Case Study - Neil Price
In his native town of Pontypridd in Wales, Neil is known as “Philip Price’s brother” but in the competitive world of sales coaching, Neil is carving out a name for himself as an inspirational individual with a passion for his craft...
With a career history spanning 26 years, Neil has worked as a BT telephone engineer and gradually worked his way up to a top management position for IBM. But the 44 year old Sandlers franchisee for the South East found his way into the world of sales training through his world class golfing brother’s motivational coach.“
Phil was always a keen golfer but seemed to be stuck in a rut. He started to see a sports psychologist and I was amazed at the changes in him. He went from being a plodding amateur to a complete pro and was even in the winning team in the 2002 Ryder cup, beating Tiger Woods.”
Neil was so impressed with the effect the coach had on his brother, he too signed up and began to receive coaching.
In a bid to leave the stresses of the corporate world, Neil decided to take two years out and do some soul-searching.
“I went to the US and watched Al Gore speak to hundreds of people; I went to see Deepak Chopra speaking about his method on bringing balance to your life. I knew I was searching for something. Those two years were spent educating myself and seeing some of the world. When I returned to the UK I had focus and knew that I wanted to work for myself.”
Neil began researching in earnest into opportunities available and equipped himself with the skills required to set up a sales training business.
“I put myself through weekend seminars and courses, often shelling out £2000 a time – all self funded.”
He then started up a coaching company called “Think and Grow” named after the book by Napoleon Hill and despite the freedom of running his own business, Neil missed the day to day social contact that he’d always had in previous job roles.
Says Neil, “The dynamics weren’t working for me. I didn’t want to be doing one on one coaching – it was far too time consuming and the financial benefits didn’t seem worth it.”
When a friend mentioned that Sandlers to me, I had never heard of them so I did my research on the web to see what they were about - I couldn’t believe our paths had never crossed before, especially as this was in the field I’d been working in.”
As luck would have it, Neil’s friend had been sent out a pack from Sandlers after showing interest and gave it to Neil to cast his eye over.
“I had just had a knee operation and was sitting in the garden having a read of this Sandlers’ material. I couldn’t believe what I was reading – this was exactly what I’d been looking for. I was so excited to have found it after all my searching.”
Neil was asked to accompany his friend to a Sandlers conference in Chipping Norton. It was a trip he would never forget.
“It was an opportunity to meet franchisees and of course, Shaun was there giving a presentation. It was extremely relaxed and I met lots of like-minded people there. No sooner had I looked at the franchising figures, I knew it made sense. They simply justified what Shaun had been talking about.”
Neil then embarked on a discovery process which involved four monthly sales conferences which interested parties are invited to attend to see if Sandlers is for them.
“Sandlers attracts like-minded people and it sits in the middle of my two worlds: in between my corporate world and coaching world. I never feel isolated, I have plenty of people to network with and of course, I get to make lots of money. It really is the perfect business model.”
