Jill Konrath

Jill Konrath’s career is defined by her relentless search for fresh sales strategies that actually work in today’s business environment.

She’s the author of two bestselling sales books and is a popular speaker who helps sellers crack into new accounts, speed up sales cycles and win more business. She likes to work on:

Tough Challenges. When Jill recognized that the crazy-busy work environment was wreaking havoc with sellers, she immersed herself in the issue till she discovered new strategies that worked.

The result? SNAP Selling, her highly acclaimed new book that jumped to #1 on Amazon within hours of its release — and continues to be a top seller.

Big Issues. Jill’s initial book, Selling to Big Companies, addressed a major sales problem that continues today-how to set up meetings with prospects who’d rather avoid salespeople all together.

Fortune named it one of eight “must reads” for sellers, along with How to Win Friends & Influence People, The New Strategic Selling and Getting to Yes. It’s also been an Amazon Top 25 sales book since 2006.

Unsolvable Problems. When the economy tanked in 2008, Jill realized that most job seekers had no idea how to “sell” themselves. Instead, they were commoditized by their look-alike resumes and using reactionary job-hunting skills. So she wrote Get Back to Work Faster, a game-changing career book at the same time she launched a free monthly webinar series.

Thought Leadership

As a business-to-business sales expert, Jill’s ideas and insights are ubiquitous in multiple forums, both on and offline.

Widely read. Jill’s newsletters are read by 70,000+ readers worldwide. In addition, she writes a popular blog that’s been syndicated on numerous business and sales websites.

Frequently quoted. Jill expertise is frequently published in top business media such as ABC News, Success, Inc., WSJ Start-Up Journal, Entrepreneur, New York Times, Business Journal, Selling Power, Sales & Marketing Management as well as countless online publications and radio shows.

Sales guru status. Jill’s expertise has been cited in numerous books: SMART Calls, Masters of Sales, The Contrarian Effect, Smart Selling on the Phone & Online, Top Dog Sales Secrets, Get Clients Now, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale and many more.

Professional Background

Jill’s passion for sales was ignited at Xerox Corporation where she was frequently recognized for superior performance as both an account executive and regional sales manager. She then moved into computer sales and immediately became the International Rookie of the Year and a consistent top performer.

Her joy in selling, combined with an innate ability to teach, led her to present countless training programs for colleagues, create a myriad of sales tools, coach dozens of trainees and to work on new product launches – in addition to her sales job! This was the impetus for starting her own business.

In 1987, she launched Leapfrog Strategies, Inc., a sales effectiveness consultancy, that focused on helping companies shorten time to revenue on new product introductions. Using her unique strategies that closed the gap between Sales & Marketing, her clients were able to launch faster, capture their window of opportunity and gain significant market share.

Everything was going great till 2000, when her two biggest clients came under pressure from Wall Street to deliver better results. All consulting contracts were stopped mid-stream, effectively putting her out of business. This trigger event caused her to rethink how she wanted to use her talent and passion to make a significant impact in the next decade.

Ten years ago, Jill was a quiet, unknown consultant who did great work for her clients. Today, she is an internationally recognized expert who is known for her fresh sales strategies and game-changing approaches.

Personal Insights

Jill and her husband Fred share their home in White Bear Lake, Minnesota with Cali, the cat. Their daughter Katie, who writes a popular creativity blog called Get Fresh Minds, works in marketing. Their son Ryan, who just graduated from the University of North Dakota where he also played football, is now a Lead Flight Instructor for the college.

In her spare time, Jill loves to do New York Times crossword puzzles, take long & vigorous walks, read (she suffers from ARD-Addictive Reading Disorder) and write.

In addition to her work in the sales field, Jill launched Get Back to Work Faster to help job seekers. She’s a Founding Mother of Awesome Women, a nonprofit focused on creating a world in which “every woman’s voice makes a difference.” She’s also an active member of the National Speakers Association.

The New Rules of Selling

Working with overwhelmed, stressed out prospects requires fresh thinking. They make quick decisions based on relevance and urgency. They see minimal difference between competitors and seem to only be concerned about pricing.

What does it take to capture their attention and get their business? In this session based on Jill Konrath’s new book, SNAP Selling, your salespeople will discover numerous strategies they can use throughout the buying process to:

• Simplify the complexity that drives them to a screeching halt.
• Become an invaluable resource that customers willingly pay more for.
• Align with key organizational objectives and priorities.
• Maintain momentum despite a prospect’s tendency to default to the status quo.

By following SNAP Rules, your salespeople will find themselves at the top of their game. They’ll be irresistible and irreplaceable, winning more sales at higher margins and with less competition.

Selling to Big(ger) Companies

Selling to bigger companies today is tough, tough, tough. Prospects don’t answer phones, all calls are routed to voicemail and no one ever calls back. If your salespeople are like most sellers, they’re pretty frustrated right now, but don’t know what to do differently.

It’s time for a wake up call! In this session, your salespeople will learn new strategies they can use to:

• Get their foot in the door of big companies.
• Shorten their sales cycle.
• Differentiate themselves from competitors.
• These strategies go against conventional wisdom, but that’s why they work.

The net result? Increased new customer acquisition and faster sales cycles. Reps who now see why they’re struggling — and a pathway forward that’s doable.

Speed Up Your Sales

Discerning when and where to invest your sales times for maximum return is critical for your success. Making more calls is not the answer! In this sales keynote, your salespeople learn how to focus their sales activities so they’re only working with customers who are ready to change now without looking at tons of competitors.

• Specifically, they’ll discover how to:
• Target customers based on the key factors relevant to your sales success.
• Leverage trigger events that significantly increase your likelihood of getting the business – faster and with minimal competition.
• Help your customers to navigate the decision-making process.

These strategies can slash months off the time it takes to get a decision made.

Inside Your Customer's Head

Everyone says that it’s important to think like your customer, but for most sellers it’s simply mouthtalk. Why? They really don’t know how to feel and see the world from another’s perspective. In this program, they’ll be transformed into a corporate decision maker and then have an opportunity to see how typical sales behaviors are perceived on the other side of the desk.

If you want to instigate change in your sales organization, this will catch your seller’s attention. They’ll leave with insights & ideas on how to be significantly more effective with their customers.

"Jill is an outstanding consultant and advisor on business-to-business selling. Her book, "Selling to Big Companies" is a landmark. After speaking to sales professionals at my company on the content of the book, Jill was asked to conduct three seminars for some of our sales people. All were resounding successes. Jill is one to watch. And if you get the chance to work with her, you will be impressed." — Global Program Director, IBM

"Jill's workshop proved to be invaluable to our national sales organization. We documented all of the sales prospecting activity for our sales team immediately following the Selling To Big Companies program and we were delighted to see our appoinment closing ratios increase to 87% in only 2 months! Many of the top level prospects who agreed to meet with us had declined our earlier attempts (in some cases for years). We look forward to learning more from Jill about increasing presentation effectiveness during our next national sales summit." — Vice President of Sales, Cox Target Media

"With Jill’s help we were able to ... win over 30% of the opportunities we engaged — and that's 3X our previous rate, and 4X the industry standard." — VP of National Account Sales, Staples

"Jill was a great speaker at our sales seminar in Spain. Her presentation was fun, informative and creative. A great help for our sales people." — Sales Director, UniGroup Worldwide, Amsterdam