Categories

Expertise

Business Development

Sales, marketing, brand stewardship, partner channels, pitch support, media planning, contract negotiations, leadership, training

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Digital Production

Strategy, UX design, project & program management, search, social, mobile, events, data modeling & APIs, analytics, accessibility, cloud platforms

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Offering Management

Product strategy, user journeys, design thinking, business continuity, market placement, consumer insights, IoT, enterprise SaaS, B2B, B2C

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Business Development

Every employee of a company is inherently in sales. 
If employees don’t have enthusiasm and trust in their company, how can one expect customers to have confidence? Smart business leaders take steps to connect every person to revenue.

Experience

Sales OTE for large ACV in enterprise SaaS,
partner development

Sales

Salesforce CRM, lead gen, SDR/BDR management, contract negotiations

Training

Force Management, Command of the Message, MEDDICC, Sandler, Zigler

I love working with clients to help them grow their businesses, learning the operation of their business and developing digital strategies that drive revenue, reduce costs, mitigate risk and innovate for growth.


Background

My sales experience, like many American children in recent generations, began by peddling products to raise funds for my school. Each year, I sold holiday cards and gifts door-to-door to my neighbors in Newton, Kansas. I learned to send catalogs to work with my parents and I’d leave them in the reception hall at church. I still remember the sense of accomplishment when someone agreed to buy a box of cards. They’d sign the simple form and write me a check, which I’d proudly show my friends.

I got my first sales job with hands-on training at age 14. Again, going door-to-door, I sold the Dallas Times Herald when Dallas had two major daily papers. My manager was a larceny ex-con named Buster who put me on a team of dopeheads and dropouts. He hauled us around the DFW metroplex in a beat up windowless van and dropped us off in strange neighborhoods. I routinely out-sold everyone on my team to earn bonuses. I dressed presentably and quickly canvased my neighborhood. I would then work nearby businesses or an adjacent apartment complex where I could pitch more people in the same amount of time. Later, I met with a few real estate agents who’d give me lists of newcomers to the area, a much more qualified prospect. Hitting the hot evening pavement with a motley crew of delinquents is not the most glamorous form of sales training, but I gathered street smarts and learned how to work intelligently in a competitive environment.

In college, I collected bounced check for a startup collection agency. For our safety, we didn’t use our real names. I operated under the pseudonym Bill Marshall (get it? GET IT?!). My knowledge of skip tracing, customer handling and industry legislation became invaluable when the company president selected me for the first formal sales team. I helped land the Pizza Hut account which vastly expanded our business. Under the exceptional training of my sales manager, I learned how to sell financial services to small businesses, and train new-hires to do the same thing. For better or worse, this job taught me swagger and street before “hustle” became fashionable among wantrepreneurs. The Feds caught up with the founder in Miami on racketeering charges.

After college, I started Stream Studio, one of the first web agencies in Austin, Texas. I applied my professional solution-sales training to generate high-value sales channels and close large per-contract deals. I’ve won many government and corporate RFPs, a task often avoided by sales professionals because of time and effort building champions and navigating the inevitable procurement apparatus. I credit both preparation and presentation for winning these contracts.

As a digital leader advertising agencies like GSD&M, HCN Health and Sanders\Wingo, I helped win new business at all stages of the pitch. Once we had the clients in our roster, I actively pitch new business to grow the accounts and retain their business through customer success.

As the VP of Business development at FirstView, I led sales, marketing, client experience & product strategy in the world if IoT. The world of embedded design brought me to leading companies in automotive, med-tech, industrial controls, security & consumer electronics. I’m especially proud to have helped land a lucrative $26M deal to bring the innovative Smartnav and SmartLINQ fleet monitoring to market for Peterbilt.

As an Account Executive at WordPress VIP at Automattic, I am helping to bring the world’s most popular CMS into the enterprise. I have the privilege of helping global brands like Boeing, Eventbrite, Culligan, REI, IDG and American Eagle grow their digital businesses.


Digital Production

They extend into the marketplace to engage their audience. They listen, measure and evolve to meet demand.

I manage all areas of the software development life cycle (SDLC) with a blend of traditional and agile methods appropriate to the client, the team and the project.

Web Technologies + Design

I speak geek. Having been a full-stack web developer and content publisher since 1994, I follow trends, tools and best practices on commercial and open-source platforms.


Offering Management

I help global brand leaders leverage design thinking and digital technologies to bring smart offers to market.


Public Speaking & Expert Advisor

I’ve served on dozens of committees, sub-committees and non-profit boards since the 1990s. I’ve spoken at marketing and leadership conferences, retreats and expert panels at SXSW and B2BOnline. I’ve been a guest on multiple podcasts, and I’ve been an expert advisor to venture capital research firms, as well as journalist analysts reporting on digital trends.