so what?

So I love sales.  I love mentoring.  I love coaching.  I love being different.  I love creating theatre.  I love that there’s no downside in sales.  There’s freedom in having nothing to lose and everything to gain.  You can try things.  You can cut against the grain, swim upstream as my former Rosenbluth colleagues liked to say.  If they laugh at you along the way, it’s okay.  I’ve been laughed at and criticized by the best but I’ve won waaaaaaay more than I’ve lost.  If you don’t venture, you’ll never gain.  You'll just blend in and blending in doesn’t get you noticed.  If you’re not noticed you don’t win.

three residencies per year

The Residency is a new sales development program I’ve introduced on behalf of the In the Black Group. Individual learning programs for each residency are referred to as Productions. These are immersion learning programs and I am personally leading the sales residency programs in the U.S.  Each residency can include up to three people and lasts 90-120 days.  

one residency remains open for 2024

One residency will be completed by mid-November.  A final engagement for 2024 will become available following that closure. In order to avoid any perceived conflict of interest, I only undertake one Residency at a time.  There is no overlap between engagements.  Any number of sales and/or account management people can be included in any given engagement but optimally less than ten people are enrolled at a time.

qualifications

The Residency program is clearly not for people new to sales.  Qualifying for a Residency slot entails providing a Curriculum Vitae/Resume for each applicant which will be followed by an assessment interview.  This step will enable me to determine where the Residency applicant(s) lands on the sales experience spectrum. Proficiency will be measured on a 100 point scale with “good” being measured as zero and “method” being 100.  Each category of proficiency from the interview assessment will be measured both individually and in the aggregate.  Weighting will be applied in accordance with the objective outcomes sought by the Residency participant and by the standard applied to the overall Sales Residency.  Categories of proficiency will include the following:

 

ACT ONE:  Previews (minimum 45 hours)

• Pipeline development

  • identifying target prospects

  • ongoing communication

  • emotive engagement

• Diagnostics application

  • conversationalizing

  • results analysis

• Proposal provocation

  • unsolicited proposals

  • prescriptive proposal writing

  • cutting directly to a deal

  • buying business

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ACT TWO:  SHOWTIME (minimum 45 hours)

• theater creation

• presentation development

• story telling with pictures

• rule 15

• product staging

• site tours and inspections

• pitch preparation and delivery

• casting the right actors

• scripting

• product demos

• rehearsal rehearsal rehearsal

• reading the room

• shutting down and moving off-script as needed

• knowing when to walk away

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ACT THREE:  CURTAIN CALL (minimum 30 hours)

• closing the sale

• presentation follow-up

• setting the contract path and timeline

• contract development

• giving and taking

• core contracting versus incentives

• termination clauses

up up and away​

The logistics of the Residency program vary.  ACT ONE will largely take place in the participant’s office environment.  ACT TWO will be delivered almost entirely at the Residency participant’s company office site.  This phase will also include people typically involved in sales presentations.  ACT THREE will mostly be delivered remotely with a portion taking place at the In the Black Group HQ in New York or at a remote temporary office-sharing location nearby the Residency participant’s remote or office base.

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what now?

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Parties interested in the Sales Residency program should contact Ron DiLeo directly.  Inquiries and a copy of the applicant's CV should be directed to: ron@rondileo-intheblack.com