Benjamin Dennehy, self-proclaimed as the “UK most-hated sales trainer” is an endearing character. Born in New Zealand, he studied law/history in university and later completed training to become a barrister.
Based on advice from a friend, he decided on a whim to move to England, working in a bar to get by for five years. Fed up of this lifestyle he moved back to New Zealand to start a real career but six months later moved back to England. He attempted to get a job in law but couldn’t get any work as he had no post-graduate work experience. Like most people who end up in sales, he fell into the job because he needed the money.
The Kiwi got a job in recruitment and within six months set a company record for failing to recruit a single person in six months. Told by bosses he was going to be fired within a week, Benjy picked up the phone and started cold calling like a man on a mission. He set up a lot of appointments for later that week. The company impressed, changed their mind and decided to keep him on in a new role – prospecting on the phone to set up appointments. This is how he got started in lead generation.
Bizarrely he later got head hunted by a company who specialized in lead generation. He also worked for an advertisement agency where his role was setting up appointments for marketing directors. Afters 18 months, he left to set up his own business working in freelance roles for other advertising agencies. Benjy did this for 8 years and later started going to the meetings to see how clients sold and what happened. Despite generating a lot of sales meetings with big brands not much business took place. Here he quickly realised no one actually knew how to sell.
Thanks to help from an another sales trainer and reading countless books on the topic, he moved into the sales training industry. Overtime he gradually developed an effective sales process and learned the real reasons why people buy. This is an area where salespeople really struggle, surprisingly they rarely have a process and don’t understand why clients buy from them. If you don’t understand why someone buys, then you can’t develop a repeatable process to sell.
The lack of quality sales trainers means business is booming for Mr Dennehy. If you check out his website, he sells high-priced online bootcamps teaching Telephone Prospecting (£389) and How to Run a Sales Meeting (£649). Even during the pandemic he’s earning big bucks. As of 2020 Benjamin Dennehy has an estimated net worth of £800,000.
In recent times, interviews on various YouTube channels has really helped get his name out there and advertise his services. The Kiwi’s funny but blunt personality makes him an entertaining guest on any podcast!
Below is a video showing his cold calling script in action!