Always be closing: sales guru shares secrets of success

Eric Richardson has spent more than three decades training sales and customer service personnel for many of the world’s largest and most successful companies. The list includes Microsoft, Apple, GE, American Express and Blue Cross Blue Shield, as well as thousands of resellers and small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide. 

Now the 65-year-old Naples resident and founder and CEO of Growth Development Associates has embarked on a new goal: to bring his training program to colleges nationwide, both for continuing education of working adults and as part of the college curriculum. For the lifelong sales guru, teaching college students the nuts and bolts of sales is a genuine gap in the marketplace.