"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES: (Sales and Marketing Summit update)
URGENT -- April 2 hotel deadline -- for those participating in the Sales and Marketing Summit in Atlanta April 24 - 25, the deadline for getting the conference rate for the hotel is next Monday, April 2. Here's the hotel information: Marriott Atlanta Airport 1 (800) 228-9290 call for reservations -- ask for "Gazelles Sales and Marketing Summit" $169 room rate single/double -- again, cut-off date is April 2.
Always new program -- I've been asked by many if the Sales and Marketing Summit will be repeated. The plan is to host it each spring. However, it will be an entirely new program each year. The idea is to expose you to the very best thought leaders each year and if you miss a year, you miss that group of thought leaders (like Dr. Victoria Medvec, the Jim Collins of Complex Negotiation!). This year's program is listed under DETAILS below.
What about CFO, COO, HR, etc -- topics this year include Negotiations (everything you do in business); Customer Service (all execs must encourage and practice); Branding (everything you do effects branding, including how you send out invoices); Sales (need I say more -- we had all better be selling all the time); and Marketing (getting people and money often more key than getting customers). The idea is for you to bring the executive team and have a learning experience together -- from the very top thinkers in each of these subject areas.
GE's execs at Crotonville monthly -- the best companies know you have to "keep executives great!" It doesn't happen by accident. The idea of the Summits is to provide a consistent, high quality, executive education experience twice a year -- providing you the same kind of educational rhythm we advocate in other aspects of your business. We want to be your "outsourced corporate university" and for you to feel there isn't a better executive education option twice a year.
YPO, EO, Vistage, Inner Circle and other CEO group participants -- the other key idea behind the Summits is to provide an educational experience for the rest of the team equivalent to the kind of education we're privileged to receive via our CEO organizations. We need the team aligned and learning together.
Discounts -- the 10k program -- many of you see the significant discount our 10k members receive -- $1250/seat vs. the $1495 (3 or more) or $1695 individual. Our regular attendees simply commit to bringing at least four execs to each of the Summits -- that's it! Pre-paying $5k each six months guarantees the best seats. And you can use the 10k seats to get discounts on the DVD products and other workshops. We want to reward loyalty and consistency.
Consistent scheduling -- many firms have asked for advanced dates of the Summits -- they want to build their planning cycles around the education, particularly the fall Growth Summits. We're standardizing on the Tuesday-Wednesday closest to April 22 for the spring and the Tuesday-Wednesday closest to October 22 in the fall (Oct 23 -- 24, Vegas, 2007). Three weeks into new quarters, you should have some breathing room post the previous quarter. And a Tuesday-Wednesday lets you be in the office on Monday and back for Thursday-Friday.
Breadth plus depth -- the Summits are meant to provide your team a way to survey the very latest in business thinking -- "you don't know what you don't know -- the most dangerous situation". The sessions are two to four hours so the presenters have time to provide depth. However, we recognize that it takes months to take something really deep -- it's why we're also structuring programs like the Doug Hall "Eureka! Winning Way" process introduced at the last Summit to help your team go deep with Doug's innovation process. The Summits give you a healthy depth and taste -- then you can pick where you want to dive even deeper.
Education is never urgent -- I'm doing what I do because education is THE key competitive weapon -- knowledge truly is power -- and the hundreds of emails I receive regularly of the impact the education has had on your business are a testament to the impact -- like those that have been transformed by Marcus Buckingham and Doug Hall presentations at the last Summit.
DETAILS:
2 Days. Five Key Topics. 8 Speakers
Featuring...
Dr. Victoria Husted Medvec
Getting the Deal You Want: Maximizing Your Success
in Complex Negotiations
Adeline Barry Davee Professor of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
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.
John DiJulius, www.johndijulius.com
Creating World Class Customer Service
President, John DiJulius consulting • Founder 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 and 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
Founder, President & CEO, The Wedge Group™
Author of The Wedge: How to Stop Selling and Start Winning and How to Get Your Competition Fired
(Without Saying Anything Bad About Them)
In demand as a speaker, coach and consultant, Randy Schwantz 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, Schwantz 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 Schwantz 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 pricelesswhen 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 Expectations, Elevating 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 sometimes 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.