Santa in 1881 by Thomas Nast Everyone knows Santa Claus. Red suit, long white beard, familiar laugh and long-time leader of all things North Pole. For some strange reason, most don’t have a clue as to the early days of his career. So let me break it to you, Santa got his start in sales. A long time ago, hundreds of Christmases before occupying the big chair in the corner office up at the North Pole, Santa worked on the selling side of North Pole Distributing. Like many hardworking sales types with hundreds of years under his belt, Santa leveraged all the lessons learned in his territory to move up in his organization. Playing a front and center role in a global distribution organization with customers around the globe, Mr. Claus puts those lessons to work almost every day. It’s difficult for a lowly industry consultant to get an audience with big time executives, but last week I leveraged over six Photo Credit: GM decades worth of being on the nice list to score a ra...

Photo:GM Everyone knows Santa Claus-- red suit, long white beard, familiar belly laugh and long-time leader of all things North Pole.   For some strange reason, most don’t have a clue as to the early days of his career.     So let me break it to you, Santa got his start in sales.   A long time ago, hundreds of Christmases before occupying the big chair in the corner office up at the North Pole, Santa worked on the selling side of North Pole Distributing. Like many hardworking sales types with hundreds of years under his belt, Santa leveraged all the lessons learned out in a territory to move up in his organization.  Playing a front and center role in a global distribution organization with customers around the globe, Mr. Claus puts those lessons to work almost every day.  It’s difficult for a lowly industry consultant to get an audience with big time executives, but last week I leveraged over six decades worth of being on the “nice list” to gra...

As we start our tale, we find ourselves in the 130 year old cottage which serves as the office of River Heights Consulting.   Frank Hurtte, the organization’s founder, seems totally absorbed in his work.   Glancing around the office, we see several mementos of Hurtte’s long association with Kris Kringle and the Santa Organization.   There’s a picture of Kringle carrying his legendary bag.   The likeness of Kris keeling in front of an ancient manger is prominently displayed near a time worn photo of a much younger Frank seated on Kris’ lap.   The phone rings; the answer is a seasonal combination of Christmas Cheer and morning routine.  But in a flash, we see Hurtte spew some of his coffee and snap to attention.  The conversation goes like this: FH:   River Heights Consulting, Frank Hurtte speaking. Elf:   Frank, this is Elf Alabaster Snowball.  You don’t know me, but I know all about you, including that pouting incident back ...