Gilson’s Salesperson of the Year 2015

Gilson Graphics is proud to announce Dylan Wagamon as our 2015 Salesperson of the Year. The award was presented to Dylan during our annual sales meeting on September 17 at Arnie’s Bakery & Restaurant.

Salesperson joins the “Million Dollar Club”

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Dylan said. “Especially when it’s coupled with all of our company’s recent success. It’s great!”

This is the second time Dylan has earned this honor—he was named Gilson’s salesperson of the year in 2012 as well. This year, Dylan was also one of seven salespeople to earn a spot in the coveted “Million Dollar Club.”

“Pretty much everyone who has sold for us has been in the club at one time or another,” Dylan said. “I think of it as a benchmark for success. Anytime you’ve hit that benchmark, it’s a big accomplishment.”

Dylan earned his title, in part, by being the 2015 leader in both new customer sales and sales increase over the previous year. He also ranked second this year in overall sales volume.

“You have to figure out how to be kindly persistent,” said Dylan. “Sometimes it helps to ‘push donuts’ on people since everyone’s happy eating food.”

Dylan attributes much of his success to the products Gilson offers. “If I have an opportunity to show off the fine work we do here, it hooks customers immediately.”

 A Recipe for Successful Sales

When selecting the salesperson of the year, Gilson evaluates four categories of weighted criteria:

• Overall sales volume (20%)
• Sales increase from previous year (20%)
• Sales from new customers (30%)
• Sales from value-added services (30%)

Gilson places a strong emphasis on increasing “value-added” sales—defined as sales minus purchases—because they give us more control with less overhead and result in a higher profit.

Another important objective is acquiring new sales. Since Gilson established this goal as a priority in 2014, new customer sales have increased 96%.

“Each year, we consistently lose between 12 and 15 percent of our sales from the previous year through attrition,” said Gilson CFO Jim Vosburgh. “Some customers move their businesses, go out of business entirely, or bring their work in-house. It’s important to work continuously on bringing in new business to help make up for this attrition.”

A Team of Sales Champions 

Gilson’s overall sales success is truly the result of a team effort. In 2015, the salespeople who rose to the top (including two ties) are as follows:

1. Dylan Wagamon
2. Loretta Kremer-Pearson (tie)
2. Ryan Beld (tie)
4. John Littleton
5. John Edwards
6. Arnie Lorenz (tie)
6. John Hamilton (tie)

Looking Ahead to Success in 2016

During the sales meeting, management asked our salespeople to brainstorm as a team and develop their own goals for 2016 instead of having benchmarks imposed upon them. The team settled on a goal of increasing sales by 12% in 2016. (In 2015, Gilson’s sales were up 8.9% over the previous year.)

“Our sales department doesn’t get together very much,” Dylan said. “Since we come from different backgrounds and have different ideas, it was fun to brainstorm all together and get on the same page.”

This ambitious new sales goal is partially based on Gilson’s growth in several departments. “Our services are up in all areas—especially non-traditional services like composition, large format, and creative,” said Gilson Marketing Manager Kim Elmore. “These are high ‘value-added’ categories and our expertise in those categories is really starting to shine.” 

Sales from our composition department had the largest increase in 2015—up 86% over 2014 results; large format printing was a close second with an 85% increase.