Sales and marketing are two of the key elements of any company’s strategic plan.  While a focused marketing plan is critical to the launch and promotion of a business, the sales plan is critical to winning customer commitment and building customer relationships.  The key difference is that selling is personal.  It is important that the people doing the selling build rapport with their customer prospects based on their own personal objective of succeeding as sales professionals.  Sales professionals will best prepare for meeting their goals by learning the success formula for both personal and professional development.  Then, they must learn the sales process and patiently follow the process to get the commitment of the customer.

Gerald Bricker is Managing Principal and founder of Aadvise Consulting, LLC, a business coaching and consulting firm.  He combines 30 years experience in sales and general management with a holistic approach to help people and companies grow and thrive. He built successful sales and management teams in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. He led teams in sales, engineering and customer service. He developed management and leadership teams that grew business by an average that exceeded fifteen per cent per year for four different companies. He has held the positions of Vice President, OEM Sales, Vice President and General Sales Manager and Vice President, Products Group. He holds BS in Mechanical Engineering and Masters of Business Administration degrees. He is a member of the Marketing and Sales Executives of Detroit and the Society of Automotive Engineers International.