Perhaps you have the same question. A sales leader at a Maryland-based financial services company called me last Friday to ask if her team will learn anything new at the Customer Acquisition Symposium (CAS) we’re holding on November 13. Let’s see:

  • Six of the top sales thought leaders and speakers in the country will speak on a wide range of essential business-to-business sales topics.
  • Two of these leaders are on Amazon’s top seller lists.
  • All six speakers train hundreds and thousands of sales professionals around the world and have tens of thousands of social media followers who want to keep up with them.

So, yes, I told him the likelihood of learning a great deal is 100 percent if you attend the CAS on November 13, which we have located in Tyson’s Corner to be convenient for the whole region.

The hundreds of sales professionals we meet with each month confirm that the challenges facing sales professionals these days keep changing and are not getting easier.

  1. It’s getting harder to get in front of decision makers.
  2. The internet and social media have made it easier for customers to self diagnose and get information about your products and services without speaking to you.
  3. And your customers are no longer always resident at a company location which means you need to be very good at online presentations.
  4. Sales must close earlier in the process, slashed from an expected 12 months down to just three months, which puts more pressure on every sales professional.
  5. And the competition is not giving any ground. If you’re not one of the top two companies in your space, you should expect vicious price cutting by the two leaders to keep share.

If you have experienced any of this, you’ll hit the mother lode of sales answers at the CAS.

WHO IS THE CAS FOR?

The CAS was created for the following types of selling professionals. If this is you, please consider registering:

  • Sales professionals, account managers, business development execs.
  • Service professionals who need to generate revenue (consultants, accountants, lawyers)
  • Business owners challenged with generating revenue
  • Marketing execs tasked with supporting the Sales organization

The CAS DC-2015 will be the largest program the IES (Institute for Excellence in Sales) has ever held. We’re sparing no expense in bringing six of the top sales influencers in the country to Virginia for a day’s worth of Ted-like talks, intensive workshops, networking, and panel discussions on crucial sales topics facing enterprise and business-to-business sales professionals and leaders.

The emphasis will be on actions you can put into play to improve your sales process and be more productive as a selling professional. It does not matter if you sell IT, media products, financial services, or office supplies. You will walk away with dozens of fresh ideas and tactics you can implement immediately.

WHO ARE THE SPEAKERS AND WHY WERE THEY PICKED

After thorough research and vetting, we invited 6 of the top sales thought leaders and authors in the country to come to Northern Virginia for a unique one-day conference. Since we’ll be sharing thought leadership, ideas, and best practices on sales success, we decided to go with the more provocative symposium versus the trite summit. And instead of calling it “sales,” we came up with the clever customer acquisition. Put them together and you have the Customer Acquisition Symposium DC-2015.

You probably know by now that only the top sales speakers and authors on the planet have spoken at the IES. Check out our Speaker Bureau page to see who’s been here before.

Here’s why we selected these six speakers:

We track the latest and greatest sales books that hit the market. We wanted to have authors of recent best-sellers at the symposium so we picked Jeb Blount and Mike Weinberg. Blount’s new book Fanatical Prospecting is not just Amazon’s top sales book, it’s high up on the Amazon Top 100 for all books. Blount’s written some of our favorites such as “Customers Love You” and “People Love You.” He’s passionate about sales performance and helping selling professionals get better. He will provide attendees with more information than he shared in his books.

Weinberg’s book, Sales Management. Simplified, is a blessing. I’ve read dozens of sales management books over the past two years and Weinberg’s book is truly a breath of fresh air. His points are crisp, well-illuminated, and pertinent. The timing is right for this book and we’re glad Weinberg will be there to give his insights.

Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter, spoke at the IES earlier this year. He killed. His stories were insightful, powerful and eye-opening. He combined compelling stories with actionable strategies sales professionals can deploy to immediately boost their performance which is a reason we invited him back for more.

Anthony Iannarino, author of The Sales Blog, is one of the most prolific sales speakers and commentators in the industry. He’s continuously publishing insights and compelling stories on social media that help sales people around the world become more effective.

Miles Austin (The Web Tools Guy) and John Spence (Awesomely Simple) will share their expertise on sales tools and technology. You may be surprised at what they recommend.

A FEW OTHER IMPORTANT DETAILS

Here are some other things you may want to know about the CAS

  • This is the first time such a powerful and diversified program has ever been held in the DC region.
  • The speakers will interact with you and the other attendees.
  • There will be plenty of time for networking to meet your local peers.
  • Books will be made available for purchase (you can bypass Amazon).
  • Breakfast and lunch will be served.
  • It will be awesome.

SCHEDULE

  • Networking and continental breakfast will be from 7-8am.
  • The speakers will hit the stage at 8am.
  • Interactive sessions with each speaker will start right after lunch
  • We’ll wrap up the day with a panel discussion with all six speakers

The IES is very excited to bring these world-class sales speakers to the DC region. We hope that you’ll join us for the day.

See you on November 13.