Strategic Account Planning Simplified!

Strategic Account Snapshot is a one-day, fast-paced interactive workshop that represents the next generation in account planning for enterprise sales organizations. It focuses on helping professional salespeople and account teams develop an Account Plan Snapshot for their strategic or major accounts.

Every element of this planning process has passed the No Wasted Motion test.

The workshop is supported by a robust Strategic Account Snapshot Software Tool that is distributed to account team leaders in advance of the workshop so that selected elements of the account plan can be completed before the account team arrives at the workshop.

Who Should Attend

Professional salespeople, account teams – both core and extended members – and relationship managers who need to effectively leverage the creation of an account plan for their strategic account.

What You Will Learn

In just one intensive day, sales teams will have accomplished the following…

• Developed and revised an Account Plan Snapshot for one of their strategic accounts
• Identified and verified new revenue growth opportunities – comprised of both known (existing) opportunities and unqualified new opportunities
• Identified influential client executives within the strategic account, who have played key roles in previous major buying decisions
• Built a Relationship Map that aligns key client executives with members of the core and extended team (as well as business partners)
• Created a realistic action plan for the next 60-90 days that focuses on the top sales opportunities within the account

Take a Closer Look at the Strategic Account Snapshot workshop!

Download our one-page Sales Flyer for a high-level overview of the Strategic Account Snapshot workshop.

Or take an in-depth look at the workshop details, including workshop objectives, module content and more information about the Software Tool, as well as other support materials that accompany the workshop, with our Design Document.

Workshop Bonus: Software Tool and Resource Guide

The workshop content is supported by the Software Tool, created and developed using Visual Basic within Excel. The Tool is extremely visual, easy to use and dramatically depicts various components of an account plan. Workshop participants come to the workshop having used a portion of the Tool for their pre-work assignment. Participants receive full access to the Tool with a password that is distributed in the workshop.

The Resource Guide is also made available to participants in advance of the workshop. The Guide is an extensive compendium of Internet sites and tools for client research that salespeople can use to do a more effective job in researching their clients.

To learn more about how this exciting new workshop and the accompanying tools can benefit you and your sales organization, call (404) 256-1801 in the United States or send an email to steveb@sellxl.com.

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According to an online study from Forbes.com and Gartner, the Internet continues to be the most influential and important source of business information for C-Level executives around the world, at 67%. This number has increased 37% since 2004. At the same time, C-Level executives, citing newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal as their main source of business information, has decreased 36% since 2004.

This information was originally cited by The Center for Media Research.

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Here are some quotes from recent workshop attendees:

• I now realize that I may be leaving opportunities on the table by staying at the Operational Level (because I didn’t want to jeopardize lower-level relationships). Through this training I have found new ways to access senior executives in a respectful way while gaining credibility along the way.
  
  - Attendee of a SellXL Workshop – March 2008
  
  
• I will now use the SOS Tool for all opportunities. I think it is very robust, straightforward and easy to use. It sparks terrific thinking. I especially like the Influence Map!
  
  - Attendee of an SOS Workshop – February 2008
  
  
• The content and design of the SellXL materials was perfect and they will be used extensively as we now implement the process in our field sales organization. The workshop delivery was flawless and it clearly surpassed my expectations in many ways including content, applicability and engagement.
  
  - From a sales executive in a SellXL workshop – March 2008
  
  
• This workshop provided great tools that are intuitive and extremely easy to populate and understand. I will be even more thorough in strategizing my top sales opportunities. I will also be even better prepared prior to client meetings.
  
  - Attendee of an SOS Workshop – January 2008
  
  
• I’ll now perform more research before each key executive call; I’ll also know and learn more about the people and the organizations we do business with and hold my team more accountable on preparation.
  
  - From a sales manager in a SellXL Workshop – March 2008
  
  
• The SOS process will enable me to connect better to the field’s strategy ahead of its execution. I will request/demand to see the SOS Plan prior to my engagement or request for resources.
  
  - From a sales manager in an SOS Workshop – March 2008
  
  
• I will be using the SOS Snapshot Tool to assess all opportunities going forward. These tools will be great for keeping all facts out on the table and at the front of my mind.
  
  - Attendee of an SOS Workshop – January 2008
  
  
• This workshop will be very helpful in expanding my reach within organizations and capitalizing on opportunities. It was very well done; very organized; and contained powerful information – so much that I’d like even more time for it to be presented!
  
  - Attendee of a SellXL Workshop – March 2008

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Book Review

The 4-Hour Workweek
By: Timothy Ferriss

(Note: The 4-Hour Workweek is near the top of the Best Selling Business Books – according to the June 1, 2008 New York Times List of Top Selling Business Books. Therefore, I decided to reprise the review of that book that I published last year).

If you've read book reviews in my Newsletter in the past, you will find this review rather interesting. That's mainly because I think this book has limited value unless you extract a number of key ideas that I'll outline in this article.

To begin with, the title The 4-Hour Workweek was creatively developed to get people's attention - particularly those people in airport book stores who might not have a lot of time between flights. If you're capable of extracting some specific ideas from a book (and simply excluding lots of others) you'll find the book worth reading and it will return some value to you.

The author's premise is that you need to adopt the 80/20 principle as it relates to productivity in your professional life - but what he means is that 80% of your productivity comes from 20% of your time and the other 20% of your productivity comes from 80% of your time. His argument is that by eliminating that 20% of your productivity (that captures most of your time), you can operate more efficiently. The book revolves around that concept and thus the title: The 4-Hour Workweek.

Another reviewer put it well: The book reads like a blog and it's broken down into lots of pieces - some of them containing step-by-step advice, some of the pieces containing anecdotal information and some pieces simply provide a philosophical perspective.

Here is some of his advice in a nutshell:

- Make a to-do list for tomorrow before you finish today's work. This was actually a reinforcement for me and I found it helpful. He goes on to add that you should only add items to this list (during that next day) if you view that items as helping you become more productive. If it isn't don't add the task and don't do the work.

- Check email no more than twice a day. He's right (in my opinion) on this issue. I tend to be event-driven and, while I find that's very helpful in responding immediately to critical emails, I find myself responding to all emails as if they are critical and taking a productivity hit as a result. He has helped me focus better in this area.

- Force yourself to end each day at 4PM or end your week on Thursday. I have my own business and have consciously tried to migrate to a four-day week - notice I didn't say a 4-hour workweek - but a four-day week. That's what I mean about needing to "pick and choose" some specific ideas. The goal here is to learn to compress your productive time.

- Never, ever agree to a meeting without a clear agenda. When I worked for IBM in the last millennium, we used to have meetings constantly. Everyone scheduled meetings and lots of people came. Very seldom were the meetings productive and most of them were clearly time wasters. I worked for a manager at IBM who would never allow me to attend a meeting unless I could clearly define the agenda and the expected outcomes. That's when I started to decline meeting invitations and became much more productive as a result.

- Don't be afraid to hang up a "do not disturb" sign on your office door or cubicle. I used to do that and found that most people would honor your request. There are many people in the corporate environment who simply like to "stop and converse" and while I think there are times you have to do that - there are also times when you can work in seclusion to be able to meet some critical deadlines.

I've taken the middle of the book and provided you with some of the gems that the author claims will increase your productivity. He brings these ideas together and further suggests that you change your job so that you can work remotely. He provides a fairly comprehensive set of ideas (and steps) for implementing that strategy. The conclusion he reaches is that time is the most valuable asset we have (not money) and that implementing this plan you can move more and more time into your personal life so that you can pursue your dreams.

As others have said: the book has some good core ideas surrounded by a ton of marketing hype - and as I mentioned at the beginning of this review - if you can navigate through the hype you can extract some good ideas.

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New Alliance

I’m delighted to announce a new business alliance with a company called LPD Inc. They offer a program called Sell the Brand First – which provides an innovative way to differentiate your company’s Brand in the marketplace and then sell from that position of strength.

Visit their website at www.sellthebrandfirst.com. Dan can be contacted at (410) 592-3876 – and he is located in Maryland (Eastern time zone in the US).

A brand has the tremendous power to create a positive experience that will resonate with your customers. So why do most salespeople focus on selling their product or service, but not on selling their brand?

Corporate trainer and brand selling specialist Dan Stiff shares his proven Brand Staircase Method, a four step process that shows you how to hone in on your customers' mind-sets, create sales presentations based on how your brand fits into your consumers' lifestyles, and ultimately satisfy the buyers' needs and expectations.

Dan’s book – Sell the Brand First – How to Sell Your Brand and Create Lasting Customer Loyalty represents a groundbreaking perspective of a salesperson’s connection to the company brand. Dan says. "A great salesperson should feel proud of his profession, and see himself as a Brand ambassador”.

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About Steve Bistritz

Steve Bistritz is founder and president of Learning Solutions International, an Atlanta-based sales training and consulting company that helps professional salespeople do a better job of creating, maintaining and leveraging relationships with senior-level client executives.

Steve also has a powerful opportunity management workshop offering that has been described as “the next generation in opportunity management”.

Steve is available as a speaker for sales meetings and client conferences around the globe. He speaks on a variety of topics including the following:

• Selling at the Executive Level
• Establishing Credibility with Client Executives and Becoming a Trusted Advisor
• Developing Alignment with Key Client Executives
• Effectively Assessing Sales Opportunities

Click here to see video clips of Steve delivering his presentation on Selling at the Executive Level.

You can contact Steve by calling him in Atlanta (eastern time zone in the US) at (404) 256-1801 or sending him an email using steveb@sellxl.com

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