Moving On

It’s Been a Great Ride!

After 34 years in the document imaging industry starting in sales, then sales management, then owner/partner of a dealership and the past 22 years as an independent sales trainer and consultant; I regretfully, yet gratefully announce my retirement.

After 22 years of traveling to 23 countries and training more than 30,000 salespeople, it’s time for me to step off the professional stage and step into the next phase of my personal life.

The Bad News – Why retire at fifty-nine? Some of you are aware of my health challenges living with a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis for the past 16 years. Over the last two years it has become increasingly difficult for me to travel and to present at my highest level. The travelling and standing on my feet in hotel ballrooms, prowling audiences has taken a huge toll.

I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but last year I was deemed fully disabled by my doctors and am unable to walk more than 100 feet or stand for more than five minutes at a time.

Over the past several years there have been literally thousands of days, where at the end of a day of presenting; I’ve retreated to my room to lie down, prop my feet up and bomb my blinding pain with pain killers. I just can’t do it anymore. The bottom line is that if I can’t deliver at my highest level I won’t deliver at all. Your time is too valuable!

The Good News- I’ve had an incredibly satisfying and fulfilling run! As my business and life mentor, Mike Riordan taught me and many others, “Pick something you love doing and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” This is not a cliché. It’s a decision I made, a risk I took, which became a following of my heart, a passion, a path, a lifestyle.

I’ve been blessed with insights to create marketing programs, training content, implementation tools and sales methodologies which increase salespeople’s productivity; for which I’ve been paid a king’s ransom. As tremendously challenging as it was, I’ve absolutely loved my career and the lifestyle it has provided for me and my family.

Beyond the monetary rewards, I’ve been blessed beyond belief including traveling the world meeting interesting and passionate people along the way. I’ve taken my family on extravagant trips staying in everything from palaces in Switzerland to humble cabins in Peru.

There are so many people and organizations I wish to thank for trusting me, referring me, being patient with me, giving me a break, giving me an hour and giving me an opportunity to earn my fees. Here’s a feeble attempt to name a few and I apologize in advance for leaving out more than a few. (You know who you are and I sincerely hope you’ll forgive me.)

First, my family who sacrificed thousands of days and nights while I was on the road leaving them to experience milestone events such as birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine’s Days, proms, water polo and baseball games, going off to college and many more. In the end, because of the lifestyle the business created for us, the cost/benefit analysis we believe is balanced, a break even.

Next, Mike Riordan, who mentored me, encouraged me, taught me, advocated for me and better yet befriended me. Thank you Mike.

John Kutcha got me my first speaking gig at NOMDA, 20 plus years ago. Mike Stramaglio got me my first international speaking gig at the Dublina in Dublin, Ireland. That gig lead to a great run with Dirk Compann and KN Minolta in Amsterdam which lasted for years.

Dirk Compaan of KN Minolta where I conducted Connectivity 2000
Train the Trainers with SYMQUEST in Amersterdam

Bob Magrino, Mario Lenci and Tony Levi championed me into the accepting early Mita community. Joe Weis of Unita Business Systems trusted me, coached me and referred me into Hewlett Packard Company which became one of my largest and longest running (and most generous) clients.

Jim Salzer helped me grow DocuAudit into a game changing software and sales training program, which generated more than one hundred million dollars in sales revenues for clients worldwide. (If I had taken a percentage of sales revenues as fees, as many clients requested, I would have retired 10 years ago! Oh well.)

Dealers who entrusted me with their sales force’s valuable time include:

Copytronics- Paul and Bob Shields

MWB Business Systems- Jerry Rollins

Procopy- Ben Russert

Advanced Business Systems- Lou Marino
Virginia Business Systems- Jim Dotter, Rick Lingon

Applied Imaging- John K.

Ray Morgan Company- Greg Martin

Thermocopy- Steve Sumners, Mark Del Duca

Erb’s- Kevin Tourner

Lewan & Associates- Barry Rogers

      

FlexPrint Inc.- Frank Gespari

Print Inc.- Gary Stevens

Fuch’s Copy Systems- Jim Fuchs

Fraser Business Systems- Bill Fraser

DaCom- John Tipton

Perry Corp- Rex Perry (RIP), Barry Clark, Dave Zimmerlie

Impact Networking- Dan Meyer 

    

Literally hundreds more

Manufacturers partnered and invested with me to scale training, messaging and tools to their sales forces and channel partners worldwide:

Ricoh Worldwide (The big fish!)

Kurt Yoshida – CEO                         
Bob Ingolia – VP Marketing

Ron Potesky                                    
Yuji Ushida
Michael Parker                                   

HP PrintAdvantage Training

My friends, colleagues, champions and project leads at Hewlett Packard, too many to mention; here are but a few:

Craig Wood                        
Don Palmer                        
Tara Agan                        
Ken Tiboult

Craig Souza                        
Tami Beach                        
Jennifer Russell            
John Hanesack

Joel Curtis                        
Joyce Champion            
Rich Raimondi

Mike Pietrunti – President             
Peter Hendrick – VP Marketing

Cadi Hauck                      
Dan Butler                 
Raymond Barrara – Canada

                 

Bill Micas

Power Selling reinforcement training Canon Business Solutions Los Angeles

Training CBS Canada salespeople in Montreal

Dan Sharp- CBS Canada

CBS Canada Reps engaged in a case study in Toronto

XEROX
Gus Yusem                                    
Kathi Genochio                         
Tom Galt
Bob Brossman                       
Barb Closs                                   

West Point Products

Ray Loisel                                                
Sarah Henderson

Savin Corp.
Tom Salierno – President                        
Fred Beger – VP Sales

Sharp
Mike Pietrunti – President            
Tom Ellson (RIP)

Distributors partnered with me to tailor my training content to their programs and channel needs and entrusted me to deliver program training to their channel partners.

               

Peter Larocque – President                                    
James Luqire – SR VP PrintSolv           

Steve Lu – Manger PrintSolv                         
Bob Evans – VP PrintSolv

  

PrintSolv Training in Boston

Print Inc.

Gary Stevens – President

Global Imaging

Tom Johnson – President, CEO                       
Paul Schulman             
Teri Dunn

Industry Associations and Organizations helped me grow my business by bringing me in to speak to their members.

NOMDA

BTA

IPPI

SDG

David Pohlman             
Greg Van de Walker            
Jennie Fisher             
Kim Louden

MPS Training at GreatAmerica headquarters in beautiful Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Dave Verkinderen                                         
David Turner

The Executive Committee

Young President’s Organization

Pepperdine University – Graziadio School of Business and Management

The Stanford Club

Advocates – Who have referred me, encouraged me and taught me:

Jerry Rollins

Jack Finnel – Ameritech

Tom Barry – Ameritech

Craig Wiegman (Wiggy) – Ameritech

The Koether brothers, Mike and Bob – Infotech

Kevin Morris – One Source

James Luquire – SYNNEX

INDUSTRY Consultants – who have vetted my theories and strategies to grow my business.

Tom Johnson

John Hey

John Hanson

Mike Riordan

Gary Stevens

Charlie Pesko

Bob Sostillio

Resources – Which have been instrumental in helping me grow Sales & Marketing Solutions International and morph the company constantly in order to remain relevant:

Knowledge Anywhere – Charlie Gillette’s team of  e-learning developers

Dunn Design – book & graphic designers and publishing consultants

       

Steve Stiles – videographer

Greg Jackson – sound recording engineer

Steve & Greg staging a video shoot at Axtell Studios

Kelly Russell – book publisher and daughter

Executive Limo – drivers

Teri Hubert – travel and logistics advisor

Mark Power – my brother who talked me into the copier business in 1976 after smoking a half of lid of weed at Rincon Point. Thanks bro! Awesome dude!

Again, to those I left out, my sincerest apologies!

A few Highlights

Besides meeting, befriending and working with so many quality people and organizations; I’ve been blessed to have many highlights in my career. Too many to acknowledge, but here are a few:

I bought an around-the-world first class ticket in order to speak at Hewlett Packard boot camps and customer events held in: Barcelona, Vienna, London, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Singapore, Kuala Lampur, Shanghai, Sydney, Manhattan, Miami, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Guadalajara and Boise!

        

Rolled out DocuAudit to Ricoh worldwide in: Amsterdam, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, and 16 US Cities

Training the Perth Aussies in Melbourne

Training the Melbourne Aussies in Melbourne

Hung out with Craig McCafferty, VP Marketing, Ricoh Asia Pacific in the VIP boxes at rugby matches on Saturday nights in Sydney.

Hung out with James Luquire at the Pig & Whistle Pub in Manhattan while snowed in for four days. Our AMEX cards maxed out as we watched the winter Olympics starting at 10 each morning ending around midnight each day. Expensive but fun!

James Luquire in Times Square Blizzard

Took my family snowboarding at the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland for two weeks during a break in the HP European speaking tour. 

 

Toured the gold coast of Australia with my family during a break in the Asian speaking tour. My daughter Kelly declared, at the age of 14, that she would return and attend University of Sydney. She did!

 
Toured throughout Asia with my wife for three weeks.

Hung out at multiple Del Frisco’s steak houses with Greg Van de Walker of GreatAmerica Leasing discussing the books we’ve recently read.

Went to hockey games in Toronto with Canon Business Solutions management. (Like going to church… a religious experience!)

Hung out at the Meadow Lands race track with Ricoh CEO, Kurt Yoshida (right) and then Savin President Tom Salerino. (second right). I’m holding the winning ticket for this race, but Kurt won seven grand that night taking tips from the cocktail waitress.

I was a total slacker when I wasn’t working my ass off! 

My granddaughter, Ava & I out to lunch in Santa Barbara

Watching a Cubs game from the roof top across the street from Wrigley Field with the SYNNEX crowd.

Going to museums in most every city I visited gaining an understanding and appreciation for the culture of each.

Collecting $17,500 for one 45 minute speech.

Golfing with Mike Stramagilo in Ireland, where the starter read the rules of golf for 20 minutes prior to teeing off!

Snowboarding in a blizzard in Tirol, Austria on the HP circuit with the Danes. The happiest people on earth!

                

Slipping my HP security detail at the Fairmont Hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico, jumping into a beat up cab and going to an eight story strip club! Aye, aye, aye! (sorry guys, no pictures here)

Staying in The Finest Hotels in the World.

Hotel Del Europe in Amsterdam

Park Hyatt in Sydney 

The Edgewater in Seattle            

I was a card carrying member of an international executive travel fraternity, meeting, chatting, swapping stories and travel tips in first class cabins, bars, restaurants, concierge lounges, airline clubs, etc. I met a strange assortment of executives, flight attendants, bartenders, waiters, drivers, meeting planners, tour guides, interpreters and other happy wanderers; never to be seen a second time.

Having to reinvent myself and my company eight times in 22 years. Here are but a few examples of the programs I created, sold and delivered:

Database marketing program highlighting cost-per-page program. Included were a complete direct mail campaign, telemarketing training and sales training.

Convergence Solution Selling – Selling MFPs connected to networks. With collaboration from Larry Sudbay and David Wolfe of Symquest Group.

Connectivity 2000 – Convergence Solution Selling combined with selling in IT. (A collaboration with SYMQUEST)

Convergence Solution Selling Software and Training – Translated into 12 languages, licensed to six major manufactures and hundreds of dealers.

One of the industry’s first data collection agents developed in collaboration with PrintAudit. Hawk Eye integrated with DocuAudit to streamline the analysis and proposal process.

                       

Consultative Sales Training based on my book Power Selling: Consult and Collaborate to Gain Competitive Distinction. (Over 12,000 copies sold.)

Sales Leadership Training

Transcending Transactions – Selling Value Versus Selling Price, (Based on my book, the $50 Ice Cream Cone.)

Finally, I listened to literally thousands of salespeople’s success stories based on them utilizing methods, tools, presentations, concepts and proposals I taught them. Even better was learning from those salespeople how they improved each element.

What’s Next?    

Fittingly, on one of my final home comings at LAX I noticed this sign.

“After thousands of flights, I finally passed the point of no return.”

Life on the water in the Ventura Keys is now and next.

I ride my recumbent tricycle daily to the Pierpont Club for some swimming, cardio workouts, yoga and talking trash with friends. (I’ve lost 32 pounds!)

I’m currently undergoing numerous major surgeries to reconstruct both feet. It may take up to 18 months, but I should be able to walk again pain free.

My granddaughter Ava Shay lives six blocks away. It doesn’t take a reason to drop by to see her. 

Once my feet are fixed and I’m through rehab, I’ll start back on my golfing twice a week, biking, and taking road trips to photograph the National Parks in the Western US.

PowerSelling.com is For Sale

One last thing, before I sign off for good. The domain name PowerSelling.com is for sale. It's broad domain name makes it incredibly versatile and could be used for any number of industries, though I will say it's been a perfect fit for the industry we all share. The possibilities are virtually endless for the lucky new owner. If you or someone you know may be interested in obtaining the domain name please contact my daughter, Kelly Russell at kellyshayrussell@gmail.com to make an offer.

Please "like" and "share" this retirement announcement with your colleagues on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to help me get the word out to anyone who might want to know. 

Thank you all for a great run!