{"id":2786,"date":"2017-05-31T12:13:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T17:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/?p=2786"},"modified":"2023-10-05T11:51:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T17:51:19","slug":"sales-spotlight-bill-gostowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bullseyerecruiting.net\/sales-spotlight-bill-gostowski\/","title":{"rendered":"SALES SPOTLIGHT: Bill Gostkowski"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>A couple of weeks ago Bulls Eye Recruiting highlighted 3 traits that all successful sales people\u00a0have in common<\/a>.\u00a0 I discussed that I would be highlighting sales superstars and what differentiates them from the pack.\u00a0 I had the honor and privilege to meet and speak with\u00a0Bill Gostkowski<\/a>\u00a0and wanted to share his background and his story.\u00a0 I will be running a two part series this week.\u00a0 This post will let you get to know him a little and the next will really dive into how worked closely with company leadership to bring a company from non-profitability to profitability. \u00a0\u00a0Hope you enjoy!<\/p>\n

QUESTION 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will<\/strong>–\u00a0\u00a0Tell me briefly about your career and how you got to be where you are today?<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0My current career path began at Schlumberger as a technical support team manager some years ago. Before that I was in the military and had taken several technical positions with companies such as GE Aerospace after I came off of active duty. Over the 17 year period I was with what is now Gemalto, I held positions in technical support, project\/program management followed by field marketing, sales management and eventually business development. While at Gemalto, I was recruited by On Track Innovations and currently hold the position of Vice President Business Development OTI America.<\/p>\n

QUESTION 2:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will:<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0I believe that successfully people learn from their failures.\u00a0 Tell me about a failure and what you learned from it. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Absolutely.\u00a0 I agree with you.\u00a0 I was assigned a very large account with the objective of selling a specific top silicon manufacturer a security software solution to allow 3rd\u00a0party applications enterprise access on corporate computers. This project required months of integration and resources and each time my team would incorporate a feature set that was supposed to be the last hurdle, the requirements would change. The size of this opportunity was tremendous and so I pushed through each refusal to commit in writing by the customer. I remember thinking that this company was investing resources as well with regular and positive technical meetings and verbal promises on the business development side. When I heard that my division head was flying in from overseas and was going to be in San Jose, I took the opportunity to put him in front of the customer for a high level meeting expecting to close business and this is when my counterpart that I had been working with in good faith for months chose to inform me, in front of my managers boss and a corporate Technical Fellow that they had decided to go \u201ca different way\u201d and they were shutting our project down. I was completely embarrassed and utterly furious. Struggling to maintain my composure and not to ask why she chose\u00a0this meeting<\/em>\u00a0to give me the bad news, I instead asked how this could be after all of the effort, good will and planning. The answer was unsatisfying simple; \u201cwe never committed to [my companies] solution.\u201d That was a lie. They had committed both verbally and with their actions, but as I learned the hard way, if it\u2019s not written down it doesn\u2019t count. Back in the office, I proposed litigation and the idea was summarily dismissed. This was my fault and even after a highly successful career with many big wins, I would be lucky to keep my job.<\/p>\n

On the surface, it may seem obvious that I should have put more formal agreements in place, but what if I had? This company was a behemoth compared to mine and we had many other projects with them. I think the bigger issue was not properly assessing and communicating the risk. Now, when developing a partnership, I look for partnership of equals and when chasing business that requires investment, I put formal agreements in place and communicate the risk both to my management and in my forecast. The biggest lesson learned, and I\u2019ve found it to ring true most of the time, is that if a solution has real value, people will pay for it.<\/p>\n

QUESTION 3:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Enough about failures, what was one of your biggest successes and why? \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0One of my favorite success stories was born of a failed project.\u00a0 It began with my division being spun off in an IPO and my activities moving overseas forcing me to either reassign or lay off my entire team. I was then assigned to Washington DC to support a government RFP for an ID program for all US citizens. What at first seemed like a straight forward RFP turned into a multi-year battle including several lawsuits by my competitors and a supplier jumping the supply chain and bidding direct.<\/p>\n

The customer was running the RFP in three stages, eliminating successive offerings at each stage with the end result being that two suppliers would walk away with all of the business, which amounted to approximately $100 million in yearly revenue split between the last two remaining companies.<\/p>\n

There were little to no detailed specifications and after the first round there were only 8 companies standing including mine. The lack of detailed specs gave the government tremendous flexibility to change the rules at will and it was clear early on in the second phase that we were not doing well and were going to be eliminated in the next round. My product line was located in Europe and they were adamant that our product was within spec but I knew from my close relationship with the decision makers for this project in DC that we were lacking. After receiving an official letter that we were to be eliminated from the running, my manager was removed and left the company leaving me as the Program Manager and SPOC. I had to find a way to convince my product managers in Europe to change directions in every aspect of our offering as we weren\u2019t listening to our customer.<\/p>\n

Having a technical and manufacturing background allowed me to literally build hardware prototypes in my garage that were in line with the \u201cadvise\u201d of my customer and I traveled to Thailand to form a relationship with an outside company that had a superior manufacturing technique that was in line with the customer\u2019s needs. I was able to convince my management to outsource our final product from our in-house facility to this Taiwanese supplier as well as to change another critical ancillary hardware assembly to one that I knew was supported by the company that would eventually supply my customer. In the end, my company was re-instated and selected to supply half of all of these electronic ID documents to the State Department. As for me, I was relocated to Austin, TX, sent to Harvard Business School for training and promoted\u00a0to Director of Field Marketing of the North America Banking division.<\/p>\n

QUESTION 4:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>How do you convince leadership to make changes in an organization when they have been doing something for 10-20 years?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill:<\/strong> \u00a0This question reminds of the old joke \u201chow many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Just one, but the light bulb has to\u00a0want\u00a0<\/em>to change.\u201d I believe this is true of organizations as well but even after the door to change is open, it is still necessary to bring your influencing tools to the table. There is no room for ego when pushing through the natural resistance to change and the end goal must always be what drives a manager\u2019s actions. In the end, a company is a group of people just trying to get along and so you must know how the teams are motivated and give them what they need.\u00a0 Trust is difficult to build and easily destroyed so it\u2019s important to be honest, open and inclusive when planning.<\/p>\n

QUESTION 5:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will:<\/strong> \u00a0Tell me about your sales process. How does your day begin and how does it end?\u00a0 What do you feel you do differently than the average sales person?<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill:<\/strong> \u00a0When I\u2019m in the office, my day usually starts with a strong cup of coffee and reviewing industry publications for the latest moves and news. After taking notes for follow up I do a quick review of my in box to make sure there are no fires to put out and if there aren\u2019t, I either move to the list of action items created the night before, or take an hour or so to review all of my emails and create a to do list for the day. I like to make lists as sometimes the pace is hectic and important things can get overlooked. The list is fluid and I will add items from the daily customer and internal meetings I attend and my day ends when I\u2019ve done as much as I can or the list is complete (which it almost never is). A big part of what makes me different from other sales people is my background, training and experience. Because I\u2019ve successfully held positions in Manufacturing, Project and Program Management, Marketing, Sales and Business Development, I have an extremely well rounded set of skills including customer and people skills. I can understand a solution from all aspects and it helps me to develop strong value propositions for my customers while managing internal constraints and business management concerns.<\/p>\n

QUESTION 6:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0How do you generate new business?\u00a0 How do you utilize LinkedIn?\u00a0 How do you utilize the phone?\u00a0 How to you utilize the internet?\u00a0 How do you utilize text and e-mail?\u00a0 What percentage of your day do you spend prospecting?<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Generally speaking, generating new business is a matter of leveraging what your company is good at and bringing that value to the market. The questions I ask myself are:<\/p>\n