"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES:
The power of purpose -- George Lucas, Film Director and Producer -- "You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don't have that kind of feeling for what it is you are doing, you'll stop at the first giant hurdle." I love this quote. What jazzes me is finding the best, most practical, resources for growth firms. Read on!
Whoever names price first, loses -- right? Wrong! This and many other "standard" negotiation strategies I learned have been challenged successfully by one of the brightest and insightful negotiation gurus on the planet -- Dr. Victoria Medvec, professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. The leading scholar in negotiations and decision-making, she advises top M&A and FORTUNE 500 firms like GE where huge money is at stake. More about her strategies in a moment.
Negotiations are at the heart of almost every big decision we make, whether you're the CEO, COO, CFO, VP Sales, etc -- and as Dr. Medvec points out, in most of the key negotiations with partners, suppliers, customers, government agencies, etc. we have to maintain a strong relationship with them after the negotiations are concluded i.e. we need to win on our key points without irreparably damaging the ongoing relationship. What you do to negotiate a great deal on an automobile are not the tactics that apply well to ongoing relationships!
How do we top Jim Collins and Marcus Buckingham, our faculty headliners at our last two Summits? It took us two months, but we landed Dr. Victoria Medvec this past week for our Sales and Marketing Summit in Atlanta April 24 - 25 -- she's in huge demand -- whew!!! What I know you want are practical tools that will make you huge money fast -- skip the theory, skip the platitudes, just give you four hours of the best advice to make the Summit worthwhile right from the start and justify the time and expense. I know my ongoing credibility with you is at stake each and every time I decide who to place in the opening workshop (and the rest of the program). They must be both insightful AND an effective presenter.
Some highly respected YPOers and business leaders turned me on to Dr. Medvec -- these are seasoned CEOs and executives who utilized Dr. Medvec's tactics and reported back to me that they made/saved hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. I then attended her program and have since saved/made over $100k the past several months myself that I directly attribute to using her approaches. And the mistakes I avoided are mistakes classic to entrepreneurial firms.
Keep the negotiations focused and simple -- right? Wrong! Again, it's our instincts as entrepreneurs to want to "boil down" a negotiation as quickly as possible. Again, Dr. Medvec shows how this considerably weakens your position and why (and how) it's important to fractionalize the issues as much as possible, driving up the complexity.
Winning RFPs -- hey, they are still a reality for many companies. Unless you're the supplier that helped script the RFP (best position), you're at a disadvantage. Dr. Medvec shows how to change the leverage point and regain an advantage. And if you're the supplier that did help write the RFP, you had better know these tactics as well!
Move appointments, rearrange your schedule, but get to Atlanta April 24 -- 25 -- Dr. Medvec is providing the opening four hour workshop. Remember, the best tables go to the biggest teams that register the earliest. The rest of the faculty include the famous brand and PR guru Laura Ries; Randy Schwantz, creator of The Wedge as a way to separate a customer from their existing supplier; John DiJulius, one of the hottest new gurus in Customer Service; and a half dozen other gurus and guest CEOs are listed under DETAILS below.
Successful CEOs of growth firms will share the stage again -- feedback from the last Summit is that you loved hearing from those that are "doing it." Cameron Herold, 1-800-GOT-JUNK will share the specifics on how one of North America's fastest growing franchises garnered over 300 articles and a place on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Barrett Ersek, Happy Lawns (yes, the entrepreneur I reference that found the X Factor in the lawn care business) will show how he's using MapPoint more than Excel spreadsheets to drive the business. I still maintain, and Barrett is proving it, that the first companies in any industry to fully utilize MapPoint will dominate the industry. Come learn why I say this!
Faculty, logistics, and registration here and information on faculty under DETAILS below.
DETAILS:
Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit Faculty
Dr. Victoria Husted Medvec
High-Stakes Decision Making and Negotiation Skills
Whoever names price first loses – right? Wrong. This and many other myths about high stakes negotiations have been challenged by the pioneering work of Dr. Medvec. Her ten steps for maximizing success in complex negotiations, especially where the relationship must be maintained after the sale, has brought her acclaim among top M&A and FORTUNE 500 firms. Growth firms spend a great deal of their time negotiating deals --mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and key contracts all capture the attention of top executives. How do you construct the best possible deal? How can you negotiate effectively and secure value for your company while simultaneously building the relationship with the other side?
This seminar will help you to improve your effectiveness in all types of negotiations. This will be a highly interactive seminar where you will have the opportunity to share your own negotiating challenges and create strategies for critical upcoming negotiations. Through her consulting, Professor Medvec has helped many executives and sales leaders achieve incredible success in high-stakes negotiations. In this session, she will highlight the ten tactics that have led to her clients' success and teach you how to use these strategies.
Bio Info:
Adeline Barry Davee Associate Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Founder and Executive Director, Center for Executive Women
Dr. Medvec is a leader on the Northwestern University campus, winning five of Kellogg's premier teaching awards and serving as the Associate Vice President for Research for the University. What's more, she serves as an advisor to companies around the world on strategic decision-making, high-stakes negotiations and partnership agreements. General Electric, Kaiser Permanente, Motorola and United Healthcare are among the high-profile list of clients she advises. She is a renowned scholar in the areas of negotiations and decision-making, and her research has been published in top academic journals such as Psychological Review. In addition, her wisdom has been highlighted in business media including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and on the Today how.
John DiJulius
www.johndijulius.com
Creating World Class Customer Service
President, John DiJulius ConsultingFounder and CEO, John Roberts Hair Studios and Spas
Author of: Secret Service: Hidden Systems That Deliver Unforgettable Customer Service.
Customer Service is back with a vengeance. It’s the key growth concept for 2007 --because word-of-mouth marketing can make or break your business. John DiJulius has literally written the book on creating a world-class service experience. Take your business to the next level using the same proven strategies he has used to grow his John Roberts Hair Studio and Spa to an award winning, $4 million business. DiJulius will share: The 10 non-negotiable principles of customer service vital to growing your business; strategies to identify what customers really want -- not what you think they want; and ways to ”walk your talk” 24/7, to exceed expectations during every customer contact. John’s dynamic, insightful session will give you the tools you need to deliver service so superior, it makes price irrelevant.
Laura Ries
www.ries.com
Exploiting Divergence To Achieve Market Dominance
President, Ries & Ries
Co-author of The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR and The
Origin of Brands.
What’s the most effective way to create a new brand in today’s marketplace? Laura Ries, together with her father, partner and co-author, renowned marketing strategist Al Ries, made the marketing world sit up and take notice with a startling answer to that question. Their controversial work, The Origin of Brands, forms the heart of Laura’s riveting presentation. Using thought-provoking logic and impassioned delivery, Laura Ries will reveal: How to push beyond gaining mere market share, to creating profitable, new markets; the five immutable branding laws you must use to focus your business and increase your profits; ways to narrow the scope of your business – for surprising revenue gains; and what best-practices branding shares in common with the pioneering work of Charles Darwin. After this lively, informative session, you’ll see why Ries has established herself as a go-to voice on marketing matters for Fox News Channel, CNBC, CNN and ABC World News Tonight.
Randy Schwantz
www.thewedge.net
Driving Organic Growth with The Wedge Sales Culture™
Author, The Wedge: How to Stop Selling and Start Winning and How to Get Your Competition Fired (Without Saying Anything Bad About Them) Founder, President & CEO, The Wedge Group
In demand as a speaker, coach and consultant, Randy Schwartz has taken the sales training world by storm with The Wedge®, his innovative selling system based on winning business away from incumbent vendors. He has coached hundreds of companies and thousands of sales professionals in the US and Canada to take sales growth to a higher level. In a lively, colorful style unique to this West Texas native, Schwartz will reveal why conventional sales methods fail to cut it in today’s complex market. Boost your firm’s sales – and profits – by understanding: the 3 relevant players in every single sales scenario; how to generate more revenue from top clients; and ways to unseat incumbent suppliers (without resorting to criticism). Randy Schwartz will equip you with the best practices and actionable tools you need to achieve increased sales in a forward-thinking, growth environment.
Erik Darmstetter
www.salesby5.com
Innovative Sales Growth Strategies
Founder and CEO, Sales by 5
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
San Antonio Business Journal’s “40 Under 40”
What’s a truly new idea worth to your business? Chances are it’s priceless when you want to sell more, increase profits and dominate your market. Erik Darmstetter shatters the ceiling of tried and true with his innovative and creative take on growing your small or mid-market company. Erik will share: Surefire, new ways to turn “warm leads” into hot sales; how to forge an unbeatable service team ready to exceed customer expectations – even in the face of increased demand; and how re-branding and “secret shopping” could catapult your business growth by as much as 200%. Gain critical insights that will turbo-charge the power of every sales and marketing strategy in your arsenal.
Cameron Herold
www.1800gotjunk.com
Turning Junk Into Profit
COO, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Cameron Herold needs no introduction. As one of the principle architects of the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? brand, Herold is COO of company now known as “the FEDEX of junk removal.” His unique understanding of brand marketing and PR has helped grow this entrepreneurial venture into the $119 million company it is today. Herold has overseen the company’s exponential growth from a modest, Vancouver-based business to one with a presence in nearly every major North American city. A sought-after speaker among entrepreneurs worldwide, his high-energy approach to growing a business is contagious. Herold’s innovative strategies have received attention from Associated Press, Bloomberg, the Wall
Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune and many others.
Dave Kurlan
www.objectivemanagement.com
Raising Sales Expectations, Elevating Sales Performance
Founder, Objective Management Group, Inc.
Author of:
Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling: How to Become a Sales Superstar
by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball.
In today’s uncertain economy, can your sales people step up? If not, you risk losing market share, profits and hard-won growth. With more than 30 years of experience in all facets of sales training, management and consulting, Dave Kurlan knows how to identify and coach sales superstars. His eye-opening presentation reveals exactly what it takes to build a top-flight sales team who will grow your company’s profits. In this engaging, interactive session, Kurlan will shed new light on: Hiring sales professionals who can overcome the increased resistance in today’s marketplace; how the hidden strengths and weaknesses of your salespeople influence profit; and ways to accurately predict future sales revenue, once your A team is in place. Leave with tools you can integrate immediately – at any size business, in any industry.
Verne Harnish
www.gazelles.com
Marketing Savvy for Fast-Growth Firms
CEO of Gazelles, Inc.
Founder, Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO)
Author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Fast Growth Firm
Sales and Marketing are not one in the same. Sadly, many fast-growth companies ignore marketing strategy entirely, in favor of immediate – and sometime overwhelming – sales demands. It’s a shortsighted error you can’t afford to make. To grab and keep new customers continuously, a dedicated marketing effort is crucial. Based on insights from many of the world’s top marketing experts, Verne will share ways to launch a powerful marketing effort that yields long-term success. Discover: The key approach Regis McKenna used to drive marketing during meteoric expansion at Apple, Intel, and Genentech; how to distinguish key sales metrics from key marketing metrics; and must-have technologies that will turbo-charge your marketing process. An engaging, dynamic speaker, Verne will offer a use-it-on-Monday plan for enhancing marketing strategy in your fast-growth environment.