7:30am-12:00pm
Where: The Hodges Room, 75 5th Street NW, 3rd Floor, Atlanta, Georgia 30308 (Map)
Cost: $395-Members, $445-Non-Members, $385-Premier Members. (Contact Amanda Shook at (404)920-2023) for group rates)
Registration: https://www.123signup.com/event?id=tdmfc

Session 3: Business Negotiations
by Dr. Scott Widmier

October 3, 2008 - 7:30am-12:00pm

The Power of BATNA
Ever get shaky and nervous when it gets time to negotiate terms and price? Ever feel like this is where you turn clients into antagonists and watch a great relationship spiral into competition? This session is designed to help you to understand the negotiation process and to use this process for outcomes which benefit both you and your clients or suppliers. Most negotiations tread down the path of ‘win-lose' where one of the two parties come out ahead. This focus looks at dividing the pie into unequal slices with the winner getting the bigger slice. The most successful business negotiations, on the other hand, are done from the harder perspective of ‘win-win' where they seek to grow the pie so that each party's needs are met. Scott will show you how to negotiate win-win agreements while avoiding being taken advantage of. Topics that will be covered include:

• Building the negotiation team
• Negotiations preparation - measure twice negotiate once!
• Doing the research
• Choosing the right time and place
• The power of BATNA
• Negotiation styles - what is yours?
• Opening negotiations
• Managing the flow
• Closing negotiations
• Re-negotiations
• Maintaining negotiated relationships

When: Friday, October 3, 2008, 7:30am-12:00pm
Where: The Hodges Room, 75 5th Street NW, 3rd Floor, Atlanta, Georgia 30308 (Map)
Cost: $395-Members, $445-Non-Members, $385-Premier Members. (Contact Amanda Shook at (404)920-2023) for group rates)
Registration: https://www.123signup.com/event?id=tdmqd

Session 4: Building and Managing your Sales Force
by Dr. Gary Selden

November 7, 2008 - 7:30am-12:00pm

"The difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says, 'Go!' -a leader says, 'Let's go!'." E.M. Kelley
This session is designed to give you the knowledge you need to design a sales force, manage territories, and select, train, and motivate salespeople. The skills needed to run a sales force are very different than those needed to be successful in sales or business negotiations. One of the most important aspects of managing a sales force is leadership. Gary will show you how to gain these leadership skills as you design, select, train, and motivate your businesses sales force. The topics covered include:

• Designing the ideal sales force
• Own or outsource
• Sales force size
• Territory design
• Salesperson selection
• To train or not to train
• Sales force motivation
• Compensation, bonuses, awards
• Leadership
• Dealing with the good, bad, and the ugly

When: Friday, November 7, 2008, 7:30am-12:00pm
Where: The Hodges Room, 75 5th Street NW, 3rd Floor, Atlanta, Georgia 30308 (Map)
Cost: $395-Members, $445-Non-Members, $385-Premier Members. (Contact Amanda Shook at (404)920-2023) for group rates)
Registration: https://www.123signup.com/event?id=tdmgr

Instructors:

Dr. Scott Widmier, PhD

Scott Widmier, PhD, researches and trains in the area of selling, sales management, business negotiations, and international sales strategy. He has over twenty research publications in top academic and practitioner journals. He has spent over 15 years teaching undergraduates, graduates, and executives including custom training courses for Fortune 500 companies. In total, he has taught over 3,000 people the art of sales, sales management, and business negotiations.
Dr. Widmier gained sales experience in the financial industry earning his series 7 and series 63 licenses before returning to university in order to learn and improve the sales profession. After earning his Doctorate in business at Arizona State University he accepted a position at the University of Akron where he became associate director for the Fisher Institute for Professional Selling. He then moved to Kennesaw State University where he is the Associate Director for the Center for Professional Selling at Kennesaw State University in charge of consulting services, technology, facilities expansion and directs the Center's efforts in international studies abroad.

Dr. Terry Loe, PhD

Terry Loe, PhD, is the director of Kennesaw State University's internationally renowned Center for Professional Selling, as well as, the Founder and Director of the National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC). The NCSC brings together every spring, over 300 students, faculty and corporate executives to participate in this sales role-play competition to discover the best sales students from over 50 universities from around the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The NCSC has been recognized as the top competition of its kind by leading business publications.
Dr. Loe's teaching and research specialty is in the area of ethics and sales leadership. He has over 30 research publications in some of the top academic and practitioner sales journals and has been recognized by several sales and marketing associations and journals for his distinguished contributions in the area of sales research. He has taught international marketing and marketing courses in France and England. Dr. Loe has developed advanced selling courses at two different universities, co-developed a business ethics course and has been recognized by several student groups for outstanding teaching in marketing. Dr. Loe has also been recognized by the American Marketing Association for his contribution to the sales discipline and sales education for his development of the National Collegiate Sales Competition.

Dr. Gary Selden, EdD

Dr. Selden is Associate Professor of Marketing and Professional Sales at the Coles College of Business¸ Kennesaw State University. His teaching responsibilities lie with the Human Side of Enterprises. This includes Marketing¸ Sales¸ Organizational Learning¸ Creativity and Innovation, and Team Development. He is Assistant Director of the Center for Professional Selling and Co-Director of the Center for Business Innovation and Creativity. He is also a partner in a consulting firm that provides advice and training around being more creative and innovative regarding business processes.
Selden came to Kennesaw State after 18 years of marketing and sales experience, mostly with Fortune 500 companies in the dental industry. He has worked for and consulted with many companies including Syntex Pharmaceuticals, Yoshida x-ray, Royal Manufacturing, Patterson Dental Supply, Shaw Industries, Post Properties, DuPont, Allied Chemical, Mohawk Flooring, Worldspan, Kroger and others.
Dr. Selden teaches and researches in the field of innovation and creativity and their impact on organizational performance. In addition, he researches the impact of executive programs on knowledge performance and financial performance in organizations. Dr. Selden has a BA in Mathematics from Ithaca College, a Masters in Business Administration from Kennesaw State University, and a Doctor of Education from The University of Georgia in Human Resource Development and Adult Education.

Testimonials from Previous Training Participants:

• They make learning fun.
• Great lectures on topics towards my career ladder
• Great presenter and obviously very knowledgeable of his field both historically and with current events. Presents great, useful information.
• These classes are always very well structured and the information is very valuable. I enjoy how the trainer uses real world examples and gets us to look behind the fluff and really determine how our sales strategy plays out.

About the Center for Professional Selling:

"The Center for Professional Selling at Kennesaw State University combines theory and practice in a hands-on way that prepares students for the real world of sales. The graduates of the Center's program have a competitive edge that will last a lifetime." -Harry Maziar, Retire President and CEO of Zep Manufacturing Company

The Coles College of Business Center for Professional Selling (CPS) is an non-profit division of Kennesaw State University within the Coles College of Business. The mission of the Center for Professional Selling is:
To positively impact and enhance the practice and professionalism of selling and sales management by:

• Educating and preparing future sales professionals
• Forging university/business community partnerships to strengthen the skills of salespeople and sales executives
• Engaging in and disseminating research aligned with selling and sales management topics

The stakeholders of the Center for Professional Selling include students with a desire to enter the sales profession and businesses in Georgia and throughout the United States that have a need to acquire qualified candidates for positions on their sales force and have the need to outsource fundamental sales skills training for their current sales force. Stakeholders also include organizations and entities that need answers to questions regarding improvement of sales related strategies, concepts and activities.

Documented Success of the Center for Professional Selling:

• Board of Regent's Program Recognition:
• Awarded Georgia Board of Regents "Teaching Excellence Award" in 2007 for best academic program in the state of Georgia.
• Student Placement
• 100% placement rate for undergraduate Sales Majors coming out of the program.
• National Collegiate Sales Competition
• Host of the largest sales competition in the world, the National Collegiate Sales Competition, with 106 graduate and undergraduate participants from 56 universities worldwide.
• Certification by AACSB and SMT:
• The Professional Selling program is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB), the leading accrediting organization in the U.S. and is certified by the Professional Society for Sales & Marketing Training.
• Advancement of the Field of Sales:
• One of nine founding members of the University Sales Center Alliance whose mission is to advance the sales profession through academic leadership, education, research, and outreach.

About Kennesaw State University

Not many people local to Atlanta realize it, but that "little community college up north" has grown into a nationally recognized academic powerhouse:

• U.S. News & World Report has ranked Kennesaw State University's "First-Year Experience" as a "Program to Look For" in its "America's Best Colleges 2005" edition spotlighting excellence in higher education.
• The 2008 graduating class of the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University is the largest business class of any university in the State of Georgia.
• KSU is now the second largest university in the State of Georgia surpassing Georgia Tech in 2008.
• KSU is projected to be the largest university in the state of Georgia in 2012.
• Coles College of Business has now added a Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) program becoming one of only four universities in the state to offer this advanced of a degree in business.