Sandler Sales Institute If you've got a little showmanship in you, you could build a business around building salespeople.
By Devlin Smith
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Bob Gregoire had been a salesman for 17 years when a Sandler SalesInstitute franchisee came to conduct training at his company."He was phenomenal," he says. "He helped me withprocess and selling skills that I had never been exposedto."
The presentation got Gregoire thinking about more than justselling. "When I heard him, I thought, 'If he can helpme after selling and doing this for so long, and make moneyat it, maybe I could do as good a job or better,'" hesays.
In 1999, Gregoire founded Gregoire &Associates LLC, his Lowell, Massachusetts-based Sandlerfranchise. For him, the move from salesman to facilitator was acompletely natural one: "This is the kind of business whereI'm up in front of people, and I'm an entertainer, anactor, a little bit of a comedian-plus I've got the experienceof selling and managing, so it was an unbelievably perfect fit formy background and skill set."
Gregoire's time is divided between conducting sales andsales management seminars on site for large groups of employees andat his training center for small groups and individuals. Though hehas an office to house his training center and employees, thebusiness can be homebased if all sessions are held at clients'locations.
Though he enjoys his business, "nothing is permanent forthis guy," says Gregoire. "I like it, I'm having fun,I'm making money, I can take it in several differentdirections...but I also love change."
