Charles Bernard, founder and CEO of Criteria for Success, Inc., helps CEOs bridge the gap between their vision for their company and their bottom line. Charles applies over 20 years of experience in direct sales, sales management, recruiting, and training to his growing consulting practice.
As a Senior Account Executive for General Electric, he was the top revenue producer in his division. He then founded the IBM DB2 software development consulting firm, Atlantis Vision Ltd, and later was a partner and Executive Director of Sales for one of New York’s first systems integrators, NETLAN, Inc.
Charles is currently writing a book on "Workability" to be released in late 2018.
Charles was born in Madrid, Spain and educated in Surrey, England.
What you'll learn about in this episode:
- How an elevator ride Charles took with the “muckety-mucks” to the corporate suite opened new doors for him to increase his selling potential
- How sales are the lifeblood of the company since a company cannot survive on window shoppers alone if they fail to purchase our goods or services
- How selling is both a science (in terms of process) and art form (by maintaining the human touch) as we build and develop relationships
- Reasons we need to go beyond the mechanics of selling and the checklist mentality to remember the philosophy that our customers are being well-served
- How “radio silence” -- when a person does not get back in touch with a salesperson for a long time -- affects all parties
- Ways that firms often hurt their bottom line through hesitation when they should instead actively do those things that set them apart based upon their knowledge of their customers
- Why Charles goes back to his playbook to remember what got him this far during those moments when things are not going according to plan
- Why both positive and negative feedback are good, but the best feedback is the content that we get in a timely manner
- How we must follow through so that our words are not hollow when we tell someone we are focused on adding value to whatever our company does
- How successful businesses invest in long-term relationships with their clients and customers
Ways to contact Charles: