Case Study - Steve Wright

According to some, you are born to be a salesperson – something which Steve Wright knows a lot about having dabbled in two totally different careers before becoming his own boss. Sandler’s newest recruit, Steve - a trained optician, decided to leave the opthalmic industry to focus on a career in sales training and coaching with a Sandler franchise in Birmingham.

“Looking back I was always destined for a career in sales training,” explains Steve. “Even before I became an optician, I worked for the House of Fraser as a management trainee. One day I enquired in their opticians department if they had any positions going. Before long I was studying for a three-year distance learning course at Bradford College.”

Steve went on to work as an optician for five years and loved it. “I’m quite a scientific person so I think that being an optician satisfied that side of me but I also quite fancied a career in sales as I used to really enjoy selling the frames and other products to people – I was quite a natural.”

Eventually Steve became the sales manager for the opticians where he worked. “Asking questions and selling went naturally together for me,” explains Steve. “I enjoyed selling bespoke products to the customers.”

In his early 20s, Steve needed a change but enjoyed working in the optical industry so he looked into other career paths that would utilise his expertise as an optician but still satisfy the buzz he got from selling.

“I found the ideal job for me,” he says. “I began working as a sales rep for a lens manufacturing industry and my area spanned across a third of the UK.

“I had credibility with the opticians buying our products so the barriers for selling were removed and I enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with them.”

Steve’s obvious talent for sales was quickly recognised by the management and by the early 1990s, he was asked to run the customer services division.

By the mid 1990s, Steve had returned to work as an optician and taken a job in Singapore. “It satisfied my desire to travel,” he recalls.

But after a couple of years, Steve was approached by the UK company that he used to work with and offered a position as a sales manager.

“I couldn’t say no really, it was a great opportunity to enhance my career. Besides they offered me lots of money, more responsibility and great prospects.”

This time, Steve was responsible for the entire sales teams and began to enjoy the training and coaching aspects of the work.

“I went to seminars, sales management training that kind of thing where I learned the techniques and watched the trainers in action and thought to myself, ‘This is for me!’ I liked the idea of helping people to attain their goals.”

Steve was able to further satisfy his wanderlust by taking on a role as the European commercial director which entailed working in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

So when his boss took responsibility for the US business, Steve was the obvious choice for the job.

“From Scandinavia to the States in a matter of years,” laughs Steve. “I was certainly getting to travel!”

Steve moved over to the states with his family and lived in Petaluma, set between Napa Valley and San Francisco for three years where he was responsible for 30 staff.

“Life was great, I loved living in the States and this is when I got a taste for flying. My wife bought me a flying lesson for my 30th birthday and for the minute I went up in the air, I was addicted. I couldn’t afford flying lessons regularly so I bought a micro light plane and it’s been my passion ever since.”

Between his blossoming sales career and his thirst for adventure, Steve began looking into other areas and that’s when he discovered sales coaching.

“I wanted to start integrating a systematic approach to bring up the minimum levels of achievement, like a frame of reference for people to work with.”

Through his dealings with colleagues across the US, he came across the Sandler Sales institute and was intrigued by what he heard.

“This colleague of mine was raving about Sandler and she subscribed to the e-newsletter which gives a monthly tip, I soon signed up myself. I was amazed by what I read.”

Steve and his family returned to the UK after the birth of his second daughter Caitlyn and made the single most important decision of his career.

“I knew I was ready to go it alone. I had always dreamed of working for myself and now I was in a position to actually do it,” he explains. MF After researching into the franchise market and considering his options, it was wise words from Tracey his wife that tipped the balance.

“She said to me, ‘you like training and selling!’ and I had to agree, those were the two areas that I felt most rewarding and then I remembered Sandler. I wondered if they operated in the UK and when I found out they did, I knew they were the ones for me.

Now since Steve completed his initial Sandler training in Baltimore early this year he separates his time between weekend flying antics and networking to increase his already promising client base with Sandler.

“I’ve always been one for adventure and now I’m embarking on a new one with Sandler. Things are definitely looking up!”