Meet the speaker:

Steve Houston, PCI Executive Director
Phone: (832) 585-0770
Email: shouston@powdercoating.org

Steve Houston has been a business leader for more than 25 years and has led multi-million dollar sales organizations that consistently perform much higher than industry averages. In addition, he has led international business acquisitions and negotiations as well as introduced and developed product process improvements to drive business strategies. Steve has managed large sales organizations, technical support teams, research and development groups, global marketing teams and has years of experience as a speaker.

After many years in various sales & marketing roles with one of the largest coating companies in the world, Steve's last position was Global Marketing Director of a multi-billion dollar corporation. He accepted the position of Executive Director for The Powder Coating Institute in 2008.

SPEAKER TOPICS:

Managing a Business in a Tough Economy

In today’s business environment, it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain and sustain year after year positive business results in this global economy. Steve will show that the best-run business of today will become the large well-run business of tomorrow. You will learn the five (5) principles of running your business in any market under any economic conditions and excel by beating your competition and gaining market share. You don’t have to settle for secondhand people, sell on price alone or just take the leftovers. This session will arm you with the tools to implement and manage a philosophy and strategy to compete with anybody on any level.

Leadership

The topic of leadership is misunderstood, undervalued and often times simply left as a "given" in many organizations when the reality is that leadership is the single most significant area most businesses fall short in. In Steve’s session, he talks not only about the significance of leadership in an organization, but the importance of developing leaders in every department and/or division of the organization. This session will show how leadership can help any organization increase their financial results, improve their retention and raise moral of your organization no matter the economic or competitive environment.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction in business is a long lost art. However, it is one of the easiest, most significant ways to retain and grow you customer base than anything else. This session will focus and prove that holding on to customers is job one and adding new accounts is a distant second. In fact, most customers will leave you due to poor customer service, not price or performance. You will be able to take with you tools to measure customer satisfaction index and how to quantify business results in this area.

Sales Management

Is your sales team performing below par? Are members of your sales team getting beat by competition time and time again? Does it seem like you are finding yourself in a price war every day when you know you have a service and performance advantage? This session will show you ways to create and lead a world-class sales organization. It will focus on managing a sales organization with a proven sales selection process, an incentive plan that will lead to higher performance and improved margins as well as the ability to retain and attract the top guns of a sales organization. This session will also discuss a proven management system that will allow the sales manager a way to select, track and close more projects faster.

Selling Value and Beating the Price Game

This session will target how to approach a sales opportunity and win bases on the total value your organization can bring a prospect. There will be role playing with your sales team to show how to negotiate in the most effective way to get the most from the customer and not leaving money on the table. It will show you how to read a customer, find the decision-maker, and manage the entire selling process to increase your hit ratio.

Ethics in Business

Ethical business practice is Steve’s expertise. He believes, and can prove, that running an ethical business is not just good for the people, but financially good for the business. While you will see a thread of ethics in every one of Steve’s presentations or workshops, this session shows how to incorporate ethics in a business to elevate business performance. It is designed for persons in leadership, management or supervisory positions and is a must-do for any business. It is not just about ethics in business statement, but how to set the tone of the organization from top to bottom.

Creating a Dynamic Sales Organization: A Two-Day Workshop for Sales Teams

Steve created a selling pyramid that is the basis for any sales organization. Whether your sales team is brand new, has a moderate amount of experience or just simply needs a refresher on the fundamentals of the selling process, this two-day workshop is for you. Selling is a process, not just a job. It requires an understanding of all the elements from management, your geography, to exceeding your sales targets. Attendees will leave with confidence and the right tools to be successful in any given sales position.

Speaking Fees:

$3,000 per event, plus travel expenses
Full day is $4,000 per day plus traveling expenses
PCI member companies will receive a 50% discount.

To inquire about PCI’s speaking services, please fill in your information below and a PCI representative will contact you shortly.