New Category in The Stevie Awards for Women Honors CEO Julie Thomas
Julie Thomas, CEO and President of ValueSelling Associates, Inc., has been honored by The Stevie® Awards for Women in Business with an award for Most Valuable Corporate Response in the COVID-19 Response category. This category commends exemplary responses to the pandemic by female-led or -owned companies. Julie’s entry showcases how ValueSelling Associates re-evaluated the company’s training delivery and enabled new Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) offerings to support B2B sales teams who had pivoted to selling 100% online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Stevie® Awards for Women in Business shines a spotlight on women executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations run by women. More than 1,500 nominations were considered from organizations and individuals worldwide in multiple categories. The Stevie is widely regarded as the world’s premier business award, and the award winners reflect a diverse group of large and small organizations from around the globe.
“I am truly grateful to be recognized with a Stevie Award for Women for our COVID-19 response – and this distinction extends to our entire ValueSelling Associates team,” said Julie Thomas. “When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we knew that a successful transition to an engaging virtual sales training method was crucial.”
She explains, “By the first week in March, our entire calendar of scheduled in-person training sessions had been either cancelled or postponed indefinitely. We immediately re-evaluated the company’s online platforms to enable successful delivery of a new Virtual Instructor-Led Training offering. We knew it had to be much more than a series of online classes. It required higher levels of engagement and interactivity, which led to a reengineering of the company’s offerings from the ground up.”
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All ValueSelling solutions, including the flagship ValueSelling Framework® and Vortex Prospecting™ programs, are now available in a Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) format. Maintaining its customized and participant-centered approach, ValueSelling Associates keeps learners engaged in a collaborative, virtual learning environment. Client response to the virtual sales training program has been enthusiastic, and they are seeing excellent results:
- “I had my doubts about this virtual training approach, especially given the tech limitations of some of our team…but I’m glad to say I was wrong. The sessions were exciting and now, 90 or so days after the training, we’re seeing a 17% decrease in average sales cycles combined with an increase of nearly 19% in average deal size. Well done!” – VP of Sales, AI-powered analytics firm
- “I have to recognize you for proving that a virtual workshop could not only be effective, but an absolute blast! You kept us engaged and the pace was good. I learned a ton, and honestly was more engaged than I would have been in a larger class where I could have stayed out of the spotlight. Thank you!” – Sales Rep, SaaS enterprise
- “The virtual sessions with your team have been incredible! I am so glad that we moved forward with the virtual training now instead of waiting. It’s given the team something positive to focus on and it’s been a perfect time to focus on mastery.” – Director of Sales Enablement, Software company
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