About Me
My approach
I take a unique approach to sales leadership, coaching, and presenting. I’m empathetic, a storyteller, an engaging presenter, and a thoughtful manager. See below to learn a bit more about my philosophy and my background.
First, read the room
Over the years I’ve honed what sometimes feels like a sixth sense. No, I don’t see dead people, but I have an uncanny ability to read a room. To gauge how a meeting is unfolding, in real-time, and predict what’ll happen next. I see nuance that others often miss — a subtle shift in someone’s facial expression, a change in body language, a shift in their choice of words. Noticing not just what is said, but what is left unsaid. When something feels off, I trust the feeling and adjust.
The best meetings have questions, stories, and simple visuals
I’ve seen too many discovery calls die because of a script. “[Monotone]: Who else should be here? What is your budget?” That’s not my style. Instead, I focus on the conversation. On being in the moment. Because that’s where the magic happens. When I hear something interesting, I don’t just start solutioning. I dig. “Tell me more about that,” or “how’s that impacting the team?”
Then, I relate to the audience with stories. Stories I come up with in the moment. Performing “narrative alchemy,” I weave together seemingly unrelated concepts. “Jimi Hendrix, one of the most influential guitar players of all time, never won a grammy. Nor have Queen, Diana Ross, The Clash, Snoop Dogg, or Led Zeppelin. Because sometimes the best product doesn’t win. How you sell is so important because the best product will only get you so far.” This way of storytelling, quick and relatable, is something I bring to the table in every meeting. It’s not just about making a point; it’s about making a meaningful connection with the audience.
When presenting, my visuals are simple. Most of the time I just use memes. One of my rules when building presentation decks is that audiences shouldn’t be able to understand them without an explanation. If they can, then your presentation could have simply been an email. Leave-behind decks can have all the words (within reason), but not presentation decks.
You don’t have time not to tell a story
“But Ed, my clients want me to get right to it. I don’t have time for a story.” This objection comes up all the time when I’m coaching. But here’s the thing — stories are memorable. And when I say story, I’m not talking about The Odyssey or War and Peace. I’m talking about a 1-2 minute anecdote that engages the audience.
Back when I was at IBM, right after we closed the biggest deal I’d ever worked on, I moved from presales to strategy. My first strategy project was to figure out how the market viewed our product suite. So I called the client I worked with on said big deal, and he said something that’s stuck with me:
Client: “You know, everyone almost lost after the first meeting.”
Me: “[Surprised] What do you mean?”
Client: “All four vendors we looked at walked in here and talked about segmentation, offers, channels, journeys. We couldn’t tell any of you apart. Hell, even the product names are similar.”
The good news was, when I got involved in the deal, I gave a demo that used their requirements to create a story. And it worked so well that I only had to show live software once during the entire sales cycle.
One of my core beliefs is that, when demoing, I’d rather tell an impactful story and show fewer features than skip the story in favor of showing more features. Jamming one more feature into a demo isn’t going to advance your deal. But if you connect with the audience, they’ll bring you back. And if you’re worried about time, consider this: if you count trade shows, I’ve delivered thousands of demos. In all of that time, I’ve never had a client tell me to skip a story.
Not all feedback is good feedback
It’s often said that feedback is a gift, but that’s not always true. Feedback is an art, and it takes finesse in order to ensure the recipient actually hears you. I’ve recognized there’s a point in every conversation when someone has had enough. They can’t process any more feedback — best case, the feedback has diminishing returns, and worst case it becomes counterproductive. So I prioritize. I give the most important or impactful feedback first. And I don’t use the “crap sandwich,” where the constructive feedback is shoved between two good pieces of feedback. That approach doesn’t spare the recipient’s feelings, and it also often loses the impact. Instead, I’m tactful yet straightforward. First, I validate the recipient. I show that I “see” them. I might say something like “I see what you were trying to do, which is [objective], but here’s why it didn’t work. Next time, try [alternative approach].” It’s not just about pointing out what went wrong, but also why it went wrong and what can be done about it. This shows the recipient my goal is genuinely to try to help them get better, not give feedback for feedback’s sake.
Authority isn’t necessary for influence
Having coached more than 2,000 people, I’ve ran into plenty who were reluctant to participate. I’m not their manager, and have no authority. So I have to influence them. Show them that there’s something in it for them. Earn credibility from the beginning. So that’s what I do. I don’t open meetings by talking about myself. I don’t show a NASCAR slide (the one with all the logos). I make it about them. I drop a useful tip, or ask an impactful question. Then I listen. And I take this approach not just with those I coach, but also prospects and people I manage.
See those you manage for who they are
Authenticity matters in any context. As a manager, I believe that my team should be comfortable being themselves in a work context. That doesn’t mean we’re best friends, nor does it mean they should act overly casual at work. But when someone spends energy trying to be someone they’re not it becomes draining for everyone. For people to be effective, they need to be safe being their authentic selves. They need to feel safe at work. And they need a manager who understands them and adapts based on what their team needs.
I used to manage someone who wasn’t given a fair shot at work. They were seen as unqualified, and their work product was seen as subpar. Once I took over as their manager, I quickly saw the problem. It wasn’t them, it was the organization. This person hadn’t been managed the way they needed. So I implemented some new processes specifically for them. I provided both structure and flexibility, supporting them when they needed it and getting out of their way when they didn’t. I fostered an environment where they felt safe and respected, and used their feedback to continuously improve. Then, I advocated on their behalf to the rest of organization. Now they’re thriving, and I’m proud to have played a role in their growth.
My Work
Can you find this information on my LinkedIn or resume? Sure — but below you’ll find the “director’s cut.” For each job I’ve given more context than you’ll find on LinkedIn, especially for some of the stories that I reference on my resume but can’t cover in detail.
Professional Experience
2Win! Global
2019 – Present
Expert Coach & Facilitator (Contract)
I’m a top-ranked workshop facilitator, certified in all of 2Win’s curriculum (Demo2Win!, Discovery2Win!, Storytelling2Win!, [Customer] Success2Win!, and Winning With Executives!
I’ve been consistently positioned as the “go-to” facilitator for the most important “make or break” situations, such as pilots, at-risk clients, new or customized curricula, or clients requiring regulatory compliance (e.g. FDA for life sciences). I also have extensive experience training managers and coaches.
2Win! Global
2022 – 2023
Director, Content & Curriculum |
Director, Marketing & Customer Experience
As a member of the executive leadership team, I led several mission-critical projects, such as a WordPress rebuild and a revamped approach to sales collateral. As a content leader, I wrote and delivered compelling presentations, articles, and social posts by blending pop culture, memes, industry insights, evidence-based stories, and personal anecdotes.
My kids
2021-2022
Dad on Paternity Leave
When my younger son was born I took a 3 month leave to spend time with my family. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.
Demo Solutions
2018 – 2021
Founder and Lead Consultant
I founded and managed a demo consulting business, which I grew to a run-rate of 6-figures and a W-2 employee. When my younger son was born, I took a full-time opportunity with my biggest client (2Win!).
I delivered several successful projects, including:
- A a training program to reduce onboarding time at an operations-centric tech firm. For this project I built a new “standard” demo and designed a curriculum that included LMS based videos and assessments.
- A revamped early-stage account engagement strategy for a cybersecurity firm that included custom training, a new demo, and fractional presales leadership. My work empowered the account executives and inside sales reps to lead initial demos, so the presales team could focus on advanced discussions.
- A pitch deck/demo for a startup targeting financial services companies. This company had both a strong product and a meaningful social mission, and my work helped them position both effectively, which was particularly important for customers where the social mission could distract from the business outcomes.
Narrative Science
2018
Director of Sales Support and Operations
I established and directed a new sales department and led three core revenue teams: presales/solutions consulting, sales operations, and sales development (inbound + outbound). In this role I:
- Redesigned the company’s approach to presales, particularly in early meetings. We went from a complex technical demo to a demo that prioritized storytelling and whiteboards.
- Rebuilt the Salesforce CRM environment as part of a migration from classic to lightning. We used this project as an opportunity to revisit every element of the sales process, including entrance/exit criteria and deal forecasting.
- Addressed pipeline bottlenecks in order to accelerate deal velocity. Notably, I created a “proof-of-concept (POC) charter” process, which required the sales team to identify a deal sponsor and document success criteria before moving forward with a POC. This new approach reduced time and resources spent on POCs by more than 90%.
Northwestern University
2016 – 2019
Adjunct Lecturer of Integrated Marketing Communications
I rewrote and taught a core course that I took while working on my Master’s called “The Integrated Marketing Communications Strategic Process.” The first iteration of the course was online; I partnered with an instructional designer and spent the better part of a year learning and employing best practices for adult education in order to build the course. I also taught in-person versions of the course for both full-time and part-time students.
The highly-rated course incorporated strategy, finance, statistics and analytics, technology, and data visualization.
While teaching, I had the honor of writing the introduction to the IMC program’s academic journal, which you can read here. It’s on page 13, right after the full page (!) headshot.
IBM Watson Customer Engagement
2016 – 2018
Strategy Lead
I often refer to this role as my “unofficial MBA.” I led business strategy, parterning with each functional leader (sales, marketing, finance, operations) in order to develop the 1-year and 3-year business plans. I worked on several high-visibility projects, including:
- Competitive analysis on brand and market presence – answering the question “what does the market think of our competitors and what does the market think of us.”
- Leading an initiative to embed analytics into each of the SaaS offerings. While there was executive support, it required development resources, which impacted product roadmap and delivery timelines.
- Determining how to incentivize/compensate sellers to move their customers from on-premise/perpetual licenses to cloud. This was a major challenge as, from a revenue perspective, migrating from one product to the other is a replacement and not a new sale – meaning sellers would only be paid a commission on any increased revenue and not the total contract value.
- Divesting the Unica suite from IBM to HCL, including delivering the key demo that showed HCL executives the value of the Unica platform.
IBM Watson Customer Engagement
2014 – 2016
Senior Client Solutions Professional (Presales/Sales Engineering)
As a member of the presales team focused on marketing technology, I partnered with clients, prospects, and partners to build digital marketing strategies based on our product suite. Working on several high-profile enterprise deals, I drove significant revenue along with my AE partners through both new customer acquisition and expansion.
I earned six performance-based awards, including being named the “North America Commerce Champion“ (top presales team member) for the business unit in Q2 of 2015.
SDL (Formerly Alterian)
2013 – 2014
Senior Business Solutions Consultant
After working as an outsourced trainer for the legacy Alterian product, I joined the presales team and shifted focus to the newer product set. As a smaller company in the marketing technology space, success in the role required a creative approach to presales. A few examples:
- After being selected by a company in the travel and tourism space, an analyst advised them to look at another set of competitors, meaning we had to win the deal twice. At the end of “round 2” I led a proof-of-concept delivery where the client wanted to use the software themselves, but their security team wouldn’t allow them to connect to an outside vendor’s server, nor could we connect hard drives to run virtual machines on their computers. To win the deal I scrounged up some old laptops, set up demo images on each of them, and brought them to the client’s office to set up a “training center.”
- An executive from a partner/reseller had to deliver a demo to a major client of theirs, but his demo image (on a hard drive) failed the day before the demo. He happened to be in Chicago and called me 4 hours before his flight to see if I could help. I had a few demos that morning, but in between them I went to Best Buy, bought a hard drive, cleaned up my own demo environment (because NDAs), created a new demo image for him, rushed to O’Hare, and gave him the drive right before he went through security. And he was able to deliver the demo the next day.
Hansa Marketing Services
2012 – 2013
Director, Customer Intelligence (2013) |
Customer Intelligence Consultant (2012)
In this newly-created role working for the great Roy Wollen, I helped our clients implement and use marketing technology. A few example projects:
- Partnering with Alterian users at Staples to help them more efficiently use the platform. I helped them redesign their campaigns, ultimately saving them several days of work per campaign. Notably, I was able to reduce the amount of time spent on their most elaborate campaign by more than 80%.
- Working as the “data guy” (what they called me) at a Chicago-based ad agency. I ran a direct mail program, using SPSS (yes, SPSS, because that’s how they had been doing it) to segment customers, assign offers, and send out mailings. When I started it would take me about a week to get a campaign out the door, but after rewriting and simplifying the code it only took me a day.
FedEx
2011
Graduate Resident
Working with 5 of my classmates from Northwestern (we unofficially called ourselves “Ship-cago”), we helped FedEx identify and target a new customer segment. My roles on the team were analytics lead and client partner. To this day, one of my proudest career moments was when, after presenting my projections and assumptions to a room of FedEx senior executives, the representative from finance thought for a moment and said “ok, I’ll buy that.” It was also pretty cool when, a few months after we presented our findings and strategy, we saw FedEx announce an initiative that we recommended.
RTime Media and Promotions
2008 – 2010
VP, Strategic Partnerships and Interactive Media
My primary client in this role was the Chicago franchise group for Massage Envy. As their marketing partner, I was responsible for all of their media and marketing in the Chicagoland area — including negotiating a partnership with the Chicago Cubs. Our work resulted in a 27% YOY increase in winter holiday sales.
General Motors
R* Works
2008
Experiential Marketing Specialist
I planned and executed sponsorships for several GM brands, resulting in strong onsite customer data capture at key events across the midwest. I also ran (and taught others how to run) a lot of vehicle walk arounds, essentially product demos at live events.
Sports 620 KTAR
2007 – 2008
Account Manager
I sold radio ads and media sponsorship for all of the Phoenix sports properties (Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Suns, and ASU athletics). More than just selling spots, I approached prospects with creative promotional ideas. I also wrote several radio ads that played on-air.
Kane County Cougars
2006
Intern
Minor League Baseball interns do pretty much everything except play baseball – ticket operations, concessions, roll out the tarp when it rains (seriously, that thing smells something awful). I set a record for selling 50/50 raffle tickets, was awarded employee of the month in August. Also, sometimes I worked events as Ozzie the Cougar. I still have pictures.
Education
Northwestern University
2011
M.S., Integrated Marketing Communications
My concentrations were: brand and advertising strategy, direct and interactive marketing, and marketing analytics. I was a member of the student advisory council, and was co-chair of a group that provided pro bono services to Chicago area non profits. And I was the recipient of the Robert E. “Buck” Buchanan award, presented to outstanding students who have demonstrated a superior understanding of how all message delivery systems can produce the most effective customer contacts.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
2003 – 2007
B.S. Sport Management, Psychology
I completed a year-long independent study in sports economics focusing on competitive imbalance of winning and payroll in Major League Baseball.