Sales & Negotiations: Previous State Farm Circle of Influence Speakers
2019 - Chip Helm
National Sales Manager, Cook Medical
From a Dental School drop-out to a National Sales Manager of a multi-billion-dollar medical device company, Chip Helm has honed his sales skills from the ground up. Chip knows how to develop and maintain long-term relationships to help drive sales success. If it is personal branding, practicing humility, or following-up and following-through, his practical advice is applicable to anyone at any stage in their career.
His mentoring, and leadership has helped thousands of students, and colleagues over his last three decades in sales. Chip is a regular guest lecturer at business schools around Indiana. He is also a certified coach and college lecturer. His loves are family, work, and his home in Northern Michigan.
Chip holds a BA in Biology from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of South Florida. Married for twenty-six years, Chip met his wife, Cyrilla, at USF while in the MBA program. They have three adult children all pursuing education and professions in health and medical disciplines. Chip has worked for Cook Medical for over thirty-two years.
Chip presented “Everyone is in Sales,” a motto he strongly believes in. Chip will demonstrated the “KISS” method (keep it simple stupid) to describe the life lessons and behaviors that can make you successful for your life and career. His presentation was followed by a networking session where students could interact with the companies in attendance to build relationships that have led to many job placements in the past.
Photos from the students sessions, February 19, 2019
2018 - Laura Munoz
Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Dallas
Laura Munoz presented “Table for 3: Your Client, You, and the Role of Emotions in the Sales Process.” She described how understanding the role of emotion in client relationship can enhance your selling ability and lead to long term success. Her presentation was followed by a networking session where students will interact with the companies in attendance to build relationships that have led to many job placements in the past.
Dr. Munoz received her Ph.D. in Business Administration – Marketing/International Business from the University of Texas-Pan American (AACSB accredited, now UT-Rio Grande Valley) and is currently serving as an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Dallas. She has over ten years of experience teaching marketing, entrepreneurship, and professional selling courses. She also serves as a mentor to student organizations and faculty coach in national selling competitions. Her team just recently brought home the gold at Florida International University’s Global Sales Competition in the English track.
2017 - Brian McLeish
Sales Leader at State Farm
Brian McLeish presented “The Power of Needs and Nods” on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 in the Heritage Ballroom in Tirey Hall at 5:30 pm. (Download event PDF)
He described how the needs assessment technique can be used in creating client relationships along with how the simple nod can enhance your connections. His presentation was followed by a student who has completed a sales internship sharing how understanding the needs of clients played into their experience.
Brian was born and raised just north of Terre Haute in Clinton, IN, and graduated from Saint Joseph College with a degree in Mathematics and Physics. He also lettered 3 years in baseball for the Pumas. He began his career at State Farm in 1989 as an Auto Underwriter in Bloomington, IL, and moved to Paris to be a State Farm agent in 1996. In 2001 Brian transitioned into Agency Leadership and is currently the Sales Leader for West Central Indiana and East Central Illinois. He and his wife, Jami (who works at State Farm in Systems Department) have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. The McLeish’s are passionate about helping kids, and so Brian has served as the President of the Board of Directors for the Community Recreation Center in Clinton, IN since 2005.
2016 - Melissa Bowler
Executive Director of the Providence Improv Guild
April 5, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. she shared how to use improv comedy to become a better salesperson.
Melissa Bowler presented “Improving Your Sales Performance through Improv” and described how this technique can be used in training salespeople and engaged the audience in exercises to demonstrate its application.
Melissa Bowler is a founding member and Executive Director of the Providence (Rhode Island) Improv Guild, an improv school and venue that has quadrupled the improv community in Providence. She has conducted seminars on using improv in sales at other universities such as Baylor University and the University of Georgia.
Her corporate clients include AT&T and Hasbro Hospital. Her partnership with Bryant University’s sales program received the 2014 National Conference in Sales Management Best Sales Teaching Innovation award.
2015 - Craig Elias
Craig Elias is author of “Social Selling: Maximize Sales Outcomes by. Using Relationships and Technology.”
Craig Elias is the creator of Trigger Event Selling, ™ author of the award-winning sales book SHiFT! The Chief Catalyst of SHiFT Selling, Inc. and LinkedIn user 3,956 of now over 325 Million users. For almost 20 years, Craig used Trigger Event strategies to become a top sales performer at every company that has hired him – including WorldCom where he was named the #1 salesperson within six months of joining the company.
Craig’s Trigger Event strategies have resulted in:
- Winning a $1,000,000 prize in a global “Billion-Dollar Idea” pitch competition
- Being named 15th on Forbes list of the most social sales people on the planet
- Coverage on NBC news, in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Nikkei Marketing Journal, Business 2.0, and Sales and Marketing Management
- Earning his last company, the distinction as one of “Silicon Valley’s 40 hottest” and twice being selected as one of Dow Jones™ 50 most promising companies in North America
2014 - Tom Black
Author of "The Boxcar Millionaire,"
2013 - Mike Bosworth
Founder of the solution selling concept and co-author of "What Great Salespeople Do: The Science of Selling through Emotional Connection and the Power of Story,"
"Bosworth has been influential in developing several different schools of thought in the sales field through the last several decades," Jon Hawes, director of the Sales and Negotiations Center in the Scott College of Business at ISU said. "Bosworth was involved in the creation of spin selling, which emphasizes salespeople asking questions of potential clients in a sales call to determine how to best suit their needs, Hawes said. Bosworth also created "solution selling," which is well-known and commonly used by salespeople in the technology industry," Hawes said.
Prominent author and sales expert to speak at Indiana State (January 23, 2013)
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2012 - Tom Black
Author of "The Boxcar Millionaire," Black grew up impoverished and credits goal setting and hard work as reasons for his success in sales and business. He presented "Achieving Sales Success Ethically," during which he explained his definition of success with the captivated audience as "the progressive realization of a worthwhile goal or dream."
"It didn't say I'd be the smartest or the best-looking or the richest. It didn't say that I had to have the biggest house or the best car," Black said. "It just said that every morning when I got up, I was progressively moving towards my worthwhile goal or dream."
"Boxcar Millionaire"™ encourages students to define success, maintain honesty (April 9, 2012)
Sales expert, author to speak at Indiana State (February 27, 2012)