Neil plays a master stroke!
Neil Price took a lesson from his brother, Ryder Cup golfing hero Philip, to drive his career forward...as a sales coach. No-one was more proud than Neil Price when the victorious European team held the Ryder Cup aloft in 2002 after beating Tiger Woods and the other American superstars.
For Neil’s brother, Philip, was part of that legendary winning line-up. But that historic triumph had greater implications than Neil could ever have imagined at the time. It was to launch him on his own career, in the dynamic world of sales coaching.
He explains: “Phil was always a keen golfer but seemed to be stuck in a rut. Then he started to see a sports psychologist and I was amazed at the changes in him. With coaching, he went from being a plodding amateur to the consummate pro. I was so impressed with the effect the coach had on my brother, I decided to investigate the whole concept of coaching further.”
At that time Neil, now 44 and Sandler south east franchisee, had worked for BT as a telephone engineer before climbing his way to a management position at IBM. But seeing the impact coaching could make, Neil decided to take two years out to see if it was a career for himself. “I went to the US and watched Al Gore speak to hundreds of people; I went to see Deepak Chopra speaking about his method for bringing balance to your life. I knew I was searching for something.
“Those two years were spent educating myself and seeing some of the world. When I returned to the UK I had focus and knew that I wanted to work for myself.” He began researching in earnest and equipped himself with the skills required to set up a sales training business. “I put myself through weekend seminars and courses, often shelling out £2,000 a time – all self-funded.”
Finally he launched a coaching company called Think and Grow, named after the book by Napoleon Hill. But despite the freedom of running his own business, Neil missed the day to day social contact that he’d always had in previous job roles. “The dynamics weren’t working for me,” he recalls. “I didn’t want to be doing one-on-one coaching – it was far too time consuming and the financial benefits didn’t seem worth it.” Then a friend mentioned the Sandler Sales Institute. “I’d just had a knee operation and was sitting in the garden reading the Sandler material. I couldn’t believe it – this was exactly what I’d been looking for. I was so excited to have found it after all my searching.”
He decided there and then to attend a Sandler presentation in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. It was a trip he would never forget. “It was an opportunity to meet franchisees and the CEO, Shaun Thomson. It was extremely relaxed and I met likeminded people. As soon as I saw the figures, I knew it made sense. They simply justified what Shaun had been talking about.” But he still wanted to know more. Neil attended one of the US sales conferences, before he was convinced it was the career for him.
"Sandler attracts like-minded people and it sits in the middle of my two worlds: between my corporate world and coaching world. I never feel isolated, I have plenty of people to network with and of course, I earn a very healthy living. It really is the perfect business model. It’s changed my life. No-one will ever forget the day we won the Ryder Cup – and especially not me!”
