Meet J. Sheldon Snodgrass
Hi! I'm Sheldon, MBA, Army Vet, Author, Energizer & Sales Coach
I don’t study insurance pricing, binding, underwriting, workflow, claims, loss ratios, contingencies or anything else related to the back-end of insurance agency or carrier operations. Let me just get that out front.
I study sales and human behavior, and I do this primarily for insurance professionals so they can boost the profit and pleasure they get from work while delivering more value to their customers.
~ I could tell you, and it would true, about the billion-dollar insurance call centers where I coached the coaches.
~ I could share with you, and it would be true, that I coach with equal success single-location, million-dollar agencies, and multi-state, hundred million dollar agencies.
~ I could crow about the double-digit increases here and the high percentage gains there.
But I won’t. Hear it directly from my customers by reading their results from our work together.
Instead, I will tell you that…
~ At the age of twelve, I made my first of countless sales mistakes by asking the nuns at my Catholic School if I could take Chanukah off. (Wrong market and message!)
~ Proving the adage that good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment, I failed with four different start-ups before I found a clue. (Troubled methods!)
~ After four years as an Army officer, including the rigorous Airborne jump school, I traded military discipline, bearing and stamina for a civilian career that required the same attributes: 100% commission-based selling in Boston’s corporate jungle.
Within two years I was promoted to be the New England Region, Sales trainer for Uniglobe Travel, the third largest travel franchisor in the world at the time. Subsequently, I was recruited to a series of sales and marketing leadership positions in public utilities, information technology and the software industry.
Man, that was a lot of selling!
Inspired by my success and failures, I launched SteadySales.com to help service professionals sell.
(Finally, the right market, message and method!)
Along the way I earned an MBA from UMass Isenberg School of Management, and became an Entrepreneurial Business Planning Instructor through the NxLevel Educational Foundation. I am also a Certified Coach whose chapter on salesmanship helped propel the book, Guerrilla Marketing on the Front Lines to an Amazon.com best-seller.
I've authored two other books, also available on Amazon.com, that have enjoyed wide critical acclaim.
Lest I be too consumed with work, my wife, two daughters and roles as a perpetual volunteer, ski instructor and white water rafting guide keep my focused on matters of the heart. My world HQ is in Williamsburg, MA.
I Have 3 Coaching Principles:
Meet People Where They Are
Ignite Their Own Desire To Improve
Keep Repeating This Process
Influences
My approach and philosophy are informed by the writings and teachings of many luminaries in the field of sales, marketing, spiritual growth, and personal development including:
The Torah, The Bible, The Bhagavad Gita
Jay Conrad Levinson’s — Guerrilla Marketing series of books
Marty Neumeier’s — The Brand Gap
T. Harv Ecker – Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Tim Sanders – Love is the Killer App
CJ Haydens’ — Get Clients Now
Geshe Michael Roach’s — The Diamond Cutter
Steven Covey’s — 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Michael Gerber’s — E-Myth
Richard Bach, Tich Nhat Hanh, Gandhi, + others