RICHARD BUTTENSHAW

Richard spent 13 years in the New Zealand Army in various roles from technical to leadership, with his final 18 months as the Senior Instructor of the military’s adventure training establishment (Army Adventurous Training Centre – AATC) in Waiouru. Towards the end of his army career he built a network marketing business – part-time – of over 600 members that earned him more than his military pay. With those skills and enthusiasm to burn, he left the army to pursue a career in sales and worked his way up to a National Sales and Marketing Manager's position in under five years. On the way he experienced a variety of sales roles, including selling as a travelling sales representative for Kalamazoo Business Systems, opening a local office for a new BellSouth (now Vodafone) dealership in Palmerston North, and working as a Sales Manager for a Telecom dealership in Wellington, before going into his own business.

Initially Richard's businesses were in construction and security, but all have had a sales and marketing focus. He has had up to 77 sales staff working for him at any one time, and he has recruited, trained and managed staff or he himself has sold in many diverse industries. Richard has successfully mastered all forms of selling, from telemarketing and door-knocking to account management and relationship selling, and has both recruited and trained sales professionals in all of these aspects of the profession.