Steve Jessop
After a commercial training scheme at the EMI group in the late 70’s, Steve moved into FMCG sales with Carnation Foods. In his first full year he became the district’s top salesman.
He joined the Commercial division of Bowater-Scott in 1979 where he was promoted four times in six and a half years, winning ‘Regional Salesman of The Year’ twice, ‘National Salesman of The Year’, and, at the age of 24, ‘National Account Manager of The Year’. Whilst in National Accounts he was responsible for winning and developing a portfolio of household name groups, and, as part of a team of seven, he generated 50% of the team’s new business on his own.
At the age of 26 he became Bowater-Scott’s youngest ever sales manager.
He joined market-leading Muraspec Wallcoverings in 1985 as London & SE Sales Manager. With P&L responsibility and a team of 20 he ran the biggest of six branches which generated 50% of Muraspec’s revenue. His team consistently over-delivered against profit targets despite being down on headcount much of the time.
In the run-up to ‘Big Bang’ in the late 80’s he became UK Sales Manager of a prominent pc re-seller where over 12 months he grew sales revenue by 40%.
Steve joined a world-leading sales and sales management training organisation in the late 80’s. In an especially dynamic environment he was consistently on or over target and built a six-figure client base selling bespoke and ‘off the shelf’ sales and sales management development prgrammes. He was responsible for the management of the UK portion of three pan-European clients and delivered various parts of the programmes in different parts of Europe.
He joined an IT services and products group in 1990 as Sales & Marketing Director with line responsibility for two services and one products sales team.
He was the architect of several seven-figure new contracts which were a key factor in stabilising the business in the early 90’s recession.
Steve founded Quantum with Jeff Downs in late 1992 and has been a central figure in the positioning and growth of the business since then. He was instrumental in achieving a six-figure booked revenue position from scratch in 5 months.
He is a compelling stand-up presenter and regularly speaks on matters of business-to-business selling and sales management in the UK and internationally. He also writes for various business journals on these subjects. Steve is widely respected as a senior management advisor and front line sales and sales management coach.
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