Business Spotlight: Consultant Board Inc.

Owner: Mark Holmes

Founded: 1986

Address: 5524 S. Farm Road 139, Springfield, MO 65810

Phone: (417) 883-7434

Fax: (417) 888-5031

Web: www.thepeoplekeeper.com, www.mysalesplans.com

Email: mark@mysalesplans.com

Products/Services: Consulting, training, coaching and speaking

Employees: 2

Mark Holmes likes to talk.

It’s what he does as a business consultant, trainer and coach. Small and large companies around the country have paid to hear Holmes’ advice during his 21 years in business, now operating as Consultant Board Inc.

The Springfield native started his company as J. Mark Marketing Inc. in 1986 with four employees, but after 15 years, Holmes changed the name to reflect expanded consulting, training and coaching services.

Big-name breaks

Besides marketing, Holmes originally focused on customer service and satisfaction surveys for banks and retailers throughout the Midwest. Holmes managed mystery shoppers who helped give his clients a realistic view of their customers’ satisfaction levels.

Then, Silver Dollar City came calling for help on improving sales and service through training. The arrangement that followed led Holmes down the training seminar path.

After years of collecting notes from customer service survey research, Holmes realized he had a wealth of information important to businesses.

Holmes wrote his first book, “Wooing Customers Back,” in 1994, based on that research. The book landed on the desks of Chick-fil-A executives, and the next thing Holmes knew, he was asked to present the keynote address during a Chick-fil-A international conference in Orlando, Fla. Considering himself more of trainer than a speaker, Holmes opted for leading a breakout session based on his book.

His second book, “The People Keeper,” was published in 2001 as a result of his employee-retention research for the Chick-fil-A presentation. Holmes uses his latest book, “The Sales Prophecy,” mainly for sales coaching and training projects.

The attention has grown to include articles in the Chicago Tribune and Dallas Morning News, quotes in the Wall Street Journal and hundreds of radio interviews.

Project dominoes

Consultant Board Inc.’s revenues break down into the following categories: 40 percent from consulting, 40 percent from training and 20 percent from speaking, coaching and other material sales.

Holmes, who declined to disclose specific revenues, says business has expanded organically – much of his work leads to other projects.

Clients include Tracker Marine, Great Southern Bank, Big Cedar Lodge, Paul Mueller Co., KO Manufacturing, Chick-fil-A, Hammons Products Co., Cisco Systems, Dow Corning and Communication Solutions & Technology.

After hearing Holmes speak at a conference, Jeff Wilhoit arranged to bring Holmes to Big Cedar Lodge, the Bass Pro Shops’ resort near Branson where Wilhoit works as training manager.

“Mark has been here five or six times talking about customer service in workshops with our managers and our hourly employees,” Wilhoit says. “At least one or two every month come into my office and say, ‘When can you get him back here because we really like to hear him?’ No one ever does that. No one ever says, ‘Hey, can we have a class?’”

Continuing education

Staying in business 20-plus years as a consultant has not been easy, Holmes says.

“In this business, you can get so busy with workload that you don’t have time to self-perpetuate,” he says. “Your marketing stops. Your writing stops. Your promotion stops. And, then all of a sudden your funnel is empty and you go, ‘Oh my gosh, what do I do with myself now?’ So, you have to learn how to balance that out. That’s probably one of the tougher things to learn.”

Holmes, who has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Texas and worked for the National Leadership Institute during college, is continually learning about people and their characteristics.

Brian Fogle, director of community development for Great Southern Bank, says, “We continue to use Mark, because we feel like he knows what he’s talking about. He brings a great perspective to all people issues.”

Holmes says hard work and perseverance are essential and adds that lean years in the beginning helped him learn to “let marketing work for me while I’m busy, so I continue to stay busy.”