A very customer orientated-manager; and that comes, very simply, from the fact that as a marketing leader, I fully understand that markets are merely a set of customers classified in a certain manner..

Calgreg Electronics, Warwick, RI (2000 to 2001): the core-competency of this business was customer service. It is a small regional distributor but could, and did, outplay the larger businesses due to it's tenet off providing the very best in customer service. As we grow through our careers we learn from others, and one of our manufacturers reps once told me the following:

A new sales hire walked into the owner of the rep agencies office, saw all of the President's awards on his wall and asked how he could become the number one salesperson. Tom replied with "Do what you said you were going to do, when you said you were going to do it" The youngster's retort was " No, really, how do I become the best salesperson?"

I share this story because it is the cornerstone of my approach the sales process, sure, I fully understand and implement strategic selling practices but is is all for naught if you do not "Do what you said you were going to do, when you said you were going to do it.

At Calgreg, I managed both inside and outside sales but the organization was primarily driven by inside sales so part of my growth strategy was to add an outside sales organization and during my time, we added a small sales team of two sales professionals to service the New England market with support form myself.

This was a relatively shot assignment because shortly after 9/11 the order book tanked and owner pulled himself out of retirement to let me go. My former employer sought me out and I rejoined Pentair.

Pentair Electronic Packaging, Warwick, RI (2001 to 2008): while employed as Schroff's business development director, one of my key areas of responsibility was managing the Inside Sales Department. The truth is that there was very little pro-active selling and most activities were reactive customer service and order taking responsibilities. At it's peak the department comprised of a team of 16 (Inside sales manager plus 15).

As a manufacturer, who produced specific-to-applicaton products our on-time delivery and quality was never perfect which often resulted in hostile customer/inside sales relationships requiring both customer diplomacy and staff motivation.

• AS400 environment
• Development of sales business processes
• ISO 9001 environment
• Close liaison with the operations team
• Credit and RMA management
• Development of lean manufacturing process in an inside sales environment - taking waste out of the processes
• Sales and product training