Dear Bill

Ask for the business, even at the risk of receiving it.

This little sentence totally changed my life.

In 1995, I had been working for the ABSA group for 14 years. I had been their top Business Development Consultant in KwaZulu Natal in 1994. I had just been promoted to the level of Sales Manager at the then Trust Bank. I thought I knew everything. It soon became apparent that I, as well the sales staff that reported to me ? and in fact most of the sales staff in the ABSA group had lots of room for? improvement as to how to go and find business or how to maintain that business once it was on the books. As Sales Manager I had developed my own way of selling ? by watching others do it. It was however unstructured and done in a "shotgun" manner.

As a new Sales Manager I had to find a way to get the sales team to work together along the, same lines, and to use certain basic selling skills. In 1996 I saw an advert in the Natal Witness, a presentation by Canada's Top Motivational Speaker". I was a bit sceptical, because I had been to several of these, types of presentations and most of' the information as well as the "warm fuzzy feeling" had gone within a day we booked anyway ? in fact most of the Banks in Pietermaritzburg attended the two presentations. We also had the Regional Managers from ABSA attending.

I cannot describe my feelings during that 3?hour presentation ? in fact they were so positive that I paid out of my own pocket to attend the second presentation as well. Here was a person that was just as passionate about the art of selling as I was. Your presentation gave a practical guide to selling. This coupled with the motivational side of the presentation inspired me.

ABSA Management saw this as well. I attended another presentation by you 6 months later. By this time you had set up a full package of videotapes and workbooks called "Selling Financial services for ABSA that we as sales management could use to train sales staff. This included "Selling from the Inside Out”; "Finding the Right Clients" and “The Relationship Building Model" etc. People at various levels of sales within ABSA could use the training tools sales increased until I left ABSA to join Boland Bank in 1997.

The reason I left ABSA was that Boland PKS Bank had joined the? BoE group and they had a vision of becoming a bank that caters to just the business client. I was interviewed by Marius Liebenberg ? the then Regional Manager of Boland Bank UN. It was clear that Boland Bank had a high need for skilled sales staff and sales managers. I was appointed in April 1997. The only thing I took with me from ABSA was my personal library of Bill Gibson's videotapes and workbooks.

At my new position at Boland Bank it was apparent there was lots of work ahead of me. Sales staff had no targets. The business that was done was business that walked into the front door ? most of this business had been declined by other banks. There was an exit of people to other departments when they heard they were going to receive targets.

It was very difficult ? but I believed in the Bill Gibson program and methodologies and started to slowly introduce the sales staff to the training modules. You can imagine how difficult those first couple of months were. I was used to a full support structure ? now I was doing it alone in a small bank with no real sales culture. But the program worked.

Marius was so impressed with the program and the skills that it conveyed; that he asked me to do a presentation to all the new sales staff that he employed in Durban did this. Once again it was very successful???. The bank was however going through major changes and Marius was transferred to Head Office in Paarl. We kept in contact and I regularly reminded him that the bank as a whole could use your program.

Imagine my surprise when I walked out of the training centre in Paarl 18 months later and found you talking to Marius in the foyer. I was a very happy man. Boland PKS was going to acquire your two comprehensive Sales Systems ?'The Complete Sales Action System' as well as “Managing Complex Business Relationships System". In August 2000 you launched the Profit Builder" program at our annual sales conference ? a system that was customised for the bank from these two modules. This coincided with the bank making each commercial banker (sales person) a cost centre on their own.

The Profit Builder process has been the basis that I have used to build a client base from 6 clients (turnovers of R 2 ? R10m) per year to my current portfolio of 142 clients with similar turnovers. The branch has turned from a loss the previous year to a profit contribution of several million between the three bankers this year.

My Profit Builder program is in place and I alone project a profit contribution of R3, 5m for the next year. Combined the bankers in PMB will contribute in excess of R6m in the new financial year. Business is absolutely pouring in, our awareness program that prospects targeted clients has not even been implemented fully and I am already swamped with new quality clients.

The recent surge of success of BoE's Bankers in my opinion has largely been attributable to your program as well as the intense way Marius and his team has driven it countrywide it has, made sales manageable and taken the fear out of any possible situation that a sales person might find himself or herself in.

Your program and teachings, gave us a new branch in Pietermaritzburg when? it looked like we may be closed down. We could convince senior management of the potential of our market by using the various client identification and database marketing modules that your program teaches. Since then this branch has had an R 6,5m revamp. We have gone from being the bank of last choice, to the most wanted bank in Pietermaritzburg. Our service levels are higher than those of the people in your "Dunsmuir Shell” story. We enjoy what we are doing.

We are growing in a declining market ? your program worked in Pietermaritzburg, and I can therefore quite honestly say: it will work anywhere! The box with the videos and modules is right next to my desk ? were I can see them daily. I watch the various tapes from time to time to refresh my selling skills. It also helps to watch you when I am having a bad day. My team is going through the “The Complete Sales Action System” at the moment. They love every minute of it.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME A SALES SUCCESS!

Yours faithfully

HEIN DE WIT
SENIOR COMMERCIAL BANKER
BoE BANK: BUSINESS DIVISION