Sales Leadership while I was in an Operating role  

2014 – 2016: Horsburgh and Scott ­ $65M, Capital Equipment

  • 3x increase in orders by changing the channel from Reps to Direct

  • 10% increase in sales ROI through improved funnel management discipline

  • 30x increase in web traffic through improved SEO and rebranding

  • Lead a team of 16 salespeople throughout North America

  • Setup Distributors and hired a new strong direct sales team

 

2008 – 2014: Ametek: $250M Electric Motors

  • Increased sales 22% Y-­Y in a flat market vs. long-established incumbent competitor

  • Won top 5 customers in the industry

  • Won in China vs. Chinese competitors

  • Re­established Prestolite Motors as a leading global brand of hydraulic motors

  • Global customer base: US, Europe, China, Korea, Japan, and Brazil

 

2004 – ­2007: GE

  • Rated Top Talent within first 18 months

  • Drove 2x improvement in customer inquiry response using Six Sigma

  • Developed new $50M+ market space in strategic partnership with Government

  • 5x increase in customer loyalty score through improved multi-level account management

  • Led cross­business efforts to develop multi­generation product roadmaps based on user needs, technology, and market trends

  • Responsible for strategic marketing, pricing, forecasting, recruitment and training, new product development, mergers and acquisitions, alliances; Established structured customer intelligence

 

2001 – ­2003: Quatech

  • 70% growth in 2 years from 12 new products; Drove 20% profit increase in legacy

  • 30% reduction in product development cycle­time through better project management

  • Developed engineering team into a customer ­focused product development team

  • Drove five­fold increase in leads through internet keyword advertising and re­branding

  • Assessed and won leading distribution channels including TechData and Ingram Micro

  • Led engineering and product marketing teams to conceive, develop and commercialize next generation of TCP/IP and 802.11 products; Responsible for branding and worldwide

 

1995­ – 2000: Keithley Instruments

  • 20% revenue growth to $43M (most successful account penetration in Division’s history)

  • Revitalized sales into international markets: Taiwan, China, Japan, and South Korea, Germany

  • Led Voice of Customer project to develop a new line of electronics test equipment with unprecedented ease of use; Now one of Keithley’s primary growth platforms

  • Awarded Company’s highest merit­based salary increase in first 12 months

  • Key customers included Intel, Sharp, Toshiba, TI, IBM, Philips, Siemens, Hyundai, LG

Analyzing Sales Tactics

A checklist to prepare for and conduct an effective
sales meeting with

your customer

Quantify Your Value to the Customer

Call Planning Worksheet

Planning for a sales meeting increases your chances of moving an opportunity
forward. I have

seen many
salespeople go

into meetings without an objective, and that dimishes their image and chances of winning.

Calculating Odds to Win

Increase your chances of winning, or determine
quickly that an opportunity cannot

be won

Six key questions in a neat toolkit to  Increase

Your Chances of

Winning

Internet Marketing

Tools to Improve Sales Performance

Core Strenghts in Sales and Marketing

1. Leadership

I have a very good instinct for assessing salespeople. I have honed my interview techniques to be able to separate real skills from non­sense and bam able to judge fit to a particular business need. Once the team is formed, I set clear goals such as:

  • Revenue growth

  • New project sales

  • New customer acquisition

  • Profitability

Based on those goals, I groom the high-performance individuals by understanding their individual strengths and weaknesses and supplementing them appropriately. I also challenge the mid­tier ones, but realize that their role is more to assist rather than to lead. Important to the sales growth is not only the salespeople, but the associated personnel around order entry and invoicing. These people are the daily touch point, and they need to be trained and measured on customer satisfaction.

 

2. Sales Process

Having a disciplined process is key to any operations success, and the sales function is no different. This is one of the key’s I learned from GE. I have seen many that are measured by sales growth but not supported by a process, and thus, they are unable to achieve the goals.

​

A solid CRM tool is the foundation of process discipline. Today cloud-based tools are inexpensive and commonplace.  Salesforce.com, Zoho, and Sugar CRM are some of the leading ones of which I am familiar.

 

Implementing the tool is half the challenge. Making the cultural transformation to use the new process is the other half. It takes sales training and a consistent message from management about its importance. Also importantly, the salespeople themselves need to realize the value of tool and buy-in to using them effectively.