Travels From:

Columbus, Ohio

Fee Range:

For engagements outside the state of Ohio, Mike's fees range from
$2500. + expenses to $4000. + expenses based on length of presentation and location.

Mike always charges "coach" airfare and always pro-rates expenses with other speeches on the same trip.

Reduced fees for engagements within the state of Ohio.

Video Clip:

Most Requested Topics

SALES, MARKETING, BUSINESS
Since Mike's whole background is in the field of sales, business and management, he relishes those speaking opportunities that enable him to work with salespeople, (retail or outside), business executives or entrepreneurs. Mike worked with and/or knew such well-known speakers/consultants as: J. Douglas Edwards, Charles Cullen, Fred Herman, Elmer Wheeler, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Art Linkletter, Og Mandino, and Dr. Ken McFarland, all of whom have since passed away. He is one of the very few people who Zig Ziglar asked to provide outside input on his best selling book, SECRETS OF CLOSING THE SALE. Thus, you can be assured that Mike speaks with authority on any facet of the sales process.

Mike can speak for:
- Outside Sales (business to business or business to consumer), retail sales, or trade show sales

Among the topics he can include in any sales presentation are:

- "Eight Great Traits of Superstar Salespeople"-                                                                                               
- Building rapport / positive relationships with clients
- Organization / Time and Territory Management
- Prospecting skills
- Asking the Right Questions/Qualifying the Prospect                                                              
- Making an effective presentation
- Overcoming objections
- Closing the sale
- Follow up after presentations
- Marketing goes way beyond selling
- Getting and using testimonials
- Creative marketing concepts                     

Since many of Mike's speeches are to sales groups who only have 50-60 minutes of time to allow, Mike will make the presentation motivational and humorous, but include the facet(s) of selling and/or marketing that is most important to the client. What he can cover is heavily contingent upon the amount of time he is given.                                       

MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
"Managing Change"
"Leadership by Example....Positively"
"Eight Great Traits of Superstar Leaders"
"Ethics in Today's Business World: It Starts at the Top"
"Time Management for Managers and Supervisors"
"Entrepreneurism.......Today"
"Conducting Effective Staff Meetings"                                                            
"Finding, Hiring, Motivating, Training and Retaining Good People"
"Enhancing Productivity"

CUSTOMER SERVICE
"You Can't Separate Effective Customer Service from Effective Sales Skills"
"Effective Customer Service Starts at the TOP" (for management)
"Every Department is the Customer Service Department"
"How to Avoid Customer Complaints"
"How to Deal with Customer Complaints"
"Building Strong Client Relationships"

EFFECTIVE SPEAKING AND PRESENTATION SKILLS
"Speaking Skills for the Amateur"
"Speaking Skills for the Professional Speaker"
"Speaking Skills for Business Executives and/or Salespeople"

MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDE
"Coping with Change"
"Realistic Thinking and Positive Doing"
"Teamwork Makes the Difference"
"Little Ideas Pay Big Dividends"

COMMUNICATION
"Communicating Effectively"
"Communicating with Confidence"
"Unleashing Your Creativity"

About This Speaker

BBA—University of Georgia
(Major—Insurance/Real Estate)

Worked his way up from salesman, to manager, to district manager, to regional manager, to national sales manager, to vice president of sales of an international sales corporation.........within 4 years and before he was 26 years old.

Has spoken to over 3,000 audiences in the United States, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, the Bahamas, the Philippines, and Mexico.

Co-author of two books.

In 1995, Mike published his first solely authored book.

He has made several THOUSAND "cold-call" field sales presentations and has "field trained" over 100 salespeople.

Mike has been featured in many corporate "in house" video tape training programs.

Mike was the 1980-81 President of the 3,100 member, National Speakers Association.

In 1980, he received the CSP designation (Certified Speaking Professional) from the National Speaker's Association. Fewer than 8% of the membership has received this distinction.  

In 1990, Mike became the first and only speaker to receive both of the National Speakers Association's highest honors in the same year:

1. The CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame Award (Council of Peers Award for Excellence), presented to him by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (only 185 other speakers have received this prestigious award....including Zig Ziglar, General Colin Powell, Tom Hopkins, Dr. Ken Blanchard, Art Linkletter, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Harvey Mackay, Marilyn Van Derbur and Og Mandino)
2. The CAVETT AWARD, the most cherished honor in the speaking industry.  It is given to only one speaker each year.

In 2004, Mike was a recipient of the "Legend of the Speaking Profession" award.  Fewer than 50 speakers in the world have received this recognition.

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PERSONAL ITEMS ABOUT MIKE:

• Grew up in Texas and Virginia, before going to college in Athens, Georgia.
• Was president of his high school fraternity AND college fraternity.
• Lived in Denver, Colorado......Los Angeles, California..... San Francisco, California..... Cleveland, Ohio.....Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before settling in Columbus, Ohio.....where he has lived for over 35 years.
• Is happily married to his beautiful wife, Colleen. They were married on his birthday in 1980.  He NEVER forgets his anniversary.  They have a daughter who is a Physician's Assistant and who is married to a Doctor.......they have two young sons.....the grandsons that Mike and Colleen visit monthly from Ohio to North Carolina.  Mike has a son who is a lawyer in the Washington, DC area.
• Mike loves country music (but his favorite all time singer was Jackie Wilson), travel, movies, good food (Mike and Colleen love to eat and eat to live), horseback riding, kids, and animals.
• He collected sports cards for many years.  At one time he had over 2,000,000 items.

What Clients Are Saying

"Mike was a great speaker who really understood our problems.  We were impressed that he investigated our industry as much as he did."
BRIAN GAY - MIDWEST FREE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS

"Mike did an outstanding job for us, using excellent ‘real-life’ stories and illustrations our people could relate to.”
DOUG FRANKEL – TRAVELERS SHOPPE

“Mike was outstanding. He hit all the points we asked him to. We recommend him to any sales audience.”
MIKE CALICCHIO – PLASTICS COLOR CORP.

“Our people really enjoyed Mike. He was entertaining, participative, and practical. We look forward to having him back.”
PAT CLEMENS – BLUE CROSS/BLUE SHIELD OF MICHIGAN

“Mike, both your ‘keynote’ and ‘breakout session’ were excellent and received high marks. They really seemed to appreciate your knowledge of the audience and ability to communicate that to them.”
BRAD ROSS – OHIO FEDERATION OF SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICTS

“You received a unanimous rating of excellence. You certainly made an impact on our sales people and were an asset to the success of our conference.”
DOUGLAS HERMANSON – COMPUTER NETWORK TECHNOLOGY

“Mike tailored his presentation, was informative, interesting, humorous and we definitely would recommend him to other sales groups.”
ALAN SPECTOR – DESIGN DISPATCH RIBBONS

“You presentation was informative, timely and extremely well presented. You did an outstanding job of emphasizing teamwork and customer service.”
BRIDGET-ANN HART – KINNEY DRUGS

“I want to heartily thank you for your wonderful presentations on ‘professional selling versus clerking.’ I would recommend you for any presentation to retailers of any kind.”
DEE LANDER – WEST ACRES MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION

“The NationsBank personnel loved your unique insight into the nation’s sales practices, as well as your professional expertise. Thank you for a job, excellently done.”
GLORIA POTTS – NATIONSBANK (now BANK OF AMERICA).

“Thank you for a great seminar last month. It was tremendously well received by our members.”
LYNN SCHWARZ – OHIO LUMBERMEN’S ASSOCIATION

“Mike was very entertaining, easy to listen to, captivating, motivational, had good timing and provided a high interest level from our people.”
STEVE PIEKARSKI – HORIZON PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS

Recent Clients