The occasion, held in Krugersdorp, was hosted by Seriti Solutions at a conference for the company’s customers in the vehicle retail industry.

The conference, titled “The Domino Effect’, was well attended with more than 200 sales executives and dealer principals from various dealerships.

The three-hour conference was split into two halves with South African sales wizard Mark Keating imparting his wisdom in the first half, while Ernst van Dyk motivated attendees with the heart rendering and highly motivational account of his journey from tragedy to triumph.

Mark, who is also the CEO of Sales Guru, a company that helps sales teams, managers, leaders and companies achieve greater sales success, took a humorous and entertaining deep dive into exactly what is needed for sales excellence.

With years of expertise to back him up, it was clear that he spoke the heart language of the salespeople in attendance. He looked at every aspect from motivation, desire and goals to overcoming call reluctancy and how to become ‘rejection-proof’.

The last-mentioned was the hinge on which his whole 90-minute presentation pivoted as he believes that true sales greatness is found by those who can go beyond the dreaded ‘no’ from the potential customer. By the end of his presentation, he had the crowd chanting “sticks and stones might break my bones, but 'no' will never hurt me…”.

Ernst’s life story of how he became the holder of three world records in the marathon category for wheelchairs, after receiving a double amputation from the knee down owing to congenital birth defects, literally left some of the attendees teary eyed.

Ernst showed the sales force in attendance how one’s dreams, adaptability to change, setbacks, purpose and ability to ‘bounce back’ were all important ingredients to healthy success.

Seriti Solutions, among several other services, conducts business in the vehicle and asset finance market, providing its Finance and Insurance Electronic Platform to networks throughout Southern Africa.

The platform provides each dealership with the capability to capture the customer data required for applications of car finance, insurance and related products. The platform interacts with all finance providers as well as other motor vehicle related products and service providers, such as insurance.