Colleen’s Blog

Last week, we talked about proposal formats. Therefore, it makes sense that we talk about presentation formats this week.

I would like to talk to you about a proposal format that you can customize for whatever business you’re in. You can use this whether you’re in a products business, a service business, or a hybrid of both.

In a previous video, we talked about the concept of learning by doing instead of learning through a training workshop or a facilitated training event. I was recently at an extended leadership team meeting for one of my best clients and he had all of his sales managers there. We introduced a quick concept to them around proper account planning and management.

Last week, we talked about persistence and I walked you through a call and email plan that’s designed to get somebody on the phone. There’s one other element of persistence that’s really important as you’re following up with an account and that is to be persistent with multiple people.

The world is run by people who follow up, and for sellers, that means being persistent.  You will win more business by being persistent than anything else. 

I rarely do this anymore, but it was a treat spend two full days leading a (somewhat public) workshop for an exceptional group of sellers. I say "somewhat public" because it was a workshop offered to a group of my client’s sellers. And so, while not everyone in the "Engage Universe" was invited, we did have a select group of people from my client’s universe. Here is what I learned:

I’m a big fan of using your best to mentor the rest. One of the other things that I’m a huge fan of is learning by doing. So, what exactly does this mean and how can you harness its power in your organization?