Colin Wilson

Current

Managing Director at First Border Ltd

Past

Sales Director at Perceptron Ltd
Senior Manager at KPMG Consulting
General Manager at Marcam Southern Africa

Principal Consultant at Marcam Corporation (UK)

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Education

University of Portsmouth

Recommended

15 people have recommended Colin

Connections

323 connections

Industry

Professional Training & Coaching

Websites

Colin Wilson’s Summary

An entrepreneur who enjoys developing his own business and helping others develop theirs.

Outstanding business development skills with proven success in delivering the numbers through new business and managing existing business.

Proven success in designing, developing and implementing sales methodologies for others to use and achieve.

Excellent leadership, communication and interpersonal skills. Is innovative, focused and has flair to motivate others.

I set up First Border in 2002 because I wanted to find a way to bring high quality sales training, tools, and methodologies to sales professionals at organisations of any size. Whether you work within an Owner Managed Business, as part of an Small to Medium sized Business, or in a Large Corporate business, your function is the same: to sell. Our focus is to help you sell more.

My ultimate goal is to have our tools and methodologies being used around the world by thousands of sales professionals. The methodologies are not rocket science and that is why they are used. However they are different and therefore bring a different perspective to selling. They are categorised into Filling the pipeline, Managing the pipeline and Closing the pipeline.

I have worked within the Telecommunications, Information Technology, Professional Services, FMCG and Retail sectors.

I have a very keen interest in Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) and I obtained my Practitioner certificate when I worked in South Africa. I was a very active member of the NLP community there and focused on developing NLP techniques within the sales arena. This has continued and many of the training and consulting programs I now design have strong NLP themes. This also follows through to the software tools we develop.

Colin Wilson’s Specialties:

Designing, developing & delivering sales solutions through consultancy, training, coaching & systems. Solutions combine sales process, skills and mind-set qualities. Firmly believe that the skill of a sales person is not what they know about their product, but the questions that they ask - make your customer think and you will get invited back.

Colin Wilson’s Experience

Managing Director

First Border Ltd

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Professional Training & Coaching industry)

April 2002 — Present (6 years 7 months)

First Border, a sales training and consultancy company whose focus is on the individual sales professional rather than on sales organizations or sales teams. The reason is simple: when individual sales professionals succeed, the organization succeeds. We believe passionately that this approach sets us apart from companies and methodologies that seek to mould the behaviour of sales teams as a whole.

Our tools and methodologies complement any corporate systems in place and simply recognise the fact that good sales professionals already maintain their own personal records for tracking sales and managing their business. The net effect is that our methodologies, skills development, and tools give sales professionals quicker and easier access to the control they need, not only to make their number, but also to forecast accurately – sales period after sales period.
Sales Director

Perceptron Ltd

(Public Company; 1-10 employees; Professional Training & Coaching industry)

October 2000 — April 2002 (1 year 7 months)

Perceptron was a sales training company. I joined as sales director. From my work with KPMG I found I enjoyed developing sales methodology and helping sales people to develop their skills and therefore wanted to pursue my career along these lines. Perceptron provided a good grounding in how to run a training company.
Senior Manager

KPMG Consulting

(Partnership; 1001-5000 employees; Management Consulting industry)

June 1997 — September 2000 (3 years 4 months)

Joined KPMG in London to help introduce account management skills, sales skills, process and culture and to help move the firm towards consistently wining large engagements. Reported to the KPMG Board partner responsible for sales.

Increased forecast accuracy by developing and introducing sales pipeline methodology and tools. This provided visibility and standards across the firm. Pipeline management was first rolled out in consultancy, then across the whole UK firm and then to KPMG practices in other countries.

Increased the sales pipeline by introducing account management methodology. Developed an Account Management training programme that was rolled out to over 500 professionals within the UK firm. The programme was also rolled out to KPMG practices in other countries.

Increased the number of major bids won by providing coaching on sales qualification, strategy & tactics.
General Manager

Marcam Southern Africa

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

September 1994 — April 1997 (2 years 8 months)

Marcam Southern Africa (MSA) was a JV company between Marcam and BSW, a South African software company, and forms part of Marcam's affiliate network in their Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) geography.

Joined MSA from Marcam UK in 1994 and was appointed to put MSA on the map as a significant local competitor. Exceeded sales quota each year. For 94/95. MSA was the second largest revenue grossing affiliate in EMEA. For 95/96. MSA was the largest revenue grossing affiliate in EMEA, and was awarded three places at the Marcam President's club in January 1997.
Principal Consultant

Marcam Corporation (UK)

(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Computer Software industry)

December 1991 — August 1994 (2 years 9 months)

Marcam Corp is a US based company developing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for process and discrete manufacturing/distribution companies.

Responsible for software pre-sales, selling consultancy services and managing the implementation of systems for major clients. Worked with Bass Brewers, Rhône Poulenc Rorer, Kraft General Foods, Sterling Products, Dairy Crest, Carlsberg Tetley, Perstorp and Jeyes Fluids.

Colin Wilson’s Education

University of Portsmouth

BSc (hons), Engineering & Business Studies, 1981 — 1984

Additional Information

Colin Wilson’s Websites:

Colin Wilson’s Interests:

Developing sales methodologies that are actively used by sales professionals. Writing, Swimming, Indoor Rowing, Rugby, Motor Racing, Cooking & Entertaining.