Monday, November 7, 2011

Spotlight: Tom Kaufmann

 Have the great please to work with Tom Kaufmann many years ago in the computer industry. It was been worthwhile to stay connected with him and enjoyed his talk on Cold Calling. 



1st   What got you interested in become a sales trainer?

 I found out a long time ago when I was being sold to that the competency of sales people was terrible. I realized that sales people were trained on products but not on sales skills. That’s when I decided that I had found a niche that needed filling. I also realized that teaching successfully was a skill that I had learned some time ago as a sales manager, and loved! I became exceptionally good at it when I realized that the only way to motivate someone to learn a skill was to elevate their emotion to the skill. No emotion – no retention.


2nd  You teach a course on cold calling and how to make it easier to do. Can you share some suggestions

The biggest obstacle to sales folks developing a cold calling habit is their fear of rejection and fear of failure. The best way to get over that and grow one’s confidence is to (1) create a powerful scripts; (2) recognize that sales is a numbers game; and (3) to take rejection professionally, not personally. It is all about a mindset change that replaces fear with confidence and turns cold calling from an activity to be avoided to a sales growth habit.

Biography

Tom was born in Sweden, and immigrated to Canada in 1951, settling in Montreal.
He is a graduate of l’Institute de Technology de Montreal (diploma: Electronic Technology) & Concordia University (Degree: Bachelor of Electrical Engineering).  Additional courses taken were Basic Selling Skills, Time Management (both by Xerox), and Basic Negotiating Skills. Tom worked in Montreal for such notable companies as Motorola, General Electric, Bell Canada, before being transferred to Ajax, Ontario. Being fully bilingual, Tom worked for many US based companies as their Canadian Sales rep. He has been in sales for over 35 years. The last 25 years Tom has run his own successful Sales Consulting business, specializing in helping Small to Large sized businesses organize their sales staff, and expand their territories. His specialty is sales, with a focus on prospecting (specializing in cold calling), and marketing. Indulging in his passion for corporate training and teaching, Tom not only teaches business courses at community colleges such as Seneca College, Centennial College, and Durham College, but also trains large corporations, such as Lenovo Canada (formerly IBM Microcomputer Div),  in his Sales & Cold Calling Techniques. In addition to all his training and teaching, Tom enjoys giving seminars on various business topics to organizations and businesses; while mentoring & counseling Small Business.


Tom Kaufmann
   
           Success Through Education
“We take the COLD out of Cold Calling”
  
   Tel/fax: 1-877 or 905-743-0241
   Website: www.tomkaufmann.com

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