Recognized by CNN as a global authority on sales and selling, Bill Walton brings over 20 years of experience as a sales trainer and executive coach to his clients. He has worked extensively in the Financial Services, Pharmaceutical, Professional Services, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Consumer Packaged Goods industries. A Connecticut native, Bill has particular coaching and training expertise in Sales Process Development and Relationship Management. His clients include Merrill Lynch, Prudential Financial, Avis Budget Auto Group, and Ernst & Young, to name a few.

Over the past 20 years, Bill has worked for several top Fortune 500 Companies (Nestle, Tambrands, Dun & Bradstreet) and has leveraged those leadership roles in his current work. Bill's clients say that he brings to the table practical business skills grounded in reality, not theory. Bill is a businessperson first, a coach and trainer second. In 1999, Bill founded ProDirect, a Sales Training and Coaching firm to help companies leverage their sales talent.

Bill keeps his skills sharp as an avid reader and writer, as well as a teacher. He is an adjunct professor at the New York University School of Continuing Education and a featured contributor to Human Resource Executive Magazine. Bill publishes the Meaning More to Clients Sales Newsletter and is active in The American Society for Training and Development, the National Association of Business Coaches, and The Society for Human Resource Management. Bill also sits on the board of SellMasters, a sales performance think tank.

Client Feedback:

Bill has worked with a diverse group of clients as a coach, trainer and public speaker. Most if his work results from referral and repeat business and his stellar reputation as a relationship manager has clients eager to recommend him to others.

"In working with Bill Walton, we found a sales training partner who really listens to our needs. Bill sat down with us in advance to create training that challenged and improved skills we needed NOW." -Tracey Shank Director of Sales, American Century Investments

"We needed a process for not just Sales training, but for rallying our organization around our customers in a different way. We selected Bill Walton forhisr ability to help us understand where we could compete and to leverage our own internal management to support our growth plans." - Drew Nixon, CFO, Huber + Suhner North America

"Over the last 9 years, Bill Walton has helped me build and coach effective sales teams at several major financial institutions. I admire how he lives his own process, a mark of a great coach and mentor." - Paul Bombard, SVP, Private Banker

"Bill worked diligently to understand our business model before engaging our salesforce. The sales coaching and insight he provided thus proved much more valuable and has fostered better interaction between us and our clients. His sales talent management approach is making all the difference. - Bob Lambert, SVP Sales North America, Avis Budget Auto Group

"Bill Walton has differentiated himself at Prudential by following all if his talks with a personalized development plan for our group. He directly coached and created sales strategies that significantly increased new asset sales for myself and my team. The skills and insights he delivers instantly became part of how we do business which is drastically different from your typical speaker." - Harry Dalessio, Managing Director, Prudential Retirement

Bill graduated magna cum laude from Connecticut State University with a degree in Business Administration and received a Masters in Human Resource Education from Fordham University. He is certified to administer the most popular sales and leadership assessments (MBTI, Benchmarks, SkillsScope, Management PRO, The Personal Opportunity Profile for Salespeople).

All of Bill's work in sales and sales management falls under the banner of Sales Talent Management. In this process, Bill works with sales executives to assess and manage the potential of their sales talent while providing unique training and coaching opportunities to close critical skill gaps. Bill's STM methodology fosters a culture that puts everyone on the sales team. The result is a well trained sales force that's empowered to operate as true source of business value to their customers.

Bill other speaking topics include:

Never Make a Cold Call Again

Cold calls don't work. Period. In fact, 91% of cold calls never find their mark. Move beyond call calling and create mutually rewarding relationships over the phone. ProDirect helps you never make a cold call again. Features the ProDirect Online Reinforcement Center from COHERE®

The 90 Day Dash

In business, anyone with anyone who is someone is not easy to reach. On average it takes 6-7 touches to reach a key prospect - most salespeople stop at 3. The 90-Day Dash is a 12-week client acquisition program guaranteed to generate a 20% increase in qualified new relationships.

Meaning More to Clients

To mean more to clients, salespeople need to know more. Supported by the ProDirect Branded Sales Process, this consultative selling skills program focuses on selling that's in synch with a buyer driven interaction process. Sellers learn to target, approach, and develop prospects in a way that builds buy-in at every turn.

Sales Manager Forum

Sales Managers today find themselves in the midst of a paradox; the need to satisfy a "results now" mandate while developing people over time. Anchored by a branded sales process, ProDirect helps Sales Managers create greater loyalty and thus performance by coaching their people to sell the way buyers buy. For Sales Managers, they learn that what they say is not half as important as when they say it as they learn to coach during defining moments of the sale.