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Tim Riesterer

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Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Corporate Visions

136 points

Recognized thought leader and practitioner in the area of Marketing and Sales Alignment and Sales Enablement. Co-author "Customer Message Management: Increasing Marketing's Impact on Selling (Thomson July 2006) and "Conversations that Win the Complex Sale: Using Power Messaging to ...

Recognized thought leader and practitioner in the area of Marketing and Sales Alignment and Sales Enablement. Co-author "Customer Message Management: Increasing Marketing's Impact on Selling (Thomson July 2006) and "Conversations that Win the Complex Sale: Using Power Messaging to Differentiate, Communicate Value and Close More Deals (McGraw Hill April 2011). At Corporate Visions, Tim leads a team in developing and delivering consulting and training services that helps companies be different, where it counts, in their customer conversations. This includes creating the right messages, deploying the right tools, and training the right skills to provide a differentiated customer experience throughout the buying process.

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WEB: Book Website

May 19, 2012

Tim Riesterer and 6 other people answered this question at this roundtable

The Status Quo: Defeat Your Biggest Competitor in Marketing and Sales [5/17 @ 1 pm]

How much of a problem is creating prospect-centric messages when marketers have little time to find what prospects really want?

Good to hear from you Wayne. We've talked about this...prospects know what they want, but do they know what they need? The challenge with asking your prospects how to "message to them"... they won't tell you something that's significant enough to get them to change. ... more

Status Quo Strategy

May 17, 2012

Tim Riesterer and 1 other person answered this question at this roundtable

The Status Quo: Defeat Your Biggest Competitor in Marketing and Sales [5/17 @ 1 pm]

What are some examples of barriers? And how can I overcome them?

I talk about four causes of the status quo barrier that must be defeated:
1) Attention Scarcity -- people have too much information and too little time to decipher, so you need to tell them, quickly, something they don't already know about a problem or ... more

Status Quo Strategy

April 17, 2012

Tim Riesterer and 15 other people answered this question

What are some tips to making PowerPoint presentations less boring?

Turn off the projector, turn up the lights, grab a marker and an easel pad and have a conversation. Translate your biggest ideas into a few easy-to-remember numbers and simple visuals with a story that your prospect can re-create after you leave. Your visuals must ... more

Jan. 28, 2012

Tim Riesterer recommends this answer by Brian McGuire

How do you get salespeople to understand sell using the value proposition?

My short answer is that the value propositions that come out of most classic marketing work WILL NOT play in a sales conversation. So, it's unreasonable for us to expect sales people to be able to sell these value propositions. Truth is, there's a huge ... more

Value Proposition

Value Proposition Management

Oct. 13, 2011

Tim Riesterer and 3 other people answered this question at this roundtable

Modern Sales Management: How the Best Sales Managers Thrive in Today’s New Environment [10/6 @ 11 am]

What are some examples of the new skill sets that sales reps & sales managers need today?

Deal creation. Getting prospects to consider doing something different.
Waiting for opportunities to be perfectly BANT qualified is like saying, "please just send me the RFP, and then I'll show up for the bloody bake-off." Actually salespeople add very little value here. The skill they need ... more

Sept. 29, 2011

Tim Riesterer and 24 other people answered this question

Why don't more sales organizations invest in sales training courses?

Training groups have become their own worst enemies.
Too many corporate "universities" have become nothing more than procurement activities seeking to round out a curriculum that, on paper, appears to check the boxes, and call it a day. They preach wanting to transform their sales organizations ... more

Sales Management

Sales Organization

Sept. 29, 2011

Tim Riesterer and 5 other people answered this question

Should all lead gen responses be nurtured, or just those judged not ready for in-person follow-up?

This year we decided to put all leads that match our "ideal client profile" through an integrated 100-day nurturing program. The result, we have given our salespeople only 1/3 the leads we passed along last year (despite generating the same number overall). And, we've increased ... more

Lead Management

Aug. 22, 2011

Tim Riesterer and 9 other people answered this question at this roundtable

Prospecting and Getting in the Front of the Pipeline [8/18 @ 1 pm]

How much research should you do on a client when your product price is $180,000?

According to research, executives only think about 10% of sales calls are worth their time. Partly it's because of people doing "research" and then regurgitating that to the people who already know because they wrote it. Executives tell me all the time... "don't play 20 ... more

Oct. 28, 2010

Tim Riesterer and 12 other people answered this question

What are the top 3 things to remember when delivering a presentation?

3 things... here goes:
1. Context creates Urgency... grab, if not shock, your audience by telling them something about a problem they didn't even know existed. Describe the potential impact on their business objectives. Define a new set of needs and requirements that make the status ... more

General Management

Oct. 28, 2010

Tim Riesterer and 1 other person answered this question

What do your sales reps struggle with the most?

Messaging for a decision... instead of messaging for information. Too many sales reps struggle catalyzing action and loosening the status quo. I'm convinced that status quo is now companies' biggest competitor. Too much of what's in the pipeline goes to no decision. And, it's increasing. ... more

Oct. 23, 2010

Tim Riesterer and 20 other people answered this question

Would you rather have a VP of Sales who was a great tactician or sales strategist?

Without oversimplifying... I've seen a lot of sales people create a lot of pipeline but not convert nearly enough to closed deals.
I want a VP of Sales that can show salespeople how to create actual deals, not just get excited "sponsors"... and a VP of ... more

Oct. 23, 2010

Tim Riesterer and 9 other people answered this question

What is the biggest mistake that sales reps make in their presentations?

OK. Got it. Don't present before you understand the problem. But, the question is what's the biggest mistake made in presentations.
Here it is... salespeople message for information... they don't message for a decision. Too many presentations are chock full o information, but they don't ... more

Sales Representatives

Oct. 23, 2010

Tim Riesterer and 3 other people answered this question

Sales Enablement: Who owns sales enablement –marketing or sales?

In the end, it isn't a matter of who owns it -- based on department. It comes down to who has the vision, the "infrastructure" and the savvy to sustain the entire Sales Enablement effort. Such a huge portion of Sales Enablement is creating, aggregating, ... more

Sales Enablement

Oct. 23, 2010

Tim Riesterer and 1 other person answered this question

Sales enablement: What are the list of tangible deliverables that are part of sales enablement?

In some cases Sales Enablement teams are creators, in other cases they are translators. But, in all cases, you are to provide a clear example to all of the sales "content developers" in your organization of what is useful, appropriate and needed by the field. ... more

Oct. 23, 2010

Tim Riesterer and 9 other people answered this question

Sales enablement: Is sales training a component of sales enablement?

Sales Rep confidence and competency in delivering your message in a way that gets the customer to care enough to do something different... and then choose you... is the ultimate goal of Sales Enablement. Training is absolutely critical to making this a reality in the ... more

Sales Enablement

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