Events

Spring Retreat ~ February 27-28, 2012 ~ Houston, TX

Logistics:

  • Monday-Tuesday, February 27-28, 2012
  • Houston, Texas – We will be at the Hotel Indigo in the Galleria area of Houston. Either Houston airport is an option – Houston Hobby (HOU) or Houston Intercontinental (IAH). Taxi ride is estimated between $50-60 each way. If you would like to learn more about the area, please click here.
  • Hotel: Our retreat host hotel is the Hotel Indigo. We have a block of rooms reserved for $149 per night. Make your reservations by February 11, 2012. Rooms are on a first-come, first-served basis.
  • Retreat Cost: Price per attendee is $500
  • We will wrap up by 2 pm on Tuesday for those who wish to make travel arrangements. Travel time to either airport is between 30-90 minutes.
  • Register: Email Christine with a list of your firm attendees. Please RSVP as soon as possible, it really helps with planning! Thank you!
  • Note: SLAAA retreats are open to other members of your firm. Perhaps there is a second-generation leader who you are grooming who might benefit from attending. They are welcome to attend with you.

Retreat Agenda

Monday, February 27 – Encouraging Excellence – Skills for Growing Great Employees presented by Proteus International

Businesses often operate on the assumption that if someone is good at doing something, he or she will be good at managing others to do that same thing. Unfortunately, it’s not often the case. Managing others well requires specific understanding, attitudes, and skills that go beyond what most people learn in school or on the job.

Today, managers must be effective developers of people. Global competition, the cost of hiring and training, rapid shifts in technology, the increased expectations of today’s work force for professional growth – all of these factors are driving companies to focus on people as never before. Managers need to know what effective management looks like, why it’s important and how to do it so they can encourage excellence in each employee.

Each skill in this course has been selected to support you in this critical responsibility and each builds on the one before:

  • Listening: This foundational skill sets the stage for developing strong and committed employees. Participants talk about the costs and benefits of listening, and then learn and practice skills for doing it well.
  • Giving Feedback: One of a manager’s toughest – and most essential responsibilities. Participants learn how to give corrective feedback well, and practice giving both corrective and positive feedback.
  • Coaching: The group explores key elements of developing employees’ skills and capabilities, and explores a coaching model that incorporates these elements.

For over 20 years, Proteus International has offered practical methods and skills for individuals, teams and companies to clarify and then achieve their hoped-for-future.  They wrote the book on how to manage people effectively, Growing Great Employees.  It’s like the Boy Scout Handbook for people managers – outlining what it means to manage people, why it’s important, and how to do it. They offer powerful skill-based training for managers and leaders. Action Planning: Participants end the course by choosing specific back-at-work situations to use the course skills, making a commitment to keep exploring these new ways of behaving.

Tuesday, February 28 – Member presentation day

One of the greatest values that our members mention is the opportunity to learn from one another by sharing your successes, ideas and challenges. The second day of the retreat will feature presentations from your peers.

Thank you to the following members who volunteered to present at the retreat. We look forward to your presentations.

There is still an opportunity for one more member presentation. If you are interested, please let Christine know. 

Retreat Questions: Please  Email Christine if you have any retreat questions or special needs.

Spring Retreat Preview Call ~ 11:30 am ET Tuesday, January 24

If you ask leaders what’s the most challenging part of their job, most will tell you “dealing with the people stuff”.  You’re so busy, it’s hard to make time to be a good manager of people along with running your business.  And even when leaders make the time for people management, they don’t always know what to do.

Day 1 of the retreat will be centered on helping you get better at influencing, motivating and engaging people who work for you.

We are pleased to welcome Therese Miclot from Proteus International who will host our Retreat Preview Call 11:30 at ET Tuesday, January 24. She will give us an overview of day 1 and answer any questions.

For over 20 years, Proteus International has offered practical methods and skills for individuals, teams and companies to clarify and then achieve their hoped-for-future.  They wrote the book on how to manage people effectively, Growing Great Employees.  It’s like the Boy Scout Handbook for people managers – outlining what it means to manage people, why it’s important, and how to do it. They offer powerful skill-based training for managers and leaders.

For dial-in details, please email Christine.

Spring Retreat ~ February 27-28, 2012 ~ Houston, TX

Please save the date for your SLAAA Spring Retreat!

  • February 27-28, 2012, Monday and Tuesday
  • Houston, Texas

We are finalizing the first-day speaker and hotel logistics. 

Day 2 Presentations ~ What Can You Bring to the Conversation?
One of the greatest values that our members mention is the opportunity to learn from one another by sharing your successes, ideas and challenges. If you are interested in presenting a topic to the group, please let me know by January 15, 2012. There will be four sessions, each 60-75 minutes in length and can be any topic of your choosing. For example:

  • Something you implemented in your organization (or would like to implement), how you did it, what you learned and what were the results.
  • Something you learned that will benefit the group, perhaps you attended a workshop or seminar that had value.
  • A situation you are having that you would like input on, think of the group as your own board of directors.

If you are interested, please submit your topic suggestion to Christine with the following information:

  • Topic title
  • 3-4 bullets of description
  • Please submit by January 16, 2012

Fall Retreat ~ October 3-4, 2011 ~ Estes Park, CO

We are co-hosting our fall retreat with Sage. As part of their “Transition Journey” that was unveiled at Summit, Sage is offering a variety of learning opportunities for partners. One of these opportunities is the Sage Leadership Symposium. The Symposium is centered on personal leadership development and will be led by Eagles Flight.

Special Retreat Price for Current SLAAA Members: As part of your SLAAA membership, you will be eligible to attend the Symposium for $500 per person. Sage will be offering the Symposium to the entire partner channel for $2,500 per person. We appreciate Sage’s support of the SLAAA and the ability to offer this program to our membership at a special price.

Registration: To register for the retreat, simply email christine@choosegreat.com with your list of attendees.

CPE: We are pleased to offer CPE for attending the retreat.

Retreat Hotel: Our retreat hotel is the historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO. Hotel room nights are $159, which includes parking and internet. Our retreat hotel is the historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO. Hotel room nights are $159, which includes parking and internet. You can call 970-577-4000 and request the “SAGE” room block for the room rate or make your reservation on line. The hotel is a 90-minute drive from Denver Airport. Booking a return flight after 6 pm should give you plenty of time.

Retreat/Sage Leadership Symposium Agenda

This symposium is dedicated to the possibility that Sage Business Solutions can cultivate self-differentiated leaders among its longstanding partners which will expand business for both Sage and partners. Cultivating self-differentiated leaders is hard work as it requires partners and Sage to think differently than we have in the past about what the nature of leadership really is. It is not simply managing resources or paying attention to the numbers. Although those things are important, they do not get to the heart of leadership which is personal in nature.

Objectives

  • Assist partners in developing a deeper understanding of leadership
  • Identify and begin to overcome some of the personal barriers that have held them and their companies back
  • Develop a personal improvement plan for when they return from the experience
  • Understand that Sage truly desires to help them make any necessary important changes

Retreat Agenda

Monday, October 3

9 am-Noon Experiential Learning: Rattlesnake Canyon

This session will demonstrate how to create winning partnerships, understand the end customer’s needs and implement a strategy that creates value for both partners. In addition, it will demonstrate how the supply chain works, and where and how value can be added.

1-5 pm: Leading in Transitional Times

Leadership is most critical when the landscape is constantly shifting – unfortunately, this is also when it’s most challenging! Leaders must use business navigation tools to set the course through changing and turbulent waters.

Tuesday, October 4

8 am – Noon
Start with Why and Creating your “Why” Statement led by Ed Kless

The Self-Differentiated Leader: There are leaders and those who lead. In this session, Ed will look at the characteristics of the self-differentiated leader and how this idea is radically different from 99 percent of the leadership development material that is currently on the market.

Noon-2 pm: Lunch and small group dialogues

Retreat Questions: Please email Christine if you have any retreat questions or special needs.

Sage Summit Meet Up

Please join your fellow SLA alumni at the SLAAA Meet Up at Summit! You are welcome to bring fellow team members who are with you at Summit.

  • Monday, July 11
  • 6:30-7:30 pm ET
  • Chesapeake 6

Retreat XVI – Thursday-Friday, March 3-4, 2011, Fort Worth

Agenda:

Thursday, March 3: Marketing the Professional Knowledge Firm with Michelle Golden

How do you sell knowledge? Positioning your firm distinctly as a Knowledge Firm requires visibility and demonstrating credibility. The great news is that current technology facilitates this beautifully (and inexpensively) whereas old-school marketing is costly and tends to only weakly hint at credibility rather than make a compelling statement of it.

In this inspiring workshop, Michelle starts at the beginning, teaching a simple but flexible foundation from which to approach strategic marketing planning. She walks the group through on-site planning and our group will be able to get her feedback and each others’ as we progress through several plan stages in this workshop.

Michelle is only interested in teaching realistic approaches, with applicability and relevance in the day-to-day practice of the firm.  Her work with hundreds of professionals on personal planning means that she knows how to circumvent “stall out” that professionals often experience when trying to implement marketing & practice plans. What you’ll accomplish:

  • Learn 5 keys to a “do-able” plan
  • Recognize and strategize around Growth Pressure Points
  • Get your arms around YOUR purpose in marketing
  • Receive Michelle’s proprietary “Integrated Marketing Strategy Framework” planning tool
  • Understand how and why online marketing plays into the mix
  • Receive some on-site plan evaluation and feedback
  • Discover what and how to track progress, compare marketing channels, and alter your plans as results indicate

For those interested in learning how social media are relevant and advantageous for professional  knowledge firms, Michelle illustrates where traditional marketing approaches and new media intersect, and will talk about how to leverage LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and/or the holy grail of social media: blogs.
Enjoy this refreshingly practical session and walk away with a clear idea of how to approach your business development in 2011 and beyond.

About Michelle Golden

Michelle Golden, CPF, is a frank, personable business advisor with a deep knowledge of professional firm operations. On the forefront of innovative practice management strategies, she is a senior fellow of VeraSage Institute, is named in Accounting Today as one of Ten Most Powerful Women in Accounting (2009) and one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting (2010). Her 25+ year career background includes in-house marketing roles in CPA and law firms. Prior to that, Michelle was an accountant in the corporate headquarters of two public healthcare companies.

In a consulting role, she’s helped more than 100 firms achieve results such as: doubling revenue and improving proposal results, attracting top talent, effectively communicating their differentiation both online and off, developing and launching new products, and increasing customer longevity. Michelle teaches workshops and speaks professionally for a large number of organizations. Providing private practice management counsel, she leads strategic planning processes, marketing (niche and individual) planning methods, conducts 360 degree evaluations, facilitates problem solving, and inspires organizational improvement. Michelle brings groups to a path of progress in a constructive manner as a skilled facilitator of meetings and retreats and holds the International Association of Facilitators Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) designation.

She authored Social Media Strategies for Professionals and Their Firms: The Guide to Establishing Credibility and Accelerating Relationships (Wiley, 2010), co-authored Bull’s-Eye! The Ultimate How-To Marketing and Sales Guide for CPAs (AICPA, 2010) and developed the PCPS member Social Media Toolkit (AICPA, 2010).

More bio at: www.michellegolden.com

CONNECT & CONVERSE?
Link at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellegolden
Or Tweet at: http://www.twitter.com/michellegolden
Or Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/GoldenPractices

Friday, March 4

We are pleased to continue our marketing focus of the retreat with presentations from Dennis Frahmann, Sage’s EVP of Marketing, and Sophie Léguillette, Sage’s VP – Marketing – Mid-Market ERP. Dennis and Sophie, who plan to attend Michelle’s full-day workshop, will share with you the strategy they are working on and how that strategy is being delivered to the market.

Logistics:

  • Thursday – Friday, March 3-4, 2011 Fort Worth
  • Fort Worth, Texas  – We will be at the Embassy Suites Downtown, which is most accessible by DFW Airport; however Dallas Love Field (DAL) is an option, just a little farther taxi ride
  • Hotel: Our retreat host hotel is the Embassy Suites Downtown. We have a block of rooms reserved for $189. If you are sharing a room there will be an additional charge for the second person. Make your reservations by February 9, 2011. Rooms are on a first-come, first-served basis.
    Make a hotel room reservation
  • Cost: Price per attendee is $500
  • We will wrap up by 1:30 pm for those who wish to make travel arrangements. Allow one hour travel time to DFW Airport on a Friday afternoon.
  • Register: Email Christine with a list of your firm attendees. Please RSVP as soon as possible, it really helps with planning! Thank you!
  • Note: SLAAA retreats are open to other members of your firm. Perhaps there is a second-generation leader who you are grooming or a marketing person who might benefit from attending. They are welcome to attend with you.

Retreat XV – Thursday-Friday, October 14-15, 2010 – Chicago

Agenda:

Thursday, October 14

Our Thursday speaker is Ron Baker. Ron is known for his tremendous expertise in the area of value pricing, now referred to as pricing on purpose. In addition to authoring numerous books and speaking all over the world, he also is an ethics expert and has spoken to numerous professional organizations on this topic. Ron will cover both ethics and advanced pricing theory with SLAAA. Learn more about Ron at www.verasage.com.

Friday, October 15

We are pleased to have attendance commitment from Jodi Uecker-Rust and Tom Miller to join us on Friday. A final, confirmed agenda will be posted by September 3, 2010. We will wrap up by 3 pm for those who wish to make travel arrangements.

Retreat XIV – Thursday-Friday, March 4-5, 2010 Dallas, Texas

Agenda:

Thursday, March 4 – Suite 1325

  • 7:30-8 am – Hot breakfast
  • 8 am-3:30 pm – Streamlining the Sales Cycle with Joe Thomas, Ninety Five 5 – www.nf5.com

Joe is a dynamic speaker who has an insightful and practical approach to addressing tough selling and leadership challenges. We will take a 45-minute break for lunch.

He will cover:

  • Empathetic Listening
  • Executing GREAT Meetings
  • Handling Objections
  • Answering Questions

Click here for an entire course outline.

  • 4-5 pm: Ed Kless
  • 6 pm: Group dinner at Tolbert’s

Friday, March 5 – Suite 1325

  • 7:30 am – Hot breakfast
  • 8-10:30 am – Customer Experience, Doug Meyer
  • 10:45-12:30 – Real PR with Jeff Crilley – www.realnewspr.com

Learn how to incorporate PR into your overall marketing strategy including social media with Emmy-award winning journalist and author, Jeff Crilley.

  • 12:30 – Lunch

Retreat XIII – Thursday-Friday, October 15-16, 2009, Columbus, Ohio

We are pleased to welcome Jodi Uecker-Rust!

Agenda:

Wednesday, October 14

6-8 pm
Park Street Tavern
501 Park Street
Columbus, OH  43215

We will have hors d’oeuvres

Meeting Location – Greek Orthodox Church
The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church
555 North High Street
Columbus, OH  43215

Thursday, October 15

  • 8:15-10 am – Presentation and Q&A with Jodi Uecker-Rust
  • 10-12:30 – From Capacity to Knowledge, Ed Kless
  • 12:30-1:30 – lunch
  • 1:30-5 pm – Presentation from employment lawyer, Scott Warrwick
  • Group dinner at Joe Rotella’s home

Friday, October 16

  • 8-10 am – Transforming Your Sales Organization, Rob Johnson
  • 10-Noon – What’s Your Story, Dawn Westerberg
  • Noon – 1:30 – lunch and dialogue about the future of the organization

We plan to finish by 1:30 pm on Friday so you can make airfare reservations accordingly.

Speakers:

  • Jodi Uecker-Rust: Jodi plans to join us Wednesday, October 14 for a happy hour/meet and greet. If you would like to attend, please plan on arriving in Columbus by 6 pm. She will also speak to the group Thursday morning and plans to stay through lunch.
  • Rob Johnson - Transforming Your Sales Organization:  What drives real revenue growth in your organization? Who are your most productive and least productive salespeople?  What is your most profitable business line? What are the key elements to creating sustained superior performance? In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore the fundamental elements of creating sustainable revenue growth in your organization through improved sales productivity and strategic focus.
  • Dawn Westerberg - What’s Your Story?:  Winston Churchill said, “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”  Does the story of your firm captivate and inspire your employees, your customers and you?  In this workshop, you will identify the current story of your business and examine ways to rewrite and retell the story so that the true value and benefit of your services serve as an inspiration to those who provide them (employees) and those who need them (prospects and customers).
  • Ed Kless - From Capacity to Knowledge: This session will be dedicated to the possibility that professional organizations can make a successful transition form a focus on capacity planning to a focus on an understanding of their team’s collective and individual knowledge. This transition is challenging, requiring us to think differently how we look at our people and practices. We, the leaders, are the ones who must change before we will see the change in our teams. You are invited to open a dialogue on this process facilitated by Ed Kless.
  • Scott Warwick: Scott is a human resource consulting and employment law service expert. He will review topics such as social media policy, current HR law and legal hiring practices. More information on Scott can be found at: www.scottwarrick.com

Retreat XII – Monday-Tuesday, March 30-31, 2009

Kansas City, MO

This retreat will feature presentations from your SLAAA peers on Monday and on Tuesday sessions led by Blair Kolkoski, a strategic coach from the Center for Professional Development, and a session hosted by Ed Kless. Detailed agenda and retreat logistics are below.

Monday, March 30, 9am-5 pm: Monday will feature timely, relevant presentations from your SLAAA colleagues. Each session will last 60-75 minutes. This is a great opportunity to learn from one another. Here is what you can look forward to (in no particular order):

  • Human Capital and Retaining Employees: Stan Kania, Software Link
  • Making the Tough Decisions: Jacki Tiso and Kent Hollrah, JMT Consulting
  • Implementing Service Level Agreements, Jon Klubnik, Tandem Training, and Kristi Smith, Kristi Smith Consulting
  • The Buzz about Web 2.0 – What You Should Know and How It Can Help Your Business: Joe Rotella, Delphia Consulting
  • Transform Your Selling Process: Scott McMillian, Advanced Applications
  • Pricing on Purpose: Chris Burriss and Natalie Noel, HELP Solutions

Tuesday, March 31, 8 am-3 pm:

The morning session will feature a presentation from Blair Kolkoski, a strategic coach who helps small and medium size businesses align their core values with their business model while creating profit. Blair was recommended by a current SLAAA member. His presentation will cover:

  • The Five Pillars of Business Health: Practical solutions for your business.
  • Bottom line growth/Profitability: What is it? Where is it?
  • Why is it so challenging to get my team to see and support my business vision?
  • Why many businesses struggle. Practical strategies to get control of time, money and energy.
  • The retreat will conclude with a session led by Ed Kless on The Call of the Entrepreneur.

Retreat XI

Guest Speaker

Thursday, October 2, 2008, 9 am-5 pm

Join Doug McVadon, an organizational consultant and leadership development expert, for a full-day session where he will give you:

  • Specific insights into the way you listen “automatically,” and how your particular “listening filter” operates to sort information, including what you might miss, or fail to hear.
  • A new way to listen to complaints: being able to hear the commitment that is often “hidden” by the complaint.
  • The simple secret to effective meetings, based on requests and promises.
  • What brain science is teaching us about why our most reliable strengths contain our persistent limitations, and how you can recognize your own worst tendencies in advance.

Friday, October 3, 2008, 8 am-3 pm

  • 8-10 am: Nina Smith, President, Business Management Division, Sage Software: Presentation and Q&A
  • 10-Noon: Rob Johnson: Presentation: Thriving in a Down Economy
  • 1-3 pm: Ed Kless: Presentation: Confidence over competence: Why self esteem is the biggest problem in small businesses
  • Private Meet and Greet with John Maxwell at Insights
  • 2:30-3:30 pm Monday, May 12

John Maxwell is Insights’ opening keynote speaker. He is an internationally known business leader and author.

Organizational Development Tool Webinar

Noon CT, Wednesday April 23, given by Apryl Hanson

This webinar is open to any person in your firm.

Dynamic Email Marketing Webinar

Noon CT, Wednesday, April 30, presented by Dan Ogdon, SwiftPage Marketing

Retreat X

Topic

A year ago we set out to cover in-depth, each part of the following equation derived from research conducted by Xerox in the 1960s:

Employee Satisfaction Drives Customer Satisfaction, which Drives Profit

Our two prior retreats focused on Employees and Customers, now it is time to focus on Profit.

Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker is Phil Mydlach of Mydlach Management Advisors. Phil’s workshop Accelerating Profitable Growth will combine lecture, exercises and take-home tools that you can use in your business to help profitable growth. Learn more about Mydlach Management Advisors: http://www.mydlachmanagement.com/default.htm.

Agenda for the day.

Phil will be hosting a webinar Noon CT, Tuesday, January 29, 2008 to preview the agenda. Email Christine for dial-in details.

Retreat IX

Retreat Content
In the 1960s, Xerox conducted a research project that yielded: Employee Satisfaction Drives Customer Satisfaction, which Drives Profit.

Retreat IX will focus on the middle of the equation with sessions focused on customer satisfaction and the customer experience.

Schedule

Monday, October 15

Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, Church of the Customer

We are honored to have with us Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba (former channel marketing manager at IBM) authors of Citizen Marketers and Creating Customer Evangelists, which the NY Times has called “the new mantra for entrepreneurial success.” If you’re like most business operators, you know that word of mouth often has the biggest impact on the growth of your business. But how do you plan for it? How do you put word of mouth to work? This full-day workshop with marketing authors Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba will focus on the mechanics of word of mouth, including its newest accelerant: social media. Ben and Jackie will also set the framework for turning word of mouth into customer evangelism — when customers become volunteer sales people. Learn more: www.churchofthecustomer.com.

Tuesday, October 16

Apryl Hanson, Sage Software
Have you ever wondered if there was a way to link profitability to your client’s success and happiness. Through the work that Fred Reichheld and Bain and Company as presented in the book “The Ultimate Question” there is now proof that there is a direct correlation between a “Net promoter score” and profitability in your business. Learn how to determine the Net Promoter Score for your business and how you can change that score over time to increase your business’ profitability.

Colin Brogan, Satmetrix
Satmetrix was intimately involved with the creation of the 10-point scale that determines the Net Promoter score of an organization and worked directly with Reichheld on his book “The Ultimate Question”. In this session you will learn how to develop a customer corridor. A customer corridor will help you understand the unique customer touch points in your organization that will enable you to create a meaningful customer survey. When you have feedback from your customers you can work to improve your relationship with them and ultimately their experience with your firm. Customer loyalty directly ties to firm profitability.

Tuesday, October 16

Have you ever wondered if there was a way to link profitability to your client’s success and happiness. Through the work of Fred Richheld with Bain and Company as presented in the book “The Ultimate Question” there is now proof that there is a direct corelation between a “Net promoter score” and profitability in your business. Apryl Hanson will present how you can determine your Net Promoter Score and how to change that score overtime to increase the profitability in your business.

Customer Segmentation: Who Are Your Best Customers? And What Do You Do Once You Know?

Noon CT, Friday, April 27

Customer selection is a core element of firm profitability. Knowing and understanding who your best customers are will help you find more customers like them. However, most firms do not go through the process of determining the quality and traits of their best customers.

Save the date for this one-hour webinar featuring Michelle Golden of Golden Marketing. Michelle will take us through:

  • the value of customer segmentation
  • traditional segmentation methods
  • how to get started segmenting your customers

About Michelle Golden: Michelle Golden is President of Golden Practices Inc (goldenpractices.com) and Golden Marketing Inc (goldenmarketinginc.com). Golden’s organizational consulting and marketing implementation company works exclusively with professional service firms throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her 20-year career background includes both accounting and marketing. She is a true business “counselor” applying her strong knowledge of firm operations and excellent observation skills—she is also committed to being a change-agent and free-thinker as a senior fellow of VeraSage Institute (www.verasage.com). Michelle can be reached at (314) 416-1201 or michelle@goldenmarketinginc.com.

Retreat VIII

Retreat Content
In the 1960s, Xerox conducted a research project that yielded: Employee Satisfaction Drives Customer Satisfaction, which Drives Profit.

Retreat VIII will start at the left of the equation and focus on Employees. Subsequent retreats will do a deep dive on Customer Satisfaction and Profitability.

We are thrilled to welcome back Rand Stagen as Friday’s session leader. Rand will cover a variety of topics throughout the day including: Understanding People, Tapping Potential and Teamwork. http://www.stagen.com/institute/curriculum/

On Saturday, Howard Hansen, Howard Hansen Consulting, will lead us through designing and deploying performance management systems in your firm. Howard formerly worked for Great Plains as the Human Resources Vice President during Great Plains’ explosive growth (from 20 to 2,000 employees). There he led recruiting, performance management and leadership development initiatives. An industry veteran, Howard now is the president of True North Leadership Center and a frequent speaker at industry conferences, including ITA and The Partner Event. www.howardhansenconsulting.com

Nurture Marketing Webinar Featuring Jim Cecil

Friday, November 17, Noon ET

About the Webinar:

“We set a goal to generate our own leads (independent of a software publisher) and decided nurture marketing was a great approach for us to try. We’re more comfortable buiding relationships based on sharing information rather than pushing to generate immediate demand. We studied the materials, established a process, staffed it for success, and we’re already seeing results (only 4 months after our first batch of letters). Prospects call us when they are interested! They recognize us at trade shows! They read our emails! It’s still too early on for us to have closed a deal, but the pipeline is filling up with higher quality leads.” Joe Rotella, COO, Delphia Consulting

Situation:

FACT: Most sales opportunities are lost due to the inability or unwillingness of partner’s sales people to pursue slow adopting prospects over elongating buying processes.

Problem:

REALITY: The relentless pursuit of low-hanging fruit often precludes the persistent education and cultivation of otherwise viable sales opportunities due to the lack of consistent, intelligent and automated follow-up.

Solution:

“Nurturing Customer Relationships” It’s a Cure for the Common Cold Call

The Nurture Selling Process is a systematic process used to Identify, Individualize, Interact with and Influence Prospects and Clients, to grow top of mind awareness of and preference for the partner and to sell their specific solutions.

5 ways to find and communicate with logical, targeted prospects

1 method to articulate your unique selling proposition and present highly targeted elevator speeches

12 Communiqués that professionally and persistently communicate your exact message of competency and benefits.

3 Keys to getting your mail opened, read, understood and remembered.

Benefits

Learn proven ways to create your own selling opportunities.

Help sales reps stay in touch long enough to earn the deal without adding to their daily workload

Utilize your own technology to illustrate a key benefit of your solution (Drip-Marketing)

Grow your business to the size and value you desire as fast as you want

Leverage existing client relationships as new opportunities emerge

Proactively drive qualified referrals

Explore actual results to be expected from real users of the process and from it’s creator, Jim Cecil

A free copy of Jim’s eBook, 101 Best Nurturing Tips just for attending

If you would like to learn more before the webinar, please visit www.NurtureMarketing.com.

Alumni Retreat VII

Featuring Mahan Khalsa!

Friday-Saturday, September 15-16, 2006 Dallas , TX

8 am-5 pm

Closest airport is DFW, Love Field is about a 25-minute drive
Optional Group Dinner Thursday evening at 6:30 pm, Colter’s BBQ

Retreat Highlights:
Friday

Next-Level Leadership with Rand Stagen

Strategic Planning for Partner Organizations

Compensation Systems – please fill out the survey you receive to make this session more valuable

Jim Foster, Sage Software Executive

Group dinner

Saturday

Full-day with Mahan Khalsa: Topic will be Presenting and Closing!
The final, confirmed agenda will be sent to you via email by August 31.

Retreat is open to current association members only! You should have received a green envelope with dues information for this association year, September 1, 2006-August 31, 2007.

Retreat Questions: Please email Christine if you have any retreat questions.

Topics and speaker subject to change. A final agenda will be sent to you by August 31.