Dan Westra On Internal Business Achievements

Being able to make a change to a business, especially large ones, is a huge step towards becoming a good business leader. There are few more impressive things on a manager's resume than a list of internal business achievements – particularly when they have managed to elevate the position or reputation of a company. Dan Westra has twenty years of exceeding goals with progressive experience in sales and sales management in industries where the customers have been primarily management professionals and executives. His approach has always been  pure fearless self-starting entrepreneurial drive. He excels at establishing relationships with key decision makers that result in win/win alliances for the long term. His career has also provided strong practical business management skills further contributing to the bottom line.

In 2003, he became the founder of Lake Union Capital Partners. LUCP was a private equity firm established to acquire transitional middle market companies, where he was responsible for Business Development (acquisition search), due diligence, acquisition negotiation and internal post acquisition sales development. It was while here that they acquired the clients Celerity Energy. Upon acquisition, He repositioned the stalled sales process with San Diego Gas and Electric resulting in a $26 million, 10-year Networked Distributed Resource contract. Aero-Union was another big catch. With the company,  Dan Westra stubbornly pursued negotiations with the partners and company CEO, which resulted in their largest acquisition valued at over $30 million.

Indeed, what Dan Westra has done so well in his career is to help establish new paths for businesses looking to expand and grow their operations. Facts and figures rarely lie when measuring success in business, and this is certainly the case with Dan Westra, as his work at Hall Kinion demonstrated. Hall Kinion was the largest publicly traded staffing firm during the time when Dan Westra was responsible for both business development and recruiting for senior positions in high-tech firms. He managed to exceed sales goal by over 50% for three straight years, becoming one of the top 5% of more than 350 recruiters worldwide (1999, 2000). He was also the first of two people ever to exceed $100 thousand revenue in one month of three Seattle offices, where he was the ''Royal" Award winner for revenues exceeding $600 thousand

These highlight but a few of the big changes Dan Westra has managed to make in his career when engaging with large businesses. His impressive resume paints the picture of a man not scared to take on the big challenges, and helping a company to reach its full potential.

Dan Westra – Bridging the Gap Between Companies and their Customers

In any business, the sales department plays a pivotal role in its success. Sales plays a unique role in business because, unlike other sectors of a company or organization, salespeople bridge the gap between the customers’ needs and desires, and the products or services the company offers. In general, salespeople are dealing with clients who already have an existing awareness of the company thanks to its marketing strategy, making their primary job to close the deal by reaffirming the customer’s need for the company’s products/services, and introducing new information to help the customer make this important connection.
 

Because of the niche quality of their role in business, salespeople like Dan Westra must exhibit several innate qualities that enable them to perform their jobs effectively and convincingly. One of these qualities is empathy. When people think of businesses and corporations, empathy is usually not something that comes to mind because of the cutthroat reputation businessmen tend to have. In sales, however, empathy is crucial to making the fundamental connection between the corporate and the client side of the business. By conveying empathy towards his customers, Westra is able to identify with them and make them feel respected. This makes it possible for him to gain trust and establish rapport with customers by showing that he is working within their best interests.
 

Westra is also extremely focused, which has motivated him to accomplish his goals by encouraging him to work attentively and diligently on every project he undertakes. For example, when Westra was the senior technical recruiter at Hall Kinion, he exceeded his sales goal by more than 50 percent for three consecutive years, earning him a place in the top 5 percent of more than 350 recruiters worldwide. During his time at Quantum Purchase Group, he used his charismatic personality to develop relationships with several architects, which led to over 30 percent in additional sales, bringing the company back from the verge of bankruptcy.
 

Finally, Westra has demonstrated his talents as a good salesman because of his strong sense of responsibility and accountability. In sales, failure and rejection are unavoidable, but it is the way each salesperson handles these setbacks that show his or her true character. Though he has enjoyed a generous amount of success over the course of his career, Westra has also had to face plenty of difficult situations that did not have clear solutions. Instead of getting defensive or trying to blame others, Westra has instead always tried to learn from his mistakes and improve himself as a professional. Accepting responsibility is one of the most important lessons any salesman can learn.