Testimonials

Over the past 16 years, I have had the pleasure of being mentored by Brian Nixon. During this time Brian has demonstrated unequivocal leadership skills to not only myself, but everyone he comes into contact with. Brian is dedicated to his trade from beginning to end—whether that be the people he interacts with daily to the processes he uses to reach the final result. Brian has taught me through demonstration how to lead people and utilize his leadership processes on a day to day basis. Not only has Brian helped me elevate my leadership skills, he’s also instilled in me that leadership is not about telling—it’s about teaching.

While directly reporting to Brian (the then acting VP of sales), he scaled the organization from 22 million to over 50 million. During this time, he helped me achieve multiple accolades, increase my personal sales numbers, and grow into the leader he always believed I could be. I am very honored to have had such a dedicated coach, leader and trusted partner for everything I needed. I owe my entire career and success to the teaching, guidance, and friendship of Brian Nixon.

In my personal and professional relationship with Brian, he never told me what I WANTED to hear, instead he told me everything I NEEDED to hear. I am very thankful for that. I would personally recommend Brian to any company that is looking to grow—the right way. He would be an asset to any team and a company looking to expand and learn would benefit greatly by hiring him.

Territory Sales Manager

Brian put his heart and soul into our company. He challenged me to rise above what I thought was “good enough” and helped me produce at a higher level and better quality than I thought possible. We built a thorough business plan, executed it every day, and as a result, we had our best year ever. But what I found most useful was our time together in one-on-one sessions. He did more than coach me. He mentored me and taught me how to be a professional. To take pride in my work and how to make “it” about the customer, not the sale.

Sales Executive

It is my great pleasure to recommend Brian Nixon and Summit Learning Solutions. Brain’s ability to seamlessly integrate into an organization, and then work within to help train, coach, and consult all areas of a business is what makes Brian’s services different than other consulting institutions I have experience with.

My name is Dan Caverly, and I currently am a Business Development Manager with ALPS Inspection. I had the pleasure of working with Brian when I was in a capital equipment sales role from 2013-2015. I consider those two years as my “sales education”. Think of how many people are in sales (maybe at your organization) that have no formal education or structure around the way they market, prospect, or interact with customers and other internal departments.

Is the Summit Solutions a one-fits-all process that will lead to selling more? No, there are plenty of national programs with regional support that will sell you on that. I will tell you from my experience, they are outdated, not personalized, and don’t work. They typically also only focus on the sales department. Brian’s method is to work with the whole organization, while stressing the importance of creating a company culture that people want to be a part of.

After working with Brian, I quickly found out that most of my counterparts don’t understand the difference between a sales analysis and a technical analysis. I’ve been surprised by the lack of proactive selling in the market today. Brian will help teams understand the importance to the “why” and “how” of a sales cycle. One of my biggest take-aways from Brian was that asking a good question is far superior then discussing a feature or benefit, before the time is right.

It was refreshing to get some classroom training, and then have it backed up with field ride coaching. It was impactful to receive immediate feedback, make changes, and work on reinforcement so it became second nature. Brian wasn’t looking for you to change to “his way”, he was providing structure and coaching so that you “owned” your own style while uncovering the important dynamics that would increase the probability of a sale.

This is just a small snap-shot of my working relationship with Brian. If you have any questions or if I can provide any more insight, feel free to contact me below. I am sure I can even dig up some old field ride reports. I’m still grateful to the owner of the company I was working for at the time that the decision was made to invest in the people, by having Brian join the team.

Sales Executive

I hired Brian to implement a complete sales management program – from development of the program to the hiring and management of the reps. Brian’s work was outstanding. He rolled up his sleeves and became a part of the team – unlike many of the consultants I had hired before. He is knowledgeable, attentive to detail, and always had our best interests in mind. We produced excellent results as a result of his work, and I would definitely hire him again.

VP of Sales

Brian Nixon of Summit Learning Solutions was initially hired to work with our sales team. At that time, none of the team had had any formal training in sales. All were engineers or technicians first, salespeople second; sometimes third. Even the VP of Sales. The only difference in the group was a time in service as a salesperson and individual people skills.

Brian taught us how to lead the customer instead of being led by them. How to present yourself and your products as an ally to the customer along with the material to back it up. Another important aspect was how to create allies within the organization you are targeting. He also taught us the tools and strategies necessary for preparing for the first and subsequent meetings so that you, not the customer drive the agenda.

Brian was also contracted to coach us on teamwork between the different departments in the company. Engineering, Sales, and Service work more harmoniously now. It’s not all sparkles and unicorns but there is a level of trust and empathy that was not there before.  I believe this has led to the company not taking on any jobs that proved to be losers after the sale in these last five years.

We have one individual in the sales department who was not making it and came close to getting the ax. What I can only attribute to the time Brian spent with him and our VP of Sales, he came close to being the number one salesperson last year, and to date, this year is way ahead of the rest. He’s on track to be the number one of all time.

We are a better, healthier, and the more performance-driven company now thanks to Brian’s training and support. Most importantly, it’s more profitable.

Partner
May 9, 2022