It could only happen in California. A state famous for the dot.com explosion, expensive tastes, beautiful scenery, hollywood and.............The VP Sales Contest. Enter Ken Gora, the CEO of Next Productions and creator of the VP Contest, a 7 week sales and marketingtournament being held in 18 different cities that gets people jobs and earnings, creates sales revenue and branding for companies, stimulates the economy and is a pilot for an entertaining and educational reality TV program.
I sat in Dr. Gora's office in the beautiful Carmel Valley section of San Diego, California one afternoon. How did this man with a PhD in Psychology, years of corporate recruiting experience and some escapades as a marketing consultant and seminar leader get involved with "contests" and Reality TV ? He (Dr. Gora) is about 6 ft 3 inches tall, late 40's or 50 ish, and goes from being soft spoken and serious to excited and motivating. I could see his skills and persona as an interviewer, a charismatic speaker and as a Reality TV judge. And he started to tell me how it all happened in the middle of a summer night.
"The truth is I woke up at 2:30am one night and my background in recruiting, outsourcing , marketing, training, and my watching the reality TV contest/elimination formats all came together. I wasn't trying to start a new business or create an industry. I just woke up and in one long sentence in my head I knew that this was a way to help people, stimulate businesses and the economy and also have a program of entertainment value" shared Dr. Gora.
"The VP Contest is really a live sales and marketing event that is determined to find out who is THE VP, as in , the VP of Sales and Marketing or The Guru of Sales and Marketing" explained Dr. Gora. "I've been a corporate recruiter and headhunter for many years, have owned some small businesses and have hired many, many successful sales people for my clients around the country. I know that one of the keys to most businesses success is to have a team of hungry, skillful, enthusiastic sales people that are performing. Through my psychological profiling and over 20 years of recruiting, I bring to a business 25 sales and marketing professionals that have an immediate impact on their sales revenue on a local, regional or national level. And the VP Contest does it at a tenth of the cost a business would be able to do it on their own."
"Besides the companies in the contest getting sales and branding, and the contestants earning money and jobs, what we also have here is a compelling "edu-tainment" (new word people) television program that combines the best of American Idol, Shark Tank and Survivor except..it's real ! The contestants are not going to a mansion every night with the other contestants, they are going home to their families and they are here to show what they got, perform, make money and get the $100,000 a year job. Their story and background and marketing strategies makes for compelling viewing. This contest provides hope and obtainable results and opportunities. Even if they don't win the grand prize, they may earn thousands of dollars in the contest and get a job with one of the sponsoring companies" Ken explained. (He told me to stop calling him Dr. Gora. LOL) "The American Idol analogy is relevant because the contestants must do well selling and marketing five different companies products over the course of the contest. You cannot be just a one hit wonder, you must show that as the VP you can do a bit of everything. Just like on Idol, you must sing well in a variety of musical or sales genres. And like American Idol, someone can come out of nowhere and win it."
"You see, what I'm really doing is finding the many, many great unemployed people or those people who are working somewhere and feel they can do better and bringing them together with companies that are looking to increase their sales and branding. These people want to work, they want to make a difference, they want to show that they can sell or market. The companies gets the benefit of a motivated sales force that wants to compete and do well in the contest and they pay a small sponsor fee for the opportunity to have the sales force market their product plus the branding they get with the contestants and the media."
It does appear that everybody wins that participates in the VP Contest and that if people are working and making money, and companies are getting revenue and producing more products or services, that all of this stimulates the economy. People who otherwise might be unemployed or stuck in a job that they don't like, get to be assessed in the contest purely by their performance. It is the American Idol of Sales. Companies that are looking for cost-effective branding and sales find their products in new accounts and markets. Plus, Next Productions, of which Ken Gora is CEO of, gives a percentage of their profits to two childrens charities.
I interviewed a number of the contestants and company sponsors and they both spoke of the real value and opportunity the contest provided for them. One contestant told me that they would probably earn over $8,000 in commissions while being in the contest. Kristen Baldwin, the winner of the San Diego contest actually received two VP of Sales offers. One of them was with Next Productions, the other was with CUBA Beverage, a sponsor in the contest.
This was the type of success story that companies dream of. CUBA Beverage, a San Diego based company the manufactures a great tasting, caffeine free, herbal energy juice drink, entered the contest as a cost effective way to get a large sales force and branch into new markets. The contestants got CUBA into health clubs, restaurants, office parks, coffee shops, retail stores and.. the United States Armed Forces. Those accounts turned into a landslide of new business and ongoing potential revenue. Many of these accounts were opened by Kristen and she also worked on getting two large distributors for California and Mexico.
Other companies in the contest from biosciences to home improvement to nutritional products to gift items talked about the new accounts opened, doubling sales, and the regional and national branding received. "We will definitely be in the VP Contest again" said Jeff Adams, President of Starlines, a calendar and gift company. Earth-List, a green business directory and green product company, is utilizing the VP Contest for it's national expansion and also as a recruiting tool to find a top sales person. Greenbo USA is using the contest to launch it's product line in the United States.
What's next for Next Productions and the VP Contest ?
"Something new keeps happening every week", explained Ken. "We just announced the National Sales Contest which will allow people around the country the opportunity to participate in the VP Sales contest on-line. They will not have to wait for the contest to come to their city, no meetings, no cameras. Just sales and money to be earned. We have a number of sponsors lining up so that they can get the 50 sales and marketing professionals that are in the contest from all over the United States"
Speaking about cameras, what is the status of the Reality TV Pilot of the VP Contest ?
"We are talking with a number of networks as well as production companies. We are working with an award winning producer and director of film and reality TV and there are also some very cool potential celebrity judges" Ken added. "Some of these judges are successful business people, athletes or entertainers. These successful mentors are people who see this as a way to give back to the community, to help the economy as well as brand themselves with an entertaining and educational TV product".
Business. Entertainment . Jobs. Fighting the recession. Celebrities. Making money. Charities. Branding and market expansion. Reality TV.It seems that Next Productions and The VP Contest has something for everybody. If they hit their goal of 18 targeted cities and a national TV audience, who knows how many jobs and companies they might impact ?. For more information, the company's website is www.thevpcontest.com To view a brief video about the contest, link to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaJ_h0KoVag
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