Last week marked a special event for development of the ICT cooperation within the region of Southeast Europe, namely the beginning of “CEED Regional Top Class” program. The latter is the first educational program designed specifically for ICT companies that want to expand their businesses regionally and internationally. Ljubljana had the honour of hosting the first module of the program and also more than 70 of its attendees from Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Bulgaria. The next modules will take place in the following months, each time in one of the aforementioned countries’ capitals.

Module followed the red line: "“Sales and setting up an international sales organization” and within it  entrepreneurs had the opportunity to learn about different sales strategis, to network, to exchange experiences, and to meet potential business partners.

The module opened with a round table titled »ICT market in Slovenia« with guest from major Slovenian ICT providers and users, such as Avtenta, Mobitel, Vzajemna, NLB and Marg. Through the discussion entrepreneurs from foreign companies gained some introspect into the Slovenian ICT market, get to know the major players and find what are its main opportunities.



The workshop-part of the module has opened with presentations of two regional ICT companies. First was the case of HERMES SoftLab, which was presented by Janko Cajhen, CEO. Mr. Cajhen explained the wide pallet of their products and the story of HERMES until 2009, when they joined the ComTrade Group and hereby opened doors to several new markets. The second presentation was by Sava Vladov from Bulgarian company SOFICA. He explained the grounds of their success which originated from a synthesis of a very competitive price of the work force in Bulgaria and their good connections with global ICT companies.



In the next workshop Jure Božič from company Our Space spoke about “Understanding the sales process”. He shared with us his experiences on how to increase the number of business deals, showed different types of deals, salesman and good practices on how to handle the sales funnel and how to ‘hunt for foxes’ in other companies. This knowledge was then further extended by the next workshop which was lead by Jožek Gruškovnjak from company Cisco Systems / Busines Solutions Group (IBSG). Mr. Gruškovnjak spoke about how to set up and manage an international sales organization. He explained the system of relations and reporting within Cisco Systems, how to motivate your own team and how to lead partnership relations with clients. The last workshop was led by Matt Mayfield from company Telekta, who was for a long time also head of the sales team in HERMES SoftLab. Mr Mayfield spoke about strategies and tactics of international sales, where attendants found who they need to convince when trying to make a large business deal, and how to convince them. He exposed different types of buyers in large companies, namely the technical buyer, financial buyer and the user buyer. All of them are present in the purchasing process but they all need to be approached differently and we also need to know what we can expect from them.



Besides workshop, module was also rich with opportunities for B2B meetings among Slovenian and foreign companies. The first opportunity was the round table with guest from large Slovenian ICT providers and ICT users. Then there was also a networking lunch where companies were matched due to their field of interests, and also a business dinner in the centre of Ljubljana, which got prolonged into the night. Lastly there was also a peer-to-peer meeting with the lecturers and other guest, where attendants could consult with them individually about their business challenges.

All in all the module provided ICT companies with a detailed insight into the art of international sales, into Slovenian ICT market and also provided them with an opportunity to find regional business partners.

The next module will take place in Bulgaria, between 13th and 15th of May and will focus on “Growth through IT, outsourcing and Global delivery services”