If the sales industry had a patron fairy godfather, it would be Ray Reed.
Ray's story began, not in sales, but in the Air Force, where he served active duty as a munitions officer, and later, as a maintenance officer at Kadena. Then, at the tail end of his Air Force career, he worked at the Pentagon as a Program Element Monitor (PEM) for a major weapon system. After leaving the military, Ray took his first civilian sales job at small company in DC. For the first year, he handled relatively small contracts and pulled in around $300,000 in revenue; but don't worry... that was just his warm-up. Ray went on to create and lead a sales team of over 35 people who, just 3 years later, brought annual revenue up to $7 million! That’s when Ray knew: not only did he have a gift; he had a calling.
Over the course of his career, Ray worked at CACI International, Oracle, CMS Information Services, and finally, for 17 years at Gartner, where he worked his way up to Regional VP. At Gartner, Ray set his focus on DoD tech acquisition, including cyberspace operations; intelligence, surveillance, and recon systems (ISR); space programs; and end-to-end supply-chain logistics. Ray, a top seller himself, led his own team to great success, outperforming all other teams at Garner for 5 straight years and increasing annual revenue from $5 million to over $41 million! Indeed, so successful were Ray’s methods, that Gartner incorporated them into their new-hire training program.
Now retired, Ray is a licensed B Growth Network Advisor, Focusing Forward consultant, and coach with more than 20 years of experience in sales team management. As a coach, he leads multi-day, in-person training sessions for companies of all sizes – teaching them his proprietary methods for building, leading, and sustaining (happy) high-performing teams that experience wildly accelerated growth. (We're talking exponential sales, year after year!)
A huge part of Ray's transformative power comes from his passion and mindset. He loves helping salespeople move past their own limiting beliefs. It's his favorite thing about the job.
His goal, he says, is to
"... enable salespeople to be better than they ever thought they could be... I believe that the majority of salespeople are better than anyone believes. They just need to be given the chance to prove themselves.”
Ray Reed, fairy godfather of sales, doesn't need a magic wand to transform sales teams... and he can make you a believer too.
In addition to his consulting services, Ray offers in-person, multi-day team trainings for companies based in the D.C. metro. Not in the area? Let's discuss your options.
To work with Ray, please call or send us a message on our Contact page.
Q & A with Ray
Q: What areas of consulting do you specialize in?
Training the entire sales cycle, from prospecting through forecasting and pipeline management, as well as techniques for hiring great talent.
Q: What career advice would you give to young people considering a career in sales?
Just do the best you can in whatever job/position you have. Get in your lane and swim like hell. Don’t worry about who is on either side of you, just focus on getting better yourself.
Q: What’s a common misunderstanding people have about salespeople?
Salespeople are seen as “car salespeople”, i.e., someone who will make a sale, whether they tell the truth or not… [but, in reality] good people make great salespeople, because the prospect recognizes [when] salespeople are being truthful and honest.
Q: When and why should a company consider bringing you in for help?
Companies hit a sales plateau and or even start to decline, so they begin increasing management oversight… which feels like micro-management to the salespeople, causing some high-performers to leave. Eventually, management gets so frustrated that they eliminate the entire sales staff and begin anew, which just gives your intellectual capital away to their competitors.
[Instead,] they need me to [come in and] establish the processes and principles that will enable the company to consistently achieve double-digit growth, putting them on the path towards exponential growth.
Q: Who is your greatest role model and why?
Simon Sinet. His messages are spot on for leaders.
Q: What are your favorite things to do outside of work?
Play guitar, visit wineries, and exercise.
Q: What are 3 books that you would recommend to our readers?
Make Your Bed, Seabiscuit, and Secretariat.
COMING SOON: RAY TAKES OVER THE BLOG!
Are you subscribed to our newsletter? Each week we share what's new: like, articles, consultants, and even new services and products! To join, send a message with "Subscribe to Newsletter" as the subject. Please write your first and last name and preferred email address in the body of the message. Can't wait to connect!
Comments