One Sales Guy Helping Others Succeed

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by! I'm Bill Stinnett, an entrepreneur, career sales guy, and business coach located south of Tampa, Florida. 

You might know me as the founder of Sales Excellence International, a global sales training and consulting company I started in my spare bedroom back in 2001. 

After all these years working with corporate clients of every size from every imaginable industry, I've felt called to create a space where I can share everything I've learned over 30+ years in sales and entrepreneurship with individuals and business owners everywhere.

I have a passion for helping people sell more, grow their business, and make more money in less time so they can spend more quality time with their family and fully enjoy life! 

Has Your Journey Been Anything Like Mine?

There's no such thing as a natural born salesperson. The overwhelming majority of salespeople I've ever met say they had no intention of ever being in sales. But it pays really well!

My dad worked two jobs, 12 to 16 hours a day, for over 20 years before he took his first job in sales. That move enabled him to make enough money to start his first business when I was 5 years old and he went on to start a half-dozen more. 

With that kind of role model, you'd think I would follow in those footsteps and go to college for business or maybe start a company of my own, right? Instead, I went to music school! Ha! 

Soon, I was so broke I had to look up to see bottom. Student loans and other debts were piling up left and right. So when an opportunity to make extra money in direct sales came along, this starving college kid said, "I'm in!" 

Lots of chemistry majors ultimately do very well for themselves selling laboratory equipment.  Many computer science majors eventually make a great living selling software and technical services.

So, after a couple of years of fighting through my fears and learning the basics of selling while managing a full college course-load, I decided to quit school and go for the "big bucks" in corporate sales. 

How Failing Miserably Saved My Career

My first year in corporate sales was an absolute disaster. I foolishly abandoned all the entrepreneurial lessons I learned in direct sales and basically became a glorified order taker. 

I started waiting around for my company to provide me with "leads," I chased every thing that even slightly resembled a deal, and I sent a quote to anyone and everyone hoping somebody somewhere might call back and buy something.

I totally failed. I finally quit! I would have walked away from business altogether if I hadn't met a guy who gave me a second chance with his new start-up company.

We had to create our own opportunities, I couldn't afford to waste time wishing people might buy someday, and I learned that sending a quote without a commitment to buy was the fastest way to kill a deal . . . plus a zillion other truths that have served me so well over the decades!

As I once again embraced that spirit of entrepreneurship that I had witnessed in my dad growing up, the next decade was nothing short of amazing. 

Then I Learned How to Start a Business Within a Business

In over 20 years training and coaching sales professionals, the biggest mistake I see people make is waiting for their company to just hand them everything they need to succeed.

Early on I discovered that any success I might have in sales would be a result of "starting my own business" within whatever company I was working for.

I invested in my own training and development with money from my own pocket. I learned how to generate my own leads and create sales opportunities. I learned how to negotiate and close at much higher ratios. I eventually hired my own part-time assistant on my own nickel. 

That first year with the start-up, my sales goal would have earned me $72,000. I practically doubled it! The second year there, I nearly doubled my revenue from year one. They eventually decided they needed to drastically cut my commission rates so I wouldn't make "too much" money. 

I decided to take the next step into enterprise software sales with a huge global company, and in less than two years using my "business within a business" concept, I more than doubled my revenue again! Not long after, I felt the time had come to start my own business showing other people how to do the same thing.

These Ideas Have Worked for Thousands of Others

The year I stared Sales Excellence, 2001, was amazing! I ended up actually making more than I did my best year in software and since then my company has now helped over 400 companies in over 30 countries. Along the way I published two best-selling books with one of the world's largest publishers. 

God has blessed our business and grown my personal income to levels rivaling many Fortune 500 CEOs. I can say without the slightest hesitation that if I can do that, I bet you can do even better!  

By 2012 we had local representation on six continents and offered our custom sales training programs in over a dozen languages from Spanish, to German, to Russian, to Chinese. 

Since 2017 we've offered all of our corporate programs either in the classroom, in a blended format with on-demand and live video, or completely online. Those who need to equip and develop a corporate sales team can learn more at: www.salesexcellence.com. 

Now it's time to take the next step by offering the same content and tools we have delivered to tens-of-thousands of salespeople all over the world . . . to YOU! 

Sales Excellence Academy is All About YOU! 

We built this venue for individual sales pros willing to invest in themselves, sales leaders and teams large and small, and private business owners that are ready to master the art and science of selling to maximize their revenue and personal income. 

Let me share what I've learned with you! 

I can't think of any good reason you'd need to spend 30 years learning what I am eager to teach whoever is willing to listen.

If you could achieve your dreams alone, you probably would have already done it!  

Whether you want to learn how to start a "business within a business," you're thinking about stepping out on your own, or you're already a business owner who just wants help finding and closing more deals, let's do this together!