Economic Developers Alberta (EDA) is pleased to offer its next Marketing Masters Webinar, titled "Marketing Opens Doors- Selling Skills Close Deals".
Marketing Can Open the Door, but it won’t close the deal. Skillful Selling is an essential ingredient of any great economic development program. Selling brings deals home.
For years, the focus in economic development has been on marketing. Conference agendas focus on marketing and marketing techniques because it is an important piece of a stellar marketing program. But, once a client expresses interest or comes to town, it takes world-class selling techniques to convince them to stay and invest.
Are your selling skills competitive?
Most economic development professionals learn selling “on the job.” Dealing with live project is an expensive way to learn how to sell to a real prospect. Learning on the fly is not good for results or for the community. It is a huge waste of potential. In larger organizations, battles frequently rage between marketing and sales… marketing defends the quality of their leads and sales complain lead quality is poor forcing them to develop their own leads. Again, burning leads is a tremendous waste of valuable resources.
World-class Economic Development Selling
There is no one single model that accurately portrays all the variables that economic developers must manage in successfully selling a community to a prospect. If you have taken some or all of the classic sales training courses in previous careers, you know these methods are built on assumptions that do not apply in economic development. In fact, successful economic development selling uses a fusion of six selling methods to close deals. Knowing these six methods and understanding when and how to deploy each one will give you an amazingly competitive advantage.
The “methods of selling” discussed in this webinar have applicability to all economic development professionals.
Partnership, Consultive, and Presumptive Selling are very helpful in dealing with business retention and expansion issues. On the other hand, Team, Partnership, and One-and-Done Selling lend themselves more closely to economic development attraction efforts.
Using these five methods, the economic development team in Wichita Falls, Texas has closed nearly one project a month during the Great Recession. Participate in this new webinar and learn how.
What the Webinar Will Cover:
-
Marketing vs. Selling
-
Intangible vs. Tangible Products
-
Features vs. Benefits
-
The Art of Selling vs. the Science of Buying
-
Six Methods of Economic Development Selling
Bring your staff team together to participate in this webinar and discuss your sales strategy and tactics over lunch. This is the only place you will find selling in an economic development environment on the agenda. Don’t miss this webinar!
Register Now
There will be ample time for questions during and following the presentation.
Don't miss this opportunity to refine your economic development sales skills and strategy.
Featured Presenter
Tim Chase, CEcD, FM
President & CEO, Wichita Falls Board of Commerce & Industry, Wichita Falls, Texas
Mr. Chase was named President and CEO of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2001 after having served as its Vice President of Economic Development since 1998.
Mr. Chase has been active on the Boards of economic development, chambers of commerce, and downtown business development organizations in Colorado, Wyoming, Iowa, Illinois and now Texas.
Mr. Chase is the immediate past Dean for the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute and has been on staff for 20 years as an instructor. He has also been a member of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) since 1988 and sits on the IEDC Board.