Dan Norman helps salespeople improve their sales performance in a tough economy by teaching them how the very best salespeople have achieved extraordinary success. Throughout his career, Dan has made a science of understanding the mindset, practices and motivation of the very best in sales. He is a sales performance expert with more than 25 years experience in senior sales and general management positions. He is also a columnist, an educational and very funny professional speaker and the author of the book, Top Ten Selling® - The Lumberjack Chronicles.
What do Lumberjacks have to do with sales? Dan's own career in sales began in a logging camp high in the hills of North Georgia. Fresh out of college he was making his first sales call as a sales representative with Motorola. Locked in his car, dressed in a suit and surrounded by lumberjacks wielding running chain saws above their heads, he was afraid to open the door.In spite of a deep fear of his customers (chainsaw massacre movies and all that…) he became one of the top sales representatives in his region and was soon promoted to management. Six months later his team had him arrested for being the worst boss they had ever had. Then they told him what he needed to do to be a better manager. What he learned from them would prove to be the most valuable management training he would ever receive.
A few years later, Dan was offered a unique opportunity to join a tiny start-up company owned by AT&T called Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS). He accepted the job and joined the Cellular Phone Industry long before it was officially an Industry. His job was to build the company’s sales and distribution network in the Southeast United States.
Since that time Dan has built wireless sales organizations in the U.S. and the United Kingdom for AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular Wireless. Dan has hired, developed and motivated thousands of sales representatives and hundreds of sales managers. His experience covers all sales channels, including outside business to business sales, inside sales, major accounts, retail sales and telemarketing sales.
His last position before becoming a professional sales performance speaker and trainer was as the Vice President & General Manager over one of Cingular Wireless’ (now at&t Mobility) largest markets. In that position he had responsibility for all of the company’s sales, customer service and network operations, with more than 2,000 employees.