Successful Selling at the Coal Face through Innovative Mentoring

A commitment to assisting young and inexperienced sales people has been an important part of Leigh Robinson’s journey in commerce and industry.

With over 40 years experience in the fields of sales, marketing and corporate management including running his own business for nearly 20 years, Leigh Robinson assists today’s sales people as an Executive Coach or in his words, a Field Sales Mentor. "Selling at the coal face", which Leigh calls his mentoring activity, refers to the period, during the tight years of the 1980’s slow down, when Leigh would go down the mines, to the working coal face, to market his employer’s products into the Illawarra coal fields.

Always innovative in his approach, Leigh is aware that a number of Sales People while being extremely competent technically and professionally can be quite lacking when it comes to face to face selling. To counter this, manufacturers and marketing organisations can avail themselves of Leigh’s wealth of field experience.

There is a myriad of Trainers and experienced Sales People presenting exceptional structured sales training courses in both the classroom and office environment. However, while such courses can be beneficial in arming the Sales Person with the correct situation answers, they do not normally equip the subject with the "field sense" that is so often required. This is usually only gained after years of field experience or it can be fast tracked by utilising Leigh’s extensive market experience.

Leigh believes the simple things matter and that Sales Representatives must, of necessity, have a hearty ego along with a thick hide. For better or for worse, a lot of successful sales people do not have these attributes but they can be shown how to counter the effects of customer negativity and the inability to "make the sale".

As a coach and mentor, Leigh works with field representatives in a mentoring role to critique and rectify as well as being able to pass on many non-text book hints based on his own past successful experiences. By working alongside the sales representative in the field to observe methodology and habits, Leigh can directly coach and mentor in the finer points of face to face selling "at the coal face", both pre and post call. The mentoring function includes follow-on training tailored to suit the needs of each mentored Sales Person.

Markets that Leigh has worked within include:

• Building Industry
• Government Departments – State and Federal
• Caravan parks
• Airports
• Parking & traffic management
• Real estate
• Steel mills
• Coal mining
• Road logistics

Products that Leigh has sold include:

• Real estate – commercial, industrial & residential
• Industrial hydraulics and pneumatics
• Specialty stainless steel fabrications
• Road freight – Perth to Sydney
• Car parking control systems
• Vehicle access controls
• Vehicle tracking systems
• Children’s playground equipment
• Aircraft docking systems
• Airfield ground lighting & control systems
• Public information displays
• Illuminated traffic signage
• Pavement sealants

Types of sales scenarios that Leigh has succeeded at:

• Market entry – high quality high price
• New concept market entry – high technology
• Products that were before their time
• Breaking market monopolies
• High quality, high price in demanding and competitive markets
• Breaking down market walls
• Going behind market walls

Other experiences that Leigh has had include:

• Engineering background
• Training in hotel and catering management
• General management of national company
• Experienced company takeovers
• Experienced company mergers
• Represented overseas manufacturers

Make contact with Leigh at mentoring@lragencies.com.au