Whenever I have the chance to tell my digital sales transformation story, I always start with “I had a dream.” After 77 consecutive quarters in corporate sales and leadership roles, I launched my entrepreneurship dream with my co-founders – Vengreso. Little did I know that in less than two years I’d be accepting a Gold Stevie Award for Best Sales Training Product of the Year in Las Vegas!
In October 2015 I was a speaker at the LinkedIn Sales Connect Annual Users Conference. I was invited by LinkedIn to share my digital selling success story with a room full of sales leaders who themselves were in their early days of implementing LinkedIn Sales Navigator with their sales teams.
I had been VP Sales at a software collaboration company serving as the executive sponsor to a global digital sales initiative supporting 350 people. We had licensed LinkedIn Sales Navigator and deployed our video sales acceleration platform across the entire sales team. Within 45 days we had less than 10% adoption. I put the brakes on the initiative to rethink our digital selling approach.
This is the moment I realized that we were doing it wrong. We deployed two digital sales tools without addressing other critical components of social selling success such as buyer behavior, relevant content, profile optimization, training, and coaching. In other words, I mistakenly thought that a tool and the vendor’s webinar-based training would be all we need to transform our sales team into modern digital selling experts. The goal of achieving more conversations with more qualified buyers was slipping through my fingers.
After some regrouping, planning and training, we re-launched our strategy and within six months we reached 100% rep adoption in North America of the digital selling tools AND we could attribute pipeline, closed-lost and closed-won deals for every sales rep using these tools in their digital selling efforts. This went so far beyond social selling.
Fast forward to 2019 nearly two years after my co-founders – Viveka von Rosen, Kurt Shaver and Bernie Borges – and I launched Vengreso – the dream transformed into the solution that earned my trip to the podium to accept a Gold Stevie Award for Best Sales Training Product of the Year for our 10 Steps to Launching a Digital Sales Program.
From the beginning, each client we’ve served has encountered the same dilemma that I experienced in my last VP of Sales role. That is placing too much reliance on the tools and the vendor’s product training to transform their sales team. It just doesn’t work! That’s why we created our training offering to overcome this common challenge.
Introducing the sales training product of the year as recognized by the Stevie Awards in Gold: 10 Steps to Digital Sales Transformation
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Check out why @GoVengreso was recognized by @thestevieawards as the Best Sales Training Product of the Year! #SalesTraining #DigitalSelling #Sales” quote=”Check out why @GoVengreso was recognized by @thestevieawards as the Best Sales Training Product of the Year! #SalesTraining #DigitalSelling #Sales”]
Today’s modern B2B buyer has changed the rules of engagement. We must be aligned with the way the buyer goes through their buying journey. We must engage the buyer’s digitally connected, socially engaged, mobile attached and video-hungry preferences. Today’s modern buyer requires a modern seller!
So, how does a B2B sales leader transform their team into a modern seller? As we developed this training and coaching methodology brands such as CenturyLink, San Francisco 49ers, Trinet and others have had an overwhelmingly successful response.
Stevie Awards 2019
After winning the confidence of many clients with our 10 Steps to Digital Selling Training and Coaching offering, we became a finalist in the Stevie Awards in the category of Best Sales Training Product of the Year…
And, we won!!!
I attended the awards banquet with my wife Shawnna. After accepting the Gold Stevie I was asked: “what does it mean to me to win a Gold Stevie Award.” I remember thinking about how proud I am that we achieved this prestigious award within our first two years.
I have this question for you. What does our winning a Gold Stevie Award for Best Sales Training Product means for you?
Is your sales team creating enough conversations with qualified buyers? Do they have enough pipeline?
That’s the entire goal of our digital sales transformation training and coaching service portfolio.
I invite you to schedule a meeting to discuss transforming your sales team into the modern seller your modern buyer demands.
Oh, BTW if you want to see my “Oscar-award-winning-like” acceptance speech at the Stevie Awards watch this video. Leave a comment below if you think I nailed it or if I should re-do it next year (already thinking about winning the Gold Stevie Award in 2020).
[click_to_tweet tweet=”It’s not too late to celebrate! Congratulate @GoVengreso for winning GOLD for the Best #SalesTraining Product of the Year category at @thestevieawards 2019. #GoVengreso #Sales #DigitalSelling” quote=”It’s not too late to celebrate! Congratulate @GoVengreso for winning GOLD for the Best #SalesTraining Product of the Year category at @thestevieawards 2019. #GoVengreso #Sales #DigitalSelling”]
