Optimizing Your Virtual Sales Kickoff Meeting

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Most of you will be hosting or attending your Sales Kickoff meeting virtually in early 2021. How can you get the most out of the experience without the eyeball-to-eyeball interaction you’re used to at these events? Whether you are putting the event on, or going as an attendee, what you do before, during, and after the event is critical to call it a success.

Here are a few ideas to consider:

  1. Before: make the “audience” part of the show:  the late, great David Bowie said the thing he liked about concerts in the electronic or “rave” category is that that the attendees were a part of the concert itself. Adopt that idea and put ownership of portions of the meeting in the hands of attendees. If the sessions planned are for a Product Launch, new IT tool introduction, or market segment expansion, have the attendees deliver parts of the presentation with relevance to the topic. For instance, how will the product launch help a customer to grow, resolve an internal operational issue with the new IT tool, or close the communication between teams to grow new markets. Be specific!
  • During: drive the participation rates: have team members hold one another accountable for participation. Put them in pairs or small groups and ask them to alternate taking notes and providing feedback. Prep the individuals and teams for what comes next, which is how they will determine the follow-up step for each of the presentations attended.
  • After: don’t wait for follow up: most presentations at face-to-face or virtual conferences wrap up with the presenter saying “contact me with any questions.” Well, that rarely works after you’ve heard three or four speakers. The follow-up should start there and then, with the spokesperson from the smaller teams setting dates and times for specific items to discuss on the Product Launch, new IT initiative, or market development plans.

Putting this mechanism in place before the virtual meetings will take some additional time. The good news is your management team and event coordinators will save a ton of time on the back end not having to chase for follow-up or next steps when attendees disperse. Put the time in now, and the results will follow.

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Year End Recap And Thoughts For 2021

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year end recap in sales

John, standing in front of his alma mater, San Diego State University, reflects on this year and looks forward to next….. Click on the image above to watch the video.

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Global Sales Process Workshop Inspires Customer Focused Leaders

In collaboration with Nimdzi Insights, we have completed our third successful 3 day virtual sales process workshop this year. Attendees included Translation and Localizations Project Management and Sales Leaders from around the world. We are grateful for this opportunity and look forward to many more in the new year.

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Translation and Localization Sales Process Workshop

Train your team to speak the language of sales through a proven methodology customized for language service providers.

This is a workshop specifically for companies in the translation and localization field: language technology providers, language service providers, and companies with growing and maturing localization departments.  

When looking to increase your sales volume, would it be helpful if your Sales, Marketing, Project Management and Managerial teams could:

  • Consistently develop opportunities that align with your core competencies?
  • Accurately assess the stage that the prospect/customer is in during the buying cycle?
  • Increase the potential to cross-sell or bundle additional services and languages into projects?

You are invited to participate in the Translation and Localization Sales Process Workshop, created and delivered by Nimdzi Insights and Flannery Sales Systems. Our combined team has conducted this program for 15 years, in 7 countries with hundreds of attendees.

Topics in the workshop include:

  • Prospecting for New Revenue
  • Identifying Business Objectives and Establishing Value
  • Accessing Key Players
  • Managing an Evaluation Timeline and
  • Negotiating and Closing Opportunities while maintaining your margins.

Each of these topics is aligned with a key selling skill, and attendees will practice in the Workshop and through an online portal for continuous reinforcement.

Training does not drive results; get on a call with your coach and practice what you have learned. For every 3 participants, there will be 1 dedicated coach for breakout sessions during the workshop and post-follow-up opportunities to continue training with your coaches.  

Dates and format:
November 17 – 19, 2020, virtual
7-11 AM PDT  |  4-8 PM CET 

Pricing and Special Offers
Workshop price: 2,500 USD per registrant 
Nimdzi Partners: 1,875 USD (25% discount) per registrant 
Partner Associations (TINA, Women in Localization, EAGLS, Elia): 2,000 USD 
Group bookings: 2,100 USD (reach out to John Flannery to speak about your company’s special group offer john@drive-revenue.com )
Would you like to be a partner association and secure 20% off for your association members? Email marketing@nimdzi.com.

SIGN UP HERE

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The Pangs of Relationship Selling

Without a doubt it is great to have an endless rolodex (if you’re old enough to have one) and an equally strong business reputation.  It often allows a seller to forego prospecting and other steps in the sales qualification process.  Many times, an RFP would land right on their desk.  

I came from an industry where the same players endlessly traded the same business back and forth.  It became a relationship game.   Assumptions were made about the motives of the buyer and the capabilities of the seller.   The RFP was a Request for Price.  However, in a complex sale, starting at price also presents certain issues.   

Did the sales person discover the needs and goals of the buyer?   Did they uncover the obstacles that stand in the way of those goals?  Did they build a solution around their own capabilities that would address those goals?   Did they establish value of their services? 

When sales and distribution teams start with price and forego discovery, many things can go askew in the deal:

  • Wrong services are presented and included in the price.
  • Services actually needed are not presented nor included in the price.
  • All services get included and inflate the price.
  • Buying and decision-making process not understood by the seller.
  • Negotiating process becomes cumbersome and at times adversarial. 
  • Value of services is never established. 

In the end, the seller has to negotiate away dollars rather than value or services.  This leads to margin erosion from the first year of the deal.   Regardless of industry, renewals never seem to outpace inflation and adverse market conditions. 

It is critical that even the most seasoned of sales professionals receives periodic coaching and training on the entire sales process.  We provide content and curriculum based around existing sales process that will enable distribution teams to develop the skills necessary to establish and present solutions with value.  

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Increase Your Virtual Selling Effectiveness

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To say the last few years have been odd is a gross understatement. There are so many things happening domestically and globally that we haven’t seen before; we will spare you the exercise of naming them all. For us, the most relevant and pressing issues for our customers and prospects are the radical shift in buying that the Work from Home (WFH) environment has created and talk of economic headwinds.


So, what have you done about it? As a sales or commercial leader, you’re doing your best to keep your team focused. Sellers and other front-line employees in customer-facing roles (CFRs) (which include sales, marketing, technical specialists, product development, customer service, project managers, etc.) are working to get the attention of prospects and keep the momentum for deals that used to move through reasonably quickly.
The new buying behavior can be fragmented and frustrating for both buyers and sellers. And one of the conduits to it all is virtual selling which relies on your ability to navigate relevant technology platforms like Zoom, TEAMS, GoTo Meeting, Google Hangouts, etc. The word we have received from buyers and sellers is that it’s still a mixed bag of good and bad on how well the technology is being understood and used. The meetings that you’re conducting with your internal teams are often the same—some attendees are plugged in and ready, while others need to ramp up their participation and stop multitasking during calls.


Our Virtual Selling Effectiveness (VSE) workshop is designed to help improve the use of technology to connect in the scenarios described above, as well as others. There are several things that hosts and attendees can do before, during, and after the meetings to increase the overall effectiveness. How well you and your teams are able to manage this new (ab)normal is a large factor in your overall success.


The ability to embrace and utilize virtual communication is here to stay, regardless of when we are fully back in our offices huddling around water coolers again. Now’s your opportunity to take the time to make sure you and your team get this right.

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Testimonials From Our LSP Workshop

Flannery Sales Systems is grateful to have completed a successful virtual sales process and sales skills training workshop with Language Service Providers from five countries around the world. Read what some of our customers had to say…..

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On The Road Again: Big Sky, Montana

John is finally on the road again after 200 days “grounded” from the pandemic. Listen and watch him from a beautiful hike (with bear spray) in Big Sky, Montana, discuss planning for 2021 in our upcoming newsletter.

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Why Sales Managers Aren’t Coaching

“What happens if we train them and they leave; what happens if we don’t and they stay?”  We have all heard that one before and it is just as true today as it was when it was first uttered.  

Many organizations believe that if they hire someone with experience they won’t require much coaching or training.  It is especially true in sales.   Few organizations have in house training and even fewer provide training exclusively for the sales team.  Therefore, in many cases, coaching is left to the sales manager. 

But sales managers struggle with these four obstacles:

Demanding Work Environments

Sales managers operate in demanding environments.  They spend their day working on the hottest deals, pricing, closing, and dealing with staff (expense reports, commission checks, HR issues).  In many organizations, the sales manager is often required to push reports to executives or other corporate departments. 

Far down the list in their job description is coaching and training.  There are no measurable goals or compensation for them to train, only whether you hit your revenue goal.

Inadequate Skill Set

Most sales managers have matriculated into the role by first being a sales rep and approach the job with that mindset.  However, sales coaching is an entirely different skill set than being a sales rep.  Once past onboarding and orientation, there is usually little curriculum available.  Frankly, through no fault of their own, they do not know what to teach.  There are no college degrees in Sales Management.  

Meeting Fail

Some sales managers have the mindset that meetings fulfill coaching and training needs.  But that is often not the case. 

  • Group meeting fail:  Meetings that could include coaching and training are focused on pipeline metrics, hot deals, and corporate announcements. 
  • One-on-one meeting fail:  Some sales managers think they are conducting training when they are merely providing feedback. Feedback is reactive and occurs after events.  Coaching is proactive and occurs before events. 

Resistance

The sales manager will face resistance.   Sales people, especially the seasoned ones, dislike things like coaching, training and role playing.   They think they can merely rely upon their relationships.        

With 2021 rapidly coming upon us, companies are preparing for something completely different.  Sales managers will likely have less availability, less resources and less support to provide the team with the coaching it requires for success.   Outsourcing is the most viable alternative and engaging an organization virtually during their kickoff meeting is an inexpensive and efficient way to drive revenue for 2021.    

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Drive Revenue in 2021: Annual Strategy Planning & The Tactical Execution

It’s that time again when executives begin to finalize their plans and budgets for the next business year. 2020 is, and perhaps 2021 may be, unlike any other 365-day period in a long, long time. Never has unpredictability played a larger role than now. As the great Oscar Wilde once said, “Expect the unexpected, but don’t count on it.”

Companies spend millions of dollars to get their commercial strategies right. A global customer of ours just spent $ 4 million dollars to get their strategy aligned to the best markets for growth. Now what? The newly found information is delivered to sales and others in customer facing roles (CFRs), including marketing, customer service and technical support, and then they HOPE that they all get it right. They hope that all these roles just sync up in a well-coordinated unison. Unfortunately, we all know that it’s just not that simple.

At Flannery Sales Systems, we build process for our customers that include the tactical execution of the commercial/go to market (whatever you choose to call it) strategy. And what does that mean exactly? It is a clear plan for how the individuals in your CFRs conduct conversations to provide a customer or prospect with an understanding of how to use your product or service to increase revenue, reduce costs or minimize risk. Simple, right?

Our customers improve the quality of the sales opportunities they develop and increase the overall revenue in their pipeline when they embrace and execute this process. All sales organizations are focused on this, and we enable it with a skills-based program that is custom built for our customers based on the markets they compete in and how organizations BUY, not how they should be selling.

Whether it’s to prepare for next year or fine tune opportunities in the pipeline now, we can help. Take fifteen minutes to consider how we can enable you to meet and exceed your objectives. Ready? Let’s go!

For additional Sales Strategy information, check out some of our other blog posts here.

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