Joe Ilvento:
If Joe Ilvento is not a born salesman, he became one early in life. As a kid selling greeting cards door-to-door, he learned the concept of prospecting, rejection and the fact that sales is a numbers game that requires persistence and skill. Joe soon learned that as his selling skills increased, the number of doors he had to knock on to make a sale became less and less. This business lesson was learned at age 10. His first corporate sales position after getting his psychology degree from Syracuse University was with Cable & Wireless Communications. Within a couple of months he rose up the ranks to become their top salesperson, exceeding the companys quota of 20 new customers per month by as many as 130 and breaking the old record of 57. They said, in short, Joe you know how to sell this stuff now we want you to teach everyone in the company how you do it. At the ripe old age of 23, he was promoted to a national sales trainer position for the company and was responsible f! or teaching all new sales representatives how to sell.
His sales talents did not go unrecognized. He then joined Learning International (formally Xerox Learning Systems) as a Professional Selling Skills sales training consultant and ultimately rose to the position of one of only 13 Master Trainers worldwide.
Over the last 10 years, he has acted as President of a sales and marketing consulting firm dedicated to helping others with their sales and marketing requirements. He has worked closely and held long-term consulting contracts with such firms as Citibank, Guerrilla Marketing International and Fred Pryor Seminars. Joe has personally trained over 15,000 business people around the world in such places as Australia, the United Kingdom and every major city in the United States.
Past audience members have included numerous government agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the Marines. Private sector audience members have included Citibank, MCI/WorldCom.
Joes first book Nobody to Somebody in 63 Days or Less (available at Amazon.com) shows people how to use word of mouth advertising and referral selling to dramatically increase sales. He has appeared in newspapers, magazines and on various radio and television shows.
Joe Ilvento specializes in developing the selling skills of others. He delivers, one-day, sales and marketing workshops designed for novice or seasoned sales professionals. His seminars are interactive, applied, fun, and most of all effective. Joe can be reached at 1-800-382-6343 or by e-mail at joeilvento@home.com.
Doug Price:
Doug Price is an authority on sales and marketing. For more than 25 years, he has sold everything from Fuller Brushes to meetings and conventions to Executive Coaching. Doug's approach to selling was shaped with direct sales jobs as a teenager and in large-part by 18 years of selling conventions for Marriott Hotels, Resorts, and Suites. His passion for sales earned him numerous sales incentive awards and Doug was named Marriott's Rookie Director of Marketing of the Year in 1983. He also served as Marriott's Vice President of Employment Marketing and Director of Sales Training and Development. In 1995, he started Keystone Consulting with a focus on designing and delivering interactive sales training for clients.
Doug feels that his philosophy towards sales was shaped very early in life. His father, Harry Price, was a salesman his whole life, primarily selling ranges and kitchen appliances for Caloric and Tappan. As a child, Doug was introduced to many of his dad's clients throughout his sales territory in Ohio. Doug enjoyed riding in the car with his dad on sales calls. His dad mixed business and pleasure very well. Often the Price family entertained customers in their home and vice versa. Those early lessons on building relationships stayed with him.
Like many successful salespeople, Doug started early in sales with a newspaper route delivering a free weekly paper. As a carrier, the only way to make money was to try and collect the suggested donation of 50 cents per month. The only reason people would pay for a free weekly paper was if the carrier placed the paper exactly where the customer wanted it each Wednesday morning. The carrier also had to be persistent in following up to catch people when they might be home to pay. Doug learned customer service and timely follow-up delivering free papers and consistently winning sales contests among carriers.
Selling Fuller Brushes at the age of 15 taught Doug how to handle rejection and use testimonials. As he would work door-to-door getting rejected, he realized that sales is a numbers game. Not everybody was going to buy and you couldn't take a NO answer personally. Instead, he learned to be happy that he didn't waste time giving a sales pitch to an uninterested buyer. Once Doug made a sale, he would tell the next person he called on what their neighbor up the street had purchased. When the neighbor heard what someone else had decided to buy, selling became easier. Testimonials are still very powerful today in selling.
Selling Marriott Hotels, Resorts, and Suites for eighteen years crystallized the importance of building and maintaining relationships with customers. In the highly competitive world of hotel sales, properties compete to convince meeting planners, along with business and leisure travelers to stay at their facility. Doug found that getting to know his customers as well as their needs was a key element in separating him from his competition. Customers buy the salespeople as well as their products/services and the better you know a customer the more likely you make a sale. Doug has actually had the honor of delivering a eulogy at a customer's funeral. That represented a true relationship!
Today, Doug Price is President of The Miles/LeHane Group in Leesburg, Virginia. The company designs and delivers sales training and career management consulting with a focus on executive development in the areas of Outplacement, Career Coaching, and Executive Search. Recent appearances by Doug include Tomorrow's Business on CNN Business Radio and CBS Eye on Business.
