The new tools have been developed in conjunction with leading business development consultancy and CIF member, Larato. The new online modules aim to help sales professionals in the channel and vendor communities alike, increase their sales effectiveness by building on existing sales skills with information, tools and processes to enable them to secure sales in next generation information communications technologies and services.
Alex Hilton, CEO of CIF, stated: “The industry is aware that CIF has invested in a number of online training resources, which to date have focused on Cloud professionals and others looking to transition an organisation to the Cloud. However, we believe that the time is right to create an online resource aimed squarely at those individuals who are at the coal face of sales: the channel and vendor sales teams tasked with quotas, win rates and targets. This online resource – developed with Larato and the knowledge its team has in business development – is designed to be simple to follow, easy to understand and designed for time poor sales teams. It is our intention to create a programme that lets sales people do more of what they are good at – selling – while enabling those new to sales to become far more effective, faster.”
Lucy Green, Managing Director at Larato, continued: “Whether you are training existing employees or new; whether you are a vendor, work within the channel, or are a consultant in the growing Cloud advisory sector, then these modules are for you. We have developed these specifically to support the work the Cloud Industry Forum is undertaking in driving forward and developing this maturing market. Key to this is helping individuals and organisations throughout the Cloud ecosystem understand the sales process, guide them through the sales cycle and give them the tools they need to deliver business opportunities and sales.”
The four key modules of the Sales Academy 2.0 programme are as follows:
•Fundamentals of selling SaaS and hosted applications: giving sales people the information they need to find and nurture the best prospects for SaaS and hosted applications
•Fundamentals of selling VoIP and UC
•Holding better sales meetings: including how to plan, host and manage sales meetings that create best outcomes for them and the buyer
•Sales Playbooks: a series of units that provide participants with a framework for opening, managing and closing sales of SaaS and hosted application services