Sam Geist

Biography

No idle armchair philosopher, His insights stem from years of front-line business experience. He grew his single sporting goods store into a 15-store $40 million dollar a year national chain before he sold it to his competitor.

He opened a marketing and consulting agency, based on the full-service customer concepts he had honed in the retail arena, and went on to learn an entirely new set of skills and experiences.

When his marketing clients began asking him to speak to their clients he discovered his true calling.

His early business roots taught him well about our volatile, ever-changing marketplace. His experiences provide him with an invaluable dual perspective - both as client and marketer - a perspective he has been sharing with audiences across North & South America and Europe for the last 15 years.

His business programs are not just theoretical speeches, they offer tangible ideas, and solutions. They provide a wealth of applicable information as well as the impetus to act on it. Sam questions. He challenges. He informs. He refocuses participants. He provides actionable strategies to address the obstacles faced by so many of today organizations.

Sam has written "Why Should Someone Do Business With You ... Rather Than Someone Else?" an interactive book on business strategy that has assisted thousands of marketers to re-view, renew and move ahead of the marketplace. His second book, "Would You Work for You?" is a thought-provoking guide that encourages leaders to better see themselves, their relationships and their skills to enable them to lead their organizations effectively. He has also written two short business guides - "Make It Happen: 20 Ways to Execute Your Strategy Every Day" and "Why Should Someone Do Business With You ... Rather Than Someone Else: Eighteen Strategies to Get and Keep Customers."

During hands-on, interactive discussions and brainstorming workshops, Sam uses the Socratic method to encourage participants to question themselves, to think about their business in new ways in order to change, improve, and grow. He insists that asking tough questions- and answering them honestly - is crucial to the well being of your organization. He shows you how to capitalize on your resources, and how to use your knowledge more profitably than you ever did before.

As a consultant he also uses his extensive experience to assist companies involved in restructuring, develop a unique road map to create their own future.

Publications

Execute or Be Executed
Strategy alone does not determine business success. It's how well you implement that strategy, how well you execute those ideas and plans. Effective execution requires looking at your entire business and finding ways to improve each part of the process - your leadership, your people, your business process, your partners, your technological skill. It requires really implementing the improvements you see necessary, getting your employees to fully participate, measuring your progress, adjusting, correcting, applauding, and then repeating the process all again... and again ... and again.

This book will help you, your organization, and your people to use the organizational tools you already own to close the gap between your dreams and reality.

This book is filled with do-able ideas. It will assist you to look outside your traditional viewing (and thinking) platform. Research information and examples abound. Use them not only to consider changing your modus operandi, use them to help you decide how to change your approach.

All together the book discusses significant elements of execution and offers many invaluable suggestions you will use on an ongoing basis. These will assist you to move from strategic thinking to strategic doing.

Take charge of execution!

Titles

Doing More With What We have Got. Strategies for tough times... Strategies for all times
This timely program is a positive response to todays challenging marketplace conditions. It adopts the premise that as marketers we must become better prepared in order to survive 2009 and beyond. There is no more crucial time to look at ourselves honestly, acknowledge the difficulties that are coming our way, and search out strategies that will help get us through the mire.

This program outlines up-to-date information, ideas and options to enable participants to make smart decisions. It helps them maximize the value of their resources, assisting them to make the best use of their capabilities. Recognizing that change is not an option, it offers effective strategies to aid participants endure today's marketplace-and succeed.

Why Should Someone Do Business With You...Rather Than Someone Else?
This fast paced program focuses on strategies to increase your effectiveness in vital business areas. It challenges participants by asking tough questions, since questioning inspires thought, answering motivates action. It provides the wherewithal to recognize and maximize: your resources, the effects of environmental trends and every day opportunities and challenges.

Execute or Be Executed
This program is a wake up call to all marketers in today's marketplace. It addresses the biggest issue in business today: a failure to execute.

It's easy to talk! We all do it, commenting about what's wrong with our organization, about what we want to do, about how great it would be "if only"... Yes, it's easy to talk - but talk doesn't get things done. It doesn't change anything, it doesn't move your organization forward.

Recognizing the huge gap between talk and action, this program's premise is that the engine that drives business today is execution. In order to survive you must execute your plans and strategies.

The program focus therefore is on moving strategy to action. It assists participants develop a personal step-by-step approach that empowers them to act and enables them to do so successfully.

It outlines the primary focus of a customer's value perspective. It emphasizes the advantages in incorporating product and service excellence into the organizations vision. And finally it highlights the tangible benefits to be accrued by effectively executing in every area.

Would You Work For You?
This program encourages you to blend together the art and science of leadership with its psychology - enabling you to motivate, to inspire and to ensure your staff take ownership of their roles and responsibilities while you are effective in your role. The program highlights differentiating between being a boss and a leader; discovering where your strengths and weaknesses lie; determining how to energize those who work with you; utilizing all your tools; and developing an ongoing execution strategy.

Look Out! Here Comes Tomorrow
Marketplace concerns and demands, business trends and the implications of today's technologies are outlined, as are techniques for successfully managing change, finding a differentiated stance, and developing a future-focused plan. The program outlines the strategies to develop a future-focused vision; adopt a multi-layered perspective; grow a unique service strategy; exploit new technology; and become a catalyst for action.

If I Hear Customer Service One More Time, I'll...
This program provides you with invaluable insights to distinguish your staff and your organization from everyone else in the marketplace. It outlines a new perspective with which to view service. It discusses innovative tools to turn your newfound knowledge into action - to turn intangibles into tangibles. Highlighted are the critical advantages of exemplary service; the moments of truth in every organization; developing excellent service providers; and growing new strategies for the long term.

Differentiate...or Die
Transitional times negate the "business as usual" approach. They offer the perfect opportunity to adopt a bold plan, to take a firm stand to differentiate yourself and your organization from the competition. Presented are viable options to create effective differentiation, to grow your organization, to enhance your profitability and to loyalize customers. This program enables you to discover your unique point of difference and how you can capitalize on it in a marketplace blinded by overexposure.

Meeting the Challenge of Goliath
This program highlights aggressive, light-footed maneuvers that will magnify your opportunities and augment your clout in today's increasingly competitive environment. It outlines the guiding principles and operating strategies of the giant retailers like Wal-Mart - discussing techniques to assist you find and exploit differentiation to become one of "the fast" companies ... one of the marketplace leaders.

You Pay Bills With Dollars...Not With Percentages
This program highlights GMROI, outlines its benefits, and provides hands-on instruction in its calculation and application to specific categories. Whether you are a veteran or a rookie, use it to assist you identify and evaluate whether the desired gross margin is being earned by your inventory.