Preface: My first real experience of Jim Berryhill was in 2012. We were sitting in his lake house (North of Atlanta), with his business partner, John Porter and his son, Jake. It was in the very early days of Decisionlink, we were solving the problems of business value selling. They were just launching the company, I was advising them on the launch strategy. Unbeknownst to us, Jim and I had probably encountered each other years before. We were leaders driving competitive sales organizations. While we didn’t know each other, I had great respect for those organizations.
Jim and John, were out to reinvent (and succeed) in developing some of the most powerful customer-aligned value selling tools I have ever seen. One of the things that always struck me in every interaction with Jim was the balance between strategic and tactical thinking in sales. In his story, he states, “No profession affords more opportunity to compete, build tenacity, foster teamwork and exercise strategic AND tactical thinking in the course of helping customers and colleagues achieve their goals.”
Another area that Jim addresses, perhaps the elephant in the room whenever we start talking about selling, “Negative sales stereotypes are a matter of character, not the profession itself.” Enjoy Jim’s story!
Why I’m So Interested in Selling
“Why are you so interested in selling?” asked my friend Dave Brock. I believe God has a design for our lives and sometimes He uses seemingly unrelated circumstances to get us there. I’m 5 th generation born in Tampa and as a young man had a burning desire to
break away and chart a different course. My Dad was a pioneer in the computer industry, and I worked my way through college in computer rooms. It was 1976 and I took a job with an early software company. While I wanted to be a systems engineer, the job was sales.
I had an awakening early on that highlighted the importance of customer-aligned value selling. I tell a couple of those stories here Jim @ ITT and here Jim @ US Air Force. Those experiences cemented my belief that sales, when performed at a high level, is a noble profession. No profession affords more opportunity to compete, build tenacity, foster teamwork and exercise strategic AND tactical thinking in the course of helping customers and colleagues achieve their goals.
Negative sales stereotypes are a matter of character, not the profession itself. In addition to helping customers achieve their goals and objectives, I’ve seen the sales profession lift people out of poverty, facilitate massive charitable giving, change people’s ability to provide for their families and more.
The sales professional who focuses on the welfare of customers, colleagues and constituents before their own personal interests has the opportunity to achieve great things. I founded DecisionLink with John Porter to enhance sellers’ ability to achieve excellence and nobility of our profession.
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