Leadership profiles
Our team not only understand sales, they love it. All have worked in sales and led sales teams successfully. We know what it is like to sell and the issues around being a sales manager. We bring that understanding and empathy to our consultancy work and our training delivery.
During his time at university, Lars spent his summers working for the Southwestern’s Direct Sales division discovering first-hand how Americans taught their sales people. That was twenty three years ago. Since then, he has been involved in establishing and building three of Southwestern’s companies on European soil.
Initially he was responsible for recruiting, training and managing 35 sales teams with a total of 180 sales people. In 1995, Southwestern embarked on bringing its second company to the UK, SBR Search (a retained search and selection firm). Lars was moved across to set it up in London. Worldwide, SBR Search is currently in the top 5% of international search firms.
Lars is the MD of Southwestern’s newest company in Europe, SBR Consulting. He is passionate about the fact that one day the "salesperson" will have the same level of respect amongst UK / European professions as it does in America.
Entering sales in 1988 as a direct salesman of aerial photographs, Stuart learnt what it takes to sell and break records. He went on to manage teams and train salespeople in both Britain and the USA throughout the 90’s. Stuart chaired a number of meetings as a Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management and was commended in the National Training Awards.
In 2000 he collectively founded and helped to build a £2.5m gourmet food company which he raised to Investors in People standards within six months. During this time, Stuart has recruited, trained and managed thousands of sales people and managers, some of whom still call on his expertise to guide them in running their own successful sales organisations.
In May 2007, Stuart’s team came 1st in the Polar Challenge, a 350 mile race to the Magnetic North Pole. He often refers to some of the learnings of his amazing experience when he is delivering training. When not at work, Stuart is back helping out with his children’s youth group and is a committed tri-athlete and helps run the local triathlon in East Grinstead.
Alan started off in sales simply to fund his postgraduate education but he quickly realised that the challenge and intricacies involved in achieving success at the highest levels of professional selling had him hooked. 15 years into a career that has involved selling, leading sales teams and developing organisations in the US and across Europe, Alan is passionate about continuing to hone and develop the habits of a high performer in himself and in others. He works closely with organisations helping them to drive revenues, increase productivity and develop high performance sales cultures and has been recognised as a finalist in the National Sales Awards – Sales Trainer of the Year.
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Dan Moore is the President of The Southwestern Company in Nashville , Tennessee . He is a 1976 Honours Graduate from Harvard University and holds an Honours MBA degree from Vanderbilt University Owen School of Management. As the President at Southwestern, he is responsible for product development, sales training, public relations, business statistics, forecasting and the development of new profit centres.
Dan has been invited as a keynote speaker to a number of organisations, both academic and professional, located in the USA , Britain , France and, most recently, Estonia . Dan has trained more than 60,000 salespeople to be much more motivated and productive between sales calls, and far more effective within them.'
Lee McCroskey is the Director of Sales Development for the century-old Southwestern Company. Every year, Lee is responsible for transforming more than 3000 top university students from North America and Europe into "lean, mean, selling machines."
Lee is a recognised expert on GenX, GenY and generational issues in the marketplace. He is a member of the Board of Sales and Marketing Executives of Nashville (VP of Education). Lee McCroskey comes to us with over two decades of expertise in training, sales, and sales management. One of Lee's greatest accomplishments is his contribution to the standardisation of the sales training process across different continents. Lee has been featured on radio and TV on numerous occasions.
Professional Background: Recipient of Master Recruiter Award, Sales Manager of the Year. B.A. & M.A. in English; Lecturer at the University of Kansas 1979-82; Adjunct Faculty at the Owen Graduate School of Business, Vanderbilt University.
Marc served as President of Digital Studios Group and prior to that post he was the Director of Sales at Nextel Communications, managing a team of 110 employees comprising three distribution channels and seven sales teams delivering annual revenues of over $90 million in revenue.
Mr. Savas has personally managed or overseen over 100 consulting engagements over the past seven years with companies ranging from start up companies to Fortune 200.
Marc achieved a BS in Business with an emphasis in sales and marketing from Northern Arizona University.
Henry Bedford was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company in January 2006. He began his career with The Southwestern Company as a Student Dealer in 1972. Henry achieved a B.A. in Economics from The University of the South and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. He has had more than 30 years in sales and business management with progressive promotions within the Company.
Spencer Hays has spent more than a half-century building and leading both sales organizations and textile manufacturing companies. Beginning as a student entrepreneur at Texas Christian University, he established new benchmarks in sales and organization building through the Southwestern Company's renowned summer program for college students, building the largest sales organization in the history of the company. Beginning in 1967, he also applied his passion for the clothing industry by founding the Tom James Company, which as part of the Individualized Apparel Group is now the largest custom-clothing company in the world. Tom James is a vertically integrated company which takes the manufacturing process from plant fibers to whole cloth to custom apparel. His expertise in textile manufacturing extends to plants in the U.S., Chile, and the United Kingdom serving customers around the world. Having personally overseen the acquisition of and development of all manufacturing and sales of this $500,000,000 company, Mr. Hays is uniquely qualified as a member of the Southwestern Consulting team.
Dustin Hillis began his career with the Southwestern Company as a Student Dealer and became the number one producer out of over 150,000 salespeople worldwide. He is now the executive coach to leaders from companies such as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, State Farm and Bank of America with a consistent track record of improving production. He is author of the book, "Navigate: Selling the Way People Like to Buy" and the DVD Series, "Navigate Referrals". He co-authored, "Speaking of Success" along with Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard and Jack Canfield.
Rory Vaden is a Self-Discipline Strategist who has featured on Oprah Radio. He is author of, "Take the Stairs: Getting to the Top in Business and Life". In the Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking he was the first Runner Up and has previously coached Chad Goldwasser the former #1 Keller Williams Agent out of 76,000 agents.
GARY MICHELS - Co-Founder of Southwestern Consulting™
Gary Michels spent 19 years at Great American Opportunities, Inc. in sales and management. There he lead the company in sales for seven of the last 10 years, out of over 250 sales reps. He is author of "Gettin' In & Gettin' Out: How to Get in Every Prospect’s Door and Get Out with a Sale". During his career he has had the opportunity to speak to and motivate over 700,000 people across the country.
RON MARKS - Author of the Amazon bestselling book Managing for Sales Results
Ron Marks has been a part of the sales management training business with internationally known trainer Tom Hopkins for over 30 years. He is a member of the National Speakers Association and has been awarded the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). He is author of the Amazon bestselling book, "Managing for Sales Results".
DAVE BROWN - Professional Sales Trainer and Speaker
Dave Brown started his career as a Student Dealer for the Southwestern Company and was a record breaking sales person, knocking on over 50,000 doors before the age of 25. He generated as much as $27,000 per month in 2005 strictly from cold calling.
EMMIE YOUNG - Professional Sales Trainer and Speaker
Starting her career as a Student Dealer for the Southwestern Company whilst at university, Emmie Young achieved the position of District Sales Manager for The Southwestern Company, managing over 100 sales people. During her career, she has trained thousands of sales professionals across the nation and is always in the top 1% in personal sales production
AMANDA JOHNS - Professional Sales Trainer and Speaker
Amanda Johns is author of the upcoming book, "Selling to the Sexes: Everything You Need to Know About Selling to the Opposite Sex" and has trained thousands of sales professionals across varying industries.
STEVE SAVAGE, MBA
Steve Savage is an acclaimed sales and management strategist, helping dozens of companies increase their sales and profits. He is author of, "Savage Sales Secrets" and co-author of, "Guerrilla Business Secrets and has been described by Jay Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing as, “...the most brilliant and gutsy guerrilla marketer I have ever known...”. He co-founded Institutional Financing Services, building a sales force of over 250 Directors growing from $0 to $60 million in sales in 6 years.
