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[Bob] It happens all the time. We show a group of stakeholders how easy and helpful our software can be, but their feedback is “it seems too complicated.” How can that be? Certainly, the selection team doesn’t want us to take away any of that great functionality?

Modern, comprehensive applications may seem simple to us but easily appear too complicated in the eyes of a stakeholder. In all fairness, many prospective clients are simply trying to judge the ability of their people to learn and operate your applications efficiently. They are trying to predict the impact that your solution will have on their operations, and they are using your product demonstration to help them make that prediction.

There is a surge of firms offering virtual soft-skills training since the onset of Covid-19 and Social Distancing.  If you are considering scheduling your precious and expensive resources into one of these courses, here is a list of nonnegotiables for anyone offering this form of training.

✓Proven Satisfaction Metrics

Courses designed initially for in-person events will not be effective in a virtual setting unless they are entirely re-engineered. Insist on customer satisfaction metrics that compare their virtual training with their on-site offerings. Require that they back up those statistics with their sample size. Anyone can claim a high satisfaction index from one or two clients that are “friendlies.”  The satisfaction scores must be within two percent of each other to warrant further consideration of their offering.

You’ve been directed to work from home. You’ve done it before but, now it will be for an extended time. In this blog, we’ll provide you quick and effective ways to have the right setup, tools, techniques to increase your effectiveness with team members, clients, and prospects. For client-facing roles, we will also provide tips for building momentum in the sales process that simply aren’t achievable in traditional, face-to-face encounters. Shockingly, you will learn how to become MORE productive than when you were in the office! The following are excerpts from our recently released video course, “HomeOffice2Win!”

Here’s a scenario we’ve all experienced. It is three days before a key demo, and you need the sponsor at the client to follow through on her promise to schedule discovery calls. The problem is, she isn’t responding to your emails or voice-mails. As a pre-sales professional, you know the importance of making those connections and getting your critical questions answered. The salesperson on the account is too busy or distracted to help. What do you do? The answer is all in the subject line…

When I hear that phrase, I remember reading bedtime stories to my sons when they were youngsters. As adults, stories help us understand complex concepts, and just like when we’re younger, they forge connections with the storyteller, open up our imaginations, and help us receive new ideas.