At the core of Opportunity Portfolio Management (OPM) sales training is the methodology developed by SalesWays, and featured in Keith Thompson's books, Sales Automation Done Right and OPM: Opportunity Portfolio Management. These are the first fundamental sales methods to have been designed specifically for the computer, which is significant because technology has become such an integral part of sales. The methods have been tested over many years in direct field sales situations, and have appeared in a number of successful CRM and sales automation software products.

Because these concepts of the sales process were made to fit the logic of the computer, the results went beyond the current understanding of the fundamentals of selling, and evolved into an innovative new approach to not only dissect the meaning of the sales opportunity, but also place a true value to it. In fact, the sales methods first described in Sales Automation Done Right have transcended the realm of technology and now stand on their own as a bold new way for salespeople to view what happens in the sales cycle, and use this new understanding to improve their effectiveness. This is OPM training.

The Opportunity Portfolio, like an Investment Portfolio, contains value, which if properly managed, can represent a future treasure trove. With neglect, there can be reduced or even no value. That's why attention to the dynamics of multiple sales opportunities is so essential, despite being often overlooked. Salespeople get so fixated with how to read the customer's head, and tailor their immediate dialogue within a single interaction, that they don't focus on the challenge of managing multiple sales cycles, each of which can suddenly take on a life of their own. At that point, it’s easy for things to spiral out of control.

OPM training addresses portfolio management with a thorough rethink on what were previously thought to be fundamentals, and yet most salespeople remain unaware of. Starting with a reevaluation of the true meaning of the sales opportunity, and a close analysis of the associated sales cycle, OPM follows the evolution of the buyer's process and mirrors it with the reaction of the salesperson. The result is a sales cycle that divides naturally into phases in which certain sales skills should be dominant, and others controlled. This concept leads to a way of normalizing the large variance of sales cycles usually present in the portfolio, such that a reliable value system can take over to ensure that salespeople use their resources effectively.

Although OPM does not offer a detailed tactical guide for what should happen in the customer conversation, it lays out a framework for building individual sales processes based on types of tactics dictated by the model of the sales cycle. In fact, the tactical framework of OPM is a good SFA/CRM platform for layering popular tactical sales methods such as Miller Heiman, SPIN, Solution Selling or ProSell.

The OPM course shows how the intrinsic parameters that define the circumstances of the sale (Sales Environment) affect the decisions that the salesperson must make on the value of an opportunity. OPM stresses the importance of sale strategy as it unfolds throughout the sales cycle, and teaches a multi-level strategic approach closely coupled to the OPM model of the sale.

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