Speaking

Speaker, Author, Workshop Leader

Meet Lisa Dennis

Lisa Dennis is a global marketing and sales strategist and consultant. She brings over thirty years of marketing and sales experience to her work with business-to-business clients. She founded the consulting firm, Knowledgence Associates, in 1997 with a core focus of helping sales and marketing teams “see the world through their customers’ eyes™." In 2021, Lisa launched a monthly online show, The Messaging Workshop LIVE on The Sales Expert Channel hosted by BrightTALK.

She has worked with companies across a broad range of industries (specialty in high technology, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, and professional services) including Akamai, Citrix, CSC (now DXC Technology), Dell, FedEx, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Microsoft, Mutual of Omaha, Tufts Health Plan, Verizon, Wipro, and many others.

More About Her Journey...

Lisa was the president of the Boston chapter of Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI), as well as sitting on its international board. She founded the Boston chapter of Company of Friends for Fast Company magazine. She also co-founded Sales & Marketing Innovators in the Boston area.

Lisa has held non-profit board seats for Positive Directions, YWCA of Cambridge, and The Children’s Room. She has a B.A in Writing from Wheaton College, and an MBA in Marketing from Babson College.

Publications

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Author

Value Propositions that Sell

Turning Your Message into a Magnet that Attracts Buyers

360degreesbook
Co-Author

360 Degrees of the Customer

 Strategies & Tactics for Marketing, Sales and Service

guest blogger
Guest Blogger

Published Articles

Frequent contributor to TechTarget, Kite Desk, Pipeliner CRM, and MassHighTech.com

Awards and Recognition

WSP Badges
Advisor and Expert

Women Sales Pros

Lisa is both on the Board of Directors and an active Member.

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Contributor

The Sales Education Channel

Lisa is the creator of The Messaging Workshop LIVE on BrightTALK.

Lisa Dennis MARsum USA 2020 21 Awardee
Award

2021 Top 100 Influencers

Top 100 Influencers in Marketing & Advertising from the Marketing, Advertising & Retail Summit.

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Award

2020 Trailblazer

For helping us find ways to continually improve, pivoting during a pandemic, and breaking new ground in 2020.

Partners & Affiliations

Speaking Topics

With today’s sophisticated and well-informed buyers, the “standard” value proposition just doesn’t cut it anymore. That, coupled with increasing competition, makes communicating the uniqueness of your offer and what truly differentiates you from all the other available alternatives very challenging. In this dynamic keynote address, you will learn how to create a buyer-focused message that SELLS. Get the highlights of buyer research that provides actionable steps to transform your messaging for content creation and sales conversations.

  • What does returning your messaging to a buyer-focus entail?
  • What are the most desired attributes to get your offer on the shortlist?
  • Learn the key value prop weaknesses you need to avoid.
  • Learn steps to finding and using buyer language to make your offer more relevant.

Lisa will share the steps to help your marketing and sales teams shift focus from standard product and service messaging to buyer experience messaging. She will teach your teams the keys to message alignment that drive buyers’ decision making.

The market gets noisier and the challenges of coming up with a convincing sales message only get harder. What drives buyers in an environment where everyone has the latest and greatest? Both marketers and sellers need to truly communicate the business imperatives that buyers need to drive to success. Only value propositions that align your buyer’s needs with your offering will get attention. In this keynote you will get:

  • The highlights of buyer research on how Value Propositions factor into Buying Decisions.
  • How to retune your message with buyers to gain traction.
  • The real impact of value propositions to get on the buyer’s shortlist.
  • The process to shift to more buyer-focused, rather than product/service focused.
  • How to remove the top 5 weaknesses that technology value props suffer from the most.
  • Ensure message alignment to drive home customer success stories.

Tired of fulfilling requests for more white papers and case studies from your sales force? The shift in control from the seller to the buyer in today’s markets make it even harder to deliver messaging that is both consistent and flexible to drive buyer engagement. The first place that marketing must “tool-up” is your offering’s value proposition. But the challenge is that most of us have never even received any training on how to construct a really good one. How do you tell? The real proof is when your salespeople can deliver a solid message consistently across all their prospects and can drive through the buyer journey.

The typical value proposition isn’t geared up to be used by sales “in conversation.” Connecting the dots between buyer needs and a product- or service-focused value proposition is hard and not every salesperson can do it well.

Attendees of this session will:

  • Learn how to deliver a consistent and “sales ready” message.
  • Define the right set of content and path to help salespeople deliver the right buyer conversation that closes deals.
  • Learn how to assemble a Value Proposition Messaging Playbook for field and inside sales.
  • Map the Sales Conversation and the content needed across the buyer journey.
  • Create modular messaging that can pivot based on key targets’ needs.
  • Develop value drivers, quantification, and proof to bolster your story.

"It was a pleasure to meet and talk with you yesterday.  I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation.  Although I believe I come from the same viewpoint, you truly challenged me to look again and to reassess my efforts!  I thank you for the wake-up call!  I trust if I implement even a small portion of your knowledge, I will serve my clients at a far higher level of quality.”

President

The Sullivan Group

“I will review our website and try to apply what you taught us, it will be a good learning experience for me. I will also use what I learned on my own value propositions that I use to get that first appointment with a prospect.  No more what I do, but a more customer-focused statement of their needs. I think it will make a huge difference in getting the callback or the first appointment!!”

Director of Business Development

World Marketing

“I really enjoyed your presentation. I’ve been in MarComm for over 14 years and it is easy to ignore what our true focal point should be-- -what our clients want and need, not just what we can do, etc. My boss is always saying, “Begin with the end in mind,” as we start new projects or process improvements. Your process seemed to streamline the messaging exercise by focusing first on our client’s objective and the outcomes they want to buy, etc. Thanks again for sharing your template. Hopefully, it will shave some time off of my creative writing and campaign development.”

National Water Program Coordinator

HDR

“You were the best speaker we have had, not only in terms of entertainment but more importantly in the amount of usable information that you shared. We have never received so many positive comments from our membership on any other program. You were an absolute delight.”

Al Lundy, President-elect

Central Illinois AMA

“You were fantastic. I see at least 4 speakers per month. I cannot remember seeing one better. Not to mention your content – absolutely right target”

Barry Leaventon

Vice President Business Development, Precision Printing

“Praises continue to surface this week on the stellar presentations, great real-life examples, common sense approaches, and your engaging personality at Tuesday's SMEI workshop and dinner. Appreciations from our entire Board of Directors. As the John Quincy Adams quote stated - "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader..." Lisa - we thank you for being a leader and inspiring each of us to continue learning, applying that knowledge, and succeeding in our businesses!”

Cheryl Ward

Creative Technology

Past Speaking Engagements

ASSOCIATIONS
American Council of Engineering Companies
American Institute of Chemical Engineers
American Marketing Association
Boston Product Management Association
Business Marketing Association
Chief Executive Club of Boston
DigitalEve
Human Resources Council
Institute of Management Consultants
Newport Interactive Marketers
Professionals in Human Resources Association
Sales & Marketing Executives International
Sales and Marketing Innovators
CONFERENCES
Marketing Vision Conference, ITSMA
Business Expo - Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce
Calgary Small Business Week Expo – Canada
HR Stars Conference
Institute of Management Consultants
NEHRA, HR Invention Convention
NewComm Forum
Rev It Up! Sales Leader Summit
Sales & Marketing Executives Annual Conference
Women in Leadership Summit
ACADEMIA
Babson College, Center for Women’s Leadership
Bentley College, Center for Entrepreneurship
Harvard Business School Alumni Association
Providence College
Suffolk University
WEBINARS
American Marketing Association
Avitage Thought Leader Series
Business Marketing Association
Information Technology Services Association (ITSMA)
IGAF Worldwide
Sales & Marketing Executives International
Association of International Product Marketing & Management
WORKSHOPS
American Marketing Association
Babson Monday Nightwork, Babson College
Interactive Factory
NERCOMP
New England Knowledge Management Cluster
Sales & Marketing Executives International
Thomson Solutions Center
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