Eric Baron has been training sales professionals and their managers for over 35 years in a variety of programs that fall under the umbrella of sales and sales management. He co-founded what became The Baron Group in 1981 and his company has trained tens of thousands of people at Fortune 500 companies across finance, insurance, advertising, aviation, healthcare, CPG, automotive and consumer electronics.

Eric is also an accomplished author as well as a teacher at Columbia Business School as an Adjunct Professor. His course, Entrepreneurial Selling Skills, is offered to second year MBAs and in 2009 Eric was awarded the prestigious Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award.

Educated as a Chemical Engineer, Eric started his career at Union Carbide when he held positions in sales, sales management, marketing and training. After eight years at Carbide he joined Synectics® Inc., the highly respected Cambridge based consulting firm that specializes in researching, teaching and applying creative problem-solving skills, innovation and teamwork. Eric left Synectics after five years as VP of Sales and Marketing to co-found The Baron Group.

Eric spends the bulk of his time today conducting training programs, giving keynote speeches, facilitating meetings and leading team-building sessions. He works closely with Ariel who purchased the Baron Group in 2013.

Eric is married to Lois Rotkoff and has two daughters, Andrea and Deborah, and four grandchildren, Logan, Sage, Jonah and Tess. He lives in Connecticut and when he is not working he sits on several non-profit boards and pursues his interest in politics, softball, fly fishing, cabinet making, running and community service.

SERVICES

CUSTOMIZED WORK SESSIONS DEVELOPED HAND-IN-HAND WITH EACH CLIENT TO MEET THEIR UNIQUE NEEDS

// DURATION, PARTICIPANTS, FACILITATORS, LOCATION, BUDGET ALL TBD //

Sales & Sales Management

We provide an entire curriculum of sales and sales management programs which are conducted through Ariel (Firm who acquired Legacy Baron Group). Courses include, Consultative Selling, Negotiation Skills, Team Selling, Prospecting, Coaching Salespeople and Sales Management 101.

Meeting Management Skills

Most people in business consistently complain about how their meetings rarely accomplish their objectives. This highly interactive, skill-based program teaches teams and individuals how to conduct effective meetings. Subjects include roles and responsibilities, a specific meeting model, setting agendas, clarifying intentions, managing conflict and listening effectively.

Meeting Facilitation

Most meetings do not accomplish their objectives. It is not due to a lack of brain power—most groups are more than capable of solving the problems they encounter. When groups fail it is because they do not pay enough attention to the process. And that is what keeps them from reaching their potential.

EBC will assist in planning, designing, conducting and summarizing the results of the meeting in a written report. Typical agendas focus on subjects like strategic planning, organizational alignment, new product development and growing the business. We can also help by providing subject matter experts when appropriate. 

Team building Sessions

Sometimes Teams need to step back and take the time to be introspective and explore how they can be more productive. When this occurs, the results can be extremely positive and significantly impact their productivity.

Our problem solving approach to team building begins by asking groups to conduct some self-analysis to identify what is, and what is not, working as it relates to their performance. This allows us to identify the most pressing issues and work together to find resolution leading to improved teamwork, collaboration and mutual respect. 

KEYnotes

Consultative Selling Revisited / A Problem Solving Approach

Many people talk about Consultative Selling; few actually practice it. The key to Consultative Selling is for sales professionals to bring a problem-solving mindset to every client meeting and transform sales calls into problem solving discussions. If they truly understand their client’s needs, challenges and opportunities, and respond with ideas, insights and perspectives in addition to their products and services, they can clearly differentiate themselves.   

Innovative Team Selling

Sales Teams can do incredible things. They just need to learn the process skills required to conduct outstanding internal meetings and make impressive joint calls with clients. The ability to leverage internal resources to help clients solve their business problems will distinguish any team. And working effectively together when visiting clients can make great impressions and win more business.

Relationship Management in Today’s Environment

Clients demand more today than ever before. They expect things to be done quickly and effectively. Too often, relationships are not an integral part of the process—certainly not what they were in days gone by. Yet to be successful and differentiate themselves, sales professionals must build those relationships by utilizing critically important skills every time they interact with clients. 

Coaching for Improved Sales Performance

Surveys suggest that most sales managers coach their people once or twice a year—and those are probably performance appraisals. Yet sales professionals want to be coached much more often. Most sales managers are not comfortable coaching their people because they don’t have the skills required to do this effectively. Once they learn a specific process and the accompanying skills, they will coach their people more often and as a result everyone will benefit.

Conducting Effective Sales Meetings

Too many sales meetings do not accomplish their objectives. This is unfortunate because sales teams can collaborate to generate innovative ideas and help each other solve their client related problems. By understanding meeting dynamics and learning a specific meeting management model, sales managers can learn to conduct outstanding internal sales meetings which yield better results and help to motivate their people.

Conducting Difficult Conversations

Most managers avoid confrontation. Addressing performance problems or delivering bad news is not the favorite part of their jobs. Yet it is something they have to do. By learning a specific process and the associated skills, managers can become more comfortable in this role and therefore conduct these conversations when necessary.  As a result, they will address issues early and avoid long term problems. 

keynote speech recipients

BOOKS & MEDIA

CONNECT