Paul Lanigan

Throughout the 1990’s I earned a living as a technicial sales support guy at organisations such as GPT, Tellabs, AT&T and Motorola. I witnessed, first hand, how much the good salesguys could earn and I saw the respect they commanded from their Peers Managers and Customers. I felt that, as the technical guy, I was already doing most of the hard work, so I moved into a sales position with a small start up company. It didn’t take long before I figured out that I knew nothing about sales. I attended good training and I was making the cold calls but something was wrong. I simply wasn’t succeeding. I was working incredibly long hours. I remember packing a bag one Sunday afternoon and I noticed my little four year old boy crying. When I asked him what was wrong, through tear filled eyes he asked me “Daddy, why do you have to go away again?” As a result I sought help from some of the senior, high performing salespeople I knew. The name that cropped up repeatedly was Sandler Sales Institute. I booked myself on the next available bootcamp and what I learned made me wonder why I hadn’t done this a lot sooner. I learned great techniques, but that was a given. It was what I learnt about mindset and my own self limiting beliefs that underpinnned the breakthrough for me. The training I received was life changing. I believed in it so much that I approached Sandler with a view to setting up the first Sandler Training centre outside North America. As a result Sandler Ireland is the longest running Sandler Franchise outside North America. I am fortunate to count some of the worlds most admired companies (Oracle, IBM, EMC, L’Oreal, Computer Associates, BMC Software, etc.) as clients.