TESTIMONIALS
"Geoff delivered his first sales excellence workshop in 2014. That year we grew our top line more than any other business magazine. Revenue grew by 16%, yield went up, and there’s no question Geoff’s training played a key role in our success. He introduced us to a number of useful concepts which we implemented with discipline and rigor. We welcomed Geoff back in 2016, and again in 2019 adding Fast Company to the mix. Every seller and manager walks away learning something new, and with a list of immediately actionable items. And Geoff’s workshop follow-up process with 1:1 coaching really works in helping team members develop new and effective habits. I’ve been in sales and sales leadership for several years, and Geoff’s training is without question the most effective I have seen. Our Q1 2020 revenue is up year-over-year to an all-time high, and is a testament to how effective his engagement model is."
-- John Donnelly, CRO, Mansueto Ventures
"We were introduced to Geoff Dodge of One to Won through top recommendations and we were very fortunate to engage him to help us drive our business growth. He helped shape our thinking and allowed us to pivot from an operationally focused company to a customer-first business approach. Geoff delivered a first class-strategy that is both actionable and results-oriented and has led to accelerated growth in the business. The investment in One to Won exceeded our expectations and more than paid for itself directly. Geoff has a unique and holistic approach. He worked with the executive team to determine goals and through sales management workshops he created a strategy to direct sales implementation and execution including enabling tools (salesforce.com and LinkedIn) In addition, he worked with our sales team directly to offer one-on-one meetings that focused on communication, proposal writing and outreach to actual customers. As a 70% event based company, our timing was incredibly fortunate. We were able to turn to digital quickly by focusing on the customer’s needs rather than filling a product (event) quota. In addition to transforming the infrastructure of the company, we were able to manage the issues resulting from the coronavirus pandemic with the training and focus implemented through One to Won."
-- Kate Spellman, CMO, Questex
"As sales leaders, we all know we need to get deliberate around sales process, training and excellence. Unfortunately, the most important long-term initiatives are often de-prioritized while we put out fires and respond to internal pressure to hit short-term numbers. Geoff is your solution. He is fully dedicated to creating, implementing, and managing the various components of sales excellence. He levels-up your team and understands that sales excellence is a form of change management that takes time. He’s a cultural change agent who helped our team become one of the best trained teams in the industry and I will forever be grateful."
-- Tom Kelly, SVP of Global Commercial Operations, The Trade Desk
I had the pleasure of going through the "Geoff Dodge School of Sales Excellence" and found it to be one of the most valuable training experiences of my career. While I have sat in many different versions of Sales Trainings of the past decade, Geoff's approach of continuous improvement and follow up with sellers is the only method that stuck with me long term, where other programs were full-day immersion programs with little to no follow up beyond the in-classroom time. In particular, Geoff has a way of making you forget that you are away from your emails and normally hectic schedule by making his lessons interactive, honest, and rooted in current industry challenges. I would highly recommend Geoff's methods to both new and veteran sellers!
-- Lindsay Szymanski, Senior Account Director, Google
"Geoff came to the New York Times highly recommended. During my long run at the Times, I had participated in a host of sales training programs, eventually finding myself in a role that involved sales training. So I had seen it all. The good, the bad and...the really bad. What was missing was the really good. Geoff entered our boisterous room full of age-ranging sales people of diverse sales abilities and I sensed that this experience was going to be distinctive and effective. He delivered. At the outset, his poise, confidence and measured delivery foretold that this was actually going to be a pleasurable training experience for my team. Beyond being buoyant and laced with many light-hearted moments, Geoff's training was immediately useful. It's one thing to teach, it's another to teach how to implement. In short order my team embraced his methodology, sized up priorities, reached higher up, broke new business and elevated their organizational skills. As soon as a session ended, there was a palpable rush to put Geoff's curriculum into practice. Throughout his engagement at The New York Times, members of my team would ask me when Geoff would be coming back again. They were asking for more Dodge boosters. He really lived up to his company's namesake during the one-to-one sessions that he charitably extended. When Geoff had finished waving his wand over my team we all lamented his departure. But in his wake...we continued to watch our revenue head north. I personally enjoyed the collective lift he provided to my team. They were transformed into a well-calibrated, time-managed, armed-to-the-hilt sales force thanks to Geoff."
-- John Riggio, Advertising Director, The New York Times
“I've worked for some of the largest and most sophisticated media companies in the world and no sales training compared to what Geoff brought to the party at AOL. Having experienced this first hand as a participant in numerous programs he developed and facilitated, my ramp up speed on new products was unprecedented and strategic sales planning skills refined. His programs enabled me to hit the road running and resulted in realizing my revenue targets right out of the gate. Geoff's approachable demeanor, incredible experience in the media industry, and world class sales leadership not only won him the respect of those he lead, but deemed him a mentor to many.”
-- Liz Thorington, Vice President, Client Development, Basis Technologies
“Geoff developed game-changing sales enablement at AOL. His years of sales leadership experience in media and at salesforce.com uniquely qualified him for the role. Geoff personally developed and delivered skills training for sales leaders and individual contributors, and managed his team to build and deliver a highly effective product training and certification regiment. In addition to enablement, Geoff managed the consolidation of several disparate instances of salesforce.com into one global instance. By configuring salesforce.com to tie seamlessly to our sales playbook (which Geoff created), his work gave AOL the tools and infrastructure to monitor, measure and document demonstrable improvement in sales productivity. Geoff was also Executive Producer of our Global Sales Conferences, where he designed and led a curriculum of product knowledge, industry insight and general sales and selling skills. He was a valued member of the revenue leadership team and was very involved in sales strategy, planning and overall execution.This included account segmentation and planning, product prioritization and go to market initiatives.”
-- Jim Norton, CRO, Brightcove
“I like to say strategy is a luxury of efficiency, and Geoff helped Dstillery realize this. We kicked off our engagement with One to Won with a leadership workshop that was incredibly high impact for the 12 leaders that attended, We followed with a sales excellence workshop for the various sales functions of Dstillery. Geoff helped guide us in putting together a vision for the sales leadership team and document our sales standards of excellence which has galvanized our team. We use these today in hiring and in our performance management process. Geoff also helped us to think through our product training regimen and introduced a certification process that will now be standard operating procedure with new product roll outs. He coached us with our new hire onboarding program, and documenting clarity of roles and responsibilities across our entire revenue operation from lead management to renewal. That clarity in itself is driving new levels of customer service and productivity.
As a result of our time with Geoff and One to Won, the entire revenue function of Dstillery is operating with greater purpose, passion and conviction to win big. By investing in their development and making someone of Geoff's caliber available to coach and mentor, their efforts to succeed are redoubled. That is great for culture, strategy and efficiency.”
-- Jay Wardle, President & GM, Adara
“Geoff Dodge’s program with us at The Guardian, North America, was an enormous success. We kicked off with a highly productive leadership workshop and got our leaders aligned on opportunities for productivity improvement. We were then hit by Covid-19, but Geoff quickly adapted with us to the new virtual norm. With newly defined performance standards and priorities, we pushed forward with virtual sales productivity workshops that emphasized best practices for truly knowing our customers. Geoff also delivered a virtual workshop to help us optimize our use of salesforce.com, and then conducted several virtual one-to-one coaching sessions with individual team members. The team’s feedback has been extremely positive. They’ve been highly motivated to implement new concepts, and we are seeing real results. Geoff immerses himself with your team, and cares deeply about helping them to be successful. His approach is not only unique, it’s effective.“
-- Michael Balabanov, Vice President, Agency Development, Criteo
“I met Geoff during my time at AOL and had the privilege of participating in both his on boarding and Continued Learning programs. His skillset surpasses what he’s able to convey within the classroom as he’s able to make it both personable and actionable, drawing from personal real-life experiences. His approach engaged students to think beyond words on a page and more about the “real world” application, often time incorporating relevant and challenging experiential elements. Having had the opportunity to work with Geoff has provided me with some of the most valuable tools to progress in my career and is something I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do so.”
-- Kaitlin Duffy, GM, Business Development, The Trade Desk
"Geoff’s One to Won training taught me new methods for planning & prioritizing my sales goals. Geoff gets it. His deep understanding of the industry and sales process are invaluable.
I left his training with several “ah-ha” moments and feeling motivated to prospect new clients using the creative tactics that we learned. Perhaps the most electrifying part of the process was Geoff having us examine tasks that are “out of the comfort zone” and giving us the tools and tactics for thriving and winning in these environments. I look forward to using these new skills for years to come!"
-- Allie Sharp, Executive Director, Dstillery
“Sales in general, and in my case advertising sales, is much different today than even just 5-10 years ago. Given all the new resources of intelligence available today, and the increased demands on a decision maker’s time, selling requires a new way of approaching clients; one that makes your first contact with a new client meaningful enough they want to talk to you. That’s what I’ve gotten from my trainings with Geoff. It’s a bit humbling in the sense that Geoff cuts right to the chase, pushes aside old habits and shows you new ways to think about working on your business. It’s the best investment I’ve made in myself in a long time. I’m more excited about the opportunities I have in front of me, and it’s because of the new approach Geoff helped me realize is possible”
-- Steve Tierney, Partner, Tierney Media Sales, Inc. Magazine
“I worked at AOL for over twenty years. As the VP of Finance, I witnessed a lot of change and saw systems and training for the sales organization come and go. When Geoff Dodge joined as head of sales productivity, he brought senior sales leadership experience, coupled with a deep understanding of how to effectively leverage salesforce.com to enhance productivity across the sales organization. His experience and know-how helped us to build a global instance of salesforce that truly worked for sellers and sales leaders, as well as for finance and operations. It was easy to use, added value to all users, eliminated redundancy, and gave us real-time visibility into the things that were important to each user group. Geoff introduced a data governance strategy that allowed us to keep the complex data sets of clients and agencies really clean. We went from multiple systems that were cluttered with bad data, hard to use, and universally disliked, to one global system that was easy to use and effective for everyone.
While I was not a participant in any of Geoff’s sales skills training sessions, the feedback I consistently heard from sales leadership was overwhelmingly positive. Geoff has the ability to connect and relate to the Sales organization in a very unique way that allows him to establish trust and buy-in at all levels which ultimately leads to greater productivity.”
-- Jeff Wilsey, Vice President, Sales Operations & Excellence, FiscalNote
“I had the pleasure of working with Geoff when he headed up sales enablement at AOL. Geoff delivered an excellent training program that benefited teams across all spectrums of experience.Through Geoff's training we developed the necessary discipline around deep product knowledge, general selling skills, and client management all while using best in class tools and practices provided by Geoff and his team. What I found most impressive is the growth and development across all levels (account managers to category leaders) due to his leadership. Geoff made himself personally available as a coach and mentor to the newest sellers who need more 1:1 training and was an invaluable resource for the most senior sellers looking to strategize and grow their business. We all learned to put into practice the use of data and sales metrics to improve everything from our client meeting preparation, pitching senior clients to closing bigger deals. Geoff's training programs will make an immediate impact across any sales organization.”
-- Suzanne McNamee, Lead Client Partner, Retail, X
"Leading sales teams thru times of continuous change is, of course, not an easy task. But Geoff's strategic approach can uniquely break apart complex organizational challenges into smaller pieces - making 'Learning and Development' an invaluable tool to improving sales team performance and culture. Geoff and his team led 'Learning and Development' for AOL during a dynamic time that included many acquisitions and team integrations. His work training teams across internal product, industry / competitive set, and core sales development skills led to a more confident, forward thinking, higher performing sales organization. Furthermore, his work covers Salesforce.com implementation, platform based learning tools for on demand needs, and working with marketing/PR to maximize efficacy both internally and externally. It has been my privilege to have participated in seeing high performing sales teams evolve to become the future model... with Geoff's change leadership, skills based playbook, and interpersonal coaching being instrumental to the development."
-- Sean McCullough, Head of Industry, Finance, The New York Times
“The guidance Geoff Dodge gave us to build an all encompassing client services playbook was a game changer for Dstillery and myself personally. Geoff coached us on setting expectations, goals and created a framework for our organization to move forward with purpose and speed. He helped us set the standards of excellence and removed any ambiguity on what success looks like for individuals and for our clients. This is something I will undoubtedly take with me the rest of my career. "
-- Anthony Livreri, Vice President, Client Services, Dstillery
“In my 20+ years in media sales, I have participated in a variety of sales and leadership training formats. Geoff Dodge's was one of the best! Geoff has substantial ad industry knowledge and years of experience in media sales and management so he could speak directly to our day-to-day responsibilities and the challenges we face in the marketplace. Geoff did his research about The Guardian and came to every session prepared to talk specifically about our site, corporate structure and process, and market obstacles. The examples he shared were interesting, helpful and realistic to situations that we could experience. Additionally, his advice regarding prospecting, time management, and organization were some of the most helpful I have received in years, and his salesforce.com expertise was invaluable! Lastly, when COVID changed everything, he pivoted to virtual training without missing a beat!”
-- Alexis Schwartz, Head of Purpose Partnerships, The Guardian News & Media
"During the time of COVID-19, Geoff creatively took our sales team through highly effective tools to confidently communicate with our clients. Geoff was able to adapt to this unique situation, because he truly understands the industry so well…all of the “legs of the stool”…from clients to agency executives, from sales to analytics. Geoff’s approach was fresh and was desperately needed during this time of uncertainty. He gave our team more than great tools..he gave us the confidence to continue as forward-thinking, consultative sellers! "
-- Colleen Lafferty, Owner, Maiorana & Partners, Representatives for Guardian News & Media
Geoff’s One to Won training has helped Nativo’s sales team stand out in a cluttered marketplace. He has a unique approach that has encouraged us to be more disciplined and impactful at our jobs. Since Geoff’s training, I have become more creative and effective in my prospecting, more knowledgeable about my clients, more confident in client meetings and unlocked more opportunity.
I asked Geoff to help me prepare for the largest meeting of my sales career, and he helped me revamp the entire presentation and elevate my script to be more concise and strategic ….the night before! The meeting was a total success, all to which I credit Geoff!
-- Casey Hartigan, Account Director, Nativo