NSB Logo Colleen Francis Colleen Francis

Colleen Francis

Speaker

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The Sales Leader

Colleen is driven by a passion for sales – and results. A successful sales leader for over 20 years, she understands the particular challenges of selling in today’s crowded, confusing market, and that business leaders can no longer rely on approaches to sales based on techniques from decades ago—or even last year.

Keynote Speeches

Right on the Money Your Best Opportunity for Success is Right in Front of You

Your current accounts are your most lucrative source of additional revenue. Working more with them is the easiest way to accelerate past your sales goals. They are your biggest asset and from where you are standing right now, you are right on this money.

Sadly, these current accounts are most often a neglected profit center. All too often, companies practice Account Complacency rather than Account Management. Turning their attention, their marketing and their resources to the exciting next new deal.

My research shows that the fastest growing companies understand precisely how to manage their best accounts by focusing on customer success to profitably retain and grow their current client base. Right on the Money is rich with client examples on how leverage your best asset including cases that illustrate:

  • Why clients don’t want partners, they want insiders,
  • How to identify your sales prevention department and ensure they don’t get in the way of profits,
  • How to sell like an insider, and
  • How to develop an early-warning system to spot early defection risks and prevent them from happening
Creating a Nonstop Sales Boom Putting an End to Boom and Bust Sales Cycles

How many times have you come off a great month or quarter, only to find that the pipeline is woefully empty and now everyone is struggling to keep up? Worst of all, that kind of development is considered by many to be the norm: simply accepting poor performance and the stresses of up and down results as the cost of doing business.

Why does this happen? Because of complacency, inconsistency and a far too narrow view of the role of sales. Sellers need look at their job as more than just executing the linear process of converting opportunities to sales. To create consistent results today, you must embrace a 360-degree customer-engagement model.

In this action-packed keynote, Colleen tosses out the traditional opportunity-conversion mindset and replaces it with a winning plan to develop your sales radar. Including:

  • Why ubiquity is the best way to attract the best and brightest leads into your pipeline,
  • How qualifying the opportunity is your responsibility as well as that of the buyer,
  • That not all clients deserve the right to grow equally, and
  • How your best clients should be selling to your best leads.
In Pursuit of More Selling More in Today’s New Economy

The rules have changed in today’s buying culture. The customers are different. How they buy is different. And even economy in which you sell to them is different.

Buyers have embraced these changes quickly and dramatically. They want more.

But far too many sales teams remain stuck in the past. They still use outdated tactics, such as cold calling (which now has a less than 1% success rate), canned pitches that are irrelevant to the customer, and manipulative closing tricks that do nothing but stagnate sales results.

Have your selling models evolved to profit from this change? If they haven’t, it’s a mistake that’s costing you money and customers every day.

The Pursuit of More takes you deep inside the mind of today’s customer. Price sensitive, yet strapped for time. Mobile powered and yet crave personal connection. They are overwhelmed by choice and dependent on trusted others for help with who they do business with. Discover how you can:

  • Adopt a winning combination of frequency and market reach to improve your closing speed by 40% and your closing ratios by 30%,
  • Use your secret salesforce to influence your buyers before they even hear from you,
  • Nail down the fine line between persistence and stalking to give you an instant 80% increase in call-back ratios, and
  • Leverage today’s best sellers—the hybrid “MarSellers”—for the benefit of selling more in less time in their territory.
The Magnetism of Value Standout by Selling Value – Not Negotiating Price

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, it’s no longer negotiable whether you close a sale on your terms and with balanced profits. It’s a requirement. Value—not price—must lead that conversation you’re having with your customer.

But what if your customers don’t appreciate value? What if they are only focused on buying at the lowest price? Those are beliefs: not facts.

In this keynote, Colleen unlocks the myth that clients are not interested in value by reminding sellers that the only value that matters is the value that matters to the client. It’s up to sellers to discover, communicate and position what the customers values uniquely for maximum profit.

Anyone can convert their sales pitch into customer value, using Colleen’s model. But come prepared to hear and be persuaded by provocative, unorthodox ideas that are proven to work in today’s new economy, including:

  • How to close 80% of negotiations without dropping your price,
  • Using a buying map to create urgency and improve margins, and
  • Learn why the buyer can’t say “no need” if you’ve done your job.

Audience reviews:

  • Colleen's vibrant personality lights up a room. Having done her homework on our organization prior to meeting with the group, she was able to apply her principles to relevant sales scenario's we're facing. The entire sales group is better equipped with a handful of valuable learning's to apply to our account base. What's more, we all still continue to find ourselves rehashing and applying her insights... six months later!

    - Marketing Manager, SupremeX
  • I just wanted to take a moment to thank-you for the very informative and refreshing sales strategies you presented. I gained some new knowledge, and was reminded of a few things I had forgotten over time. I think virtually any business could benefit from your common-sense approach to sales.

    - Business Development, Orion Software
  • Her presentation kicked off the conference and kept 130+ sales & marketing professionals entertained and enlightened. Response has been positive as the team appreciated hearing Colleen's perspective. Thank you for contributing to a very successful conference!

    - Senior Director of Sales, Hard Rock International
  • Thank you for yesterday's (my first) Town Hall meeting. You gave me 2 tips that are already increasing my success rate... I am thrilled by your brilliance!

    - Regional Manager, Global Challenge Conference
  • Colleen Francis was great, very energetic and knowledgeable. She adjusted quickly and used specific industries, and encouraged audience participation.

    - St. Marys Cement
  • I was extremely impressed with Colleen's presentation. Because of her enthusiasm and breadth of experience, she could engage and teach sales executives and sales professionals alike. The entire audience was actively participating and learning from her experiences and innovative sales techniques.

    - Anna Communications

Speaker Biography

Colleen is driven by a passion for sales – and results. A successful sales leader for over 20 years, she understands the particular challenges of selling in today’s competitive market, and that business leaders can no longer rely on approaches to sales based on techniques from decades ago—or even last year.

Whether maximizing revenue from sales teams or seizing new market opportunities, Colleen works with businesses to develop the right sales strategies for success and delivers practical approaches to ensure it sticks. Colleen’s results have attracted clients such as Chevron, John Deere, NCR, Trend Micro, Merck, Abbott, Experian, Royal Bank, Mosaic, Dow, and hundreds of other industry-leading companies.

Time and time again, clients who work with Colleen note her frank, no-nonsense approach to accelerate sales while reducing effort and increasing profits. Colleen’s practical strategies deliver immediate and lasting results.

Colleen is an award-winning writer, consultant and bestselling author of popular sales books including the recent Right on the Money. A recognized thought leader in sales leadership, she is an inductee in the Professional Speaker Hall of Fame and has been named the #1 sales influencer to follow by LinkedIn.