The old adage "People love to buy, but hate to be sold to" is rephrased from the seller side to "Salespeople love to win, but hate to lose." Sales management might say, "I want to help salespeople close business-and close the right business." Because as sales managers well know, the hot pursuit of a win can backfire when salespeople go after deals that aren't profitable.

The discipline required in identifying high-probability and high-profitability opportunities starts with understanding clearly and accurately what the customer organization is trying to accomplish. Early effort focuses on collecting compelling evidence and analyzing opportunities to make an informed go/no-go decision to pursue an opportunity.

In this webcast we will examine:

• How to clarify the opportunity by understanding and articulating what is critical to the customer
• What compelling evidence needs to be collected and analyzed to distinguish which opportunities lend themselves to increasing win rate
• Three questions you need to answer to make the best go/no-go decisions

David Yesford is Senior Vice President of Wilson Learning Worldwide. With more than 33 years of experience developing and implementing human performance improvement solutions around the world, Mr. Yesford brings valuable experience, strategic direction, and global perspective to his work. Over the years, he has held strategic roles in Wilson Learning Worldwide’s core content areas of sales and leadership, as well as e-learning and strategic consulting. Mr. Yesford is the contributing author of several books including Win-Win Selling, Versatile Selling, The Social Styles Handbook, and The Sales Training Book 2. He has also been published in numerous business publications throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Mr. Yesford frequently speaks at international engagements, focusing on issues such as sales and sales strategy, leadership, employee and customer engagement, brand, and strategy implementation.

Michael Leimbach, Ph.D., is Vice President of Global Research and Development for Wilson Learning Worldwide Inc. With more than 40 years in the field, Dr. Leimbach has developed Wilson Learning’s diagnostic, learning, and performance improvement capabilities and has managed major research studies in sales, leadership, and organizational effectiveness. He also developed Wilson Learning’s impact evaluation capability and return on investment models. Dr. Leimbach has served as a research consultant for a wide variety of global client organizations, is Editor-in-Chief for a major professional journal, and has served on the ISO Technical Committee on Quality Standards for Learning Service Providers. Dr. Leimbach has coauthored four books, published more than 100 professional articles, and is a frequent speaker at national and global conferences.