Dan Lewis, Vice President National Sales
ANB, A PMT Service Company
From the smile you can almost hear in his voice, it is obvious that Dan Lewis of American National Bank is speaking the truth when he admits to enjoying his line of work. "I have had a fun time over the years doing a lot of things in the financial services industry," said Dan, on the telephone recently from his offices at ANB in Illinois, where he serves as vice-president and national sales manager. ANB is a leading company in the field of financial services, a one-stop-shop for ISOs in the arena of credit card processing, check guarantee, and equipment leasing.
From the very beginning as a youth, when he was assisting his father in the beer distributing business, Dan told us he has valued his ability to talk with people. "Sales is all about building lasting relationships," Dan said. "The thing you have to remember is that no matter what the product is, you are always selling yourself. It helps when you have a good productóbut what makes the sale is being able to be there, backing it up. That's why people stay with you and look to you for guidance."
Dan and I talked about the many aspects of sales, and what sort of things can make a good sales professional even better. Dan said that when a sales professional hears an objection, he should view it as an opportunity to provide more informationóto locate what he calls "the real objection," and to then close the sale.
He related the story about when he was working for Harris Linear back in 1981. He had been working on a big deal with an area hospital for the purchase of equipment for the new radiology lab. He was also only $15,000 away from winning a 100% quota contest, which would have been a trip to New Orleans or some other exotic location. The hospital had been balking at signing the deal for all of their new equipment. After some careful probing, Dan was able to find out the reason they didn't want to order: they had no place to store it. Thinking quickly (which in sales can sometimes mean having an idea that takes a couple of weeks to complete), Dan was able to close the deal and get payment in full by simply agreeing to house the materials until such time as the hospital was ready to install it. Dan made his quota, and says he enjoyed the trip to New Orleans.
Some would say that Dan got his start in sales with his first taste of "real" salesmanship when he was out selling manual credit card imprinting devices for NBS back in the late 1970s. He recalled the time happily, and said he got a lot out of it. But as our conversation continued, what transpired was a different kind of "first sales story" that had happened a few years earlier, back when he was about eight-years old.
"I always wanted to be in sales," recalled Dan. "All the kids on the block had been making little bits of money here and there with their lemonade stands. My mom made a big pitcher of sun-tea one afternoon. I took the tea and some cups to a local construction site, where the workers there paid me $5 for the entire pitcher. They told me to come back with sun-tea every day, and they would pay me $5 for it every day." Dan said he returned every day for two weeks straightóand a sales career was born!
Dan's career has lead him in a lot of directions all the way to working with Diebold selling Smart Cards, to Direct Data and VeriFone, and selling some of the very first check readers in the country. Dan has been with ANB since November 1996.
When Dan is not hard at work at ANB, he is at home with his wife, Mary, raising their two children Jessica, 11, and Brian, 9.
For more information about ANB, contact Dan Lewis at (773)289-5272.
