On Thursday, October 1st, come listen to Maria Cirino, co-founder and Managing Director of .406 Ventures, talk to us about how to sell your ideas in the entrepreneurial business world.  As a co-founder and Managing Director of .406 Ventures, Maria brings 23 years of entrepreneurial, operating and senior management sales and marketing experience in venture-backed technology companies.  Come hear an extremely successful sales manager, entrepreneur and venture capitalist describe what it is like to sell in a startup environment.

Prior to founding .406, Maria was Senior Vice President of VeriSign, following its 2005 $144 million acquisition of Guardent – a venture-backed IT security company that she co-founded and led as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman.  Prior to Guardent, she was Senior Vice President for sales and marketing at i-Cube, an IT services company, which was acquired by Razorfish in 1999 for $1.8 billion. From 1993 to 1997, she was responsible for North American sales at Shiva, the category creating remote access company.

Maria has received numerous industry awards and honors including “Massachusetts CEO of the Year 2004” and Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year 2003.” Additionally, Maria was named one of the top 25 women in Information Security by Information Security Magazine and inducted by Women’s Business Magazine into the “Women’s Business Hall of Fame.” She holds a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College, where she served as a Trustee from 2003-2008 and where she currently serves on the Investment Committee.

The event will take place in E51-335 from 12:00-1:00pm.  Lunch will be served.

Fall 2009 Dates for Basic Sales Training with Jeff Hoffman have been set:

Session 1:  October 5th from 6:00-7:30pm in E51-345
Session 2:  October 19th from 6:00-7:30pm in E51-315
Session 3:  November 2nd from 6:00-7:30pm in E51-345

Room assignments will be made available in the coming weeks, so please check back with us soon.

How to effectively use emails to get a response while networking

Looking to network with key players in companies you want to work for? Want to make sure your emails get a response? Do you know the best way to write an email asking for an executives attention?

The MIT Sloan Sales Club will show you how.

Jeff Hoffman, a industry leader in sales training, is coming to MIT Sloan to present his tips and techniques on how to write emails that get read by executives and get you a response. His methods show you how in a short email, you can not only get an executive to answer your question, but get other doors opened for you, just by writing that one email.

If you are job hunting, this is not to be missed. Please check out the MIT Sloan Sales Club website (http://www.sloansalesclub.com/) for the details on date and time. Everyone welcome!

Do you want to be able to pitch your idea or product to future investors and buyers? Do you want to know how to reach the executives at companies that you seek to connect with? Do you want the extra edge when it comes to launching your own business? If you can say yes to any of these, you need to join the MIT Sloan Sales Club to learn the basics of how to get the attention, desire, interest, and action in business that puts you to the head of the pack. But for sure, you don’t want to miss our first speaker…

Pascal Ronde, the VP of Sales, Service, and Support  from Verigy (a spin-off from HP/Agilent) is coming to MIT Sloan to speak on the art of sales and why everyone needs core selling skills to win in business. He is high energy and a global leader from the tech industry where he has successful managed a nearly $1B business and was a core leader in the IPO of Verigy. (www.verigy.com)

Join us to hear Pascal talk about how basic sales skills will help you when you leave MIT Sloan and be inspired by a dynamic leader in tech.

Date: September 17, 2008 — Thursday
Time: 12:00-1:00pm
Location: E51-315
LUNCH PROVIDED.

Questions? Contact heather.ryan@sloan.mit.edu