November/December 2004
Profile: Animal Instinct
Maintaining CES’ stature as the No. 1 consumer electronics show is no small feat. But Dan Cole’s rhino attitude keeps him and his sales team charging ahead on the hunt for new business opportunities.
By Dawn J. Grubb
 It’s a jungle out there, and Dan Cole believes that only rhinos can survive. With show managers fighting to boost their numbers, exhibitors struggling on shoestring budgets and everybody vying for a piece of the action, Cole says you better develop thick skin, forage for new business opportunities and then charge them down. In other words: Be a rhino.
It’s a philosophy that Cole, Vice President of Sales and Business Development for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA, www.ce.org), developed fresh out of college when he picked up a copy of Rhinoceros Success by Scott Alexander. The book’s message: Successful sales animals don’t graze complacently in the pasture all day; they’re jumping into the wild and hunting down success. This philosophy has served Cole well.
Growing up in Chantilly, VA, Cole gained inspiration for a sales and marketing career from his uncle, a successful businessman. At 13, Cole was pounding the pavement to gain lawn mowing gigs and odd jobs. “It taught me independence and that making money felt good,” says Cole. “I learned that I control my own destiny.”
After graduating in 1988 with a bachelor’s in business administration and marketing from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, Cole joined Lanier Worldwide selling copiers. Using an old hospital gurney to wheel his products door to door, Cole walked the cobblestone streets of old town Alexandria cold-calling businesses. “That took years off my life,” jokes the 39-year-old, but his perseverance paid off. Within two years, he’d earned all of the company’s top sales awards and was promoted to lead 15 sales reps in the Washington, DC office. Cole kept charging ahead.
He initially joined CEA in 1995 as Director of Sales and left in 1998 for a year-and-a-half stint as Group Show Director for Advanstar. His next challenge came at Yellowbrix, an Internet startup specializing in contextual content and commerce, where he served as Vice President of Sales and built a national sales force of 80-some reps. Working for a dot-com was an eye-opener that taught Cole there’s no place for complacency in business.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” he says. “You can’t get addicted to the success of today because there’s always a mountain to climb tomorrow.”
CEA lured him back in 2001, where he’s working hand-in-hand with show management to market the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). As the largest annual U.S. show, CES draws nearly 2,500 exhibitors and more than 130,000 attendees from 112 countries. It uses 1.4 million square feet of the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Hilton, and the Alexis Park Hotel, and will expand to the Sands Convention Center in 2005. While the sluggish economy has impacted exhibitors, CES has managed to grow sequentially the past four years. Cole chalks up this good fortune to three factors: CEA’s role as show producer, its strong relationships with exhibitors and partners, and the show’s focus.
“We’re the No. 1 event that gathers the hottest technology and highest level of decision makers in the industry,” says Cole. “We get more press coverage (4,771 media attendees) than the Super Bowl. Last year, we had the highest degree of government attendance (120, including four FCC commissioners), and we attract a high number of international attendees (18,356) as well.”
With numbers expanding, CES is faced with a constant challenge: responsible growth. This is where Cole’s team plays a critical role. “Sure we have quotas, but we refuse to compromise our customer relationships. Every contact with them is so important because they can take their money and go elsewhere. Our job is to show customers the value of working with us,” he says (see sidebar).
Cole preaches the “Nordstrom mentality,” emphasizing personalized customer service, building loyalty and serving as a true marketing partner to exhibitors. Every year, his team visits 300 bellwether accounts — at their locations — to learn about their marketing goals and challenges for the year. “We have a right to be successful, but our customers do too. We really get to know them so that we can help them succeed,” says Cole. “We ask a lot of questions and get their feedback on the show — the good, the bad and the ugly. We call ourselves the Rhinos from the Road and share this information with the rest of the organization.”
When not reaching out or charging down opportunities, Cole spends the off hours with his family: wife, Rachel, and the kids, Jacob, 6; twins Rebecca and Madeline, 4; and Olivia, 2. “I’m really my wife’s fifth child,” jokes Cole. “She’s amazing. She’s VP of Toddler Development at the Cole household.”
For those rare moments when he has alone time, Cole enjoys golfing, running, “vegging out” in front of his big-screen TV and reading up on the latest motivational techniques. He’s always looking for new strategies to inspire his rhinos and take his sales team to the next level. “I want to keep it fresh,” says Cole. “We strive for the A+. We’re not about perfection — that’s unrealistic, but we strive for excellence every time.”
And that’s the rhino attitude.
Dawn J. Grubb is Owner and President of 24/7 Communications in Westwood, KS.
As Vice President of Sales and Business Development for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), Dan Cole is responsible for motivating his sales force to gain new business partnerships and build long-term customer relationships. Some of his success tips include:
Define your team’s structure. When Cole joined CEA in 1995 as Director of Sales, he was tasked with organizing a sales force. “CES was strong, but the environment wasn’t conducive for sales. There was no structure — no territories, quotas or accountability. I had to build a sales team from the ground up,” says Cole.
His first order: Creating territories and assigning reps to specific customers and categories to build relationships. With a staff of six salespeople and two coordinators delivering customized service, Cole saw results — like a greater sense of urgency among sales staff and more new sales leads — within 90 days. And within two years, the team had fully gelled into a cohesive unit.
Build rapport with customers. “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care,” says Cole. Want to lose a sale quickly? Just talk about how great your product or solution is without showing prospects you’re interested in them.
Build rapport with customers by asking thorough questions to get to know their unique challenges. Then tailor what you’ve learned during previous discussions to future conversations. This will not only show you care, you’ll distinguish yourself from competitors, says Cole.
Welcome objections. Don’t be intimidated by objections, they’re part of the sales process. In fact, they’re often a call for more information or clarification, says Cole. His advice: Acknowledge objections and ask more questions.
For example, say: “I understand your experience wasn’t as positive as it could have been last year. I really do regret that. Can I ask a few questions to help me clarify what occurred?”
Celebrate success. Sales is a stressful, performance-driven environment. To keep staff motivated and fresh for the hunt, Cole developed the Rhino Award while he was at Lanier Worldwide to reward sales success. Cole named the award after his favorite motivational book Rhinoceros Success by Scott Alexander, and he even brought in the author for a staff pep talk. Today he continues to inspire his rhinos with a little motivational décor: a rhino mural and a “Charge down opportunities” banner in their department at CEA.
Demand the four A’s. Cole’s secret to sales success? You must have these four attributes:
• Attitude — Says Cole: “One of my mentors told me, ‘We can always work on your product and sales knowledge, but your attitude is under your own control.’ Always do a checkup from the neck up.”
• Activity — “You’ve got to be willing to do consistent activity — phoning prospects, visiting customers, getting out of the office and hitting the pavement,” says Cole.
• Audacity — “You absolutely must have fire in your belly. You might hear ‘no’ 90 percent of the time, but you have to work hard to turn it into ‘yes,’” he says.
• Accountability — What are you doing daily, weekly and monthly to meet customers’ needs? “You have to be accountable,” insists Cole.
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