Jason, my co-organizer, and I were brainstorming about programming ideas for 2023. An idea we settled on was to try sales “skill workshops”. This as opposed to the typical ‘guest speaker’ or ‘panel discussion’ format we’ve had recently.

FIrst up in April is the Elevator Pitch Workshop. Sign up here:

https://www.meetup.com/colorado-technology-sales-meetup/events/292669601/

Our May 22nd event will all about ‘Goal Setting’ Sign up here:

https://www.meetup.com/colorado-technology-sales-meetup/events/292669846/

Our June event, scheduling TBD, will be the ‘Sales Escape Room’ No, we won’t be having anyone locked up at Venture X’s conference rooms, but it should still be fun. Stay tuned for a link to this event, once we hammer out the details.

As always, is anyone reading this has ideas to present, or other feedback, please feel free to call or ask for time on my calendar.

One other event we have to promote: C-Level at Mile high. THE event to be at this year.

C-Level at Mile High on May 11th. $450 and totally worth it.

Register here: https://coloradotechnologyassociation.growthzoneapp.com/ap/Events/Register/nplYvqZP?sourceTypeId=Website&mode=Attendee

We had a great meetup on Monday night, Dan Levitt provided some great back-to-basics sales training around BAT methodology:

Behaviors

Attitudes

Techniques

The Media and Technology Collective

Friend of the CTSP meetup Rachelle Salem invited us to the Media and Technology trivia night this evening (January 25th) Contact me for a special discounted rate here. Their 2022 Golf Tournament was awesome.

Another great back-to-basics resource I came across is Patrick Dang’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@patrickdang – solid sales fundamentals here, in bite-size pieces for us busy sales professionals.

Our group took a much needed break in December. The thinking in going ‘light’ at the end of the year is that many of us are very social and are thus, totally slammed with invited to holiday parties from Thanksgiving to New Years. Who needs another get-together, even if you get to see Bob in a Santa Suit?

UPCOMING CTSP EVENTS:

JANUARY:

Dan Levitt is a long-time member of our group and this is his third time presenting for the CTSP. Dan is presenting on Sandler Sales Methodology, the same sales school that I was taught at Oracle Corp. We’re really excited on this return visit. If you are up for it, we also do an informal HH across from Venture X co-working after the meetup January 23rd.

FEBRUARY:

We were approached by several CU Boulder Grad Students late last year. They were impressed with our programming and asked if we’d be interested in presenting at CU Boulder. We jumped on the opportunity.

This audience will be geared towards CU’s MBA and CS Graduate students, but all are welcome. Pizza by Cosmo’s!

We hope this is the start of an on-going collaboration with CU Boulder.

OTHER EVENTS COMING UP IN 2023:

The inspiration for our meetup and tech sales community, the CTA, has some great things coming up this year. Check them out:

JANUARY:

MAY:

The grand-daddy of all tech and sales events in Denver is the C-Level at Mile High event, this year taking place on May 11th. The registration link will be published soon. You do not want to miss this event. THere si no better place to connect with 50 IT Executives in one spot.

Our event page will be updated soon with a proper registration link. Please check back in March or so….

https://www.meetup.com/colorado-technology-sales-meetup/events/290721909/

Dear sa;les pros,

Jason August, Founder of ‘Denver Growth Hackers‘ and I are combing forces and will be running events together. They’ll be under our respective meetup banners, but the meetings will be one-in-the-same, taking place at the same place at the same time. Our first event is this Monday, January 10th. We have a fascinating story to share RE: “Personal branding colliding with national events.”

The links for Mondays event are here:

Denver Growth Hackers: https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-BmqKyGRN/events/282810174/

Colorado Tech Sales: https://www.meetup.com/Colorado-Technology-Sales-Meetup/events/283107350/

You only need to register for one or the other. It’s helpful to know how many are coming so we don’t over-budget on food & beverages.

What do you need to do to accomplish more in 2022? We will walk you through the steps you need to take to establish your personal brand and your story.

TOPICS:
– Establish your own website
– Managing Social Media
– Scaling your brand

AGENDA:

5:30 to 6:00 the 1/2 hour social hour, pizza, salad, networking
6:00 to 6:15 Introductions around the room
6:15 to 7PM Feature Presentation
7:00 to 7:30 Q&A, more networking
7:30 Optional HH at Junction Bar –across the Plaza–

“Ask a Sales Pro”

I am soliciting your questions from either here or the meetup page for sales questions you may have. I hope this provides more frequent interactions among our community.

i.e. “How do I overcome this objection” or ‘Is this sales process viable?’, or “Is a prospect blowing smoke?” or “How do I manage expectations with my sales leadership?“

email: bob.mcneil@coloradotechnologysales.com

And yes, I had to buy readers earlier this year. 😛

Earlier this year I connected with Stephanie Shivar-Hogan of Gallantry Coaching.

Stephanie coaches a time management and life management methodology of getting more done, faster. It starts with the premise of setting shorter deadlines. When you have 12 month deadlines, it’s often not urgent enough to achieve immediate goals. Of course, there is a lot more to it than that.

We will be covering the ‘There’s more to it than that” part of the 12 week year on Monday, October 11th, 5:30 at Venture X Denver South. Sign up for this in-person event here:

https://www.meetup.com/Colorado-Technology-Sales-Meetup/events/280174868/

AGENDA:

5:30 to 6:00 Meet & Greet, Networking
6:00 to 6:45 Feature Presentation
6:45 to 7:30 Q&A, more networking.
7:30 to 8:00 Optional HH at http://www.junctionfoodanddrink.com/

Stephanie Shivar-Hogan has been coaching in the corporate world for more than two decades. With experience across multiple industries including finance, accounting, real estate, healthcare, insurance and marketing, she has partnered with Fortune 500 CEOs, front line leaders, corporate team members, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between.

Sales professionals who fully adopt this mindset can increase their sales 10X.

Learn more and preview the book here: The 12 Week Year 

NOTE FROM BOB: Since meeting with Stephanie and reading her book, I’ve dramatically accelerated accomplishments in 2021 in several areas of my life. This is nothing short of life changing:

1. Financial Goals (got back on track with tax planning, financial planning, etc.)
2. Career Goals (got interviewing and changed jobs)
3. Personal Relationships (you have to show up to get any of these details)
4. Travel (took several weeks off between jobs to hit some road trip / bucket list items across 9 states)
5. Fitness Goals (re-tooled my gym routine with a personal trainer & dropping the other Covid 19…meaning: that 19 .lbs)

More about Stephanie:

Working with and for large organizations like Merrill Lynch, AIG (Formerly Chartis), Northwestern Mutual, and Pulte Homes, Stephanie has first-hand knowledge of what success looks like in the results-oriented workplace. Her instructional philosophy is built around client-centered coaching that helps individuals to gain clarity and achieve desired outcomes by creating sustainable steps toward personal goals and dreams.
Stephanie founded Gallantry Coaching and Consulting to pursue her passion around helping executives and teams reach their greatest potential.

Follow Stephanie here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieshivar-hogan/

Stephanie is a third-generation, native Coloradoan who lives outside of Denver with her husband and four children. She enjoys taking advantage of the beautiful Colorado landscape, skiing, and traveling with her family.
Contact Stephanie directly at stephanie@gallantrycc.com

There will be a free drawing for a copy of the book & more copies will be available for purchase that night.

Salad, Pizza, beer, wine, sparkling water and other beverages will be available from Pete’s a Pie. See you there!

• 

After, some of us will hang out at Junction Bar.

Well, what a long, strange trip it has been! We adapted and dealt with the COVD crisis as best we could, some better than others. Fortunately, we’re coming out of the pandemic, albeit with vaccine skeptics enabling new variants to dog us for the foreseeable future.

What I noticed was about the May / June timeframe, once a lot of started getting vaccinated and lockdowns came to an end, was that my phone / email / social media al burst back to life with recruiter calls & interview requests. Did you see that, too?

I started talking to my fellow event organizers around this time about getting some in-person stuff happening again. The consensus on that was that August was a good time for fully vaccinated people to start hanging out in-person. Thus, our August 2nd event was like a breath of fresh air, it felt as if we were all being released from a locked basement after 18 months. The meetup was in the beautiful Venture-X Five Points co-working space on Welton Street.

Melanie Williams did a fantastic job hosting and Jennifer Bilger presented an amazing, fun networking exercise for the attendees. Jennifer showed all of us, with a card game, how to get far more out of a networking event than anyone thought possible. I recommend her coaching to anyone looking to expand their business.

This brings us to our September Event.

The Sales Recruiter Panel Discussion has become our meetup’s signature event.

These Recruiting Professionals can and have placed candidates they connected with at our past events. Companies are making up for lost time in their hiring, and those of you who were waiting things out, well, this is your time to make a move.

Sign up here to connect with the top sales recruiters in the Denver Tech sector on September 13th. https://www.meetup.com/Colorado-Technology-Sales-Meetup/events/264939297/

• 

…bring a stack of business cards and/or copies of your resume / CV.

2021 Confirmed Panelists:

Jordan Greenberg, President, The Pinnacle Source
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanagreenberg/

Hailey Bocchieri, Senior Recruiter @ Ibotta
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hailey-meseraull/

Michaela M. Guzzi, Recruiter at Grafana Labs
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelaguzzi/

Maggie Carabello, Talent Manager at Grafana Labs
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiecarabello/

Travis Janko, Founder & CEO, GSD Coach & Recruiting
https://www.linkedin.com/in/travisjanko/

Michael Mitchell, Podcast Host & Founder of OC National Search
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmitchel/

Rachelle Salem, Executive Lead – Strategic Partnerships, GavinHeath
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelle-salem-525993/

As always, Pizza, Salad, beer, wine and other beverages will be served.

• What to bring
$5 donation per person is suggested. If anyone wants to contribute to the Pizza Fund but didn’t have small bills with you, I can always accept PayPal to robertmcneil00@gmail.com or you can Venmo to 4152657434

AGENDA:
5:30 to 6:00 Meet & Greet, Networking
6:00 to 7:00 Panel Discussion
7:00 to 7:30 Q&A
7:30 Optional HH at Junction Bar

See you there!

Great webinar this week with Conner Dube. The video replay is here: https://youtu.be/-EtoB7JQXbw

One of the best events I have ever had. I am employing the video chat feature to reach out to a new book of leads this week. I’ll be taking August off, but please do attend the Virtual C-Level later this month.

Some additional notes from the preso, i.e. other resources shared:

Contact Connor: www.activeblogs.com/webinar (and enter to win)
Contact Bob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertmcneil/

PODCAST PLATFORMS:
spreaker.com
https://restream.io/

OTHER RESOURCES (not endorsed by Connor or Bob)
www.InfluenceBoard.com
https://www.loom.com/use-cases/sales
https://lunchclub.ai/?invite_code=noah2

RECORDING: https://youtu.be/-EtoB7JQXbw

Virtual C-Level

We had a great webinar last week. Here are the notes from the event:

• Small companies are in a hiring freeze, but there are exceptions…just ask Jordan.
• Large companies are hiring, but this needs to be qualified:
Is the req. for real?
Are they actually hiring for the position? “Actively interviewing”…or not. Some companies have lots of posted requisitions but are only hiring for a small % of them.


HOW TO JOB HUNT –

1. Find the req.
2. Have a contact of yours who works at your target company submit the resume. Send them the req. # and your current email and a cover letter to submit on your behalf.
3. Follow up
4. Find out from your contact if the req. is for real
5. More follow up – you’re in sales and you’re selling your sales talent, after all.
6. If you con’t have a contact at a target company, make some. (Details on how to do that below)

Video Interviewing – you are still making an impression…visually, personalty, body language, etc.
o Wear a suit and tie
o Check your backdrop, design it, change it, look at TV correspondents’ backdrops on the news and take notes from them – i.e. bookcases instead of a TV behind you.
o Have the camera level with your eyes
o Keep your video conferencing software updated. (Zoom AND Webex AND MS Teams, AND Blue Jeans AND GoToMeeting…test out the software ahead of each video interview. Nothing will derail an interview faster than a video app that needs updates 3 minutes before it’s suppose to go live, like extensions that needed to be added to your browser.
o Lighting – be front lit, lots of light. Having light behind you will produce a silhouette that will produce a horrible image.
o You may need to exaggerate body language, hand motions, facial expressions.

Resources:

1. Contact Jordan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanagreenberg/
2. Reach out to Bob for a one-on-one chat here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertmcneil/

JOB SITES TO UPLOAD A CURRENT RESUME TO:JOB SITES

LinkedIn Jobs

Monster

Ladders

Indeed

These are useful so you can be found, rather than find roles out there.

OTHER NOTES

1. Physical Fitness. – do not neglect your health during a job hunt. All the worlds health advise, I am convinced, boils down to “Eat right & exercise” A lot of us have bad habits to deal with stress and over-work. So, get outside once a day at least, walk a mile, go on an evening hike, return to your gym, if you can do so safely.
2. Never stop networking. Make it a habit to reach out to a few people (at target companies) per day on LinkedIn. Have a few canned outgoing messages like: “Hi __, I’d like to join your network as a fellow ____ alum in the tech sector.” or “Hi _, I’d like to connect with you as I am looking at sales roles in ______. Do you have time for a call later this week or next week? Thank you!”
3. Stay in touch with your tech sales community through my meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Colorado-Technology-Sales-Meetup/ and ask ‘How can I help out?’