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 COHEREŽ
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.
