The PitchLink Sales & Marketing Lit Fest

Sales leadership does not have a defined framework in most organizations. When Todd was promoted, like many others, to a sales leadership role from that of a sales executive, he found himself drowning in activity without having a definite direction. This led him to analyze the role of the Sales Leader and target key focus areas that sales leaders need to concentrate upon. The session on “The Transparent Sales Leader” challenges long-held sales leadership standards, providing a modern, cards-face-up, science-backed, easy-to-implement framework for today’s sales leaders. He dives deep into the five core responsibilities of the sales leader. He also goes to great lengths to explain the behavioral science that explains why sales teams act in the way they do, and what inspires them.

The session on “Buyer Centered Selling” focuses on the buyer mentality and helps the seller to understand what problem the buyer is trying to solve. By understanding buyer psychology, the seller is able to make better value propositions. It combines “seller’s challenges” with “buyer’s dilemmas.” Without the collaborative efforts of both seller and buyer, many buying processes are doomed by lethargy, fear, and eroding internal support from the buying community. The session will enable sellers with strategies and tactics that help the buyer address eleven dilemmas likely to slow and obstruct the buying process. The attendee will discover quickly that buying and selling are inextricably connected in their focus on helping the customer buy.

Lisa’s session will cover one of the biggest struggles that key account teams and new opportunity teams struggle with, executive engagement. Lisa’s book elucidates 16 key ‘Plays’ to exponentially grow revenues and drive leadership success. Her play around executive engagement is one of the most popular. Crucially, the book is meant as a playbook for sales leaders, as opposed to being a sales playbook. So it shows how to organize the sales leadership teams to win big deals using the 4 pillars of Leadership, Methodology, Execution and Culture.

In her session, Ashley will explain how the idea of Design Thinking is linked to Sales and addresses the business needs of the customer’s customer. It answers the question– “what is my customer trying to solve for their customer”. Only then can the sales organization become effective in taking a consultative role, helping the proximal customer, and as a consequence becoming a valuable partner to the buyer organization. The model takes into account factors that affect the customer’s buying decision, such as desirability, feasibility, and viability.

Ted Olson – author of Feel Good About Selling.

Buying has changed. Traditional sales & marketing techniques are out of date. Few buyers want to talk to sales people – even sellers (and marketers) are tired of the “tactics” that feel inauthentic and fake. This session takes a deep look into the three key areas that make or break sales & marketing efforts.

Ted’s approach helps today’s sellers to lead with empathy and professionalism. His unique three-step sales approach rejects all high-pressure tactics and rigid sales methodologies, focusing instead on building trust and confidence (in the buyer’s mind), ultimately leading to more business. Selling is helping. And it should feel good.

Keeping customers active and engaged is essential for any business that relies on recurring revenue and repeat sales. Customer turnover—or “churn”—is costly, frustrating, and preventable. Carl Gold shows how to leverage data to avoid churn by identifying the warning signs and stopping churn before it happens. He talks about data-driven techniques for converting raw data into measurable metrics, and testing hypotheses, to ultimately maximize customer retention and minimize actions that cause them to stop engaging or unsubscribe altogether.