SHREVEPORT – The area’s top sales professionals will join forces to offer the Sales Success Summit on June 28 on the LSU Shreveport campus.
The half-day professional development opportunity will bring together industry leaders to offer a comprehensive perspective on sales and marketing trends and the knowledge base on which they are developed.
Attendees can gain valuable insight into a broad range of topics in breakout sessions and expand their own network at an event aimed to attract veteran and aspiring sales professionals as well as college students.
“Sales is a fantastic career that has a lot of growth potential, earning potential and a lot of mobility between fields,” said Leigh Chambers, executive director of events and community initiatives at LSUS. “Whether you’re interested in exploring a career in sales, or you’re a professional with a lot of experience, this event features a lot of knowledgeable speakers who will educate us on the latest trends and techniques.”
Register by June 22 to receive a $49 rate, after which the cost will be $69. Breakfast and lunch is included. LSUS students can attend for free thanks to generous sponsorship from local companies.
The event will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the LSUS Student Union with breakfast and registration beginning at 8:30 a.m.
The professional development event is presented by the LSUS College of Business and LSUS Continuing Education.
“The idea behind this event is to raise awareness among job seekers of this field and to showcase the types of careers that are possible in sales,” Chambers said. “We want to expose the industries we have in our community to our students and the general community while filling the workforce needs of our local companies.
“You can learn from people who have been in the sales industry for more than 20 years in lots of different areas.”
The event begins with career tracks breakout sessions where attendees can pick one of four topics.
Tech sales will be led by Scott Lasseigne of APS Payroll. For automotive sales, Scott Tarkowski, who created the app Mimic, is on deck. Directing medical sales is Kevin Gonsoulin of QIAGEN. General sales and media features Lisa Janes of Townsquare Media.
Learn how to use artificial intelligence to improve sales and manage manual tasks from Jordan Cole, the first keynote speaker. Cole, a large language model and prompt engineer, will demonstrate user-friendly apps and how local businesses can take advantage of AI.
Want to drive more traffic and social media while converting that traffic to measurable sales? Erin Smith, the LSUS director of media and public relations, will demonstrate best practices.
With Zoom meetings and interviews becoming part of the daily ecosystem following the COVID-19 pandemic, recruiter and talent managers Jessica George (Heard, McElroy and Vestal) and Chelsea Mason (Fastenal) will offer a Zoom Etiquette Workshop.
The second set of breakout sessions focus on professional development.
Mason will lead a LinkedIn profile building workshop. George will offer resume building tips as well as how to craft your personal story. Fastenal’s Jason Daily will teach attendees how to personalize their prospecting activities to generate new business.
Two networking breaks are built into the agenda to allow attendees to interact with the speakers as well as each other.
“This will be an intimate event, so there will be great opportunities to develop connections,” Chambers said. “We’ll have great insight into how individuals and companies can represent themselves in the digital world.”
