Center for Sales Innovation

Help Wanted: Take the Inside Sales Survey and Learn from Others

A national survey about inside sales skills is underway by a 3M Frontline task force, the Center for Sales Innovation and universities with sales curricula. The research objective is to understand this coverage model and develop a competency model for better preparing sales students and graduates for inside sales roles. If your organization uses inside sales, please take 12 minutes to complete the survey at www.3mcustomerinsight.com. The deadline for participation is March 15, 2009. Results will be shared in a future issue for organizations to learn what others are doing in this area.



'This program is a solid preparation for rising leaders as they assume greater responsibility in their organizations, Participating with a group of talented women leaders broadened my perspective and provided a supportive learning environment to move my career forward.” Mina Hoover

Emerging Leaders Program Develops Potential for Women in Sales

As organizations look internally for future sales leaders in this economic downturn, many are focused on growing the right talent to develop a solid leadership bench for the upturn. That’s where the Emerging Leaders Program from the Center for Sales Innovation can help women in sales as an addition to their multiple-year development plans to grow as high potential leaders.

The Emerging Leaders Program brings together a cohort (small group) of women to work together one evening per month for eight months to enhance leadership skills and help expand professional networks. This program combines skill-building learning sessions, group discussion, coaching, reflection, and experience-based homework assignments. Facilitators and speakers are leading women from the business community as well as instructors from the College of St. Catherine.

Each participant creates a strategic leadership development plan outlining her personal and professional goals. Plans are reviewed twice via one-on-one consultations with a career coach. This is a professional development certificate program where participants receive either a Certificate of Advanced Leadership Studies or three graduate credits from the college’s Organizational Leadership program. Spring cohort starts in April 2009. For more information, contact Lynn Schleeter at lfschleeter@stkate.edu.

First Graduate Sales Course for Local Sales Leaders

“Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things."
— Peter Drucker



Nathaniel Porter, a Twin Cities-based sales executive, will teach the new graduate sales course for the Center for Sales Innovation.

The Center for Sales Innovation’s first graduate sales course — “Strategic Sales Leadership” — will be offered Spring Term 2009 — April 4 through June 20 — at the College of St. Catherine’s St. Paul campus. The course will focus on the need for business leaders — men and women — to develop a sales strategy that is integrated with the overall mission and capabilities of the organization, rooted in the values of the customer, and positioned to provide a competitive advantage to the organization.

Nathaniel Porter, a Twin Cities-based sales executive, will teach the course. It is offered through the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership, an interdisciplinary program for men and women who are emerging and experienced leaders. To learn more about the course, visit www.stkate.edu/maol. Course credits, if desired, are transferable to another higher education institution. Call Rebecca Hawthorne, MAOL Program Director at 651-690-6838 or Lynn Schleeter, Center for Sales Innovation, at 651-690-8762.



	Mark Liston is Director of Sales Recruiting of Florida-based Valpak, which is reaching out to today’s generation with a proactive program that includes an Internet-based “dashboard” for new sales representatives.

Mini Case Study: How Valpak developed an onboarding pilot program

Director of Sales Recruiting Mark Liston of Florida-based Valpak was able to unify a 200-office company’s process of making the first year of a Valpak Sales Rep's life not only more enjoyable, but also focused on getting better and more productive — faster. He credits Center for Sales Innovation Director Lynn Schleeter for leading the way based on her 2008 Selling Power magazine supplement article, Terms of Engagement: A New Onboarding Model to Increase Retention.

According to Liston, “What struck me was the sentence: ‘Onboarding is the process or system that organizations use to introduce, train, integrate, and/or coach new hires to the culture and methods of the company during their first year.’ Viola…I FINALLY understood onboarding! More importantly, I was able to explain it to everyone that I talked to and, subsequently, put a plan in place to help Valpak's franchisees around the country embrace onboarding.”

Valpak's Training and Development Department developed an onboarding pilot program, which was launched with meetings for selected sales leaders. A day-and-half training session introduced the program, role plays and a complete handbook to guide them through questions, such as “What do you do after the offer and before the person comes on board?”

Meanwhile, Valpak’s Recruiting Department developed an intranet-based “dashboard” for new sales reps that included:

Welcome video from Valpak’s President;
A dashboard that mirrored the sales leaders’ guide showing sales reps what they would be learning throughout the first year;
A Knowledge Network that combined LinkedIn and Facebook sites. To join the network, new reps must complete a quick questionnaire that provides their background, as well as areas of interests, hobbies and motivators.

“Valpak’s onboarding program has all of the essential ingredients for reaching out to today’s generation of new sales representatives,” says Schleeter. “They are so proactive and conscious of their process that I believe the company will have great success in retaining new talent.”

Liston has invited Schleeter to join a panel of experts to discuss the onboarding process at the National Association of Colleges and Employers in Las Vegas this June.

For more information about Valpak’s process, contact Mark at mark_liston@valpak.com.

February 2009
Volume 2, Issue 2

The Center for Sales Innovation’s next cohort group for the 2008-2009 Leadership for Women in Sales launches in April in Minneapolis. Email Lynn Schleeter or go online for more information.