General Session - Leading Teams to Peak Performance
On the mountains, successful expedition leaders think like guides, not climbers. In the business world, the most successful sales leaders think like CEOs. They inspire and lead by example. Susan Ershler is an expert practitioner in the art of sales leadership. Throughout her career, she has excelled at building and leading teams that achieve exceptional, sometimes life-changing results. She shares the Project, Prepare, Persevere® methodology that enabled her to lead her sales team to achieve a seemingly impossible $300M revenue goal while simultaneously climbing the Seven Summits; the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. Drawing on her knowledge and experience, Ershler shows why the best leaders are much more than top performers themselves. They enable every member of their team to overcome their perceived limitations by learning to commit to their team’s shared vision of success. You will walk away with the leadership skills you need to help your teams win the recognition and rewards that accrue to top performers.
Susan Ershler
Susan Ershler tours the world speaking about her life journey and sharing with others her secrets for success, determination, and achieving seemingly impossible goals. Ershler’s record would be remarkable enough if it only detailed her business achievements. During her 23-year corporate career, she has held a series of increasingly responsible executive positions in the sales divisions of Fortune 500 companies. She led teams to sales records, beating quotas from $1 million to $600 million. Ending as a vice president of sales for a multi-national telecommunications corporation, she was responsible for their fast-growing Internet division. She also worked at US WEST, United Technologies, FedEx Kinko's and GTE (Verizon). During her business career, she earned 11 annual President's Club sales awards—the top honors awarded to the sales people in these companies. But as she was marking these achievements, she and her husband Phil, a professional mountain guide, were climbing the Seven Summits—the highest mountain on each of the world's seven continents.
“A go-getter by nature, Ershler knew big success meant dreaming big.” —Selling Power Magazine
That remarkable journey culminated at the top of Mount Everest on May 16, 2002. With that climb, she and Phil became the first couple in history to climb the Seven Summits together. They've written a book on their adventure, Together on Top of the World: A True Story of Love and Courage, published by Warner Books. That feat earned them world-wide media attention, including Good Morning America, CNN, The New York Times and many others. As Alex Ward of the The New York Times put it, "Surmounting Everest's 29,035 feet remains one of the great mythic achievements, an undisputable display of skill and courage against ice and rock, bottomless chasms, bodynumbing temperatures and tent-shredding winds, all in an oxygen-deprived danger zone. Ms. Ershler worked hard to get there."
”Susan Ershler had climbed to the top of her sales profession before she ever strapped on crampons. She approaches climbing goals and sales goals the same way: setting them high and keeping them constantly in mind.” —Seattle Woman Magazine
Accomplishments:
• Honored with eleven annual President's Club sales awards including the exclusive national award: "Regional Sales Manager of the Year"
• Climbed to the summit of Mt. Everest on May 16, 2002 with her husband Phil becoming, "The first couple to climb the Seven Summits together" (the highest peak on each of the world's seven continents.)
• Ershler became the 12th American woman to climb Mt. Everest and the fourth American woman to complete the Seven Summits.
Not a professional mountain climber, Ershler trained by climbing the 35 stories in her high-rise office building on her lunch hour for a year—with a 40-pound pack on her back. Ershler tells her electrifying story to audiences with clarity and passion. She lifts her audience's ambitions by showing them how hard work, dedication, perseverance and a total commitment to excellence can pay off in reaching seemingly impossible goals. Her leadership message begins with visualizing a goal, no matter how difficult or out of reach. She continues with techniques to improve focus and discipline and shows how essential teamwork is to achievement. And she concludes with a passionate affirmation of the value of life and the thrill of celebrating your success from the top of the world.
Ershler’s message stands apart for its credibility and power. Having climbed the mountain—in work, and in the world, Ershler is the real deal.