Sales Success: Past, Present, and Future

Describe a memorable moment in your career that defines who you are as a sales leader. 
MADSEN—Back in my early days, a chemical manufacturer called and told me they had added too much color dye into their bowl cleaner. As a result, my customer had over 100 toilets that were now dyed light blue. It was a Friday, and I knew that was not going to sit well with the property manger the following Monday morning. I grabbed a box of pumice scouring sticks and I went to help my customer fix the problem. Our industry has so many variables that it can be very difficult to put a perfect plan together, but you can always be there to take an extra call or step.

EISENBEISZ—Every day is just that—each sales call is memorable, and you learn something all the time. I love it when you solve a customer’s problem and you both feel great. I am going on 38 years in the industry with 1.3 million miles of driving, but I am not going anywhere. My customers ask me, “How long are you going to work?” and I tell them I am here to stay for a while, and I will take care of them. That, to me, is so rewarding.

GOFORTH—Taking small moments to connect with people can lead to big wins.

BALDWIN—I lost one of my larger school districts to a competitor, but I never stopped calling on them or spoke negatively about my competition. Two years later, they returned all their business to our company. I believe it’s because I never gave up that we still have that business today.

SCHMIDT—Working through 2020 to 2021 strengthened my leadership capabilities. Being employed by a global chemical company and personally managing a $10 million in revenue book for a business with over 10,000 end user ship-to locations during the pandemic was certainly a difficult time. However, I used this as an opportunity to help build my patience and confidence to drive me to increase engagement between cross-functional teams. I enhanced my knowledge around basic microbiology and proper disinfectant procedures to provide value to my customers. Overall, this allowed me to become a stronger leader by leveraging these added strengths and persevering through.

SMITH—I don’t really have one big “defining moment.” For me, it’s been building a collection of relationships over the years. The moments that stick with me are when a client tells me that something we worked on together made their job easier, improved their program, or helped them reach a goal. Those conversations remind me that what I do matters, and that’s what keeps this from ever feeling like just a job.

Beyond sales pitches, what values drive your propositions and consistently result in tangible wins? 
SCHMIDT—Trust and reliability. Personally, I’ve always tried to be transparent and ethical, which has naturally crossed into the professional side of my career. Being open to walking away from an opportunity that just isn’t the right synergy is difficult to do; but I’ve maintained that I’d rather not go down a route destined for future failure just to get a quick sale. This approach has yielded very high post sale implementation success and established strong credibility within my field.

SMITH—The values that shape my work are strategic curiosity, integrity, and follow-through. I’m intentional about understanding the broader business objectives behind a project, not just the immediate need. From there, I’m committed to being direct, data-minded, and realistic about what will truly create value for the organization. I also believe strongly in owning the results and staying engaged beyond implementation to ensure the solution delivers measurable impact. That mindset has consistently led to meaningful, sustainable wins for my clients.

MADSEN—I try my best to always close communication loops. Big or small, all communication has a start and needs to be tended until that loop is closed. Also, I let my customer know that we will have the product they need at the time they need it and make sure that it stays true.

EISENBEISZ—My company is the best; it’s like a Super Bowl football team. I tell my customers to look at us like this: we have the owners (Perkins family), the buyers, warehouse workers, branch managers, assistant managers, office personnel, delivery drivers, specialty packaging people, IT, service shop, equipment demo people, a guy that monitors all of our trucks and keeps them on the road, and then there’s me—the quarterback. It truly takes the whole team.

BALDWIN—I have always been a proponent of transparency and outcome-based accountability. Building trust with my customers and delivering measurable results that I frequently share with them helps me become a business partner, which sets me apart from our competitors.

GOFORTH—What drives tangible wins is a value rooted in curiosity—creating space for meaningful dialogue, deeper understanding, and solutions that truly align with client needs.

With AI and digital technologies transforming the sales landscape, how do you strategically evolve alongside it as a sales leader?
SCHMIDT—Enhanced technologies like AI Chatbots can certainly be useful tools in the right situations. I’d steer newer reps away from using them as their main communication tool in crafting emails and generating responses. However, they are great for spell-checking grammatical errors and truncating a message. They can be useful tools for building a sales presentation and conducting pre-call research on an account—finding key stakeholders, company history, and more. As with any online data repository, thorough verification and vetting is a must.

SMITH—I see AI and digital tools as extensions of how I already work—not replacements for relationships or judgement. My focus has been on using technology to gain better visibility into client data, streamline workflows, and create time for more meaningful conversations. I stay intentional about learning new tools, testing what adds value in the field, and using technology to think more strategically. The goal is to blend innovation with experience to deliver smarter insights and stronger outcomes for our clients.

MADSEN—At 60, I am on the young side of old and try my best to keep up. I see these new technologies as a force multiplier that gives us better work tools for our work belts quickly. This frees up time to solve problems and deliver additional value. However, we still need to balance what the AI technology tells us while remaining human.

Taylor Vraney is an Assistant Editor for CleanLink.com, Facility Cleaning Decisions, Contracting Profits, and Sanitary Maintenance.