May 27th, 2011
Industry Leaders Discuss the Sales Force as a Sustainable Competitive Advantage at the First Annual Fox Den Live Event
Holden International, a pioneer in the sales training industry, hosted the company’s inaugural Fox Den Live Event on May 26, 2011, providing a unique opportunity for sales executives to discuss advanced sales strategies with peers. The event, which took place at Holden International’s global headquarters in Chicago, was attended by more than 20 VP-Sales roles from around the country representing leading companies including Microsoft, Intel, PTC, William Blair, CDW, eChalk and others.
“This is an unseen opportunity in our roles as sales managers to understand and discuss the challenges we are experiencing face-to-face with our peers,” said Sarma Avadhanam of Opus Software Solutions. “The Fox Den is a great resource for collaborating online, but bringing it to life truly takes it to the next level.”
The Fox Den is an innovative online community for advanced sales professionals established by Holden International in 2010. Over 800 members benefit from networking, continuing education, sales leads and partnerships through The Fox Den. This live event is the first in a series of in-person networking opportunities exclusive to members.
“The Fox Den Live event is an extremely valuable forum for trading sales insights with an experienced group of executive level professionals,” said TJ Mitchell, Vice President of ABS, Inc. “Rarely do you get to see a more knowledgeable group assembled at one event and the Holden team excelled at stirring the dialogue while taking an active interest in each participant’s unique sales challenges.”
Peter Ostrow, Research Director of Sales Effectiveness for the Aberdeen Group also presented competitive insight based on results from the firm’s annual sales effectiveness survey and report. His findings included the behaviors that Best-in-Class companies utilize to differentiate from others in their marketplace.
“The role of the sales person has changed significantly in the past decade,” President Ryan Kubacki explains. “Sellers can no longer be information providers, but must now evolve into business advisors. We call this the ‘relevance revolution’ of the sales profession.” Holden’s landmark 12-year study has proven that sellers are not evolving at the rate necessary to keep up with market shifts.
“When we established the Fox Den in mid-2010, we immediately realized that having an effective communications vehicle for keeping sellers up-to-date on sales trends had a significant impact on our clients,” Kubacki concluded. “We plan to continue evolving the Fox Den and are excited to have set the stage for similar events in the near future.”
About Holden International
Recognized as the pioneer of the sales methodology industry with the introduction of Power Base Selling in 1979, Holden invented the category of “Compete Sales Strategy” and is uniquely able to provide insight into competitive deals with a coachable and sustainable approach that makes how you sell — rather than what you sell — a nontraditional competitive advantage.
Holden has continued to innovate and today offers B2B organizations and sellers its new Power Base Compete Strategy model that makes compete selling a management science that can be understood and replicated via an integrated platform of competitive must win deal coaching, advanced compete sales training, sales manager coaching, and software and e-learning reinforcement. Holden’s approach helps clients defeat competitors to “take market share” in a way that not only improves customer loyalty but also drives higher revenue growth, increased profit margins, and shorter sales cycles. To learn how you can outsell your competition, go to www.holdenintl.com
To join The Fox Den, visit http://foxden.holdenintl.com or email Jenae Meader, Community Manager, at j.meader@holdenintl.com.
