The 2019 Sales Educators’ Academy is set for June 18th-20th and early registration is open until April 15th. This year’s SEA event is going to focus on how sales educators can incorporate sales technology into their course offerings. We hope you’ll join us for a highly interactive event with all participants gaining many great, and actionable, ideas for improving sales teaching. Please see the agenda below for SEA details and register by going to saleseducatorsacademy.com.

 

The 8th Sales Educators’ Academy

Sponsored by Florida State University, Rollins College and the Sales Education Foundation

June 18th-20th, 2019

*Please note that the SEA program is meant to be a hands-on learning experience. It is not like other conferences where participants pick and choose sessions to attend (not attend). We encourage participants to be at all sessions and to stay for the entire conference that concludes with a session on teaching that relies on your participation. We look forward to seeing you in Orlando, FL!

Agenda for 2019 Sales Educators Academy (SEA)

Monday, June 17th, 2019 – Pre-registration

Travel day for participants. All participants are responsible for getting from Orlando International airport to:

Embassy Suites Orlando – North
225 Shorecrest Drive
Altamonte Springs, Florida
32701

Please feel free to join us at the pre-conference reception in the Embassy Suites atrium from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. Participants will be able to check-in for the SEA conference at this reception as well.

Day 1: Tuesday, June 18th, 2019 – Rollins College

9:00 – Bus Departs from Embassy Suites (Breakfast is provided by the Embassy Suites free of charge for SEA participants)

9:30 – 9:45 – Registration Rollins College Location (Coffee, Drinks & Snacks provided)

9:45 – 10:00 – Welcome Message from SEA Planning Chairs

The SEA Organizers Greg Marshall, Mark Johnston and Leff Bonney, along with the Dean of Crummer School of Management, will welcome the participants to the 8th Sales Educators event.

10:00 – 11:00 – Sales Education in a Digitally Disrupted World – Howard Dover, University of Texas – Dallas

In past discussions, Dr. Howard Dover has presented Social Selling, Sales Tech Stack, Automation and Augmentation of the field. This year, Howard will review the current state of Technology in Sales, including how UT Dallas is using Artificial Intelligence tools to enhance the learning environment for sales students with the goal of accelerating and enhancing the sales learning experience. In this session we will not only learn the current state of the art Sales Technology, but also categorize which technologies can be more easily brought into the class room and which are needed in a modern sales curriculum.

11:00 – 12:00 – Using Design Thinking to Enhance Technology Training in Sales Curriculum – Stefanie Boyer, Bryant University

Participants will learn and execute design thinking techniques and strategies to solve the largest challenge that sales and academia face today…adding technology to sales curriculum. This highly interactive session will have SEA participants working in teams to design new classes and restructuring curriculum to account for the technology related skills that today’s sales students need to be successful in the sales career.

12:00 – 1:00 – Lunch

1:00 – 1:45 – So What Technologies Do We Have Access To?

In this session, SEA participants will workshop out a list of key technologies that are available to faculty in their programs and how/where they might use them in their curriculum. The end results will be a list of top technologies we can use in our sales programs, who to call to get access to these technologies, classes and topics where the technology can be used, and faculty who are using the technology so best practices can be shared.

1:45-2:30 – Using Call Analysis Software to Improve Sales Conversations: The Application of Artificial Intelligence (SEA INNOVATIONS IN TEACHING FINALIST) – Dawn Deeter, Kansas State University

In this session, Dawn Deeter will demonstrate how sales faculty can use an AI tool called Refract in their sales programs. Based on artificial intelligence technology, Refract facilitates the analysis of sales conversations that, in turn, highlights coachable moments. The analysis includes identification of the amount of time spent speaking versus listening, the number of switches between the rep and the prospect, the amount of time the rep spends talking in uninterrupted segments, and words per minute spoken by the rep, the number of questions asked, when the questions are asked (by quartile), the number and type of filler words, key terms used by the rep, and “cold terms” used by the rep (i.e., terms that don’t move the conversation forward). Additionally, the sales faculty can include time-stamped comments into the conversation.

2:30 – 3:00 Break

3:00 – 3:45 – Salesforce CRM and Trailhead Modules – Semira Amirpour, University of Texas – Dallas (SEA INNOVATIONS IN TEACHING FINALIST)

The main focus of this assignment is to introduce technology to manage leads generated in a different assignment called “Network Development Assignment”. Regardless of the type of sales position, all sales professional need to utilize technology to manage their leads and contacts, therefore, this exercise familiarizes students to start not only using a CRM platform, but also to take advantage of training modules available to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the tool.

3:45 – 4:30 – An Integrated Sales Prospecting Assignment / Evaluation – James Fyles, Stetson University (SEA INNOVATIONS IN TEACHING FINALIST)

Most entry level sales roles, regardless of job title, focus on creating and qualifying opportunities. This session highlights a 5-week module designed to familiarize students with the tools, tactics and activities used in both prospecting outbound leads and in qualifying inbound opportunities. SEA faculty will learn how to introduce students to elements of the sales tech stack including LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Salesforce.com and a variety of research, communication and scheduling tools that students are likely to come across in the field.

4:30 – 4:45 – Concluding Remarks

Wrap up the day and participants vote on the SEA Innovations in Teaching Award.

4:45 – 5:30 – Cocktail Reception

6:00 – 6:45 –Keynote Speaker Rob Jeppsen, Founder & CEO of Xvoyant Sales Improvement Platform

In keeping with this year’s SEA theme of sales technology in the classroom, we’ve asked Rob Jeppsen, founder and CEO of Xvoyant (https://www.xvoyant.com) and host of the Sales Leadership podcast, to spend a few minutes sharing his thoughts on the future of sales and sales management. More importantly, we will hear from Rob on how he sees different sales technologies changing the way people sell in the years to come. Rob has been a featured speaker at many sales conferences around the world including the Sales Management Association Productivity Conference and Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce Conference. He’s also spent many years leading sales teams and so we will undoubtedly learn a great deal about the future of sales from Rob!

(Bus Departs for Embassy Suites by 7:00 pm)

Day 2: Wednesday, June 19th , 2019 – Rollins College and Disney

8:00 – Bus Departs from Embassy Suites (Breakfast is provided by the Embassy Suites free of charge for SEA participants)

8:30 – 9:00 – Coffee and Light Pastries

9:00 – 9:15 – “Welcome Back” Message from SEA Planning Chairs

Review of Day 2’s events and logistics

9:15 – 10:00 – Demonstrating Texting Distraction in Sales Encounters – Aaron Arndt, Old Dominion University

Smart phones area critical tool for sales communications. Consequently, salespeople are reluctant to turn off their phones, even during customer meetings, because they are afraid of missing important communications from other customers. However, accepting outside communications during a customer meeting can inhibit communications with the current customer. While it is possible to tell students this lesson, its better is they experience the pitfalls of distracted selling to really appreciate it. In this session, Aaron will lead SEA participants through a session that shows how sales faculty can teach this important lesson to students in their sales courses.

10:00 -10:45 – Teaching Sales Students the Importance of Being Different – Leff Bonney, Florida State University & Wendy Tabrizi, Aston Business School

Customers consistently complain that all sales people sound the same. And worse, product differences are getting harder and harder to detect. So, customers are pushed to use price as their main criteria for making supplier decisions. In this session, Leff Bonney will highlight ways that sales students can think about differentiation and ways that they can use technology to highlight differences between their products and the products of competitors.

10:45 – 11:00 – Break

11:00 – 12:30 – Planning for Teaching Sessions

SEA participants spend time planning a new, innovative teaching session that will be presented to other faculty in the Day 3 sessions. This year, we are encouraging groups to work on ways to build a specific course session devoted to a technology topic for the teaching portion of the SEA 2019 event.

12:30 pm – Lunch and Load Buses for Disney

Time to head to the M-O-U-S-E! We will provide a box lunch for the ride down to the Disney Presentations.

2:00 – 4:00 pm –Disney Speaker Series

Gain some valuable insight into what makes great sellers at Disney’s Vacation Club and Disney’s Corporate Sales Team. Senior Disney sales leaders will also share how they recruit, train and evaluate sales people. SEA attendees will be able to ask questions and interact with the Disney team as they demonstrate their sales process and strategies.

4:30 pm –Arrive at Disney Springs

There’s no shortage of things to do at Disney Springs (https://www.disneysprings.com) . Formerly known as Downtown Disney, this wonderful outdoor dining and shopping area will be a great way to spend some downtime with fellow sales educators. SEA attendees will be on their own for dinner and can choose from dozens of different eateries. Feel free to grab an Uber and head back to the hotel at any time or wait and catch the SEA bus back at 8:00pm.

8:00 – Bus Departs Disney Springs for Embassy Suites

Day 3: Thursday, June 20th, 2019 – Rollins College

8:00 – Bus Departs from Embassy Suites (Breakfast is provided by the Embassy Suites free of charge for SEA participants)

8:30 – 9:00 – Coffee and Light Breakfast – Crummer Lobby and Suntrust Auditorium

Quick announcement about the sessions and teams dismissed to their respective classrooms.

9:00 – 11:30 – Interactive Teaching Sessions (coffee break included) – Crummer Classrooms

In this session, SEA participant teams will present an innovative sales or sales management topic just as they would to a class of sales students. Teams can divide the content for each part of the lecture however they like. Fellow SEA participants will fill out coaching forms that provide feedback on teaching style and technique. These sessions will also be video-taped and the recordings will be available on the SEA website shortly after the program ends. Finally, an award is given to the team that has the highest teacher ratings and copies of the lesson plans developed will be distributed to all SEA participants.

11:30 – 12:00 – Final Remarks

12:00 – 1:00 – Closing Lunch

The SEA Program will provide a shuttle to Orlando International Airport leaving Rollins around 1:30 pm. If you would like to take advantage of this shuttle, then please book your flight for a 3:30 pm (or later) departure.

---