Faculty Member, Ivey Business School at Western University
In early and growth-stage companies, only two things matter: building and selling.
We teach the builders how to build, but shouldn't someone teach the sellers how to sell?
I've taught myself how to sell in the most cut-throat industries (retail tech, telco, music, events), documenting my lessons learned in dozens of private notebooks. I rose through the ranks to my most recent position as Chief Revenue Officer at Intellitix, the event technology company best known for the RFID wristbands used by the world’s best live events like Coachella, Bonnaroo, Tomorrowland, and Boots & Hearts. (You know those fancy wristbands? We make the magic happen.)
Most of the time, I felt as if I was assembling the plane while it was in the air, and in the end, I realized that most of what I taught myself could (and should) be taught as a foundational sales course - which I'm currently teaching as a faculty member at the Ivey Business School.
I've lived and worked in Toronto, New York, and San Francisco but I'm a small-town, born-and-raised Canadian boy at heart, which makes me really nice.
When I'm not operating, coaching, or teaching, I'm continually testing my powers of persuasion in my own businesses or on my four young children, Jack, Grace, Caleb, and Emily.
I train growth-oriented teams - and prefer to work with local clients after proudly losing my Air Canada Super Elite status in 2019.
I have worked through challenges like: - Not enough customers - Customers not buying enough - Losing existing customers - Selling in hyper-competitive markets - No clarity on target market - Poor conversion - Poor sales talent - Lack of repeat business - Lack of clear competitive advantage - Inconsistent pricing - Poor messaging - Weak brand promise - Lack of training - Lack of leads - Lack of referrals - No product knowledge
