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It’s the Sales Person that Makes the Difference
My name is Tom Black. I was born in humble surroundings and sold my way to financial success. More importantly, I’ve helped thousands of sales people be more successful with my proven sales theories and techniques. As a national sales manager at Southeastern Company, I recruited and trained students to sell books door to door. As a national sales manager at FISI-Madison Financial, I grew a new business from 0 to almost $400 million in sales. As a founder and CEO of Private Business, I recruited and trained hundreds of salespeople and took the company public.As the founder and CEO of Imagic, I introduced check imaging to hundreds of banks, merged the company with OSI and the combined entity grew to almost $1 billion in sales.Currently, I have several companies I own and on most I serve as Chairman of the Board. The largest of these is Bancsource. As CEO, I grew the company from 27 employees to almost 500 and from a regional company to the largest independent sales and service company for bank equipment (such as ATM’s) in the U.S.However, my passion has always been teaching people how to sell through better communication and time utilization. My wildly popular book, Boxcar Millionaire, has been read by thousands of people hoping to sell better and be more successful. Today, I start a new column to help our readers attain the success they desire.My first thought for all of you is that selling is neither good nor bad, it’s the sales person that makes the difference. Some people hear the word sales and immediately think “pushy, high pressure, con-man, charlatan cheat, dishonest, crooked, twist your arm, make you buy, say anything to get the sale, good golfer”. Well, I agree with Robert Louis Stevenson, “We all sell something, a product, a service or an idea.”I would hate to think that the free market enterprise was based upon some dishonest scheme, because nothing happens in our economy until someone sells something. So, how do we improve as sales people, sales managers and executives that are responsible for revenue (that’s sales)?Over the next weeks and months, I will share ideas, concepts and techniques that have proven successful for thousands of sales people. There won’t be one theory that hasn’t been tested in the field and proven to work.If you have a sales question, idea or complaint, e-mail me at tom@tomblackcenter.comMake It A Great Day!