The sales model most companies use is broken. It is built on outdated principles and structured for a past era when buyers and sellers played by vastly different rules.   Imagine fielding a championship sports team from twenty years ago against a current league leader – the team from the past would not stand a chance.  Just like sports, today’s sales game requires filling new positions, creating new playbooks and most importantly – players with different skills.

The Sales Game Has Changed! You will not meet your revenue goals following the old rules!

Before creating your new sales model you first need to understand what has changed in today’s buying process and why tried and true sales practices are no longer effective.  Next you must understand the new leading approaches for marketing, lead generation, and sales engagement.  Lastly you need a framework to help you construct and transition to your new sales model.

Are you Ready to Create your New Sales Model? Join 3forward for this rule-breaking live discussion!

What you will learn:

• Today’s buying process – and where sales can add value
• The Three Zone strategy for optimizing your sales pipeline
• Four risks worth taking when recreating your sales model
• Embracing the Science of Selling
• Unlikely Allies – the two (new) partners you will need to succeed
• Deadly sales mistakes not worth repeating

But what about your Lead Pipeline? If it is running low, slow or dry you may not know it until too late!

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Managed well, a company’s Lead Pipeline is the best indicator of the success you will enjoy in future quarters, but it requires a completely different set of measurement criteria, stage definitions and valuation approaches.

Join 3forward for this revealing look at how to begin tracking, measuring and valuing your Lead Pipeline.

What you will learn:

• The best criteria for lead stage definitions
• Highly measurable metrics to assess Lead Pipeline velocity and viability
• When to move leads from lead management to sales management
• Tools to track leads before they enter your pipeline
• How to benchmark your lead development and conversion rates
• Lead Pipeline goals Sales and Marketing should share

Sales teams today cannot afford to spend valuable time and resources pursuing mass markets or poorly selected segments.  Knowing where to focus however is not always immediately obvious.   Sales leaders and marketing both can benefit by learning the fundamentals of prospect segmentation and target profiling.

Join Sales 2.0 leader 3forward for this highly informative webcast and learn how to get started with this powerful approach to improving sales results.  Attendees will receive a complementary set of 3forward’s time saving templates!

What You Will Learn:

• How to Conduct a Market Audit – internal, external, trends and challenges
• Assessing Competition
• Building a SWOT matrix – what it means, how to do it, where to apply it
• Categorizing Target Markets
• Segmentation – Four Requirements
• Creating a Market Map
• Product and Service Offering Characterization Techniques
• Four Benefit Levels of  Offerings
• Putting It All Together

Social Media Breakfast was founded by Bryan Person as a forum for social media experts and beginners alike to meet, share and learn.  Marketers, public relations professionals, entrepreneurs, non-profits, bloggers, podcasters, new-media fanatics, and online social networkers are all welcome to attend.

“It is a privilege for 3forward to work with Bryan and help bring Social Media Breakfast to Dallas,” said Matt Smith, 3forward co-founder.  “We have witnessed firsthand the value social media creates for our business.  Bringing the series to Dallas is an opportunity for us and others to share our success stories with people and companies just getting started and to learn new approaches and techniques from experts and other practitioners.”

Individuals or businesses interested in participating in the Dallas Social Media Breakfast chapter should contact Matt Smith.   We are seeking people with interests, capabilities or contacts to help arrange meeting venues, sponsors, speakers and new member recruitment and promotion.

You can reach Matt via Twitter (#mattat3forward), Linkedin, Facebook or 3forward’s Contact Us.

Studies show only 16% of total leads deemed “sales-ready opportunities” actually close. So what’s happening to the other 84% of possible opportunities after they (supposedly) hit your pipeline?  The truth is, companies without a lead management process to measure, develop, nurture and retain these prospects lose track of far more leads than they close.

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Join Sales 2.0 leader 3forward and lead management specialists LeadLife Solutions for a complimentary webcast and learn how to segment your database, deliver targeted messages, score your lead interactions and enable qualification through lead nurturing.

What You Will Learn:

• How changes in buyer models have rewritten lead generation rules
• Eight vital stages in today’s 2.0 sales and marketing process
• Applying segmentation to your lead generation efforts
• The lead management metrics that really matter – and those you can’t trust
• How to get started with lead management, including real-world examples and lessons

Download Slides! 3forward_Sales_Readiness_Series_Actionable_Sales_Insight

Highly Successful Sales Practices Have Changed – Have Yours?

Everest Insights^TM, a comprehensive product suite developed by Everest and 3forward, helps outsourcing supplier sales organizations significantly improve account targeting and prioritization, greatly enhance opportunity qualification and meaningfully engage prospects at the optimal point in their buying process (when the opportunity is ripe).

Everest Insights^TM delivers value through several market-leading offerings:

• Unparalleled account research and analysis, in-depth reporting on initiatives, and exhaustive banks of key account information and stats
• Actionable insight into a prospect’s sourcing portfolio, including details on all active outsourcing projects, supplier relationships, and captive centers
• Highly predictive insider view of prospects’ sourcing interests
• Accurate prediction of likelihood and timing of future sourcing activities
• Active surveillance of events, activities and announcements that trigger prime opportunities to engage with clients and prospects

Join 3forward, a leader in lead creation and sales acceleration programs for companies worldwide, as we illustrate how integrating Everest Insights^TM into the outsourcing supplier sales process helps companies significantly improve win rates and revenue growth.  Sales experts from Everest Group, an industry leader with a worldwide reputation for ongoing innovation, will highlight the structure and application of this powerful sales resource.

Featured Speakers:

• Dan Hudson, 3forward, President
• Carl Esposti, Everest Group, Principal of Sales and Market Development

Downloads

Finding, Creating and Managing Leads – Slides PDF

Click Here To Replay Webcast

View this webcast to discover how to accelerate top of the funnel lead creation, qualification, nurturing and conversion.  Also see real-world examples and learn, helpful suggestions and recommendations on all aspects of lead lifecycle management.

Speakers:
Dan Hudson, President, 3forward
Lisa Cramer, President, LeadLife Solutions

Revenue Planning Webcast – Slides PDF

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3forward Revenue Planner – Excel 2007 Template
3forward 2010 Revenue Planner v1.1Excel 2007

Download Zip File of Revenue Planner – (best for Internet Explorer users)

Making the annual sales number starts with a successful revenue plan.  It sounds basic enough, but many companies underestimate their real target when setting their most important top-line revenue goal.  Getting that number wrong in January almost guarantees missing it in December – a surprise Boards of Directors and shareholders can’t stand!

View this interactive webinar to learn our methodology for sales revenue planning.  We will reveal the forecasting traps many companies fall into and illustrate our formulas and models for successful multi-year revenue planning.   

What You Will Learn:

• A universal formula for calculating your real new revenue goal for 2010
• How to quickly determine the gap between your pipeline and your revenue requirements
• The two most missed numbers in the revenue planning equation
• How to better connect pipeline values to revenue forecasting
• The impact of sales acceleration on revenue attainment
• Sales force sizing and quota confirmation
• More…

Presenters:

- Dan Hudson, President, 3forward

- Matt Smith, Executive Vice President, 3forward

- Frank Casale, CEO, The Outsourcing Institute

Sales Leader Series #6 – Sales Dream Team – 11-5-09 – PDF

Join the Outsourcing Institute, 3forward and a premiere panel of marketing, communications and sales experts as we highlight strategies and approaches to putting today’s powerful tools to use in your marketing mix.

Guest Panelists:

• Brenna Garratt, CEO, The Delve Group
• Pablo Hernández O’Hagan, CEO, Ingenia Group
• Tony Coretto, Co-CEO, PNT Marketing Services

Moderated by:

- Dan Hudson, 3forward, President

- Frank Casale, CEO, The Outsourcing Institute

Who Should Attend
Sales Leaders
CEOs
Presidents
Marketing VPs

Sales Leaders Series Overview

Whether you are a veteran sales leader or new in the role, running a sales team is a tough job and most don’t get a long learning curve to get it right.  The fourth quarter provides an added set of challenges as sales leaders are doing everything they can to close business before year-end while planning and preparing for next year’s goals.   The Sales Leader Series is a straight to the point, fast paced round of tele-briefings, brought to you by The Outsourcing Institute and 3forward, two organizations with deep experience in winning sales models and sales excellence.   The cost is FREE, the information invaluable!

The Series features insightful content, best practices, subject experts across all aspects of the art and the science of selling, research data, buyer panels, 2.0 technology specialists and loads of real world examples.   Each briefing includes lots of open discussion and question and answer opportunities – it will be time well spent for anyone owning the revenue number.

Executive decision makers and outsourcing buyers discuss their rationale, decision and concerns – and this time you are in the room to hear it!   Think you know what gets you to down-select , or even past the first meeting?  Guess again as many tried and true ‘rules’ of the sales model are systematically broken down by this panel of experienced corporate outsourcing  leaders.

Hear answers to the questions like these:

• I sound the same as my competition.  What will make me stand out?
• When is it too early to begin ‘closing a sale’?
• How can I tell who is most the important member of a Buyer panel?
• I know I’m supposed to demonstrate innovation, but what do Buyers really want to know?
• What if I can’t / don’t / won’t lower my price when I’m told to ‘sharpen my pencil’?

Guest Panelists:

- Edward Susman, Senior Vice President, Relationship Manager, Citigroup

- Soumitra Rathod, Vice President, Worldwide IT Sourcing, McGraw-Hill

- Rahul Sen, Director Offshore Outsourcing, Global Shared Services, Wolters Kluwer

Moderated by:
- Dan Hudson, 3forward, President

- Frank Casale, CEO, The Outsourcing Institute

Who Should Attend
Sales Leaders
CEOs
Presidents
Marketing VPs

Sales Leaders Series Overview

Whether you are a veteran sales leader or new in the role, running a sales team is a tough job and most don’t get a long learning curve to get it right.  The fourth quarter provides an added set of challenges as sales leaders are doing everything they can to close business before year-end while planning and preparing for next year’s goals.   The Sales Leader Series is a straight to the point, fast paced round of tele-briefings, brought to you by The Outsourcing Institute and 3forward, two organizations with deep experience in winning sales models and sales excellence.   The cost is FREE, the information invaluable!

The Series features insightful content, best practices, subject experts across all aspects of the art and the science of selling, research data, buyer panels, 2.0 technology specialists and loads of real world examples.   Each briefing includes lots of open discussion and question and answer opportunities – it will be time well spent for anyone owning the revenue number.

Call us today to discuss and schedule or click titles below for more details.

Sales 2.0 Foundation

CEO Sales Readiness for 2010

Sales Readiness for 2010

All workshops include the following:

-        Full day on-site workshop with two 3forward Principals

-        2 one hour follow-up webinars on client selected topics

-        Client provided pre-event data incorporated into customized leave-behind tools

-        Includes up to 5 client participants

Our Sales 2.0 tele-briefing will help sales leaders find a path and a process to make sense of the technology – while keeping the focus on sales goals.  Areas explored include:

• Demand generation
• Lead optimization and management
• Prospect and competitor research and analysis
• Social networking
• Overall guidelines and recommendations

Moderated by:
- Dan Hudson, 3forward, President

- Frank Casale, CEO, The Outsourcing Institute

Featuring a panel of sales, marketing & technology specialists.

Sales Leaders Series Overview

Whether you are a veteran sales leader or new in the role, running a sales team is a tough job and most don’t get a long learning curve to get it right.  The fourth quarter provides an added set of challenges as sales leaders are doing everything they can to close business before year-end while planning and preparing for next year’s goals.   The Sales Leader Series is a straight to the point, fast paced round of tele-briefings, brought to you by The Outsourcing Institute and 3forward, two organizations with deep experience in winning sales models and sales excellence.   The cost is FREE, the information invaluable!

The Series features insightful content, best practices, subject experts across all aspects of the art and the science of selling, research data, buyer panels, 2.0 technology specialists and loads of real world examples.   Each briefing includes lots of open discussion and question and answer opportunities – it will be time well spent for anyone owning the revenue number.

The tough business climate is not letting up and extreme competition exists in every industry.  Aggressive pricing and quality delivery are not enough to differentiate one provider from the next and certainly not enough to close a sale.  Teams must be Sales Ready but many struggle at understanding what that really means, much less getting there.

Listen in with this high-powered panel to learn the ‘What’ and the ‘How’ for having your team Sales Ready for 2010, including these key takeaways and real examples of Sales Readiness Best Practices.

• Hiring exceptional people and creating winning teams
• Building achievable revenue plans
• Optimizing both direct and indirect channels
• How to identify, prioritize, contact and develop the right prospects
• Managing pipelines for success – not surprise
• Sales benchmarking approaches and benefits

Moderated by:
- Dan Hudson, 3forward, President

- Frank Casale, CEO, The Outsourcing Institute

Featuring a panel of subject matter experts, practitioners and sales veterans.

Sales Leaders Series Overview

Whether you are a veteran sales leader or new in the role, running a sales team is a tough job and most don’t get a long learning curve to get it right.  The fourth quarter provides an added set of challenges as sales leaders are doing everything they can to close business before year-end while planning and preparing for next year’s goals.   The Sales Leader Series is a straight to the point, fast paced round of tele-briefings, brought to you by The Outsourcing Institute and 3forward, two organizations with deep experience in winning sales models and sales excellence.   The cost is FREE, the information invaluable!

The Series features insightful content, best practices, subject experts across all aspects of the art and the science of selling, research data, buyer panels, 2.0 technology specialists and loads of real world examples.   Each briefing includes lots of open discussion and question and answer opportunities – it will be time well spent for anyone owning the revenue number.

Sales Leader Series #2 – Creating Qualified Opportunities – 3forward and OI – 9-24-09 – Final – PDF –