Marketing Innovators Luncheon Seminar
Executing Sales Enablement
More than ever, business-to-business (B to B) marketers are tasked with delivering measureable impacts on their organizations’ performance and they have arguably their best opportunity to make a measureable impact in the area of sales enablement. BMA Chicago’s December Marketing Innovators Luncheon Seminar at The Standard Club will feature a dynamic panel with insight into how sales enablement is increasingly becoming the key driver of corporate revenue growth and why sales and marketing alignment is more important than ever.
By some estimates, 85 percent of messages are delivered to the market through a sales team, yet less than 25 percent of heads of marketing and sales think their sales teams are accurately and consistently targeting messages to their customers. Additionally, as much as 40 percent of a typical sales rep’s time can be spent creating presentations, customizing messaging and getting ready to engage the customer—yet only 10–20 percent of salespeople are optimizing messages for their prospects.
The panel will consist of sales enablement thought leaders representing small, medium, and large companies. They will include:
- Kenneth Powell, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) - pictured above. Kenneth is vice-president, world-wide sales enablement at ADP, recognized as both a world leader in business process outsourcing and global B to B selling. He oversees the vision and execution of the overall sales readiness strategy for a $9 billion multinational business with 5,000 sales associates. He is a frequent speaker and author on sales effectiveness topics and his work has been showcased in a variety of outlets, including the Corporate Executive Board, Selling Power magazine, ASTD and Training magazine. Kenneth follows a personal mantra that “Sales Can Never Slow Down” and takes a powerful, yet simple approach to accelerating sales productivity.
- Tim Riesterer, Corporate Visions. Tim is chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions, which has developed the Corporate Visions Customer Message Management™ system that helps companies create, deliver and sustain messages in a way that creates a differentiated customer experience at the point of sale and helps companies develop succinct customer conversations that set them apart from competitors, communicates value and wins more profitable business. Tim leads the company’s strategic direction in thought leadership, positioning and product development. He has more than 20 years experience in marketing and sales as co-founder of Customer Message Management, LLC (CMM Group), which was acquired by Corporate Visions; Ventaso; and Brady Marketing Group. Tim is co-author of Customer Message Management: Increasing Marketing’s Impact on Selling and Conversations that Win the Complex Sale: Using Power Messaging to Create More Opportunities, Differentiate Your Solution, and Close More Deals.
- Kurt Andersen, SAVO. Kurt is executive vice president of sales enablement at SAVO, one of the fastest-growing software companies in Chicago and a recognized leader in sales enablement. SAVO delivers enterprise social networking technology to harness the collective knowledge of some of the world’s most successful companies in creative ways to achieve their revenue and growth goals. Kurt plays a critical role in helping clients develop a strategic vision for sales enablement, compelling business cases, and the efficient positioning of products and services to achieve their critical business initiatives. Previously, he worked in a wide range of sales, marketing, product management and strategy roles at NovaQuest LLC, a regional start-up product management lifecycle solutions provider; leading pharmaceutical and life sciences industry software provider SupplyScape Corporation; MatrixOne Inc.; and Dassault Systemes.
BMA Chicago welcomes back Michael Krauss, president of the Market Strategy Group, to lead the panel discussion. Michael is a veteran strategic marketer, business advisor, organizational coach and accomplished author with more than 30 years of professional experience. He brings proven skills in strategic marketing planning, buyer insight analysis, segmentation, pricing strategy, marketing communications, crisis communications, brand building, product and service innovation, marketing organization design and sales effectiveness analysis. He is an advocate of fact-based marketing approaches that focus on delivering effective measurable returns.
Noting that billions have been spent on customer relationship management (CRM), Michael acknowledges the challenges of messaging execution via sales that remain. “How do we empower sellers throughout the sales cycle?” he asks rhetorically. “How do we make sure that our salespeople are on message, that they’re equipped with access to all of the tools and capabilities of the organization and that the plans we make as marketers in the ivory tower are delivered by the people who really empower us—the sellers in the field? And most importantly—how do you ensure that the enterprise is aligned around strategic revenue initiatives to ensure field execution?” The December luncheon seminar has been developed to give you answers to these critical questions.
Whether you are an expert in sales enablement, your organization has done work in this area or you have never heard of sales enablement, the panel will offer useful concepts for successful execution. The panelists will define what sales enablement means to them and share what their tools consist of, how to align people and processes, why someone needs to lead sales enablement efforts, opportunities and challenges, and benefits.
“Sales enablement may be the tool and the capability that will finally help us align sales and marketing so that we start to make our numbers instead of missing them,” Michael says.
Join Tim, Kurt and Michael for our Speakers Unplugged session in the Council Room of The Standard Club on the 5th floor. You'll be able to ask the panelists questions not addressed in the Q&A and get to know them better. This is a member benefit. There is no additional cost.
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