STEP – 2022 Program

Presenter: Charlene DeCesare, Certified Sales Leader, Lead Consultant, The RAIN Group

Moderator: Bryan White, CPMR, VP of Sales, Catalyst Unity Solutions

Panelists: Tom Galligani, Global VP, Supply Chain, Future Electronics; Mark LaPointe, VP of The Americas & Global Distribution, SMC Diode Solutions; Chuck Tanzola, VP, Business Development, Fusion Sourcing Group

Presenter: Charlene DeCesare, Certified Sales Leader, Lead Consultant, The RAIN Group

Nothing has changed more in sales in the last decade than prospecting. It’s more difficult than ever to get through and get meetings. This session will teach you how to convey the value for the meeting to help you break through the noise to secure more and better meetings and how you can use referrals to warm up every outreach. In this session, you will learn to: succeed with email prospecting; what works and what doesn’t; understand how to make your LinkedIn profile boost your reputation among your prospects; the email message framework that gets meetings; apply the power of referrals to generate more effective connections.

Presenter: Jenny Smith, Ph.D., President, JMS Synergy

Effective pre-call planning helps you gain more customer and grow your sales. The need for pre-call planning is more important than ever, whether the call is in-person or face-to-face over video. This training module will give helpful points regarding pre-call planning and preparations to ensure that the calls go well, and you reach goal.

Presenter: Michael Pedone, Founder & CEO of SalesBuzz.com

When executed effectively, this outbound warm call strategy can work wonders for your business and drive revenue. Although there’s already a prior contact with your lead, you still need to put effort into engaging with your lead and converting warm leads into more prospects. This session, presented by Michael Pedone, Founder of SalesBuzz.com, will help attendees understand how to prioritize their leads to help them grow sales and learn how to convert a warm lead into an order, and. most importantly, a warm customer into a key account.

Presenter: Sannah Vinding, CEO & Founder, B2B Marketing Consulting

Communication is at the heart of everything we do each day. It involves not only talking, but also attentive listening. Listening is twice as important as talking and one big important part of effective communication skills in business. Attentive listening will ensure you are hearing your customer’s intended message. Becoming a better listener takes practice! This session will focus on improving your communication skills in order to meaningfully  connect with other people and increase your capacity to retain information and communicate better to help you win more sales. Presented by Sannah Vinding, sales & marketing strategist, this session will provide tools and insights on the best ways to improve your communication and listening skills.

Moderator: Tim Kilfoil, President, JF Kilfoil Co.

Panelists: Ellen Albright, Marketing & Communications Director, E-T-A Circuit Breakers; Heather D’Amico, Marketing Manager, Brainard-Nielsen Marketing; Rob Tavi, CEO, IBS Electronics Group; Rob Tavi, President, IBS Electronics

Today, digital marketing is pervasive. Great digital marketing is often hard to define, but we all know it when we see it. What does digital marketing it mean to you? To your company? How do you do it well? Who is your target? How do you evaluate it? How do you determine its effectiveness? How can it help you grow your brand (both professionally and personally)? This session will provide real-world applications and specific solutions to help take your digital marketing to the next level.

Moderator: Brooks Mattice, General Manager, Mel Foster Co.

Panelists: Kevin Flaherty, Regional Sales Manager, Ohmite Manufacturing; Rachel Rieser, Field Sales Representative, Sager Electronics; Hunter Starr, CPMR, CPSC, Territory Manager, Performance Technical Sales

What are the keys to relationship-building inside our multigenerational industry? In this moderator-led panel discussion, you will hear perspectives from next generation manufacturers’ reps, distributors and manufacturers on how they communicate effectively and respectfully in our multi-generational industry while leveraging differences to build stronger relationships inside and out. Come prepared to listen and gain new tools on how to successfully build relationships in today’s electronics industry. 

Presenter: Jane Siegler, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, Butler University – Lacy School of Business

What are supply chain professionals being taught in today’s dynamic environment? This session will give attendees a peek into the curriculum that today’s supply chain leaders are being taught. Jane Siegler, Ph.D., will provide a brief summary of some of the aspects of an MBA curriculum on supply chain. This session will help guide attendees to better understand what goals supply chain managers have so to improve the value that our companies deliver to them.