Business Development

The Striped Selling™ Curriculum
Teaching “Blues” to Sell to “Pinks”:

 

The Business Challenge:

Companies have been afraid to have conversations about male and female style differences. To date, most company cultures have functioned on male-brain-based rules To succeed, women had to be naturally oriented to this style (which some are) or learn to conform. This ultimately hasn’t been healthy for businesses. It makes it harder for half the potential talent pool to contribute and leads to business styles that are disconnected with half the marketplace.

Our Focus:

The Stripes model reframes assumptions about male and female style differences into a more productive tool. It is based on hard science, but is easy to use:

  • Basic concepts cut across multiple programs
  • Connects internal (training) and external (marketing) perspectives
  • Values all styles equally, so avoids defensiveness, blame or perceived superiority
  • Allows everyone to contribute more freely
  • Provides a vocabulary (and expectations) that let individuals work out differences more comfortably and provide more meaningful feedback
  • Turns personal differences into business advantage
  • Created by a “pink” and “blue” for “pinks” and “blues”

 

Key Modules:
  • Pink and Blue Selling Styles: Self Analysis
  • Creating sales approaches based on style
  • Leveraging logic and storytelling to satisfy Pink and Blue Types
  • Selling to “ couples”
  • Developing specific pitch strategies based on gender differences

 

Outcomes:

By participating in Teaching Blues to Sell to Pinks, participants will be able to:

  • Develop a sales process that generates higher close ratios
  • Articulate what to do and when with a prospect based on “hue”
  • Craft a story that’s meaningful and different
  • Respond credibly to questions and objections
  • Advance sales situations by persuading through engagement
  • Foster future business by delivering flawlessly

Teaching Women to Sell in Hyper-Competitive Markets:

 

The Business Challenge:

A continuing problem for women, and a surprising one for women in sales, is that even women who are good at “pitching” company offerings may not be good at pitching themselves. Leaders who are accustomed to men who come forward to promote themselves for opportunities may misread women’s lack of self-promotion as disinterest in advancement. In a survey of 900 corporate women conducted by Clear Peak Communications, only 12% of women agreed “most women are good at pitching for rewards and recognition at work”. 43 % of the same respondents agreed “most men are good at pitching for rewards and recognition at work”.

Our Focus:
  • Learn that the traits usually attributed to women – concern for others, creating community, attention to body language, flexibility, searching for alternatives – are all essential elements in a successful selling.
  • Provide participants with the basic concepts and skills necessary for all types of successful selling interactions.
  • Involve participants in the broadest spectrum of selling situations and applications necessary to cope with a rapidly changing world.
  • Enable participants to overcome basic problems that might otherwise prevent them from developing their own selling style and technique.
Key Modules:
  • Selling process over product
  • Leveraging information and insight to mean more to prospects
  • Exploring Needs: Investigative questions
  • Testing Options: Using client’s spoken words to advance the sale
  • Idea documents vs. proposals: When its Final, Its Final
  • Closing and Negotiating: Focusing on Interests vs. Positions
Outcomes:

By participating in Teaching Women to Sell in Hyper-Competitive Markets, participants will be able to:

  • Anticipate ways to create unique value, deliver usable information and provide professional insight to prospects of both genders
  • Open prospecting calls, ensuring positive first impressions, and transitioning outbound calls to face-to-face meetings
  • Develop an “elevator pitch” and conversation framework
  • Explore needs and playing back customer feedback to start shaping “solutions”
  • Close more business by developing “relationship reviews” that make it easy for prospects to say yes
  • Build and grow lasting client relationships

Building Better Sales Teams:

 

The Business Challenge:

Companies that are relying on internal competition for sales performance rather than focusing on external competition are fighting a losing battle. The old model no longer works. Salespeople are doing more business in teams since clients want more depth from the relationship. Plus, many teams are often not aligned with client personalities. Today’s sales solutions have a dynamic impact on the client and therefore, require expertise in many areas. No one rep can know enough about every product and service to complete the sale at every level.

Our Focus:

Team selling and team buying are the norm today - where a group of knowledgeable individuals presents a product or service to a committee that makes a buying decision. Our focus is on the buying process and how to align the team to supporting the selling process.

Key Modules:
  • Setting the Team Charter
  • The 4 Core Competencies of Effective Sales Teams
  • Establishing Team to Team Links
  • Assessing and Recruiting Team Talent
  • Role clarity: The What and When in Client Interactions
Outcomes:

By participating in Building Better Sales Teams, participants will be able to:

  • Identify team strengths and resources, as well as potential weaknesses
  • Maximize the natural advantages that result from the similarities and differences of team members
  • Work around—or minimize—team member potential weak spots
  • Identify an action plan with specific behaviors to help them improve their
  • Effectiveness with the team to add greater value to clients
  • Consider clients profile and needs vis a vis team membership skills
  • Add value to clients as they define it

 

Sales Leadership: Creating a Culture of Results:

 

The Business Challenge:

While more and more women are starting sales careers, the percentage of women making it up the sales management ladder continues to drop at every rung. Sales management jobs traditionally provide a pipeline to the executive suite: under-representation of women in sales management narrows the pipeline of potential contenders for top leadership roles early in careers. Often the expectations at the start of the recruiting process for sales people. In the past, companies may not necessarily have been looking for sales management potential when they looked at women for sales career management paths.

Our Focus:

Clear Peak focuses on 4 key competencies of high performing sales managers: Enabler of success: Coaching, developing and maintaining individual rep performance Sales Operator: Managing the P & L of the sales region: pipelines and forecasts Expert: Leveraging advice, insight and knowledge to support a rep's efforts Visionary: Helping people anticipate opportunity they can’t see for themselves.

Key Modules:
  • The Clear Peak Sales Process
  • Creating a Sales performance and career management bond
  • Setting performance objectives and coaching for goal attainment using qualification and pipeline tools
  • Cultivating links to other key departments within the organization
  • Giving and receiving performance feedback
  • Coaching salespeople through a reliable pipeline process
Outcomes:
  • Achieve sales targets more consistently
  • Create a more compelling relationship with their salespeople
  • Engage the total organization beyond Sales
  • Recruit, train, and retain the best sales talent
  • Help sales mangers gain greater satisfaction from their job
  • Create a sales team that is an extension of the brand