Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Account team members/sales and functional support, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role

The margin for error in business today is razor-thin, so why take chances on something as fundamental as understanding your customers’ needs?

The latest HubSpot research indicates that 85% of decision makers expect their SAM to understand the real impact that their solution has on the company’s performance. But, because many SAMs focus solely on their solution, less than 14% understand and can articulate this impact.

This breakout is based on research with over 200 decision makers and shares the methodology of the five pivotal conversations that advance and close sales: business, financial, technical, competitive, risk.

Pivotal conversations take out the guesswork and dependence on “gut feelings” by leveraging the most impactful areas in sales conversation and developing practical, repeatable approaches for each one.

Takeaways:

• Rapidly understand the true customer situation.
• Uncover the real issues a customer considers before making a buying decision.
• Answer objections to frame your offering in positive ways.
• Focus proposals on the “sweet spot” in the decision maker’s thinking.
• Communicate accurate “decision status” to sales management.

Presenters:
Ed Wallace, Managing Director, AchieveNEXT
Grant Wallace, Strategic Account Manager, AchieveNEXT

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Account team members/sales and functional support

Building strong relationships with strategic accounts requires more than just technical expertise. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) plays a crucial role in navigating complex customer dynamics, influencing decision-makers, and driving long-term partnerships.

This session will equip you with the knowledge and skills to leverage EQ in your strategic account management practice. You'll discover how to:

• Recognize the significance of EQ in building trust, credibility, and loyalty with key stakeholders.
• Examine the critical role of EQ in strategic account management and its impact on business growth and retention.
• Apply EQ strategies and tactics to enhance your ability to read, respond to, and influence key stakeholders' emotions.
• Assess and develop your EQ skills through interactive exercises, and group discussions.

By integrating EQ into your strategic account management approach, you'll be better equipped to foster deeper connections, anticipate customer needs, and drive sustainable revenue growth.

Presenter:
Heidi Tripp, Program Manager Customer, Axis Communications
Katie Berberian, HR Business Partner, Axis Communications

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, Talent Management/HR/Learning & Development

The role of a strategic account manager (SAM) is exciting, engaging, and maybe somewhat intimidating. There are so many stakeholders to serve, and SAMs can find themselves stretched beyond capacity. Meanwhile, the customer expects a SAM to be a resource manager, a communicator, and most of all, a trusted advisor. Earning that position in the customer’s eyes is challenging for even the most experienced SAM. So, how can a newer SAM come up to speed quickly?  

This session is designed to help strategic account managers strengthen critical skills that enable them to be an advisor to their customer, including:

• Understanding the customer’ business and needs
• Developing a network of supporters and influencers
• Understanding and communicating business value and competitive differentiation
• Communicating effectively internally and with the customer  

This session is fast-paced and application-oriented. Participants are encouraged to bring live customer situations to the workshop and apply the learnings to realworld opportunities to get the most out of this workshop.

Presenter:
Mark Shonka, Co-CEO, IMPAX

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM’s; SAM leaders; training & development; all maturity levels

The presentation element of the buy/sell cycle is critical to the success of strategic account relationships. To be effective, you must deliver business and relationship review presentations across all levels of the customer’s organization and at various stages of the sales and relationship management cycles. The challenge of balancing effective presentation content with professional, compelling delivery is often a deal breaker. This session addresses and elevates the skills required to successfully compete in a variety of business-to-business presentation situations while differentiating your company and its offerings from that of your competition.

Topics covered on how to:

• Create competitive differentiation by leveraging presentations at different points in the sales and relationship management cycle.
• Develop customer focused sales and relationship management presentations.
• Deliver compelling presentations that engage your audience and drive the desired action.

Presenter:
Dan Kosch, Co-CEO, IMPAX

Level: Expert/Next

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

This session focuses on the difference between managing and leading and how SAMs can hone their skills in each area. We will explore both internal (your own team) and external (your customer's team) managing and leading. The session will detail the different styles you can employ, drawn from my experience with what works with each type of team member and how to position yourself with your customers to not only ensure customer satisfaction but also engage various customer personnel to 'join your team' for their success. Attendees are encouraged to share success stories to help everyone in the session learn from their experiences.

Bill Moore, adjunct professor of business at Delaware County Community College and President of IPS, brings his decades of business experience leading and managing high performing teams across multiple customer types.

Presenter:
Bill Moore, President, Industrial Profit Strategies

Level: Expert/Next

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Account team members/sales and functional support, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, C-level/senior executive strategist, decision-maker, geographic head, executive sponsor, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

Speaking with strategic account managers, winning internal support is one of their biggest challenges in achieving their strategic account goals. During this session, we will explore two key aspects:

1. What are best practices for SAMs to make this process more successful?
2. What does the organization need to do to enable and support the SAMs?

By the end of the session, you will be able to assess your current situation against best practices we have observed working with some of the world's largest companies and their SAMs. Our aim is to give you new ideas as to how you can improve internal support for your SAMs and ultimately your strategic accounts.

Presenter:
Dave Cusdin, Global Account Director, Mercuri International
Will Pritts, Global Account Director, Mercuri International

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Account team members/sales and functional support, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, C-level/senior executive strategist, decision-maker, geographic head, executive sponsor, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

As a strategic account manager, you master the path to competitive advantage and growth. Doing so means to evolve into both an ecosystem leader and a thought leader for your strategic account. This involves developing a profound understanding of market dynamics, along with a deep comprehension of your customer’s strategic initiatives, objectives, and current challenges — both at the organizational and individual levels. Mastery of advanced discovery skills is essential to this role.

The insights gained from discovery conversations form the foundation for crafting customer-specific value propositions and highlighting competitive advantages. Furthermore, it will help to strengthen collaboration beyond boundaries and enhance your network, which is critical to building stronger relationships and fostering innovative solutions that address customer challenges effectively.

In this session, strategic account managers will learn advanced discovery techniques to extract deeper, more relevant insights from their interactions. Participants will also explore strategies to collaborate across disciplines, organizations, and geographies to uncover new opportunities. Additionally, they will gain access to a unique conversation framework that fosters meaningful dialogue with customers, captures value, and drives sustainable growth.

Presenter:
Marcus Redemann, Management Partner, Mercuri International

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Account team members/sales and functional support, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, C-level/senior executive strategist, decision-maker, geographic head, executive sponsor, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

Participants will build a roadmap for strategically engaging their accounts for growth. The session begins with an understanding of what it means to be truly strategic in their planning. Following a basic understanding of the concepts of strategy, participants will select an account to walk through the process of how to more effectively/strategically engage with their account moving forward.

This session is about working with SAM/KAM/GAM/NAMs to help them strategically plan for where and how to allocate their time and resources for them to have the greatest impact in achieving their desired goals. This isn’t a deep dive into a single element of strategic planning but a more holistic approach to understanding how all elements of strategical planning work together.

PMI will provide participants with a fresh strategic mindset for engaging with their accounts as well as a benchmarking method to evaluate their positioning in four key strategic impact areas. The session will begin with a light, fun-filled, fast-moving exercise to help participants understand the concepts of strategic engagement. The focus of this exercise will be to illustrate how achieving your desired objective (number, quota, sales etc.) is the result of a series of well thought-out, planned, intentional engagements that focus on several specific impact zones. Participants will have the opportunity to brainstorm at their tables to identify potential key factors that have the greatest impact on achieving their desired objective. Following the table talk, the session will transition into building out the roadmap utilizing these key impact factors and discussions about each factor:

• Value: Defining value through the customer’s eyes
• Alignment With Customer Value Defined: How well does our product/service align?
• Relationships: Determining who is on the stakeholder map and assessing the relationships
• Growth: How these first three impact factors can be applied to creating a growth plan

This session’s primary objective is teaching participants how to think more strategically about their account engagement. The focus for this session is on the proven impact zones that influence results and what specific actions can be taken to move the needle in these accounts. The session will close with participants having valuable insights into their specific accounts by benchmarking where they are regarding each impact zone within their selected accounts and developing a prescriptive approach to how to grow their accounts in 2025 and beyond.

Presenter:
Scott Benjamin, Partner, Performance Methods Inc (PMI)

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Account team members/sales and functional support, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

A brand promise is a value or experience that a company's customers can expect every single time they interact. For example, Geico’s brand promise is “15 minutes or less can save you 15% or more on car insurance,” while Salesforce’s is, “We make software to bring companies and customers together.” The more the company can ensure that promise, the stronger the brand value.

Understanding the customer’s perspective of your brand promise and how it aligns with their values is critical for long-term relationship success and trust. To gain a deeper understanding of those points of views, TreviPay conducts “Brand Promise Interviews" that delve much deeper into the customer experience than a survey, and prompt candor from customers in an unbiased approach.

In this session, TreviPay’s team will walk you through its science-backed Brand Promise Interview framework of conducting, analyzing, and documenting the conversation as well as equip you with takeaways to help you and your teams capture and address misalignments that could have gone unnoticed.

By the end of the session, you will understand how to:

• Capture the four main categories of the customer journey experience, from the initial understanding of the product to current use, ensuring the brand promise addresses what they value at each point.
• How to break down and categorize the learnings into three focus areas.
• Assign and address the findings.

Presenters:
Jason Davis, Director, Account Management Operations, TreviPay
John Kille, Head of UX, TreviPay
Joe Marsh, Director, Account Management, TreviPay

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Account team members/sales and functional support, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM

Ineffective communication can hold SAMs back, whereas tight, well-constructed messaging can set the tone of their customer relationships, inspire customer confidence, and ensure the SAM is seen as a trusted advisor.

Without productive communication, SAMs risk missed opportunities on deals, dwindling engagement and productivity, and diminished satisfaction — from both internal team members and valued customers.

In this session, BUILD POWERFUL STRATEGIC MESSAGES™ that address communication challenges head-on by equipping SAMs with four essential messaging skills that help deepen customer engagement and encourage productive communication to drive immediate, measurable business results.

Presenter:
Michael Albert, Senior Consultant and Communications Coach, Vantage Partners
David Chapnick, Partner, Vantage Partners

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Account team members/sales and functional support, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM

Driving business growth requires more than just data; it requires compelling storytelling that touches people on a human level. In just a few short years, WBM has grown from a small equipment supplier to a regional powerhouse employing 700 people, and winning awards such as the HDI Global Best Service and Support Organization and Elite 150 Managed Service Provider in North America. One of their secrets to this accelerated growth has been how they conduct customer business reviews.

This presentation, led by Adrian Davis, President of Whetstone Inc, and Ryan Jeffery, one of WBM executives, will delve into the art and science of using storytelling in customer business reviews to drive increased revenue and foster deeper client relationships. By sharing real-world examples, including a case study from a top customer, we will demonstrate how crafting narratives around data insights and personal achievements can transform business reviews into powerful tools for creating customer heroes and igniting emotional connections.

Attendees will leave equipped with actionable strategies to turn every business review into a celebration of partnership success, ensuring continuous momentum and engagement.

Join us to unlock the secret sauce of storytelling that turns numbers into narratives and clients into champions.

Presenters:
Adrian Davis, President, Whetstone Inc.
Ryan Jeffery, Director, Commercial Partnerships, WBM Technologies

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

In every negotiation, the right questions can uncover opportunities within your accounts that you didn’t even know existed. Using a live simulation, this session will show participants how asking the right questions at the right time can lead to better outcomes and stronger relationships. By introducing SNI's probing model, you will have a process to uncover true needs, interests, and pain points of your clients moving forward. Join us for an engaging and educational session that will sharpen your negotiation skills!

Presenter:
Jeff Cochran, Partner, Shapiro Negotiations Institute

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, Talent Management/HR/Learning & Development

Organizations face significant pressure to operate efficiently and effectively, especially when staffing falls below required levels. Success depends on balancing the demands of required efforts and actions with the personal needs, challenges, and expectations of team members. This program focuses on identifying the highest of high-value activities that help ensure team members are engaged to deliver optimum results. We will explore how to translate behaviors into measurable metrics and effectively coach and track them for success. This session will provide a methodology and approach for building an optimized, fully engaged team.

Key learning points:

• Right behaviors (internal and external) that
    - Ensure team members are engaged with organization and SAM program
    - Deliver results
• Converting behaviors into metrics
    - Qualitative vs. quantitative measurements
    - Lagging vs. predictive behaviors
    - Performance metrics that demonstrate forward progress and high levels of engagement
• How to capture and reinforce metrics and right behaviors
    - Coaching and recognition
    - Making appropriate adjustments
• Meeting challenges and optimizing opportunities

Presenter:
Dennis Chapman, CEO & President, The Chapman Group

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: SAM/KAM, SAM Leaders, SAM Managers, Sales and Marketing Professionals

Have accounts claimed your pricing is too high or threatened to shift business away because of price? After years of price increases, procurement organizations are newly invigorated and committed to recapturing “value” through cost reductions. When accounts demand a “fair and reasonable” price reduction, will you be ready?

Join us for a deep dive into the world of pricing pushback! Learn accounts’ latest price reduction tactics and how you can use these insights to your advantage. In this interactive, hands-on workshop, you will apply a proven framework and tools that help you convert pricing pressure into new opportunities to grow your business and deliver greater value for your organization.

During the workshop, you will participate in realistic online simulations that allow you to “role play” typical account pricing pressure. This interactive and practical workshop is led by negotiation experts with decades of experience working closely with both strategic account and procurement organizations. You will be able to apply the methodologies and tools from the workshop right away. Learn how to handle today’s pricing pressure and unlock new value going forward at even the most price-focused accounts!

Presenter:
John Shulman, President, Alignor
Ceynur Nake, Business Development, Alignor
Pam Shulman, Director of Strategic Relationships, Alignor

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, Talent Management/HR/Learning & Development.

In this session, participants will select a strategic/key account and benchmark against team-to-team alignment best practices (customer stakeholders aligned with your cross-functional team members) to accelerate account growth. PMI will provide participants with a proven approach for brainstorming, designing, building, and implementing an effective alignment strategy to drive proactive growth with strategic and key customers in 2025 and beyond!

The session will begin with a self-assessment to help participants determine the current state of their team-to-team alignment execution, providing a baseline from which to strategize proactive alignment and relationship growth within strategic and key accounts. The focus will then shift to building an effective strategy, as participants will explore how to create the “zipper effect” (enhanced team-to-team alignment) through the application of proven best practices:

• Aligning your cross-functional account team (core and extended members).
  - Understanding what’s most important to each (their “wants” and “needs”).
• Identifying your customer’s key stakeholders and how they define value.
  - Understanding what’s most important to each (their “wants” and “needs”).
• Developing your account “zippering strategy” to align your team with the customer’s team.
  - Making the connections that will position you for account growth.
• Leveraging team-to-team alignment to identify potential areas of growth and expansion.
  - Identifying and evaluating target areas for account growth and value co-creation.
• Pressure-testing your account “zippering strategy” and preparing to execute.

Specific areas of emphasis of this how-to session will include the primary dynamics in leading a ‘coalition of the willing’ and create a more effective “zippering strategy.” The session will close with participants identifying and prioritizing follow-up focus areas to strengthen their team-to-team alignment and enhance their growth strategies.

Presenter:
Scott Benjamin, Partner, Performance Methods, Inc.
Craig Jones, Managing Director, Performance Methods, Inc.

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/KAM, account team members/sales and functional support, managers of NAM/SAM/KAM, SAM program heads, C-level executive sponso

Can your customer articulate the value of partnering with you and your organization when you are not present? What would they say to their leadership when asked why they should continue to work with you and your organization? Is it in their words, or is it your terminology? Is it clear, concise, and compelling?

In today's competitive landscape, SAMs and KAMs must equip and enable customers to articulate the value and business outcomes they receive beyond price. This requires leveraging the entire organization to co-create value and differentiate themselves from the customer’s from other options.

In this interactive session, you'll learn actionable insights and tools to empower your key sponsors to become influential advocates. We'll move beyond discounts and rebates, exploring how to co-create and articulate value clearly, concisely, and in a compelling manner. Specifically, you will learn to:

• Conduct targeted research to deeply understand your customer.
• Craft compelling reasons for engagement.
• Discover and validate what your customer values most.
• Articulate value in a clear, concise, and compelling manner.
• Leverage past successes to drive future value co-creation.

Presenter:
Craig Jones, Managing Director, Performance Methods Inc (PMI)

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, Talent Management/HR/Learning & Development

What does it mean to manage your account with a ‘CEO Mindset?’ It means managing the account ‘like a business,’ leading your account team with a vision for strategic growth and activating your account plan as a ‘business plan’ to guide the actions you and your team take to co-create customer value.

When SAMs and KAMs include elements of the CEO Mindset model in their approaches to strategic customer management, the impact can be significant: for the account manager, for their cross-functional team members, for their organizations, and for their customers.

In this interactive 60-minute working session, participants will select a strategic/key account and benchmark their execution of SAM/KAM best practices against the CEO Mindset model. As the model is unpacked, key areas of emphasis and discussion will include:

• Co-Discovering and Co-Creating Customer Value
    - What matters most to my customer “investors” and how can I collaborate with them?
• Aligning Your Resources with Customer Objectives and Success
    - What business outcomes and ROI does my customer expect from me, my team, and organization?
• Expanding and Leveraging Your Customer Relationships
    - How can I build trust-based relationships that enhance our synergies with customers?
• Establishing Strategic Direction for Business Growth and Expansion
    - How can I think like an “entrepreneur” and develop new sources of revenue?
• Leading, Influencing, and Coaching Your Cross-Functional Team
    - How can I provide vision and lead my team in the pursuit of business growth?

Attendees will leave the session with an understanding of the CEO Mindset model for managing and growing relationships with strategic and key customers and identifying and prioritizing focus areas that can be shared and strategized with their cross-functional account team members post-conference.

Presenter:
Steve Andersen, President and Founder, Performance Methods Inc (PMI)

Date/Time: TBA

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

Organizational silos often present significant challenges to delivering seamless value to strategic customers. This session explores the critical “why” behind integrating silos through the lens of strategic account management. Participants will gain insight into the inherent issues and barriers that silos create, alongside practical levers to foster integration, including leadership-driven communication, operating models, structured cadences, and other tools.

Through real-world narratives, the session delves into the art of implementing these strategies, balancing progress with the ongoing challenges of siloed environments. Attendees will leave with actionable insights and a nuanced understanding of how to integrate customer silos, ultimately enhancing customer outcomes and driving long-term success.

Presenter:
Hajo Rapp, SVP Strategic Account Management & Sales Excellence, TÜV SÜD AG

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, Talent Management/HR/Learning & Development

Strategic account management in a global setting necessitates the careful alignment of internal stakeholders to ensure cohesive and effective operations. In decentralized organizations, the ability to lead without formal authority becomes a critical skill, enabling managers to influence and guide teams across various regions and functions. Proper account planning serves as the cornerstone for achieving stakeholder alignment, providing a structured approach to managing relationships and driving organizational success.

During this session, we will share some of the best practices we have identified over the years in the deployment of strategic account managers with global responsibilities. In addition, we will focus on some of the softer skills required to activate and sustain long-term relationships with members of the account ecosystem. Finally, we will look at effective account planning processes to ensure proper alignment across members of the account teams.

Presenter:
Guillermo Vigna, Head of Strategic Account Management, Endress+Hauser Group Services
Jacques Orbach, Head of Strategic Business Program, Endress+Hauser Group Services

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

Bringing groundbreaking innovations to life isn’t just about R&D — it’s about mastering the art of commercialization. For strategic account managers (SAMs) and key account managers (KAMs), the stakes have never been higher. Companies often excel at developing cutting-edge products but struggle to translate those innovations into revenue. Why? Our research reveals that the challenges stem from inadequate processes, insufficient training, and a misalignment of talent management strategies.

Join this session to uncover exclusive findings from a comprehensive study of over 2,500 sales professionals, hundreds of interviews with senior leaders, and groundbreaking academic research. We’ll dive into the specific challenges sales teams face when bringing new products to market and the distinct approaches required to overcome customer objections and adoption barriers. You’ll learn:

• The new sales process: Why selling innovations demands 35% more customer-facing time and how to strategically allocate resources for maximum impact.
• Behavioral insights: What differentiates salespeople who thrive in selling new products, including traits like grit, adaptability, and a learning mindset.
• Overcoming resistance: Strategies to navigate customers’ hesitation as they grapple with risks, process disruptions, and organizational resistance during later buying stages.
• Strategic account management (SAM) best practices: How SAMs play a pivotal role in launching new products, creating alignment between sales organizations and customers, and fostering trust for long-term growth.
• Training that works: Why product showcases aren’t enough and how competency assessments, customized training, and psychological profiling of ideal customers can transform sales effectiveness.

This highly engaging session will offer actionable strategies for sales leaders to equip their teams with the tools, behaviors, and processes needed to close the gap between innovation and adoption. Through real-world examples and insights, you’ll gain a competitive edge in driving organic growth and maximizing the ROI of your organization’s R&D investments.

If you’re ready to transform your approach to selling new products and lead your team to success in today’s dynamic market, this session is for you. Don’t miss the opportunity to gain research-based insights that will reshape your commercialization strategies!

Presenter:
Michael Ahearne, Professor, University of Houston
Johannes Habel, Associate Professor of Marketing, C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, managers of NAM/SAM/GAM,SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, Talent Management/HR/Learning & Development

Even when your solutions are excellent, it’s always hard to tell a complex story well, and it’s getting more so as sales meetings become shorter and more unpredictable. We need to build outstanding sales narratives, but even if you have a great story, can you still tell it well enough if the customer cuts your time to 15 minutes? Or five? Or even if they ask you to deliver it in the parking lot (as happened to one of our clients recently)?

In this double workshop, Tim Pollard, CEO of Oratium, will unpack the two critical skillsets of world-class messaging.

Part #1: DESIGNING a world-class solutions story. We will discuss how to:

• Build messages that “fit” the way the brain works.
• Achieve true customer/problem-centricity.
• Articulate a clear and compelling value proposition.
• Achieve memorability and “re-tellability.”

Part # 2: DELIVERING that message with “conversational agility.” We will discuss how to:

• Prepare effectively for a critical conversation.
• Leverage questions for our advantage.
• Manage a conversation toward the outcome we desire.
• Communicate in a way that builds trust, and most importantly…
• How to master “conversational agility” — the ability to tell the story effectively, regardless of any unpredictable changes the customer throws at you.

Oratium is a leader in the field of sales messaging excellence. In both workshops, Tim and team will teach using examples from real client sales and messaging situations.

Presenter:
Tim Pollard, CEO, Oratium

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

We’ve all been there. Top-to-tops can be a colossal waste of time and energy and can end up doing more harm than good. Come learn how ZS has helped companies enable a more consistent and best-in-class top-to-top capability and educate their organization around it to get the most out of these important SAM engagements.

Presenter:
Todd Burgess, Senior Director of Business Consulting, ZS Associates
Namita Powers, Principal, ZS Associates

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, talent management/HR/Learning & Development

We call BS on negotiations being random. Negotiation has long been thought of as unpredictable and hard to measure. Sadly, that’s how most legacy training companies and enterprise sales organizations define it and treat it. The result? Long lists of tactics and countermeasures that prepare your team for, well, “random.”

You’ll learn a different approach in this session to guide your customer negotiation strategy. Our research shows that buyer tactics are 97% predictable and fall into two just categories. We already know how the negotiation conversation unfolds — for new customers and renewals. Based on this knowledge, you can systematically blueprint your negotiation by answering just three questions. Easy. SAMs can do it; managers can coach it. This is a two-part session in which you will be able to blueprint your own upcoming live customer negotiation and walk away with actionable strategies for you internal and external customer.

Presenter:
Carrie Welles, Partner, Think, Inc.

Level: All audiences

Recommended audience: NAM/SAM/GAM, Account team members/sales and functional support, Managers of NAM/SAM/GAM, SAM program heads, director or other senior management SAM org. role, C-level/senior executive strategist, decision-maker, geographic head, executive sponsor

Prepare yourself for an engaging and insightful session! Undoubtedly, when we are with our customers, we all say that we sell value. Of course we do, that’s the mantra of a SAM: value, value, value. But how often do you find that progress stumbles, objections arise, and despite everything you’ve done, you don’t achieve the prize?

During this session, you will think critically about:

1. Understanding Customer Needs: Start by deeply understanding the specific needs and pain points of your customers. This will help you tailor your value proposition effectively.
2. Quantifying Value: Using data to quantify the value your solution brings. This can include cost savings, efficiency improvements, or other measurable benefits.
3. Engaging Different Stakeholders: Different stakeholders may have different priorities. Make sure to address the unique concerns and interests of each stakeholder involved in the decision-making process.
4. Continuous Learning: Sales is an ever-evolving field. Keep learning from each experience and continuously refine your approach.

So, sit back, fasten your seatbelt, and take a fresh look at how you sell value!

Presenter:
Chris Wells, Director Strategic Accounts, bioMerieux