Helen,

I just wanted to take a quick second to thank you again for the training last week. It was my first professional sales training class and I can’t even begin to tell you how motivated and pumped up I am right now about using this process.

I actually set up a conference call last week with a potential customer interested in our software. I had that call this morning and was able to get to their pain within less than a minute. The lady I was speaking with almost jumped through the phone saying “THAT’S IT, YOU’VE GOT MY PROBLEM EXACTLY” and from that point on it was the 9-block model… That conversation could not have gone better. I knew she had already been looking at other competitor software, but after our conversation, she sounded almost relieved that somebody finally got it… We discussed an evaluation plan already and I will be providing that to her by tomorrow afternoon. I could tell from the discussion that none of the competition had been concerned enough to find out the evaluation process because when I asked about what it would take to evaluate us and let us prove our capabilities, she and I had to build that list together. I just don’t think it could have been a better start to a Monday…

I just can’t thank you and everyone at SPI for the assistance. A quick success was exactly what I needed this morning and it came at 9:00 a.m. WOOOHOOO!!!

Have a great day!!!! I know I will!!!

Hi Helen,

The purpose of this note is to thank you for the excellent SS training facilitation this week at Catapult Learning. Only 5 days have passed, and I already have proof the training works.

I give presentations and demo training to sales and marketing people. A marketing director and former colleague emailed me this week, wanting to know more about my business; he mentioned he wanted presentation training for the product specialists on his team. Even though he knows me personally, I resisted assuming he contacted me first—and took his note to mean he was in active pain, and had therefore already chosen another trainer.

Long story short: We had a call yesterday, and I took him through the nine boxes, starting at C1 (“How do you see yourself providing presentation training to your six specialists?”). Remarkable. During the course of the call, he shared with me that he appreciated my asking all sorts of question to understand his situation—especially in light of the fact we already knew each other and I could have taken the easy way out. Then, he shared that he talked with another trainer first who did not ask questions and kept saying simply “I can do that.”

We agreed he will introduce me to the VP, Marketing next week.

Thank you again, Helen! Your training works!

I’ve had the opportunity to work with Helen Talmadge while in my global training roles at both Illumina and PerkinElmer and have been beyond pleased every time she delivers a workshop. Not only is she delightful, she is also an excellent facilitator who handles questions well, provides great examples and is able to get buy-in and interaction from the most stubborn of students, those who think they have nothing new to learn. At the conclusion of workshops, I often have students approach me and say things like, “she’s the best facilitator I’ve ever experienced,” or “I truly thought I had nothing new to learn because I’ve been selling for 20+ years but I definitely found a few things that I can add to / change about the way I sell”, etc. The sellers leave the workshops being much more motivated and energized than when they arrived.

The sales people in the industry in which I work are typically very scientific and technical (degrees and/or PhDs in science) and she’s able to teach them the “art” of selling. In addition to the selling training, she’s also delivered sales management and coaching as well as presentations skills training, all of which were very well received.

Helen is a valuable resource for our company and I will continue to request her to facilitate our training workshops as her training style and insights will continue to make us a more successful global sales organization.

Hi Tim and John,

Just a quick FYI that the CRC training went very well overall (not without bumps – but we got to a good place). Dave and the team did a great job connecting w/ the FMs. Helen, in particular, bonded w/ her group at a level that is just this side of a cult.

We’ve got lots of work to do turning CRC into a modern, focused salesforce – but your team really helped us get the ball rolling down that hill.
Have a good weekend (find someplace cool if you’re in NC! We’ll be doing that up here!)

Thanks,

Just wanted you all to know that Helen did a superb job for us in the Sales Tool Build process yesterday. We realize that our sales process is challenging to mold into the SPI model and Helen was very diligent—and patient—in working with us. I am very glad that she will be at the helm when our training occurs in September.

Regards,