I’m an entrepreneur, salesperson, and author of the book Selling Is Not Optional.

I know a lot of business owners struggle with sales. Particularly when it comes to building a scalable, repeatable sales engine that drives your whole business.

In The Beginning

I started out at the bottom of the sales ladder, selling stationery in Sydney in the late 1980s. I trudged from store to store with a big blue bag of products that I had to sell to people that had never heard of me or my company. It was tough. Physically tough, because I was walking around all day, and mentally tough, because I had to deal with the constant rejection that any salesperson needs to learn to cope with. This was my school of hard knocks.

It didn’t go well to start. I was frustrated, unhappy and lonely. I hadn’t had any real training on sales techniques, how to build relationships with clients, or how to discover the client’s real needs. No wonder it wasn’t going well!

I took a trip to the bookstore and got a copy of every book I could find on sales. I read, and read, and tried to put into action what I was learning. And, slowly but surely, it worked. I got better at figuring out what the customer really wanted. I got better at demonstrating the benefits of the product I was selling. And I began to get better results.

Life wasn’t all sunshine and roses though. Sometimes I sold people something they didn’t really need, just to make my sales quotas. Sometimes I sold people something I knew was flat out wrong for them. But over time, I really started to get the hang of it, and I learned how to sell the right product to the right client.

As a young man, I wanted to travel, so I took my new-found sales skills around the world, and ended up with a few odd jobs, like delivering leaflets, working in pubs, and even playing rugby.

I also had a job cleaning carpets — I would go into the most luxurious, incredible homes and make sure their beautiful rugs and carpets were in pristine condition. After a few months of that, I started doing estimates and quotes for clients. I was back in sales again — and dealing with some really demanding clients with top-tier expectations. I learned so much in such a short space of time.

The Middle

I eventually ended up back in New Zealand, sleeping on my brother’s couch. After a few weeks of taking up his space and eating his food, he convinced me to apply for an advertising executive position at a local radio station.

I borrowed his suit and shoes for the interview. The suit was a little tight and the shoes were a lot tighter. I remember trying not to let the suit sleeve stay fixed on my elbow when I shook the interviewer’s hand.

I had never sold advertising before. I didn’t even listen to the radio that much. I didn’t really know much about the job.

Guess what? I got it.

For the next few years I sold ideas to small businesses and advertisers. I saw firsthand how those companies ticked. I brought in entertainers to open stores, launched products, and ran promotions. I did every type of campaign that could be done.

The businesses loved it and I did too. The job taught me that I had to stop selling the airtime itself and start selling the result of a promotion or event. I was then headhunted to lead a sales team for another big media company.Overnight I became not just a sales person, but a coach and sales trainer. I realised that if my team were to sell more I had to train them more. It worked.

After some time, I spotted an opportunity and decided to strike out on my own. Using everything I’d learned in my career up to this point, I co-founded NRS Media in 1992. Over time, my business partners and I grew that business into a multinational media agency with over 150 employees, operating in 23 countries.

We had clients like Fox TV, NBC, CBS and ABC in the United States, Curos in Canada, and the Fairfax group in Australia, all of whom were loyal clients that really valued the experience and expertise that my team and I brought to their organisations — and more importantly, valued the millions of dollars in revenue that we helped them to generate.

Every year we presented our products and services to over 40,000 business owners just like you all over the world. And running NRS Media meant that I had a front-row seat to all the new and emerging sales trends of the past 30 years.

Recent years and now

After selling NRS Media in 2015, a few people asked me to help them build sales systems and sales training processess into their businesses with them and help them with their business. Now, I like making sales for my own business, but the satisfaction I got from that was nothing compared to the satisfaction I got seeing thousands of business owners begin to thrive and excel in their own businesses. To see someone go from being petrified of sales, to getting a kick out of it every time they pick up the phone or make a pitch: that’s a fantastic feeling. All with good sales training and coaching.

When my clients work with me I come from the view that they should not have to stress or worry about their next sale, or order.

Or thinking “Wouldn’t it be great if I could just have more time with my family, knowing my sales funnel and sales systems are in place while I am not there.”

Or “If I could get my sales people to work consistently to get more sales for my business. Then I could get more time and energy to devote to my family.”

We can help you with that, take away the worry, and allow you to spend more time with their family, not work all hours that god gave you and fill that sales funnel.

I’m incredibly grateful that I’ve been able to help people transform their mindset, their business, and ultimately their lives, through sharing what I’ve learnt.

I’ve also put all this experience and knowledge into my upcoming book, Selling is not optional How to master the most important skill in business and life. In that book, I’ll show you why sales is a crucial skill for your career and personal success, and the critical part that sales training plays in success than many htink. — whatever industry you work in — and how to develop your ability to sell. The book is available now.

If you’re ready to take the next step in your sales efforts including training you, or your people , then enter your email address in the box below.

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