By Dan Baldwin, Editor
951-251-5155 email
I'm in Denver this week to attend the 2012 Alliance Expo put on by CenturyLink for their top several hundred telecom agents and channel partners from across the US.
The first event was yesterday afternoon and was a 4-hour sales training session put on by Corporate Visions called "Power Messaging".
The session was led by sales trainer Steve Hub. The session started off with great anticipation by the 100+ agents in the audience but then kind of ground through a slow first hour I think due in large part that it took that long for him to get his microphone working right - no one could really hear him all that well.
Once the PA system got fixed the power of the sales messaging techniques they were trying to teach really started to become clear. The very best content came out in the last 45-minute session.
This was the third vendor sponsored "sales process training" I've been through in 2 years and I think it's some of the best free sales training available for agents and partners. Steve said he was condensing a 2-day course to 4-hours. I guess the retail price of the training package is pretty expensive if you have to buy it yourself.
While all agents love free sales training that's really worth money, the biggest problem with this training was that it got everyone in attendance wanting to take it to the next level. They wanted to get the slides so they could go back and try to re-invent the sales solution once they got back to their office.
Unfortunately there were no slides to be taken home. If you didn't take good notes you were out of luck.
If I was to make a recommendation for next year it would be to have a sales trainer present that the attendees could "buy into" at the end of the session with a discount offered to highly productive or profitable partners. Just an idea...
After the 4-hour sales training the next event was a 2.5 hour table top trade show and cocktail party. This was pretty great as it allowed any of the partners to mingle directly with all the individual CenturyLink employees in the different departments that they usually interface only over the phone.
Second Day - Executive Overviews & Breakout Sessions
I'm actually writing this blog post during all the executive briefings and the keynote speach by Timothy Chou speaking on the Seven Business Models of Cloud Computing.
It's all pretty interesting and I'm listening politely but I'm really looking forward to the breakout sessions that are going on this afternoon.
I'll try and write that up after it happens.
Hot Dinner Tip
If you're looking for a great place to eat and hear music downtown Denver you have got to try out the Appaloosa Grill.
Nancy and I came upon it by accident on 16th stree looking for some place pretty cool. Turns out the Appaloosa Grill has terrific food that is priced much lower than I expected and they have live music every night at 10pm with no cover charge.
It was great. We had the the salmon salad, green chile soup, Caesar salad & flat iron stead and then stayed for a set and a half of music from a trio called GoGoLab!
Appaloosa Grill is very good. Looking forward to reading more about your thoughts during the event. Thanks for sharing Dan!
Posted by: Hollie | 01/19/2012 at 10:45 AM