(This is the first in a series of videos from John “Coach K” Klymshyn, who will present two CP Special Sales Workshops April 14 at Channel Partners Conference in Las Vegas. Klymshyn has worked with the channel as an author, speaker and coach for more than five years. His practical ideas combined with humorous delivery led to the publication of a series of books, including "Move The Sale Forward," "The Ultimate Sales Managers' Guide" and "How To Sell Without Being A Jerk!" He specializes in larger, relationship-based deals, and he has directly helped salespeople at a Technology Services Distributor (TSD) close more than $500,000 a month in recurring revenue.)

Here is a transcript of the video:

Welcome to Enterprise Selling Excellence. I’m John Klymshyn. Over the course of this series, we will share with you some ideas that will help you to win when you're selling to the enterprise. One of the things that you will hear from me on a regular basis is that we want to put concepts together in groups of three or five or seven. The reason for that is that this is how we will process, record, store and be able to retrieve ideas, concepts, practical actions and applications.

So for today, there are three things I want to share with you.

One is the distinction between invitation and permission. The second is a not so simple -- but very clear -- definition of what selling is, in my mind. Third, yet another definition, which is the definition of the verb “to qualify.”

As you go through this series, the goal is that you will walk away with things that you can not only think about, but find a way to put into practical use. So there's a very distinct difference between invitation and permission. We are accustomed in polite society, to ask people if it's okay to “blank,” or can we go ahead and “blank.” Because as salespeople, what we want to do is we want to draw in the revenue. What I have found is in enterprise conversations, what we want to do is craft questions that will prompt invitations on the part of the other person. And think about it, the difference between invitation and permission is that an invitation comes from them to us. Permission, of course, still comes from them, but because we have asked for it and they are left in control. We'll talk about this when we see each other at Channel Partners Conference in Las Vegas.

Second, my definition of selling is the following: having people feel good about making a positive decision to move the conversation forward with me today. Notice that we don't get into commission or rate or headcount or payment terms. Because what we do is, we detach ourselves from the specific outcome, we engage in business conversations. So I'll give you that definition again, “having people feel good about making a positive decision to move the conversation forward with me today.”

And then third, for this particular video, the definition of the verb “to qualify,” which, in my experience, is a regular and consistent challenge for experienced salespeople because once we get away from our definition of what it means to qualify, we start to lose our way. So let's make sure that we have clarity here, because to qualify is defined as meeting specific criteria. For you as an enterprise salesperson, or someone that leads a team of enterprise salespeople, it's really critical that you have specific criteria for who you want your customers to be in the future. In the next videos, we will talk about the difference between selling and attempting to close today and building a compelling and profitable future.

I'm John Klymshyn. This is Enterprise Selling Excellence. See you next time.