My Story

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Confessions of an inquisitive, driven mind

When I started in sales everything seemed so easy & felt so natural. Working in a fast moving consumables industry I quickly progressed from internal sales to external salesperson & then onto becoming sales manager. In doing so I neither studied nor committed to developing myself for progression in my chosen profession. I believed I was just good at it & I enjoyed it and that was enough.  "Some people are just born salespeople", as the saying says & I figured I was one of them.

Then a fantastic thing happened to me (at least that's how I see it now, I can't say I did at the time). I was head-hunted & offered a job selling capital equipment which gave me the opportunity to earn more money & have a better life style. Being ambitious, naturally I took it … & then found myself struggling in a way I hadn't envisaged & definitely wasn’t expecting. Over a period of three months my self-confidence waned & a state of almost desperation replaced my usual ebullience & optimism. It didn't take too long until I had forgotten how to enjoy my work & I'd resorted to questioning myself about all sorts of things.  I was learning that salespeople may not be born after all!

Seeing I was struggling, my M.D. (a former salesperson himself) invited me to join him on a sales call for an opportunity he had been working on. I went with him; sat, listened & watched what both my M.D. & the prospect said & did. The call was a very good one, as was the result with the meeting concluding with the prospect agreeing to place the order with our company.  Most striking to me though was just how easy my MD had made it look.

The call was just the tonic I had needed.  Replaying it back in my mind repeatedly after the call, I decided that whilst my MD had said nothing I wouldn’t have or couldn’t have said, nor did he do anything I couldn't do, he said & did it all differently. I understood in that moment that salespeople can be made & that really good ones definitely are!  At that time, without my knowing it I had become interested in the mechanics of selling & throughout  the 30 years since that visit my interest has only increased. (I openly confess I'm a "sales/achievement-saddo" who probably needs a hobby!)  That interest sparked a journey which has now spanned more than 30 years, building my knowledge as a result of attending training seminars, reading books, listening to podcasts & audio books amongst other forms of research into what makes the most successful people better.

As I Learnt It … I Wrote It

Moving forward & starting with the things I had picked up in that call every time I did, saw, heard &/or experienced anything effective I wrote it down & set about working on understanding not only what had worked, but why it had. A few pieces of paper quickly became a folder, then eventually a folder became several lever arch files stuffed with tips, tools, techniques & disciplines of the most successful people & the selling skills I had the pleasure of studying. What I had uncovered & recorded were their 'sales secrets'. Each was dissected, modelled & tested to prove that it would work for me. In applying them, these 'secrets' of top performing salespeople helped me grow my sales as they will for anyone else willing to apply them correctly (as I have proved over time with literally thousands of salespeople, sales teams & their companies alike).  They've also helped me attain and perform in senior management roles as well as run my own successful business.

Over time, besides selling I also studied management, running businesses & looked at What It Takes to Succeed across various walks of life (business & sports included - finding many of the same things applied across any endeavour where someone is looking to achieve more).  I started and built my own training and consultancy business which I ran  for 8 years where I shared what I had learned with others & helped them increase their sales, improve their profits & beat their competition.  My customers were varied and covered many industries selling a range of products & services across a broad range of industries.  Some were new start-ups, others were long established businesses/organisations and they consisted of SMEs and large multi-national organisations as well.

As the financial crisis hit in 2008 I made a difficult decision to close my business, taking what I knew & applied it in the role of General Manager of a mature business.  Working in a company that had experienced limited growth for many years, the business started to grow with turnover doubling within 3 years & trebling within 5 years of my joining it.  Profitability soared as well as increasing the turnover as a result of managing the business with higher efficiency & structured procedures, keeping costs down whilst we applied many of the 'secrets'.  Over 11 years in that role I continued to learn, evolved & developed my philosophy to cover more than just sales, encompassing culture, communication, team motivation, management, strategy, leadership & goal setting/achievement.

Today the contents of those lever arch files (plus much more besides) - the 'secrets' form the basis of everything in the Wit2S material. For me there's nothing better than sharing them with people who want to achieve more, are prepared to apply them & make them work.  The 'secrets' extend beyond sales & business applications.  Between 2020 & 2024 they also helped me tackle & complete a record endurance challenge fundraising for Cancer Research UK, where I pedalled a static exercise bike in a single gear set with resistance; the equivalent of cycling constantly up a hill 802 kms high (91x Mt Everest) around the circumference of the world (40,075 kms) in my spare time over a period of 4 years and 4 months.  

I trust that in having read to the bottom of this story you are potentially a kindred spirit, someone who wants to achieve more.  If so I trust what has proven invaluable to me will be equally beneficial for you.  I look forward to learning how sharing these tools, tips, techniques, disciplines & skills I have learned can help your career & results. Until then I wish you every success in all you do!

Steve Lewis-Brammer

Founder