Session Ideas

[Jared O'Toole]

We will be doing live video streams, live chats and conference calls. The calls and chats will be focused on CEO chapter development while the video streams will be on various business topics.

Let us know what you want to hear about. We will also give people opportunities to hold their own live sessions if they are interested.

So let us know what you want!

[Matt Wilson]

I think our first chat should be "creating an outstanding CEO organization" and keep it open ended and see what questions arise. Later we can do more specific sessions

[Craig Elias]

How about how to generate revenue or how to get notoriety by winning business plan competitions?

My name is Craig Elias and on my first company won a $1,000,000 prize in a global billion dollar idea contest within 6 months of being up and running. I coached two companies to top 10 finishes the year after I won.

After that I coached a student entrepreneur who won the national entrepreneurship competition and went on to be second in the world. The year after that I coached 10 team to get onto a TV show the Dragon's den - 1700 companies applied but only 69 made it on the show - of the 10 teams I coached EVERY one made it onto the TV show. Last year I coached two teams in a business plan competition and both made it to the final three and one of them won the competition.

That's perhaps topic #1 -

Topic #2 - How to get your first batch of customers?
I have taught at 19 different entrepreneurship programs and the theme is always the same "How to outsell larger more established competitors.

Topic #3 - How to become a sought after thought leader in your industry. This is based up on the following...

How to grow a highly successful small business:

1) Pick a niche - There are thousands of generalist sales training companies run by sales guys and gals that have 20+ years of sales success. The problem with the vast majority is that their generalist approach means they can only operate in their own city, or maybe a few neighbouring cities, because there is another other, perceived to be similar, generalist in every other city. By picking a niche – capitalizing on Trigger Events to get in front of highly motivated buyers at EXACTLY the right time - my expertise goes beyond just my local geography. Search for any other expert on "Trigger Event Selling" and you won’t' find one. This allows me to create demand for my expertise almost anywhere in the world.

2) Be THE expert in what you teach - Specialize, speak, and write. I specialize in just one thing timing: repeatedly getting to the right person at EXACTLY the right time. I have written a number of articles, and done several webinars. As a result I now have a publishing agreement signed and a book due out in September: "SHiFT! OUTSELL YOUR COMPETITION by Leveraging Trigger Events", and having a book makes you the ultimate expert.

3) Create a market - Creating my own terminology means that when people check the web for any of the major components to what I teach - "Window of Dissatisfaction", "Trigger Event Selling", "Won Sales Analysis", "Emotional Favourite", "Trigger Event Referrals", "First Call Effectiveness" I dominate the top 10, 20, and in some cases even the top 50 Google search results.

4) Protect your market - I own 192 domains names related to what I teach. This makes it easy for people to find me and makes it harder for a copycat to market themselves. E.g. TriggerEventSeling.com, TriggerSelling.com, Trigger-Event-Selling.com, WindowOfDissatisfaction.com, WonSalesAnalysis.com, EmotionalFavourite.com, FirstCallEffectiveness.com. I tried the Trademark route but found that there were so many different classifications a competitor could use to copy Trigger Event Selling and because I would have to Trademark in so many different countries, I would spend 20 times as much money doing trademarks vs. leveraging a large number of domain names.

5) STATE YOUR POSITION - Polarize your audience. If you believe that the best sales people make the best sales managers, SAY IT OUT LOUD. You will create a loyal following that believes in the same things you do and you will get some extra exposure by being provocative. For instance I say that THE SILVER BULLET IN SALES is timing: Leveraging Trigger Events to get in front of the right person at EXACTLY the right time. Some people may disagree but even if they do disagree they remember who I am and that makes it more likely they will notice me in the press and at some point they'll come around because of what is called the "Lemming Effect" if a large group starts, or is perceived to have started, doing something others follow because they fear being left behind if they don’t. E.g. I recently did a webinar that had over 1,400 registrants. Mentioning that when I speak and write – notice I am mentioning it here – will have others wanting to know what they are missing out on. If you want to know what you’re missing out on, you can get access to the recording and the handout by downloading the preview chapter of my book at www.TriggerEventBook.com.

6) Get exposure – This year my goal was to get 24 pieces of exposure (be interviewed, have a story written, be part of a podcast, etc.) and of last week I had my 24th piece of exposure. Having and stating your position will help you get in the more exposure. Ten pieces of exposure on smaller sites or niche outlets is as, if not more, effective than one piece of exposure in one major outlet. Check out HARO – Help a Reporter Out. It comes out three times a day and so far it alone has resulted in 5 interviews in the last few months. Getting all the exposure also helps me to increase the “Lemming Effect” that I mentioned in #5 above. P.S. I also own the domain names LemmingEffect.com and TheLemmingEffect.com...are you beginning to see the picture ?

Call my cell phone [phone]) if any of these are of potential interest for a future show.

Regards,

Craig
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Craig Elias
Founder of InnerSell
Creator of Trigger Event Selling.