Richard Israel: Speaker, Author, Sales and Information Management Trainer
In South Africa in the early 70’s, Richard Israel started Mandev Training Ltd. Within 10 years, Mandev had became a global operation with offices in major world capitals. THE ABC OF SELLING created this phenomenal growth. Goldstein and Sorcher had successfully used behavior modeling to train supervisors at General Electric. So he consulted with Mel Sorcher and implemented his “success formula” which was to assure that the success skills learned in the classroom would transfer to the workplace and increase productivity.
His first ABC program, sponsored by the prestigious Institute of Personnel Management in Johannesburg, attracted only three participants! But by 1980, it had enhanced the sales skills and careers of hundreds of thousands of salespeople in many languages and countries.
Richard Israel was fortunate to have powerful skeptics who instead of disproving ABC, proved it unquestionably. Montgomery Ward in Chicago challenged their marketing assertions and in 1997, Professor Herbert H. Meyer at the University of South Florida began a detailed study. In Business Week December 22, 1980 announced its conclusions, “Montgomery Ward and Company tested Mandev’s program in eight of its Chicago area stores with 100 salespeople in big-ticket areas and found that those that participated pulled 10% more volume than their untrained counterparts. Six months later test employee turnover dropped by nearly 68%.”
This was big news in the world of sales training because many claims are made but very few scientifically-based studies had ever been done to verify the results. For the full report, see People Productivity in Retail, Dion Friedland, Richard Israel and Edith Lynch, Chain Store Age Publishing NY, 1980.)
Confident the next business wave would be based on breakthroughs on the human brain, in Miami, Florida, Richard formed a training company The Technology of Success with Susan Ford Collins, a leading business consultant, author and trainer.
When Richard read Tony Buzan’s ground- breaking book, Use Both Sides of Your Brain, he was intrigued. Hooking up with Buzan, he traveled across America observing and learning from Buzan's presentations. They spent countless hours in conversation on planes, on Bahamian islands, in hotel lobbies.
Together they wrote the first whole-brain sales book, Brain$ell (Buzan and Israel, Gower, England 1995.) Until then, sales training programs had been designed for the left side of the brain only. But customers use both sides of their brains to make buying decisions. Brain$ell taught salespeople to sell to the right and left sides of their customers’ brain… and to improve not just their productivity but their creativity and self-confidence as well.
Richard and Buzan wondered if the world was ready for such a revolutionary book. Much to their delight, it soon became an international best seller. Their publisher Gower urged them to write the following sequels: Sales Genius, Supersellf and The Brain Smart Leader with Tony Dottino. As a result of the publication of Brain$ell, Richard was invited to train sales teams around the world. Buzan’s Mind Mapping techniques proved a powerful tool for participants of the program. By 2006, Brain$ell had been translated into 21 languages.
"Sales at WMXJ were 10% ahead of a year earlier
after the station worked on Mind Maps with Richard Israel."
Dennis Collins, Senior Vice President
Jefferson Pilot
New York Sunday Times 10.13.99
Richard’s speaking and training has been acclaimed by critics from The New York Times to The South China Morning Post.
While waiting for a meeting in a Hong Kong hotel lobby, Cliff Shaffran and Helen Whitten and Richard discussed new research on the emotional brain. This resulted in the book, Your Mind at Work (Israel, Shaffran and Whitten, Kogan Page, London, 2000). Translation rights were soon snatched up and, much to Richard's delight, on a recent visit to Shanghai he stumbled upon the Chinese version in a local bookstore.
Richard Israel's latest book, Mind Chi: Rewire Your Brain in 8 Minutes a Day with co-author Vanda North, Capstone/J. Wiley publisher. Now available from amazon.com. In bookstores January 2010.