Program Structure
Day 1: The Specialist Imperative
Students learn why the market has already shifted, why the old frameworks don't work for their world, and how to immediately identify which customers deserve specialist time and which are draining it.
Topics covered:
The Market Has Already Shifted. The 16% Reality: application knowledge is the other 84%. What a Specialist Actually Is: a steward of application knowledge. Where the Sales Frameworks Stop: Challenger, SPIN, CCS, and VBS were built for salespeople selling software. This course is built for specialists selling promises buyers cannot verify. The Validation Spectrum. Law 9: Customer Problems Define Specialist Priorities. Follow the pain, find the profit. 60% of specialist time consumed by customers generating only 15% of profits. Law 2: Measure Everything That Matters. Law 1: Experience Trumps Education. Law 7: Dogs Get Systems, Diamonds Get Specialists.
Exercise 1: Diamonds and Dogs Triage. Ten premade customer personas. Classify, defend your classification.
Exercise 2: The Invisible Value Capture. A specialist's week in five customer interactions. Quantify the hidden value.
Working Lunch Bonus: The Evidence When Properly Captured.
Day 2: The Selling Conversation
Students learn the bilingual translation that turns engineers into revenue generators, the verification question that acts as a profit compass, and the objection handling for the real pushback specialists hear in the field.
Topics covered:
Law 4: Specialists Must Be Sellers. The Bilingual Specialist: they speak engineering and CFO fluently. The Verification Question: can this customer verify their own selection? The Divining Rod: three sale types. The Co-Created Promise: a brand is not a tagline. The Problem-First Conversation: lead with a diagnostic question. Objection handling: "we can get it cheaper online," brand loyalty, "we have always done it this way," and the AI trap. The Share of Wallet Question: your diamond accounts already trust you.
Exercise 3: AI Accountability Check.
Exercise 4: The Bilingual Translation. Technical statements translated into the language a decision-maker will act on.
Exercise 5: The Divining Rod in Practice. Customer scenarios. Classify the sale type, select the conversation strategy, defend it.
Exercise 6: What Changes Monday. One account to reclassify. One conversation to initiate. One measurement to start. Presented to the room. Defended under questioning.
Working Lunch Bonus: Building Your Specialist Playbook.