Sales & business coaching

40+ years in sales. 35+ years coaching. A lifetime of learning how to perform under pressure.

Joseph P. “Joey” Gargiulo, AAI, CPCU, LUTCF

Business success isn’t built in a classroom alone.

It’s built through thousands of conversations. Rejection. Competition. Difficult customers. Changing markets. Great decisions. Bad decisions. Risk. Failure. Reinvention. And learning how to get back up when life — or business — doesn’t go according to plan.

That’s the experience I bring to coaching.

Years in insurance and sales: 40+Years in insurance and sales
Years coaching sales professionals: 35+Years coaching sales professionals
Years with Liberty Mutual Insurance: 26Years with Liberty Mutual Insurance
Of producers company-wide: Top 5%Of producers company-wide

For 26 years I served as an Executive Sales Representative with Liberty Mutual Insurance, performing among the company’s top 5% of producers. My professional education includes the Accredited Adviser in Insurance (AAI), Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), and Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow (LUTCF) designations.

But my education in business started long before the letters after my name.

AAIAccredited Adviser in Insurance
CPCUChartered Property Casualty Underwriter
LUTCFLife Underwriter Training Council Fellow

Business is part of my story

I come from a family line of business owners and grew up understanding that entrepreneurship isn’t simply about having a great idea.

It’s about people. It’s about relationships. It’s about recognizing opportunities, solving problems, taking calculated risks, making decisions without perfect information — and accepting responsibility for the results.

Interestingly, those same principles eventually became central to another important part of my life: professional poker.

Poker is a laboratory for decision-making under uncertainty

You rarely have complete information. You assess risk and reward. You study people. You recognize patterns. You manage resources. You control emotion. You adapt when circumstances change.

And perhaps most importantly: you learn to separate the quality of a decision from the outcome of a single decision.

That’s just as important in a boardroom, sales meeting or small business as it is at a poker table.

Sales is a people business

Technology has transformed the way we sell. Artificial intelligence will transform it even further.

But underneath all that technology is something remarkably old-fashioned.

One human being deciding whether to trust another.

Great selling isn’t about talking someone into buying something they don’t need. It’s about understanding people.

Listen before you sell.
Ask better questions.
Discover the real problem.
Understand what motivates the customer.
Communicate value.
Earn trust.
Handle objections intelligently.
And when you’ve earned the right to ask for the business — ask for it.

I don’t want to turn salespeople into scripted robots. I want to help people develop an authentic selling style built around their own strengths while giving them the tools, discipline and strategy necessary to perform consistently.

Coaching the person — not just the numbers

My perspective on performance was shaped by much more than business. I’ve faced significant challenges throughout my own life, including severe vision loss at a young age, multiple corneal transplants and rebuilding after a devastating near-fatal automobile accident.

Experiences like those change the way you look at obstacles. They taught me that circumstances matter — but our response to circumstances matters enormously.

That’s why my coaching isn’t limited to spreadsheets, closing ratios and sales funnels. Sometimes the biggest thing preventing someone’s growth isn’t their sales technique.

Fear
Confidence
Burnout
Rejection
Poor habits
Lack of direction
Resistance to change
Believing that because something hasn’t worked before, it can’t work tomorrow

Business problems frequently have human problems underneath them.

Finding that underlying problem is where meaningful coaching begins.

35+ years of coaching experience

I work with salespeople, entrepreneurs, business owners, executives and teams on areas including:

Sales strategy
Prospecting
Relationship building
Customer psychology
Needs discovery
Objection handling
Closing
Referrals
Retention
Productivity
Accountability
Leadership
Personal branding
Business development
Sustainable growth

But I’m equally interested in the questions behind the numbers:

Why aren’t we converting?
Why aren’t customers returning?
Why is the team underperforming?
Where are we wasting time or money?
What opportunity are we overlooking?
What would we change if we were starting this business today?

And one of my favorites

Are we solving the actual problem — or just treating the symptom?

Author. Speaker. Storyteller. Coach.

For more than 25 years I’ve also developed my craft as a public speaker. And as an author of numerous books, I’ve learned something else that has become invaluable in coaching.

Stories move people.

Facts matter. Numbers matter. Strategy matters. But people remember stories.

Whether I’m coaching one person, working with a sales organization, addressing a corporate audience or speaking to a room filled with people facing their own challenges, my goal isn’t simply to provide information. It’s to create something people can understand, remember and actually use.

The poker table and the boardroom have more in common than you think

In poker, you can’t control which cards come next. In business, you can’t control the economy, your competitors, every customer, technological disruption or every unexpected event.

You can control:

How well you prepare
How carefully you observe
How intelligently you manage risk
How quickly you adapt
Your discipline
Your next decision

That philosophy connects nearly everything I’ve learned through decades of sales, coaching, business, poker, writing, public speaking and overcoming adversity.

Play the situation — not the excuse.

I don’t believe successful coaching should make you dependent upon your coach. It should eventually make you better at coaching yourself.

My job is to help you see what you may not be seeing, challenge assumptions, identify opportunities, recognize weaknesses, capitalize on strengths and develop a strategy you can actually execute.

Who I work with

Sales professionals

The individual salesperson trying to break through to the next level.

Entrepreneurs

Building something from scratch.

Small business owners

The established owner who has hit a plateau and needs a new read on the situation.

CEOs & organizations

Leadership looking to develop its people.

Let’s figure out what your next move should be.

Let’s get to work.

Sales Coaching
Business Coaching
Leadership
Team Development
Corporate Consulting
Speaking & Workshops

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